"Bandproof" songs?

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Although it aint neccessarily so great a song, "Summertime" is one that's survived every rendition I can think of, and often in pretty good shape (Albert Ayler, Big Brother, Miles, a friend of mine who goes years between playing anything, according to his son--they've all risen to the occasion, and vice-versa). So, I'm wondering, can this be a"bandproof" song? That is, if you can play it *at all* (or at least release the notes in recognizable shape, etc.) Whether or not this song is actually bandproof, are there other examples?

― don, Monday, 29 November 2004 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Jim Greer argued that Cheap Trick's "Surrender" qualified in the SPIN alternative record guide

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 29 November 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Draggin' the Line.

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Monday, 29 November 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

It's pretty much all vocal and not a band thing, but I usually like

Amazing Grace

whoever's singing it.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 29 November 2004 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Louie Louie

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Monday, 29 November 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Summertime is a perfect example; I've bought albums just because that was on it.

― todd (todd), Monday, 29 November 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

outdoor miner, though i haven't heard the houseguest wish cd.

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 29 November 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

lyrics 2surrender :"threw my Kiss records out"?
don't cheap trick like KISS - was there an argument while the supported the heavy metal inventors ?

p.s. i wanna be the long,hard missile between barbara bach's boobies.

― cheapboy, Monday, 29 November 2004 07:17 (twenty-one years ago)

no matter how badly the damn riff is played, it's quite impossible to make "smoke on the water" sound ever more grating...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 29 November 2004 07:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Check Swansway's version of "summertime", just check it.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 29 November 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

lyrics 2surrender :"threw my Kiss records out"?
don't cheap trick like KISS - was there an argument while the supported the heavy metal inventors ?

It's "GOT my Kiss records out." As in, to play them.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Monday, 29 November 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not about being simple, is it? Or anyway, a lot of *seemingly* simple stuff isn't easy to play non-boringly.

― don, Monday, 29 November 2004 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Check Swansway's version of "summertime", just check it.

good times:)

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Monday, 29 November 2004 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

"Swansway's version": so what's it like?

― don, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not a standard, but despite being identified with one group, I think "Satisfaction" is pretty resilient: the Stones, Otis Redding, Blue Cheer, Devo, Buddy Guy and Alien Sex Fiend all made it rock. Cat Power and the Residents deconstructed it, and it was still great. Jimmy Smith lounged it, still great. Even the wack versions, like the Del Rubio Triplets, are good because it's such an old warhorse that it holds its shape through any abuse.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

More brilliance from briania. I can't top that, but I will suggest Chuck Berry's "Memphis," covered by, among others, Lonnie Mack, Johnny Rivers and The Faces.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, didn't Rhino or somebody do a whole anthology of "Louie Louie" vaersions? We need one of "Satisfaction," if not "Memphis"(can't hink of any bad versions of "Johnny B. Goode," either)

― don, Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

"Money" is also impervious. Even the Doors version is good.

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Mrs. Miller's version of "Memphis" is well up to her usual standards

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

"Money" otm.

What about "Bo Diddley," "Mona," "Not Fade Away", etc, aka Songs Featuring The Bo Diddley Beat Considered As Being The Same Song Even If Not Actually By Bo Diddley Himself? Any bad versions of those?

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a Pia Zadora bo-beat song that begs the question, plus U2, if that counts in your world.

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Hold tha phone: the Doors did "Money"--what recording?? Somehow that seems too fast and otherwise problematic for the Lizard King. Good performance of it would require hauntones "rudely, almost obscenely quickened for the occasion," J.D. Salinger reckons. But/so I wouldn't mind checking it out (as a Doors fan after all).

― don, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never heard a bad version of ACJ’s "How Insensitive."

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

you forgot to mention TELEVISION in the "satisfaction" list.

"satisfaction" is a great call, in a way it is a sort of super-song, a tabula rasa - it seems like the worse you slaughter it the better it gets, it takes on all sorts of extra resonances and stuff.

― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Justine Bateman's cover on the "Satisfaction" movie soundtrack. Britney Spears. Explain, please.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, and speaking of Television, they did a good live "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." How about that one? GnR's version sounded a little dated, last time I heard it, but that was about Axl, mainly. The song remained unscathed. Reminds me that the first time I heard Shonen Knife's (early, best) songs, it was on that erratic tribute (and/or "ironic") album , EVERY BAND HAS A SHONEN KNIFE WHO LOVES THEM. The songs were even more striking for being glimpsed through mud of performance,recording, and dubbed normal-bias cassette.

― don, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:39 (twenty-one years ago)

XP: Even those are great, because the reaction is still "OMG the chick from Family Ties doing Satisfaction!" or "OMG Britney doing Satisfaction is so death-of-rock!" Or, like Joe Pass on Stones Jazz: "OMG, it's Satisfaction as Muzak!"

