Worst cover version ever

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (193 of them)

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

I'm truly amazed that no-one has mentioned Simple Minds' cover of "Sign of the times". The same as the original but the original was not sad or poignant enough, so lets add some sobbing to the intro...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 18 October 2004 06:46 (nineteen years ago) link

it's still david gray.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Monday, 18 October 2004 06:49 (nineteen years ago) link

surely no cover us worse than Dynamite Hack shitting on Boyz N The Hood

― mucho, Monday, 18 October 2004 08:26 (nineteen years ago) link

stereophonics anything

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Monday, 18 October 2004 08:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Disagree with David Gray. I like that version. Nice to hear an interesting that brings the song itself more to the forefront (I like the Soft Cell version too, but that is more because of the synths/sound)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 18 October 2004 09:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I can't believe no one's mentioned the following atrocities:

"Big Yellow Taxi" done by Counting Crows, in which I'm convinced that he's actually HAPPY that they "paved paradise and put in a parking lot"

"Imagine" by A Perfect Circle

"Don't Let it Bring You Down" by whatever female singer did it sometime in the last year or two.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 18 October 2004 10:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Funny enough, I find Britney's version of "Satisfaction" quite nice.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 18 October 2004 10:15 (nineteen years ago) link

It's easy to badly remake a good song ... but to desecrate originals that were bad in the first place is a true sign of a horrible cover.

any cover of "i got you babe" or "the beat goes on"

― Cynthia Nixon Now More Than Ever (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 18 October 2004 10:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Hasn't "the worlds sexiest grandma", T.Turner, haplesssly strangled songs by Beatles and Massive Attack? (Rhetorical question, yes) ...Oi the madness :(

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 18 October 2004 10:59 (nineteen years ago) link

good call on COunting Crows, i hate that song anyway tho

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Monday, 18 October 2004 11:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Anyway, my vote for The Braids remains.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 18 October 2004 11:03 (nineteen years ago) link

95% of Wire covers are terrible

My Life Story, anyone? Lightning Seeds? Oh dear.

In fact, other than MBV doing Map Ref and Scanner's Eardrum Buzz, it's pretty grim all the way. Flying Saucer Attack's cover of Outdoor Miner, maybe. And some of the versions of Drill are okay, but I'm never sure whether to class them as covers.

― coco, Monday, 18 October 2004 11:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Frank Zappa - Stairway to heaven.

Frank Zappa used to kill every song he covered. Thank God I never listened to his version of Shaggs' "Foot Foot".

― Elvis is Dead, Monday, 18 October 2004 11:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Why do people get so upset by people covering their favourite artist's songs? The original still exists, it hasn't been altered in any way? And they like to use words like 'desecrate'. It's a song; in most cases it's not sacred.

But the worst cover would have to be some nu-metal or industrial cover of a pop song, in some odd attempt to defile the 'niceness' of the original.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Monday, 18 October 2004 11:39 (nineteen years ago) link

95% of Wire covers are terrible

Check out their cover of "After Midnight" by J.J. Cale!

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 18 October 2004 11:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Lush also did a nice cover of "Outdoor Miner".

The correct answer is Stars on 54 covering Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind".
Broken hearts and solemn introspection never sounded so joyous! What an awful, horrific cover.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 18 October 2004 13:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Oasis did a truly dire pub rock version of Heroes that was completely and utterly wrong.
Fortunately, I've never heard Duran Duran's version of 911 Is A Joke but it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to know it's gotta be the worst.cover.ever.

― Stew S (stew s), Monday, 18 October 2004 13:34 (nineteen years ago) link

>>> "Big Yellow Taxi" done by Counting Crows

I'll second (third?) this one, I don't even like the original but this is SO bad it makes me weep.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 18 October 2004 15:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Well said Col Poo. It is truly ghastly, and I like the original (although it's far from Joni's best)

― Stew s (stew s), Monday, 18 October 2004 15:59 (nineteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

Thread revived, because Snow Patrol's cover of "Crazy In Love" is worst than anything named here.

― alex in montreal (alex in montreal), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 14:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Lush also did a nice cover of "Outdoor Miner".

I misread that as Lulu.

"Noe blihnd spaht.. in tha leppards eyesss"

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 14:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Ack. Worst = worse.

― alex in montreal (alex in montreal), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 15:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Moby slogs his way through New Order's Temptation, at maybe 12 BPM.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Thurston Moore - "Here Today"

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 15:37 (eighteen 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.
That would be Messiah. My father owned the record.

I've heard D2's "911 is a Joke" -- it's actually rather non-descript and tame, if silly. It's not violently atrocious by any means, nor is anything else on Thank You. Hell, Lou Reed actually thought their cover of "Perfect Day" outdid his original!

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 18:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Pretty much anything from this (except maybe the Shonen Knife track):

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf700/f759/f75977qv18p.jpg

i mean seriously, half of these people should be slaughtered as painfully as possible for the atrocities committed on this disc

Sonic Youth's "Superstar" in particular (funny how they keep popping up in this thread, huh?)

― rentboy (rentboy), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link

this is the most cringeworthy thread ever. i nominate tori amos's smells like teen spirit.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Jessica Simpson's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" deserves a mention.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 19:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Do people really hate Sonic Youth's Superstar? I really like it.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link

^^least constructive sentence ever^^

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link

I like that Carpenters comp, probably because I had never heard any Carpenters before.

Re:Snow Patrol, hearing is believing.

― alex in montreal (alex in montreal), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 20:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Bowie doing "God Only Knows." Blech!

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 20:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Power Plant's ham-fisted massacre of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong." Utterly repulsive.

― whim cycle, Wednesday, 29 June 2005 20:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Dennis De Young - "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 30 June 2005 01:20 (eighteen years ago) link

311 - Love Song. I hated them enough BEFORE they went & recorded this stain.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 30 June 2005 02:00 (eighteen years ago) link

"Let's Go All The Way" (Sly Fox) - covered by the Insane Clown Posse.

I'm not making this up, folks.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 30 June 2005 02:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I haven't read the whole thread, but I searched it and didn't find Lou Reed and Sam Moore's version of "Soul Man" so I win.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 30 June 2005 02:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh christ, never mind my suggestion. I just listened to the Snow Patrol cover and it is indescribably awful. Especially the "rap", and the ensuing "breakdown". I declare a winner!

― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 30 June 2005 02:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I listened to it too, and it's pretty goddamn bad. But man - Lou Reed 'singing' Soul Man...

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 30 June 2005 03:16 (eighteen years ago) link

I was about to post Counting Crows version of Big Yellow Taxi, but then I realized I posted it above, back in October. I guess I just really hate that cover.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 30 June 2005 03:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 93 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.