d's posting of Shawn Colvin's cover of The Beatles' "I'll be Back" inspired this sort of resurrection of a years ago thread. Let's find some "covers" that while not necessarily any of your favorites, are interesting anyway. Let's try another Beatles cover to kick things off...

Here's Brian Setzer and the Stray Cats version of Sleepwalk...this is my favorite version and it describes the concept of improvisation perfectly. There are many covers of the original by Santo and Johnny to include the Ventures and Les Paul. I love them all and no other tune has influenced my playing as much as Sleepwalk. I find a striking similarity to Since I Fell for You which was recorded in the 40's long before Santo and Johnny's Sleepwalk and I find the chord changes using the major to the minor concept in many many songs:

I Am The Walrus Spooky Tooth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEC8zdJW2vQ

[1]
Apple's take on the Beatles tune [that's an unintended almost-pun ] is most interesting, I think, for the video's commentary & construction (the well-timed "glass spla-mashes", for instance).
Take that, Katy Perry !


[2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krD4hdGvGHM


That's more atmospheric & jazzy than I knew the SCats got.
I liked the down/up line at 1:26~1:33 (was there an edit in there?) & the cadenza at the end, esp the spiky bugle lick rhythm @ 3:07 !

[3]
DBMan, I'll see yer Spooky Tooth & raise ya 2....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZDR1ALvkVQ


& this equally well executed but more rockalized version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPUK8esrpNA

@ d, I don't think there was an edit at 1:26 - 1:33 but then again, this is the studio version so there may be a few here and there. None of the 3 cats play steel (to my knowledge) and I don't know who the artist was that was playing it. But, I really like the way they returned and injected the original with the steel version at 2:10. +1 The ending is just wild too. Remember Brian was just a young kid when this was cut. He was miles ahead of any guitar player for his age IHMO...great jazz for a young dudes Rockabilly band LOL! The live versions are not as good, so I posted the studio...

Then there's this (tip o' the hat to A-String for hipping me to these cats) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rirDOIttODM

Fascinating how faithful Zappa's cover is to the original. All the arrangement elements are there.
Fascinating how many monitors Danny Elfman needs. They started out as a really offbeat theater/chamber music/performance art band called "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo" in LA back in the 70s. I used to see them at alternative theater spaces in West Hollywood. They lost a lot of the weird charm when they went commercial.

Both are awesome.

With the anniversaries of David Bowie's birth and death this week, I heard several radio stations play both the original of "Five Years" and some cover versions as well. But I have to admit, none of them measure up to this cover by Scottish singer Fish (IMHO). Not just because I'm a Fish/Marillion fan, but I think this is less rambling than the original; more melodic and passionate. The horn section & back-up singers are arranged nicely, too. Frank Usher holds off until about the 4 minute mark before getting in some tasty licks. And David Paton's fretless bass throughout is right up my alley.

After waiting impatiently for the point out of my leaving the "e" out of "covers", I decided to push on.

If there's now some interest in covers of Beatle tunes that were Lennon based, well then;

Like her or not, Cindi does prove this tune stands well enough on it's own as a musical construct without all the studio extras of the original.

Devo has done all kinds of interesting covers over the years- “Workin in a coal mine”, “Satisfaction”, “Are you experienced”- but my favorite is this one:

How about Kurt Elling covering “Matte Kudesai” as a jazz standard?

The recently deceased Charles Bradley delivered this soulful reworking of Black Sabbath’s “Changes”

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole gave us this version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” before we lost him.

Superb! You just don't hear King Crimson covers every day, & this was great. And right after that on YT we hear kd laing do her version.

The Bad Livers doing “Fight Fire With Fire”.

California Guitar Trio playing “Tubular Bells”

How'd you miss this cover by Elling?





Then a take on it by Herbie----




And by BUDDY and the boys....



Whitefang

Didn’t- just casting a broad net!

Gee, thanks, all !
I, for one, am learning of some very interesting work, some by artists I'm previously unaware of...but how abt something really diff ?

Many of the examples above surpass the orig recs & Hancock's version of "NorWood" transforms it but this clip both intensifies & transforms the orig song in a way that, I think, is truly visionary.
Really...I'd never thought of this---would you've ?.
Plus it's by a master guitarist !

Not to ignore the usual Earl Hines-influenced contribution of Bernie Worrell [dig the just-slightly-off-time comping at the intro & behind the solo]
& Boosty Collins's slippery bs bumping into the beat every which way
or the production that gives the cymbal splashes a coating of delay/reverb stretching them out almost 2 measures
but sit back & revel in this gtr construction by the best Hendrix clone we've had so far.
From the opening "get onboard" bluesy train invocation ~ closing benediction to "Dream on...", there's something going on w/the gtr the entire track but lemme point out these highlights:
the purring/growling note-knot pulled together at 1:25 (reworked as a thematic device later) ;
the stuttering fall into the main solo at 2:05 ;
the richness of Hazel's vox (why didn't this cat do more singing ?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqDGTT2OtsQ

Emerson, Lake and Palmer/Powell did all kinds of killer covers.



As did Eumir Deodato

Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” is among my faves.


And here’s Johnny Cash’s masterful take on NIN’s “Hurt”

Here’s Soungarden combining Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void” with words from an 1852 letter by Chief Sealth, a.k.a. Chief Seattle.

Alex Skolnick Trio covering “War Pigs” live.


Rodrigo y Gabriella covering “Orion”


Warsaw Guitar Orchestra “Call of Ktulu”


Sinfonity’s version of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”

Diego Ferri is a YouTuber who, IMHO, has a really good feel for taking classical compositions and combining them with a sparsely beautiful electric tone. Here’s a pair of Satie and a Chopin.

Steam Powered Giraffe covering Daft Punk, anyone?

All that needs is the stupefying riff from Hendrix'x 1984 as a bs line.


BTW...here's another one w/Gracie P
She even does a Stevie Nicks dance !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A13tUxH09SI

I suppose my enthusiastic commentary took away whatever anyone else might've said abt the Hazel recreation of "Cali Dreaming" so this time I'll let the facts speak for themselves.

Original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJMFurJxxF8


Remake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxhf4UXLvM

I dunno d.......

I tried WIKI, ALLMUSIC, IDBM and any other source I could think of and can't find any info on any 1984 by Hendrix. Was that JIMI Hendrix, or some OTHER guy named Hendrix?

Help me out here...


OK, enough of that. Knew what was meant anyway. And speaking of which, there's several covers to be found, but this IS one of the better ones IMO----



Whitefang