Memorial Day weekend means summer is around the corner, which also means hearing some of your favorite cover songs! NVMP presents our Top 5 Cover Songs this week. Good luck crawling out of your hangover and getting back to your work week.
A cover here and there are okay, but let's keep it to a minimum and work on developing something original. Cool?
TNT’s Top 5
5. “Suffragette City” (originally David Bowie) by The Get Up Kids
4. “Scarlet Begonias” (originally The Grateful Dead) by Sublime – Its made my list before, but what can I say? It’s a great cover…that’s not a full cover at all, but a decked out Sublime style cover still rocks.
3. “Mama Said Knock You Out” (originally LL Cool J) by Lagwagon – It was on a mixed tape from middle school. I love me some punk covers!
2. “Crimson and Clover” (originally Tommy James and the Shondells) by Joan Jett – I’ll fight you to the death on this one, I like her version better. End of story.
1. “Drive Me Crazy” (originally Britney Spears) by Sugarcoma – Oh Sugarcoma, thank you for taking a terrible song and making it better. All it needed was a driving guitar and some heavy drums while screaming the chorus. Sorry Spears, your version drives me crazy in a bad way, this version is better. (I don’t think this UK band is still together, but I suggest checking out the album Becoming Something Else.)
Mark’s Top 5
5. “Enjoy the Silence” by Failure – One of the finest covers of a Depeche Mode song ever, reworked and molded into a creepy, distorted space rock journey, led by Ken Andrew’s distinct gruff vocals, here peppered with odd pronunciations. It’s a track that wouldn’t be out-of-place on a soundtrack to a David Lynch or David Fincher flick.
4. “Cars” by Fear Factory – Lead singer Burton C. Bell had name checked Gary Numan as an influence on his music, so it comes as no surprise that his band would eventually cover the 1979 original, giving it a FF make over with crunchy rhythmic guitars layered over crisp drumming and digital bleeps, while still managing to stay true to the original song.
3. “Barbie Girl” by MxPx – A staple of my DJ sets, it is a quick, pointless, and funny as fuck cover of Aqua’s sugary pseudo-sexual original. It always gets a laugh, while still managing to sound really cool and get people moving.
2. “Angel” by Charlotte Martin – What once was a slow-paced trip-hop jam, with middle-eastern feeling vocals, becomes a beat heavy, mid-tempo track that you could actually dance or mellow out to, courtesy the re-arrangement by good ol’ CharMar.
1. “Moonlight Sonata” by Depeche Mode – Although credited to DM as a B-side, the real star of this tune is Alan Wilder. He performed this one-off cover of Beethoven’s masterpiece as a way to kill some time in between sessions. It’s a bit abbreviated and sped up, but still an amazing cover that somehow manages to maintain the intended vibe of Beethoven, while at the same time keeping in line with the sonic themes of DM’s music.
Dan’s Top 5
5. “What You Waiting For?” (originally Gwen Stefani) by Franz Ferdinand
4. “It’s My Life” (originally Talk Talk) by No Doubt
3. “Make You Feel My Love” (originally Bob Dylan) by ADELE
2. “Bitches Ain’t Shit” (originally Dr. Dre) by Ben Folds Five
1. “All Along the Watchtower” (originally Bob Dylan) by Jimi Hendrix
Klone’s Top 5
Covers are a staple of the music world, and for those of us fans who are also musicians, part of what helped us learn to play. Here are the ones I’ve grown to love as my Top 5, plus a slew of honorable mentions. “The greatest flattery is imitation.”
5. “A Little Respect” – originally by Erasure, Cover by in.spite.of
4. “Cinnamon Girl” – originally by Neil Young, Cover by Type O Negative
3. “All Along The Watchtower” – originally by Bob Dylan, Cover by BT & Bear McCreary (BSG Season 3 Soundtrack)
2. “I Love You Always Forever” – originally by Donna Lewis, Cover by Jukebox The Ghost (performed on 5/29/2010)
1. “Whiskey In The Jar” – originally by Thin Lizzy, Cover by Metallica
Honorable Mentions: Metallica – “Breadfan” – originally by: Budgie, “Stone Cold Crazy” – originally by: Queen, “Astronomy” – originally by: Blue Oyster Cult
Guns N’ Roses – “Hair Of The Dog” – originally by: Nazareth, “Mama Kin” – originally by: Aerosmith, Sublime – “Scarlet Begonias” – originally by: The Grateful Dead, Lou Reed – “This Magic Moment” – originally by: The Drifters, Blue Man Group – “White Rabbit” – originally by: Jefferson Airplane, “Baba O’Reilly” – originally by: The Who, Alien Ant Farm – “Smooth Criminal” – originally by: Michael Jackson,Gus – “Don’t Fear The Reaper” – originally by: Blue Oyster Cult, Paradise Lost – “How Soon Is Now?” – originally by: The Smiths
Stigz’s Top 5
5. “Turn The Page” by Metallica (Originally Performed by Bob Seger) – They lost me after Load and only slightly won me back with their cover album, which this is on. However, this take on the Bob Seger track kicks some serious ass. The whole Napster debacle is another story…
4. “Anyway You Want It” by Rise Against (Originally Performed by Journey) – Despite it being a classic jam in true Journey fashion, Tim McGrath owns this cover and injects it with his own flavor.
3. “I’m Your Boogieman” by White Zombie (Originally Performed by KC and the Sunshine Band) – I know, I was stunned when I heard it to, but any 70s revisit by a Zombie, whether its solo Rob or White, is rocking nonetheless.
2. “No Ordinary Love” by Deftones (Originally Performed by Sade) – Chino’s haunting voice brings an entirely new element to this song. It was sexy when she sang it, and even more haunting when the Deftones lay down this track.
1. “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix(Originally Performed by Bob Dylan) – Jimi…Dylan…That’s all I have to say.
Note: I do a segment on my show every Friday on 89.5 FM WSOU from 4pm-8pm where I play all kinds of covers, so this was extremely hard to narrow down. I also didn’t want to punk out and pick tracks from cover albums like Punk Goes Crunk and Punk Goes Pop : toooo easy.
Nevermind The Posers 