Worst cover version ever

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How about "God Only Knows" by David Bowie? Or Elvis Costello?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 16:48 (twenty years ago) link

All Saints: 'Under The Bridge'
Wet Wet Wet: 'With A Little Help From My Friends'
Puff Daddy: 'Public Enemy No. 1'
Nikolaj Steen: 'The Message'

― Jay K (Jay K), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 17:02 (twenty years ago) link

Wet Wet Wet: Love is All Around.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 17:07 (twenty years ago) link

I like David Byrne, and I love bossanova, but Byrne's version of "Waters of March" is atrocious.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 17:32 (twenty years ago) link

Mick Jagger & David Bowie "Dancing in the Street"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 17:51 (twenty years ago) link

U2's techno version of 'Happiness is a Warm Gun'

― jl, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:12 (twenty years ago) link

yes, curtis, yes. thread over.

― praying mantis (praying mantis), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:13 (twenty years ago) link

Kickaxe did a quite reverential reading of Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help"

― dave q, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:18 (twenty years ago) link

This morning I had the misfortune to hear Mick Hucknall murdering Positively 4th Street :(

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:37 (twenty years ago) link

jeezus, people, have you all forGOTTEN the Wallflowers' version of "Heroes"?

and they fucking licensed that arrangement for a Visa commercial, to be covered by an ever MORE pantywaste/pussy-ass band!

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:47 (twenty years ago) link

Candyflip.
the whole of 'Pin-ups'.
bananarama doing 'help'.
wet wet wet being no1 forever with that troggs song.
tom jones sweating all over 'burning down the house' etc.

just remembering these has put me in a bad mood.
grr.

― joni, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:51 (twenty years ago) link

Love and Rockets' "Ball of Confusion"

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 18:54 (twenty years ago) link

Will To Power is the kind of crap that you hear in the supermarket that has everyone running for the doors.

― blutroniq (blutroniq), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

some band calling themselves Bestial Vine has a god-awful cover of Big Black's "The Big Payback."

http://www.geocities.com/bestialvine

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 20:41 (twenty years ago) link

The entire Pop Idols "Big Band" album!!!! And any "ironic" punk or indie cover of a popular song. (Espcially if it goes into a thrashy bit juast to show that they're not really serious...)
-- Old Fart!!! (oldfart_s...), July 2nd, 2003.

this guy is genius and cracks me up consistently..

― doom-e, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 20:52 (twenty years ago) link

he just seems to be so shocked at how rubbish some music is!!

― doom-e, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 20:59 (twenty years ago) link

Linda Ronstadt owns this thread!

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 21:07 (twenty years ago) link

You have clearly never encountered the horror that is James Last.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 21:36 (twenty years ago) link

I'm sorry, Charlie's a smashing bloke but it does need to be said:

http://www.panx.net/ep/0394.jpg

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 21:42 (twenty years ago) link

some band calling themselves Bestial Vine has a god-awful cover of Big Black's "The Big Payback."

Er...you do know that THAT'S a cover in turn, yes?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 21:47 (twenty years ago) link

Oh. I wasn't aware of that. Who did the original?

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link

Love and Rockets' "Ball of Confusion"

I am officially NEVER talking to JBR again. Not only is this a fucking BRILLIANT cover, it's also among my favorite songs OF ALL DAMN TIME!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 23:10 (twenty years ago) link

Who's the Fuxor that took The cover of Song to The Siren and made it a trance trax. Light him or her on fire now.

― brg30 (brg30), Thursday, 3 July 2003 00:38 (twenty years ago) link

it's gone this far w/o a mention of Madonna's "American Pie"? wow.

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 3 July 2003 00:44 (twenty years ago) link

r.e.m. - "academy fight song"

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 3 July 2003 00:45 (twenty years ago) link

I loved Bananarama's version of Help (with, of course, the lovely Kathy Burke and French and Saunders)...

― russ t, Thursday, 3 July 2003 08:30 (twenty years ago) link

Blount, what was wrong with R.E.M.'s "Academy Fight Song"? I liked it well enough.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 3 July 2003 08:38 (twenty years ago) link

r.e.m. - "crazy"

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 3 July 2003 09:06 (twenty years ago) link

Re:Covered to thread!

Some of Re:Covered's "finest" moments:

Mis-Teeq do a note for note cover of Alanis' "Ironic"
Liberty X tackle "High and Dry" by Radiohead
Athlete, yes, that's Athlete, offer their own interpretation of Prince's Kiss. It contains no discernable tune.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 3 July 2003 09:16 (twenty years ago) link

three months pass...

