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Best and worst covers: Let's see your picks!

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tremoloman

tremoloman

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I'd like to hear some of your suggestions for the best and worst cover songs ever made. I'll start things off.

Covers better than the originals:

AC/DC:
Baby Please Don't Go (Big Joe Williams)

Jimi Hendrix:
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan), Johnny b. Goode (Chuck Berry)

Showoff:
Borderline (Madonna)

Dave Mustaine
School's Out (Alice Cooper)

I'll post some of the "worst" later... there are too many too list!
 
I'm partial to Aerosmith's cover of the Yardbird's "Train Kept Rollin'". 2 reasons. Number one...it mentions my home town of Albuquerque....and number two the second half of the song was a recording of the song live in concert HERE in Albuquerque's Tingley Colosseum.
 
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I've got to second Jimi's version of "All Along the Watchtower." When the original artist starts playing it the way you play it, you know you're on to something. Along the same line, SRV's covers of Jimi's "Little Wing" and "Vooodoo Chile (Slight Return)" manage to improve on already classic tunes. Actually, any of SRV's covers are awesome. Although it's not guitar-oriented, "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." by Aretha Franklin would have to be in the equation. A more obscure one is Dokken's cover of EL&P's "From the Beginning." Hindu Love Gods (aka Warren Zevon and most of R.E.M.) version of "Raspberry Beret" is beyond interesting. Gorky Park's cover of "My Generation" has a unique Russian feel to it and is quite unlike The Who's original.

Bad covers are everywhere. Dinosaur Jr.'s cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love" is painful (and hopefully intentionally so). I heard that there is a pop/dance version of Dokken's "In My Dreams" which I mercifully have not heard but can only assume is terrible. Metallica's cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page." Everybody who has ever covered the most hateful, awful, sheerly torturous song in recorded music history, "MacArthur Park." Pat Boone's heavy metal album *shudder*.
 
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freak speaks again.......uh oh

OK this is the reply to the question of the day..... good -vs- bad covers. I agree too that Pat Boones "shredder album" was an insult to Metal and to a point mocked a musical era just to put his name in lights once again by hanging on the coattails of the current time. Then comes the insulting sounds of Diamond Dave putting the tune ( one of the freaks favorites BTW off 1984, Jump) and turning it into a bluegrass tune...yuck! I now have a disgust in my stomache for DLR. I like bluegrass in its own environment but Rock and Metal are not the right platform for it IMHO. Now for some good ones, I think the Crue did well with Brownsville Stations "smokin in the boys room", also I like White Lions remake of "Radar Love" by Golden Earring, and a few others Metallicas remake of Queens classic " Stone Cold Crazy". I am a big fan of bands remaking great tunes, so I hope it continues for a while.................the freak.
 
I think Johnny Winter`s version of Johnny B Goode is the best ever.. like almost if the song was made for him to play.. u guys can check it on his album "Second Winter" (or search for it at Youtube... :) )

Hendrix playing "Hey Joe".. its like the song became his own since he recorded it.. Hey Joe IS by Jimi Hendrix.. not by Robert something or whatever heheheh
 
I love bands covering songs by other artists. There is a cool website that collects all kinds of covers and how they are linked to various artists. Checkout The Covers Project to see who has covered what.

I like Metallica's "Breadfan" & "Whiskey In The Jar". Metallica has made a living of covering bands. Off the top of my head, "Am I Evil?", "Crash Course In Brain Surgery", "Last Caress", "Killing Time", and "Blitzkreig" are all covers they've made famous. Most noteable is "The Four Horsemen", which was "The Mechanix" before they kicked Dave out of the band. :P

Megadeth does a great "No More Mr. Nice Guy", "Anarchy In The U.K", and "School's Out", and "Paranoid".

I love Motorhead's "Jumping Jack Flash" and their cover of Twisted Sister's "Shoot Em Down". That song freakin' rocks! I love the lyrics... they crack me up!
 
T-man, Megadeth version of "These boots are made for walking" is awesome as well...
 
SuperSwede said:
T-man, Megadeth version of "These boots are made for walking" is awesome as well...
Click to expand...
OMG, I totally forgot about that one!

Luckily I have an old copy of the Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! from when it first came out on Combat records. It contains the full uncensored version before Nancy Sinatra made a stink and forced them to bleep it. :)
 
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I have that one too, I dont think that I´ve heard the censored version..
Another really cool Megadeth song is "I Ain't Superstitious".
 
Worst covers ever are in my eyes:

UB 40 - "Can't help falling in love" by Elvis Presley
Julio Iglesias - "Light my fire" by The Doors
 
Definately a good one, especially the ending with slash on talkbox! Billy Idol is a really cool dude..
 
How about Michael Hedges doing Prince's "Love Bizarre?" One man and his guitar put the Purple One to shame. If Prince could only be so funky.
 
Celine Dion: You Shook Me All Night Long - YIKES

How about Celine Dion singing AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long"? She did it on one of those VH1 'Divas' specials. My God did she absolutely destroy that song.

See for yourself:
Celine Dion - You Shook Me All Night Long

YIKES... even the guitar solo sounded as flat as her chest... "C'mon girlfriend!"... PLEASE! Enough already!

The funniest part of the video has to be the end of the clip when it displays VH1's "Save The Music Foundation" message. They would be doing the world a service if the burned the masters to this performance.
 
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tremoloman said:
How about Celine Dion singing AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long"? She did it on one of those VH1 'Divas' specials. My God did she absolutely destroy that song.
Click to expand...

ROFLMAO! YIKES! That was awfully funny, or funnily awful? I know she's originally Canadian, but you Yanks can keep her :D
 
Quite possibly one of the best Rolling Stones covers I've ever heard was Melissa Etheridge singing a duet with Sammy Hagar on Honky Tonk Women. Two fantastic voices lending their vocal colour as only they can to one of rock n' roll's all-time greatest songs. I believe this version was played by Melissa's band, and her guitar player has a rather tasty Tele tone working throughout the number. I'm not sure who that guitarist is, by the way, so if anyone does know, please be sure to post it.

I stumbled across this .mp3 on Napster some time ago (pre-lawsuit days), and I'm assuming you can you figure out the rest. I'm not certain if there are any "official" versions of this song released, but I'm sure you could track one down with simple Google search - if you had a burning desire to hear it.

And yeah - one more thing . . . . more cowbell - - - please! ;)
 
My gawd! If I was Meridith Brooks I would be so embarrased to be helping out on this monstrosity. What's next? Barry Manilow doing "Stone Cold Crazy" or "Dertroit Rock City."



tremoloman said:
How about Celine Dion singing AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long"? She did it on one of those VH1 'Divas' specials. My God did she absolutely destroy that song.

See for yourself:
Celine Dion - You Shook Me All Night Long
Click to expand...
 
tremoloman said:
Let's not forget these classic William Shatner renditions!

William ShatnerI was surprised I was able to find all of those on the 'net. I thought the masters were incinerated decades ago.
Click to expand...

YEA! Bill Shatner! Another Canadian! Yea! Oops :o
 

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