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 02:41 (twenty-one years ago)

yes briana! Like Celine's preformance on that awards show reminds us that "Shook Me All Night Long" is still so itself! So said performance got *it*self named as one of the leading "Least Metal Moments of All TIME" on VH-1! (Although Pat Boone's IN A METAL MOOD is too long; he's not as lively as Celine, anyway)

― don, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Don, have ya heard the Doors doing "Summertime"? Think they just do it as an instrumental. Have it on some bootleg somewhere...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

xypost: check cd 3 on the box set "The Future Ain't What it Used to Be"
if ever there was ever one cd of solid proof the doors ruled it is this one.

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 03:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Louie Louie

-- LSTD (answer) ([email protected]), November 29th, 2004.

The Iggy vers. of thee coffee an cigaretts OMPS is rather shit

― Jimmy Mod always makes friends with women before bedding them down (ModJ), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 06:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Apache is one of those songs for me. obviously the Incredible Bongo Band version is killer, but i've heard it as whitebread lounge, surf, and electric disco and it still kicks ass

― JaXoN (JasonD), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 06:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Iggy? Say it ain't so.

"Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"?

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Love to imagine Doors' "Summertime," even without Jim (ever read Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER?) It does seem like their kind of song. I like how Miles leads it so briskly, showing that the mood's stll there even if you do that (or even if he does it).

― don, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 07:14 (twenty-one years ago)

May I suggest "Mack the Knife" - that has had pretty muche everything stuck to it, and it's still great. Even Robbie Williams couldnt' kill it. Strangely (uniquely?) the worst version is the first version - badly recorded, lumbering and pointless. Without the incessent key changes, Mack the Knife is a dirge of the worst kind. WIth the key changes, it's bandproof.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 10:02 (twenty-one years ago)

IMO there is no song like this at all. Usually, the original works best unless there is something about the arrangement that makes it not fully realized.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah, honestly Geir, the original sucks. Download it and you'll se what I mean.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

What would the "original" of Mack the Knife be? Presumably, the earliest available cast recording of Three Penny Opera, but the ones everybody knows are by Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong. Neither of those sucks.

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I think he means the original Brecht/Weill version - no key changes and all the better for it

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually considered nominating the "Ballad of Pirate Jenny" for this, but then I realized Lotte Lenya and Ute Lemper were not a wide enough sampling to constitute "bandproof."

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Dagmar Krause did a pretty great version of 'Mack the Knife' on her Weill album Supply and Demand. Oh, and Sandy Bull did a worthwhile cover of Chuck Berry's 'Memphis' too...

I haven't ever heard anyone make a total bollox of 'Shakin' All Over'. Heard versions by the MC5, the Damned, Flamin' Groovies - loads of people must have done it. Once you get the guitar right, it'd be pretty hard to go wrong surely?

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, good one: Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, the Who, the Guess Who/BTO, Flamin' Groovies, Suzie Quatro, the Damned, Iggy. Proving your point, it's just about the only good thing on Avenue B.

― briania (briania), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lean On Me" comes pretty close I reckon.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

(can't hink of any bad versions of "Johnny B. Goode," either)

You don't spend enough time in suburban roadside bars.

I almost said "Feliz Navidad," but the Von Trapp Children (!) just did a so-cute-it's-ghastly version.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

you wouldn't say 'feliz navidad' if you'd been at a certain wedding i attended.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess not. Like I said, the Von Trapp version is ghastly in its cuteness.

It SHOULD be bandproof, though, in the sense that the less you try to do with it the better it sounds. My former band once decided at a pre-Christmas show that not only would we play it, but we'd play it (or at least a verse) any time we hesitated for more than a few seconds deciding what to play next (no set lists, ever). And we'd never rehearsed it, and the crowd loved it.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't imagine a bad version of "I will Survive"

― phil jones (interstar), Thursday, 2 December 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a good Spanish version of that at the end of an Almodovar movie.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Funny to see "Mack the Knife" mentioned. I still haven't recovered from hearing that used as a jingle in a MacDonald's commercial. Even when my beloved Kenny Dorham plays it I'm tempted to skip to the next track.

― todd (todd), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I'm surprised I couldn't find a thread here about "Versions of songs that possibly ruined your ability to enjoy any another version, ever."

― todd (todd), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I think I thought about saying "Nature Boy" when this thread came out, and now that I've heard the cheesy original version in The Boy With Green Hair, I'll go ahead and take the plunge.

― The Redd 47 Ronin (Ken L), Sunday, 29 October 2006 04:18 (nineteen years ago)

Ghost Riders in the Sky

Also, it's pretty hard not to make "Caravan" enticing.

