Cake - I will survive
They have other great covers too
The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson
My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion
My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion
Durch den Monsun by Tokio Hotel
Durch den Monsun by Tokio Hotel
Did anyone already mention Johnny Cash's version of Hurt, original by Nine Inch Nails? A marvelous reimagined version, maybe, the best cover ever.
Dub Side of the Moon, a reggae cover of Dark Side of the Moon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_Side_of_the_Moon
Joke answer: Disturbed's "The Sound of Science" cover because it's fucking horrid and ruins the point of the original's meaning.
I normally go for parodies, but this would be the place to post the Devil Went Down to Georgia (Washing Machine Cover)
More seriously, 2CELLOS' rendition of Thunderstruck is incredible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3SBzmDxGk
They have a ton of really good ones on their channel, but that one will always be my favorite for how into it they get
I'm surprised nobody's put up The Wiggles cover of Tame Impala's Elephant
Yes, those Wiggles. It's good.
Holding Out for a Hero - Frou Frou.
Those first couple of Shrek soundtracks were full on bangers. Pete Yorn's cover of Every Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have) is a masterpiece.
Two very different examples:
Modest Mussorsky's "Pictures at an exhibition" was originally written for piano (that was all the poor guy had available), and it took Maurice Ravel to turn it into an orchestral version and make it popular world wide. Both versions are great and have their own qualities, but I far prefer Ravel's version (Although Khatia Buniatishvili's rendition here is so really really good).
Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay". The original is... well... it's a Bob Dylan song. There is a really good cover version by Ministry that, althought technically is the same song, takes it to a whole other level. Love it.
Disturbed’s cover of The Sound Of Silence is so much better than the original.
I do adore a cover version that brings something new to the song;
Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday
Gotye - Somebody that I used to know - Dutch choir
Not quite a cover, but more of inspiration taken from Paper Planes - 'Paper Plates' by Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer
Umbrella - Manic Street Preachers
Toy Dolls - Nellie The Elephant
Siouxsie And The Banshees - The Passenger and Dear Prudence
Cornershop perform Norwegian Wood
I could go on for ages. Might add some more later. Hope somebody enjoys at least some of these?
FNM's cover of Easy is fantastic. It's a pretty straight cover, but Patton sells it.
shameless self-promotion : my band The Three Leonards also do covers that re-imagine the song. Our first album starts with a cover of One Headlight and we got some great response to it.
Polysics covering My Sharona by The Knack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXHEVcYTZYQ
Goddamn it why am I just learning about Japanese DEVO today? Why has no one told me? Thanks for sharing, this cover is a banger and I must listen to Polysics' entire discography now!
You're welcome! And have you heard of Servotron? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gS4nzSWmCs
I hadn't but I'm adding to my playlists! I first got really into music via prog rock so this type of high-concept silliness is well-aligned with my preferences :P
Bantamweight's haunting cover of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box is sorely underrated in my opinion.
ERRA's versions of Audioslave's Light My Way and Muse's Stockholm Syndrome.
Art vs Science's psychedelic-funk cover of Enter Sandman featuring a sweet as keytar solo.
Sleep Token's heartwrenching unplugged version of Hey Ya!.
And finally, Denzel Curry's supercharged version of Bulls on Parade. I didn't think the track could sound angrier but he's gone and done it.
Bonus: Andrew Hulshult's Hell March, featuring chainguns as percussion, Master Boot Record's Doom E1M1 metal chiptune remix, and GeoffPlaysGuitar's argent-metalized Halo Overture.
Funnel Of Love by Wanda Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt7PPidlIvg
Cover by Boris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4T_XNdeRTs
Postmodern Jukebox ft. Haley Reinhart - Creep (original by Radiohead), jazz/big band style
Novena - Bury a Friend, progressive metal Billie Eilish. Starts out like the original and gets progressively heavier.
Surprised how far down I had to look for Postmodern Jukebox to show up!
So many of the Postmodern Jukebox covers are fantastic.
Florence + The Machine - Just A Girl, for the TV show, Yellowjackets. Makes it so much more haunting.
I made a playlist of Nina Hagen's covers of religious songs, and the originals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdiTFj0WDWc&list=PLgy7PolPvs21T7VgK9vUviZGZrZknVadp
Goddamn Jerboa won't let me copy the link. I don't want to open the shit YouTube app, i want to open it in vimusic!
I do all my youtube viewing via yt-dlp.
STRFKR - Girls Just Want To Have Fun, synthy goodness
Kishi Bashi - This Must Be the Place - more orchestral version of the Talking Heads song
Gorillaz - Crystalized - somber cover of the XX song
Jazz Sabbath. I had no idea this existed. It was just suggested to me because the algorithms are good at their job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcr708w1HY
Had a huge Northern Kings phase a couple years ago. Damn good stuff.
The Hu playing “Sad but True” by Metallica (in Mongolian) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpxA_ZxGX_M
I love this post. This is a very weird cover of a song that was already weird. The video is also disturbing, which kinda did it for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdDTz8wL30
The original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mR6zmSTDNE
I've always found Faith No More do absolutely spot on cover versions.
Pipilotti Rist covering Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game: I’m a Victim of this Song
The screaming starts somewhere around 3 minutes.
Rist slays. Pepperminta is my favorite modern surrealist film.
I actually know almost nothing about her, but I found this song on a music blog (maybe stereogum?) probably at least 15 years ago and I never get tired of it. I will have to look at some of her other work.
Viagra Boys and Amy Taylor's cover of In Spite of Ourselves is an interesting take on the original by John Prine and Iris Dement.
I love seeing Viagra Boys mentioned here.
Love them! This song in particular is pretty meaningful for me. My dad has always had a bit of a narrow conception of what "good" music is, so while we could bond over stuff he liked, he's never been particularly receptive when I've shown him new stuff. John Prine was his favourite artist, though, and this cover got him to open up a little.
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