I saw this list of covers on Digg today. I find myself in near-total agreement with the "10 worst" and more or less in agreement with the "10 best." The longer list of 100 "greatest" has some songs I never knew were covers, others I never knew had been covered, and, I think, a lot of topics of conversation. For instance, I'd put Stevie Ray Vaughan's and Concrete Blonde's versions of "Little Wing" ahead of Derek and the Dominos'.

Anyway, thought it was worth sharing.

I've only heard half of those top ten, but except possibly for Joe Cocker I'd agree they're all great. A really good cover version, as I've said before, is one where you never see the original in quite the same light again. Great ones not on that list might include The Happy Monday's Staying Alive, Snow Patrol's Crazy In Love, Friendship 7's There Is A Light, Laibach's Sympathy For The Devil, and The Art Of Noise's Kiss.

Edit: Oh, heck, and Nina Simone's Here Comes The Sun. When someone with Simone's voice sings "Here comes the sun", you know it's been a rough night. And Aretha Franklin's Bridge Over Troubled Waters. What a great track. But IMO Ms Franklin could sing her shopping-list and it'd be worth listening to.

Peter

My biggest problem with the Top 10 list is that I don't think that Cream's "Crossroads" is a cover at all. Sure, it steals some lyrics from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues", but it steals some from some other Johnson songs, too. Most importantly, there's very little musically connecting "Crossroads" with any Johnson song besides that they're both in the blues vernacular. It's kind of like saying that "Dare to Be Stupid" is a cover of "Girl U Want".

Speaking of Devo, their cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" deserves mention. Hmm, and TMBG's cover of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)". And their cover of the theme to "The Daily Show". And speaking of Bob Mould, Husker Du's cover of the theme to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". And speaking of the Rolling Stones, almost everyone's cover of any of their songs is better than the original. Echo and the Bunnymen's cover of "Paint It Black" comes to mind.

Only two comments...

1) No way could Shatner's "Lucy in the Sky..." be the second worst cover of all time. How it could be anything other than #1 on the worst list escapes me.

2) Gary Jules' "Mad World" should have made the top 10 in the best list.

tanstaafl.

Clearly you are not familiar with Limp Bizkit.

I said "almost". Speaking of Britney, Local H's cover of "Toxic" is interesting.

No, it was written by Bob Mould and it was his recording of it for many years. It changed about the time Stewart took over. The TMBG version isn't really a lot different. I don't know why they bothered changing it.

That list is nowhere near covering the best 100. It doesn't have Carter USM's spectacular cover of "Trouble" by Shampoo

Hugo

Nor Clint Ruin and Lydia Lunch's cover of Blue Öyster Cult's (Don't Fear) the Reaper.

I also didn't think Madonna's American Pie was that bad. Maybe because I'm not especially fond of the original though.

There are also no entries for covers of the song Children of the Revolution, which I think may originally be by T-Rex and has been covered very well a handful of times by multiple artists.

Interesting to look at a list like this but always like the "People's Choice" awards.

I'd feel better if there was a rule that the song had to be good to begin with, and it kind of grabbed me that the first song on the Top 100 (Abracadabra) was....not very good. And too much Humble Pie and Clearwater, in my opinion

But the group of opinionmeisters *do* manage to reach back in to some now-obscure musical corners that deserve a little spot light. Vanilla Fudge -- the top hysteria-rock (wasn't that a genre?) band of their time.

Now folks are dissing the Shat here, but I want somebody to explain why Shatner and Joe Jackson's "Common People" (Pulp) didn't make the Top 100 list.

Among my missing:

Paul Butterfield "One More Heartache" (Robinson--> Gaye)
Ellen McIlwaine "Up from the Skies" (Hendrix)

and to prove that guilt by association can be very unfair to a tune, also missing:

Richard Thompson's "Oops, I did it again!"

(tho' I won't hold my breath for it to get enough Top 100 votes.)

I almost think that ranking Dylan cover songs is redundant. Almost any cover of one of Dylan's fantastic songs is better than his original, save for "Tangled Up in Blue".

And some songs defy adequate cover. SRV's powers notwithstanding, I think that is the case with Little Wing.

These are, of course (however compelling, however correct) just opinions.

Was there a top 100 worst list I missed? I only noticed top 100 best. I suppose a cover doesn't have to be better than the original to be in a top 100 list (many of the entries on that page aren't). All the same, I can't imagine anyone covering any original Pulp tune and achieving even half the magic. Just not possible. Never.

But I should know by some time tomorrow how badly the Shat managed to bury Common People...

"Behind Blue Eyes" would also easily win for worst video for a cover song. It's basically just Durst disturbingly making out with Halle Barry for three minutes. I also love that in the thank you's in the liner notes for that album, Pete Townshend's name is spelled wrong.

I agree with both those lists, although I'd love to see Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah in the top ten. That song haunts me.

Just found this old thread when trying to remember the name of the ex-Fugees chap who so murdered Wish You Were Here (Wyclef). And I wish I hadn't, because I'd somehow blanked-out the memory that Westlife had covered Seasons In The Sun, or that Tatu had covered How Soon Is Now

Peter

The Smiths. Perfect example of another band whose material is pointless to cover because it will just pale in comparison.

I happen to think that the Love Spit Love cover of "How Soon Is Now?" is, at least, interesting. I'm not going to say that it's better, but it's certainly not awful, and it is different.

Just a Gigolo heh- not from who'd you expect.
Bow wow wow?
/loves old surf era tunes
//did not RTA

It's surprising how many good covers are out there, here's a few of my favourites:

Ciccone Youth - Get into the groove
Sex Pistols - Stepping stone
999 - Indian Reservation

Shame there's so many crap ones though, far too many to think about.

I can't believe they have Fred Dursts version of 'Behind blue eyes' as worst... I reckon that absolutely beats The Who's original. And where is Limp Bizkit's 'Faith'? Miles better than that ex-Wham guy's original.

And Van Halen's "Won't Get Fooled Again"? and Disturbed's "Shout2000" ?

I agree with a lot of the others though

Remind me never to accept music advice from you.

Never been a big fan of Stevie Wonder, but it hit me on the ride home:

Joan Osborne's cover of Wonder's "Love's in Need of Love Today".

Top 100? I dunno. But talk about breathing some life into something.

Deep breath! Sing along everybody!