― bendy (bendy), Sunday, 29 October 2006 05:01 (nineteen years ago)

"Mack the Knife"

oddly (or not) the Doors did a version of this, too.
they liked them staples

― edde (edde), Sunday, 29 October 2006 06:22 (nineteen years ago)

When You were Mine too of course

― dan. (dan.), Monday, 30 October 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

I think you will find that "Mack The Knife" has never been covered by the Staples Singers :)

― Comstock Carabineri (nostudium), Monday, 30 October 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

i am not aware of any bad versions of "be my baby"

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 30 October 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

Sandie Shaw did a pretty terrible version with the BEF in '82.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 30 October 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

I've never heard a bad version of ACJ’s "How Insensitive."
-- mottdeterre

Including the version by William Shatner?! (From The Transformed Man)

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Monday, 30 October 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

THE PUPPINI SISTERS CAN RUIN ANYTHING! ANYTHING!!!

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 30 October 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" is entering the ubiquitous zone for covers, I have over 100 versions. Yet I'm hard pressed to call any one of them bad. The obvious target is Paul Young but to me to added spoken word bit near the end turns it into the most melodramatic ABC song ever.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 30 October 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

I can't think of a version of "Sitting on Top of the World" that doesn't nail it -- although, Bob Wills gets my overall nod.

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 2 November 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

This can now easily be tested

― Zingling Baby (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 05:48 (fourteen years ago)

Did anyone check Swansway's cover of "Summertime" ?

― Mark G, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 08:41 (fourteen years ago)

I haven't been able to find a bad version of white light/white heat yet. Many are surprisingly good. Nobody seems to be able to shake reed's phrasing...

― dlp9001, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 13:31 (fourteen years ago)

i remember you (1941, Schertzinger/Mercer)

same here, never heard a bad version.
even the tossed off Star Club cover by The Beatles is tolerable.

― meisenfek, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:15 (fourteen years ago)

A collector friend of mine claims there is no bad version of "The Peanut Vendor," and he owns scads of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peanut_Vendor

― Hey T-Paw, mow my lawn! (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:24 (fourteen years ago)

Not even the "Golden Wonder, they're Jungle Fresh" advert version?

― Mark G, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:32 (fourteen years ago)

The counterexample is "Fever". It's been covered a zillion, but none of them work well except for Peggy Lee. Other versions are too camp or too eagerly horny. It's hard to smolder!

― bendy, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:37 (fourteen years ago)

Ghost Riders in the Sky

― MarkoP, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:42 (fourteen years ago)

Drat, someone got that 5 years ago.

― MarkoP, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:44 (fourteen years ago)

I'm American, so completely unfamiliar with Golden Wonder, but that seems like it might not be great. I think there's a Lawrence Welk version, and similar easy listening versions, but I have a really high tolerance for schmaltz.

― Hey T-Paw, mow my lawn! (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:45 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7vX8hBudcQ

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

― Hey T-Paw, mow my lawn! (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:47 (fourteen years ago)

That's the one. Was on TV for about a year, and was a mainstay on cinema advertising for at least fifteen.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 14:57 (fourteen years ago)

The counterexample is "Fever". It's been covered a zillion, but none of them work well except for Peggy Lee. Other versions are too camp or too eagerly horny. It's hard to smolder!
--bendy

Thinking about Little Willie John ... and a few nice things

― Zingling Baby (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 15:01 (fourteen years ago)

Check the version by The McCoys.

Of "Hang on sloopy" um, permanence.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 15:02 (fourteen years ago)

Ah, here's Lawrence Welk, and "charming little Mexican senorita, Anacani"...

http://www.myspace.com/video/vincent/the-peanut-vendor/62751132

― Hey T-Paw, mow my lawn! (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 15:19 (fourteen years ago)

I sort of feel like anyone who can reliably carry a tune can sing "Rolling In The Deep"

― Rob Based and DJ EZ God (DJP), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 15:20 (fourteen years ago)

"Wayfaring Stranger".

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 15:28 (fourteen years ago)

Can't think of a bad version of "Ain't No Sunshine" or "Motherless Child".

― misty sensorium (Plasmon), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 16:52 (fourteen years ago)

Neville Brothers "Fever" is amazing...

― m0stlyClean, Wednesday, 24 August 2011 17:07 (fourteen years ago)

I did "Aint' no sunshine" with a female singer. It's not "bad" anyway.

― Mark G, Thursday, 25 August 2011 08:01 (fourteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

I can never decide whose version of "Heard It Through The Grapevine" I like best - Marvin, The Slits, or Zapp. Hmm... Poll time?

― Yo wait a minute man, you better think about the world (dog latin), Thursday, 15 September 2011 09:28 (fourteen years ago)

Marvin by a gazillion miles.

― B-Boy Bualadh Bos (ecuador_with_a_c), Thursday, 15 September 2011 20:34 (fourteen years ago)

CCR a close 2nd imo

― me stalk shithead one day (some dude), Thursday, 15 September 2011 20:37 (fourteen years ago)

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