Cover Songs

[Moonface]

Yesterday while driving I heard some cover songs come on the radio that were... not really the best attempt, and so I started wondering what are some actually good cover songs. The only one I had come to mind right away was Sanitarium by Bullet for My Valentine, which was a cover of Metallica's version.

For anyone curious what I heard in the car, it was Breaking Benjamin covering Tool's Prison Sex and some band doing a cover of Thriller. The latter was forgettable and the former just sounds like a bad karaoke attempt.

[Maniakkid25]

There are some legendary covers that basically stole the song from the original writer. Hurt by Johnny Cash and All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix come to mind. But I've heard some BAD covers in my time, and a couple of them were actually in video games. Specifically, Rock Band has a TERRIBLE cover of Ballroom Blitz. I mean, that vocalist is trying to do an impression of the original vocals, and failing miserably. Poor guy.

[Moonface]

I mean, that vocalist is trying to do an impression of the original vocals, and failing miserably. Poor guy.

I don't get the point in covers that just try to imitate everything about the original. If you're not going to at least play it in your own style of music and vocals, I feel it's rarely worthwhile.

[Maniakkid25]

Well, the point in Rock Band is that it's MEANT to be in the style of the original. I mean, you're playing in a cover band lol. I've also talked before about bands like Van Canto, which do a lot of a capella metal covers (and original works, sometimes), and it's awesome! But as far as "in your own style" goes, there's songs like Luno as done by Death From Above 1979 (which is decidedly Dance-Punk), The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Steve Ouimette (METAL!), and I'm sure a few others that I can't immediately think of (Aside from the two I just mentioned), but now that I'm thinking of the Devil, let me just digress to a song that is on a fuzzy barrier between a cover and a parody: a hip-hop version of the Devil Went Down to Georgia called "The Devil Came Up to Michigan". It's about as weird as you think it is.

[Mr EliteL]

Usually I find cover songs to be bad, or intolerable. This is a poor example, but as I continuously heard this over the radio at work, Callum Scott's (had no idea who this was until I just looked it up) cover of Robyn's Dancing On My Own, I hated listening to it. Also I only just heard Robyn's on the same radio weeks prior to the talent show guy's version started playing. Didn't think the original was great, but the cover was just worse to me. Can't think of a better example though, and I know there are some I do find much worse than the original. Or, even that I find better than the original, but that's more of a rarer case.

Here's some I can think of though. Disturbed's cover of Land of Confusion, plus Sound of Silence. Find those just as good as the originals. A somewhat new band of female metal vocalists coming together, Exit Eden, making cover songs of pop and rock songs. Yeah, the originals are OK in their own right, but I personally prefer listening to Exit Eden's versions. Groove Coverage's cover of Alice Cooper's Poison I also enjoy.

But yeah do agree covers shouldn't really be a straight copying of the original's style, need to put their own twist into it.

[queenzelda]

Just recently I discovered a youtuber called mree who has done excellent covers of the Kingdom Heart's opening tracks. My favorite definitely has to be 'face my fears' since I feel the original is way too overly synthesized.

[ShiraNoMai]

Reviving this for this glorious clip: What if SHINee's Taemin (K-Pop) covered Korn's (Nu Metal) Get Up?

[Moonface]

Well, the point in Rock Band is that it's MEANT to be in the style of the original. I mean, you're playing in a cover band lol.

But wouldn't that Ballroom Blitz cover that you mentioned oh so long ago in this thread have been made independently of the Rock Band game it features in?

Usually I find cover songs to be bad, or intolerable. This is a poor example, but as I continuously heard this over the radio at work, Callum Scott's (had no idea who this was until I just looked it up) cover of Robyn's Dancing On My Own, I hated listening to it. Also I only just heard Robyn's on the same radio weeks prior to the talent show guy's version started playing. Didn't think the original was great, but the cover was just worse to me. Can't think of a better example though, and I know there are some I do find much worse than the original. Or, even that I find better than the original, but that's more of a rarer case.

God, having recently discovered Robyn's version and adoring it, and also hearing Callum Scott's cover on the radio at my work over the last few months, I really do not like his cover version.

There was also an incredibly bad cover of 12 Days of Christmas on my store radio over the holidays, but I only heard it once and was too stunned to Shazam it and find who was singing it. All I know is the artist was female, but Christmas songs are so often covered that tracking down a particular one is like a needle in a haystack.
I can't actually think of any Christmas song that got a better cover than the original...

@ShiraNoMai: That might be the best cover I'll ever hear, only because I just never expected Taemin to cover it in that way!  I thought it would stay how it was in the first 40 seconds where it stays similar to the sort of music he already does, but then it just suddenly breaks into full screaming "SHUT THE **** UP GET UP!". It's even better that the crowd present would not necessarily be into music such as Korn's and yet just happily go nuts over this cover of it by an artist who isn't remotely in the same genre.

[Maniakkid25]

Well, the point in Rock Band is that it's MEANT to be in the style of the original. I mean, you're playing in a cover band lol.

But wouldn't that Ballroom Blitz cover that you mentioned oh so long ago in this thread have been made independently of the Rock Band game it features in?

