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CoverTune...the good, the bad and the ugly


aj2003

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Curious what peoples fav/least fav cover tunes are. Maybe you hate 'em all? I think Nikelback total sucks on their horrible version of Elton John's "Saturday Night". Whoever ruined Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" did just that! On the other hand, I liked Van Halen's version of "You Really Got me Now" and Power Station's cover of "Bang a Gong".
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Most favorite (and oldest original tune), "Star Spangled Banner", by Hendrix at Woodstock.

 

I also like Van Halen's "You Really Got me Now" (from above). I was thinking of posting it as my fav EVH (but I liked "Runnin' With The Devil" better), and then also realized that it was a cover and not his own original song. How could I have forgotten that? Duh huh. :rolleyes:

 

Least favorite, ANY elevator music, tied with TV commercials. :mad:

 

Dave

Gotta' geetar... got the amp. There must be SOMEthing else I... "need".
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Nickleback's cover of Saturday night is pretty bad. The Who's version of it is amazing though. I also liked the Atari's version of Boys of summer.

 

The worst covers that come to mind:

 

Guns N Roses doing Sympathy for the Devil

 

Guns N Roses doing Live and Let Die

 

Guns N Roses doing Knocking on Heaven's door.

 

Jimmy Buffett doing Brown Eyed Girl

 

Pete Yorn doing Elvis's Suspicious minds. This one really pissed me off because my band has been doing a totally rocked-out version of that for years. When Pete Yorn did it, it kind of made the song "less special".

 

I'm sure I can think of more...

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Originally posted by aj2003:

Oh my goodness. I think I'd purposely driven from my mind how horrible GNR sounded when they did all those covers. Now I just feel depressed.

Yeah. I thought they were horrible. Irresponsible even. There are certain songs that are untouchable- that shouldn't be covered. And they picked three of them and covered without any respect to the original versions.
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Best:

 

White Zombie doing K.C. and the Sunshine Band's "(I'm Your) Boogie Man"

Alien Ant Farm doing MJ's "Smooth Criminal"

Disturbed doing Tears for Fears "Shout" (liked the original too)

Megadeth doing Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"

Iron Maiden doing Black Sabbath's "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath"

Anthrax doing Black Sabbath's "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath"

 

Worst:

 

Garth Brooks doing Billy Joel's "Shameless"

Pat Boone doing Metallica's "Enter Sandman"

BlueStrat

a.k.a. "El Guapo" ;)

 

...Better fuzz through science...

 

http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html

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I think Jonny Cash did a good job with that Trent Reznor tune. I've always thought the Crue did a good job with Helter Skelter, better than U2's version. Metallica should not have covered Motorhead, that didn't quite work.
"I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none." - Ben Shahn
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I never posted my favorites! Here they are...

 

Black Crowes doing Hard to Handle

 

Jimi doing All Along the Watchtower

 

Concrete Blonde doing Little Wing

 

Sting doing Little Wing

 

SRV doing Voodoo Chile

 

STP doing Dancing Days

 

I forgot all about Motely Crue doing Helter Skelter! That was pretty cool. I've always wanted to do that one with my band.

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Good: Rod Stewarts cover of You Keep Me Hanging On,which was a cover by da Fudge of The Supremes,so it's a cover of a cover. Rod's version has also has Carmine Appice on drums.

Bad: Pat boone singing Tutti Frutti by Little Richard

Ugly:Kenny G's version of Frank Zappa's The Jazz Discharge Party Hats

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The best:

Saliva doing the Pretenders' "Message of Love"

4 Non-Blondes cover of "Misty Mountain Hop"

Phantom Planet's version of Jackson Brown's "Somebody's Baby"

Ramones doing the Spiderman theme

Liz Phair and Material Issue covering the Banana Splits Theme

Smashing Pumpkins doing "Never let me down again" by Depeche Mode

Janes Addictions' "Sympathy for the Devil"

Pat Boone, "You got Another Thing Comin'"-Judas Priest

Heaven 17 covering Madonna's "Holiday"

Frontline Assembly covering Madonna's "Justify my Love"

Bon Jovi doing "Levon" (It's not bad!)

