Worst cover version ever

Joe Cocker - 'With a Little Help From My Friends'.

Some examples of covers first encountered this way: that version of Baby I Don't Care by that girl from Brookside (admittedly an execrable song to start with); that trance-lite version of Like a Prayer; and the trance-lite version of T-Rex's Ride a White Swan. This'd probably get my vote for worst cover. I can't remember the artiste in question, but it came out last year and was certainly the subject of a rightfully appalled ILM thread back then too!

Good call with the Massive Attack one too, stevem - that is dire beyond all belief.

I don't know how to paste links here, but this is the thread about the trance-lite Ride a White Swan cover.

i was really hoping this would be the case of Fast Food Rockers

How can a great song like that, sung with such brilliance by Almond be massacred in such a drudge-like, flat, expressionless way?

Apparently Alond 'doesn't mind' Gray's version.... but then,with the cash it brought in, he wouldn't, would he?

A: By being performed by Davi Gray.

Could this possibly have been David Gray?

GREAT BAND NAME ALERT!!!!!

I also seem to remember that around about 1994 there was a eurodance cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by some woman who was called Melanie (no surname, just Melanie). I remember my friends talking to me about it at the time, and apparently she got onto Top Of The Pops with this thing. I never heard it, and still haven't to this day. I would imagine that would be pretty bad, tho.

Hmmm... this page claims that a band called Melanie's Breast covered "Heart Shaped Box"...

For some reason I've always thought it would be entirely comprised of synths and drums and that it would have ditched the guitar.

The whole white trash slant (think Nicks/Henley) makes it even more excruciating.

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.

Special mention: Joss Stone "Fell In Love With A Boy"

not butchered but just like what was the point?

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

John -- YSI?

YSI is slow. I will report back later w/the link.

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2CRQSVJMGJYZC2QB50WXIWPMMZ

I just don't get it.

Pretty fucking horrible, eh?

So I'm starting to reevaluate my position, having listened to both, and I'm going back to the ICP as my top choice. Perhaps the Snow Patrol was so new and awful that my judgement was clouded...then I listened to "Let's Go All The Way" again, and was galvanized in my hatred.

Who can topple the ICP? I call you out. Links/YSI are requested...

MUST KNOW MORE EVIL!

However, "If You Could Read My Mind" is a giant among songs. Lots of artists could try to cover it and not be up to the task (I'm sure many have tried). On the other hand, how hard can it possibly be to pull off a half-decent cover of "Let's Go All the Way"? How could ICP screw it up so badly (besides the fact that they're, you know, ICP). They definitely score points for that "achievement".

Uploading to YSI is slow here for some reason but I'll post something as soon as I can.

Stars on 54 - If You Could Read My Mind

http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=05TMK0IU4V0QA3G9W62W45N1UP

the point was that they were commissioned to do the cover for TV ads for the video release of The Graduate.

Frente's cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle" totally misses the point. I despise it. Tailor-made cutesy shite for 14 yr old girls to write diary entries to. I just don't get it.

the Frente one is pretty much a cover of the Even As We Speak version, incidentally

Yuck.

I'm so torn...I'll cast my vote later.

This is *exactly* how I feel about the Snow Patrol cover. Though when I can, I'll have to download the ICP track just for comparison.

Coldplay doing Kylie is the latest in the long line of indie covers of pop hits, I hate the sense of smug satisfaction they give off, as if they're elevating the original to their deep and meaningful level of rock. Likewise Travis doing Hit Me Baby a few years back and Jo WHiley gushing over it.

The Vines' Miss Jackson - absolutely criminal.

Still not heard this Snow Patrol thing. Thank goodness.

Christ, I've never heard the Stereophonics Nothing Compares 2U. Sounds ghastly.

I once heard some bar band do Waiting For The Man as a good time blues rock number. Oh dear oh dear...

The execrable Kerbdog, however, managed to release a single with two utterly pointless and ham-fisted covers on the B-side ("Kennedy" and "Debaser").

While on the subject of the Weddoes, much as I love them they've murdered their fair share as well (notably "I Found that Essence Rare").

Japan's version of I second that emotion is dreadful. David Sylvian look so sad in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rhsA3uIG3Q

Sheryl Crow's version of "Sweet Child O' Mine" sucks more balls than I heretofore imagined possilble. Search Luna instead.

Don't know if it's worst ever but i was never so CRUSHED by one when when I heard Lior (folksy dude with a voice smoother than butter) singing Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done". Niel's shaky delivery is what made that sone so agonisingly beautiful and hand made. Lior turned it into something that sits on a supermarket shelf.

The Vines - Ms Jackson

i wonder what polkadots00 really means it when she\he says that song "gets under my skin and seeps into my viens lol" . it made me feel kind of sick while listening.

You wouldn't necessarily expect it, but Nine Inch Nails' cover of Soft Cell's "Memorabilia" is a joke

I'm sure that some of the covers mentioned here are in fact worse, but if you're only considering those cover versions undertaken by bands that are actually better than the artist they're covering, I'd bet NIN's "Memorabilia" takes the cake.

It also occurs to me now that the Stones' "Dancing In The Streets" would be up there in this category as well.

http://liveaid.free.fr/rewind/bbc/images/047dancing/03.jpg

L-R: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

Is that dude Australian? If not why does he dress like that?

Here's Hard-Fi doing "Love Is Gone" by David Guetta:

Here's Hard-Fi doing "Toxic" by Britney Spears

Here's Hard Fi doing "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KntktTJkk