Elton John sings Nick Drake's "Way To Blue"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 2 November 2003 20:50 (twenty years ago) link

(though this was actually recorded BEFORE Nick's version)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 2 November 2003 20:54 (twenty years ago) link

In the past, I have heard dreadful club-mix covers of the Smith's "how soon is now" and U2's "pride in the name of love" but I haven't a clue who did those.

I like Tori Amos's Steely Dan cover... Or I used to. Haven't listened to her for a while.

― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link

John Eddie's version of The Cure's "In Between Days" from Rubaiyat. No contest.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:32 (twenty years ago) link

I'd love to hear the first two, actually. If I ever heard the third, I would probably succumb to the temptation to do violence to someone. Athlete, for preference. Though it cannot be as bad as the horrible, horrible Stereophonics murdering 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

Tori Amos's covers are generally all excellent.

― The Lex (The Lex), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:47 (twenty years ago) link

Phish does Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice.

Shit times shit equals shit-squared. Fucking hippies DIE!!!!

― sucka (sucka), Sunday, 2 November 2003 22:10 (twenty years ago) link

Billy Idol's "Heroin" from Cyberpunk

EC has done some terrible covers live; "Many Rivers To Cross" (I think, mighta been "Sitting In Limbo), "Pop Life", etc...

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Sunday, 2 November 2003 22:32 (twenty years ago) link

motley crue mentioned upthread but not what i had imagined: "anarchy in the uk"

― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 2 November 2003 22:52 (twenty years ago) link

Sheryl Crow's massacring of "The First Cut is the Deepest" makes me want to throw my radio out of a window.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 2 November 2003 23:11 (twenty years ago) link

Braids killed "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the most sadistic way imaginable.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 2 November 2003 23:48 (twenty years ago) link

That was the Gourds, not Phish. I really love it.

My vote: Britney Spears - "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Most disappointing cover ever: Squarepusher - 'Love Will Tear Us Apart." I thought a drill-n-bass version of LWTUA would be SO FUCKING COOL, but the Pusher played it totally straight. WHY!?!?

― Mister Snrub (MisterSnrub), Monday, 3 November 2003 00:23 (twenty years ago) link

not only that, his attempts at the lyrics were shamefully bad. it's not like they're difficult to track down or particularly obscure.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 November 2003 01:15 (twenty years ago) link

Moby fucks up the lyrics in his covers of "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" and "New Dawn Fades"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 3 November 2003 01:20 (twenty years ago) link

Moby fucks up the lyrics in his covers of "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" and "New Dawn Fades"

If you mean changing the former to that's when I realize it's over, blame his record company and MTV, not him.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 3 November 2003 01:28 (twenty years ago) link

the 7" version of Revolver has the correct lyrics

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 3 November 2003 01:29 (twenty years ago) link

No, I realize that.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 3 November 2003 01:29 (twenty years ago) link

i got y'all beat ...

gary numan's cover of "u got the look"!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 3 November 2003 02:22 (twenty years ago) link

Oh Jesus now I remember.

One of Faith Hill's biggest pre-crossover hits was a Nashville-ized cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart."

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 3 November 2003 02:28 (twenty years ago) link

dillinger escape plan covered billy idol's "rebel yell" and it really lacked umphf. they could've deconstructed the song to all hell, but instead kept it very plain and ordinary almost.

very disappointing.
m.

― msp, Monday, 3 November 2003 02:33 (twenty years ago) link

four months pass...

Yesterday on the radio I heard Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra's "Summer Wine" covered by The Corrs. Featuring Bono. Words cannot describe the horror.

(it still sounded a bit like Dog on Wheels by Belle and Sebastian though)

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 6 March 2004 11:58 (twenty years ago) link

seven months pass...

Anyone see the Observer music magazine supplement yesterday with the ten worst cover versions ever? "I reluctantly decided to ditch the kitsch stuff... William Shatner, Mike Flowers, Gareth Gates - it all went... instead, I wanted artists who genuinely thought they were doing nothing wrong, who may even have believed they were making significant improvements to the originals..." He has Duran Duran's 911 Is A Joke at no.1 ("shockingly misconceived in both theory and execution") and Ronan Keating doing Fairytale of New York at no.2 (with re-written lyrics so as not to offend anyone).

For me the worst of all time has to be the travesty that was the BBC's all star version of Perfect Day back in 1997, murdered by everyone from Pavarotti to, er, Lou Reed.

― The Horse of Babylon (the pirate king), Monday, 18 October 2004 05:52 (nineteen years ago) link

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