Crash Test Dummies doing "Androgynous"

Pennywise :"If you wanna be my lover"

Lyle Lovett "Friend of the Devil"

 

The worst:

Mariah Carey "Bringin' on the Heartbreak"

Mariah Carey "Open Arms"

Madonna "American Pie"

Metallica "Turn the Page"

KMFDM "Material Girl"

Poison "Your Momma Can't Dance"

Motley Crue "Smokin' in the Boys Room"

Indigo Girls "Uncle John's Band"

 

I LOVE cover tunes and remixes. Whatever happened to the Rush cover album that was supposed to come out? I've heard some snippets of it, but did the band block its release?

"For instance" is not proof.

 

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I'd also have to say that Stone Temple Pilot's cover of Zep's "Dancing Days" was better than the original to me. :freak:

 

a couple more good'uns:

 

Soundgarden's cover of "Into the Void"

Blind Melon's cover of "Out on the Tiles"

 

a bad'un:

 

Sheryl Crow's cover of "D'yer Mak'er"

BlueStrat

a.k.a. "El Guapo" ;)

 

...Better fuzz through science...

 

http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html

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Originally posted by antimatter66:

Originally posted by DIAMOND DUST:

William Shatner doing- Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

 

The Bee Gees and Frampton doing the Sgt. Pepper gig.

 

:eek::confused::eek::freak:

Captain Kirk! What a classic!

 

Frampton never did recover from that one.

You think captian kirk singing was bad (actually he didn't sing just talked it through) You ought to get spocks (Lenord Nimoy) version of "If I had a hammer"!! HILARIOUS! I heard it on a CD that a friend won by telling the funniest joke on a radio program. The William Shatner and Lenord Nimoy songs were the two most hilarious, but they had other actors, just can't remember the other tunes now. I wish I knew the title of that CD, I would buy it just for the joy of listening to it and laughing!
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Originally posted by RichardAshkenazi:

Originally posted by webe123:

I wish I knew the title of that CD, I would buy it just for the joy of listening to it and laughing!

Golden Throats!
Yeah I just looked it up! It has the BEST selection of songs that are HILARIOUS! They even have a Golden Throats 2, 3 and 4!! You can get them on Amazon.com! If you need a laugh, these are HIGHLY reccomended! Go to www.amazon.com and put golden throats in the search box. It will bring up the 4 albums I was talking about! Look at the song title and look next to it to see who is singing....now imagine that person SINGING IT! HAAAAAAAAA! HAAAAAAAA!
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Originally posted by AlChuck:

No.. please tell me you're joking -- Kenny G didn't rally do a Zappa cover, did he? >>>cringe cringe<<<

Now how did that get there? Must be those pesky graemlins again. What I meant to say was Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris. :D
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Originally posted by GitSematery:

What I meant to say was Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris. :D

I saw Rolf Harris in a hotel in San Antonio once. I hadn't heard of him before, but my family was there with some friends of ours from England (also named Harris, in fact) who recognized him and said hello.

 

Um, that's it.

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The worst: virtually anything done by barking dogs or chipmunks.

numerous Christmas songs done by rock stars

goodies:

Psuedo Echo`s cover of `funkytown`

AAF`s `smooth criminal`

no doubt`s cover of talk talk`s `it`s my life` (brand new)

Same old surprises, brand new cliches-

 

Skipsounds on Soundclick:

www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=602491

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Originally posted by RichardAshkenazi:

Originally posted by GitSematery:

What I meant to say was Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris. :D

I saw Rolf Harris in a hotel in San Antonio once. I hadn't heard of him before, but my family was there with some friends of ours from England (also named Harris, in fact) who recognized him and said hello.

 

Um, that's it.

Lucky you - probably not many in the US know of him - but he's an institution here and the UK. For the full Rolf experience, go to http://moonclamp.com/rolf/ Be sure to scroll down to Stairway to Heaven. Rolf ROCKS! :D
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I thought that Eddie Van Halen's solo in their cover of "Your No Good" is one of his best. It was the first time you could here the Holdsworth influence in his playing.

 

Van Halen's "Dancing in the Streets" took them down a few notches on my list.

 

I like the Ataris "Boys of Summer" ....The line, "Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac"... that's cool even for an old fool like me.

 

Def Leppard's "The Boys are Back in Town" was not very good.

Yum, Yum! Eat em up!
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the good: as mentioned above, Jeff Beck's version of "A Day in the Life"

 

the bad: pretty much every other person on that George Martin farewell album except...

 

the ugly: Jim Carrey's take on "I Am the Walrus"...I like Jim Carrey, really I do, but there's a special place in Hell for him for doing that to a Beatles' song.

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