Saturday, 30 October 2004

Worst and Best Cover Songs

Via Brad DeLong, Graeme Thomson at The Observer has a list of the ten worst cover songs ever.

Somehow he managed to make the list without including William Shatner’s awful spoken word rendition of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Tiffany’s cover of “I Saw Her Standing There,” or Van Halen's cover of “Pretty Woman.”

Prof. DeLong asks about the best cover songs ever. Here’s the beginning of my list.

  1. Twist and Shout, by the Beatles.
  2. All Along the Watchtower, by Jimi Hendrix.
  3. Midnight Special, by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
  4. Hurt, by Johnny Cash.
  5. Istanbul Not Constantinople, by They Might Be Giants.
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3 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.
[Permalink] 1. mike hollihan wrote @ Sat, 30 Oct 2004, 11:02 pm CDT:

I think the best covers either uncover something not noticed in the original version (different emotional focus or point of view), or place the original in a new musical / stylistic context where the song still sounds great, even if radically different. Using Van Halen, there’s an English band called Aztec Camera that did a light, acoustic version of “Jump” that’s almost conversational and off-hand in its execution. Still sounds great, though. Or the Fine Young Cannibals’ loungy, piano version of the Buzzcock’s roaring guitar-punk “Ever Fallen In Love.” Wildly different, but the melody survives and shines.

 
[Permalink] 2. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Sun, 31 Oct 2004, 9:30 pm CST:

The new Britney Spears cover of “My Perogative” is disturbing on multiple levels.

 
[Permalink] 3. Brian J. wrote @ Mon, 1 Nov 2004, 8:30 am CST:

I’d agree with Chris and abstract it to the class: Any remake of a 1980s song already. Cripes, I am old.

Also, “Drift Away” by Uncle Kracker, but I don’t care for the original, either.

 
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Signifying Nothing formerly featured the stylings of Brock Sides, a left-leaning philosopher turned network administrator currently residing in Memphis, Tennessee who now blogs at Battlepanda, and Robert Prather, a libertarian-leaning conservative economist and occasional contributor at OTB.

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