No, actually. See, the thing about Harmonix is that almost all the devs on staff are musicians themselves, actively playing in their own bands in the Boston music scene. Bang Camaro, That Handsome Devil, The Breaking Wheel, and Drist are all bands that have featured in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and they all have Harmonix team members in them. They are also really good friends with Freezepop, hence why they are in Guitar Hero and Rock Band despite being a goddamn Synth-pop band (Harmonix has a LOOOOOOONG history of trolling its players). So all the covers used in those games, while explicitly in the style of another band, are all recorded and played by Harmonix staff.

[Dragon Lord]

@Moonface - Personally I like Taylor Swift's cover of "Last Christmas" much more than the original. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan at all, but I think she really nailed that one. Other than that, I can agree with you on that. I especially don't see how anyone thinks Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas Is You" cover is any where near as good as the original. It's probably the most overrated piece of garbage when it comes to Christmas song covers.

I don't listen to many music covers, but I do love State of Mine's metal/rock covers of "Thunder Rolls" and "What Hurts The Most," the later which you've probably seen my post about in the "What Are You Listening To?" topic. I like the originals for both of these songs, but I just feel like the metal/rock covers adds a layer of intensity that really fits both songs.

[ShiraNoMai]

Rock/Metal covers are my usual favs, but that's probably because of my bias towards the genres

@ShiraNoMai: That might be the best cover I'll ever hear, only because I just never expected Taemin to cover it in that way!  I thought it would stay how it was in the first 40 seconds where it stays similar to the sort of music he already does, but then it just suddenly breaks into full screaming "SHUT THE **** UP GET UP!". It's even better that the crowd present would not necessarily be into music such as Korn's and yet just happily go nuts over this cover of it by an artist who isn't remotely in the same genre.

Yo right?? To be fair, I hadn't heard the original since it came out (I remember it getting a lot of flack from Korn for making a dubstep-style song with Skrillex). Honestly, it was such a faithful cover, and to do all that while doing all those complex dance moves? SHINee members are just next level on stamina.

[Karo]

@Moonface - Personally I like Taylor Swift's cover of "Last Christmas" much more than the original. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan at all, but I think she really nailed that one. Other than that, I can agree with you on that. I especially don't see how anyone thinks Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas Is You" cover is any where near as good as the original. It's probably the most overrated piece of garbage when it comes to Christmas song covers.

I don't listen to many music covers, but I do love State of Mine's metal/rock covers of "Thunder Rolls" and "What Hurts The Most," the later which you've probably seen my post about in the "What Are You Listening To?" topic. I like the originals for both of these songs, but I just feel like the metal/rock covers adds a layer of intensity that really fits both songs.

Does this mean you don't even like Vocaloid covers Night Lord? I tend to enjoy covers myself and I definitely think I tend to listen to more vocaloid covers than actual vocaloid singing, but this did get me thinking if the woman that provided the voice bank for Hatsune Miku sang a song that Miku sings would that technically be a cover or not?

[Dragon Lord]

@Moonface - Personally I like Taylor Swift's cover of "Last Christmas" much more than the original. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan at all, but I think she really nailed that one. Other than that, I can agree with you on that. I especially don't see how anyone thinks Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas Is You" cover is any where near as good as the original. It's probably the most overrated piece of garbage when it comes to Christmas song covers.

I don't listen to many music covers, but I do love State of Mine's metal/rock covers of "Thunder Rolls" and "What Hurts The Most," the later which you've probably seen my post about in the "What Are You Listening To?" topic. I like the originals for both of these songs, but I just feel like the metal/rock covers adds a layer of intensity that really fits both songs.

Does this mean you don't even like Vocaloid covers Night Lord? I tend to enjoy covers myself and I definitely think I tend to listen to more vocaloid covers than actual vocaloid singing, but this did get me thinking if the woman that provided the voice bank for Hatsune Miku sang a song that Miku sings would that technically be a cover or not?

Do you mean people doing covers of Vocaloid songs or people making Vocaloid covers of non-Vocaloid songs? If the latter, I don't really think I've listened to any. 

If you're talking about people doing covers of Vocaloid songs, then I'm normally not a fan. There may be one or two covers I've liked, but for the most part I'll stick to the original Vocaloid versions.

[Karo]

Oh your right I forgot about that I was more meaning people doing covers of the vocaloid songs! Sorry about that Night Lord I forgot there are people that do that which I honestly enjoy and find it a bit amusing. I remember I found one of Kaito singing girlfriend by avril lavigne. XD

[Moonface]

Man I can't believe I never posted about this utter legendary moment in cover song history before today. So, how many of you here knew that The Smurfs had multiple albums in the 90's that were full of cover songs? Better yet, they were able to break into the top rankings for singles and albums multiple times in various countries with this stuff. Going by Wikipedia I'm guessing they never released that stuff in the US, which might explain why @ShiraNoMai gave me a   face when I was telling her about the existence of this stuff.

There's a lot of stuff that was done but I'll share a few of the ones I think are utterly hilarious:

• Smurf Billy Rock Smurf Billy Roll
  
• Smurf Macarena
  
• Saturday Night
  

This website seems to be the best place to find all the songs that were ever done. It took a while for me to find anywhere with the songs and I was prepared to look like a crazy person if I had to share this with zero proof to go with it: https://www.televisiontunes.com/search.php?q=smurfs