Some of the silliest covers in the world are the best

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

The Sisters of Mercy - Jolene considered good, but silly.

(Jerry Springer sings Hey mr Tamborine Man considered very, very bad)

What's your favourite/least favourite?

Update: I am just becomign acquainted with the Leningrad Cowboys version of Sweet Home Alabama. Fantastic. Oh, and of course, I'm taking as read that you all love the King. Right?

Comments

[cjwatson]

One of the worst I've heard is Johnny Cash singing "Danny Boy".

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful/terrible thought. Thankyou for that.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

Bad: Walking In The Air, by Nightwish. Ew Ew Ew Ew Ew...
Good: I'll have to think about that one...

Ew Ew Ew Ew Ew indeed

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

i'd forgotten the existence of that particular monstrosity. I think Jerry Pringer is still worse, though.

[absinthecity.livejournal.com]

Best: Scissor Sisters version of Comfortably Numb, followed by:

The Vines - Ms Jackson, Tori Amos - Smells like Teen Spirit, Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love, William Orbit's Barber's Adagio for Strings, Ace of Base (yeah, leave it out ok, it was a fluke) Don't turn around

Worst: Sleeper (good riddance) rendition of Blondie's Atomic (the same, but badly sung and a bit blander), That appauling massacre of Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Under the Bridge by some manufactured girl band. Can't rem who!

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

Tsk. Sleeper were great.

Awful 'Under The Bridge' came courtesy of All Saints; not manufactured as such, but still dreadful. Didn't know The Vines had taken apart 'Ms. Jackson', though - that must be quite something...

E.
x

Vines

[absinthecity.livejournal.com]

It's good actually! I didn't like the song before, but now I like it in both its incarnations :)

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

That would be the All Saints, who shall surely have their toes roasted over the slow fires of whatever afterlife awaits them for that travesty of mangling they did to Under the Bridge.

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

Favourite covers :
'All Tomorrow's Parties', Japan.
'Fame', Duran Duran.
'Is There Something I Should Know?', AllSTARS.
'Justify My Love', FLA.
'Sex Dwarf', Leaether Strip.
'Popcorn', Jean Michel Jarre.
'Cars', Shampoo.
'Imagination', Harry.
And many more. No, really. Many. Including the one of 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' that I heard at the Ballroom, which was brilliant.

Least favourite? If I had to choose one it would be 'Missing You' by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans. It makes me cry. And break things. And leave restaurants. :)

E.
x

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Must get the Jarre popcorn cover...

Good covers...
Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm
Gimmie Gimmie - Spermwhale

[vardebedian.livejournal.com]

Of *course* we all love The King! He rocks.

And if you like The Leningrad Cowboys (and let's face it, who doesn't?), you might enjoy Urban Turban, especially their rendition of Voodoo Chile. They are a musically semi-traditional Indian band from Sweden who play the Hendrix classic on the sitar and don't get many of the words right. It's got to be heard to be believed.

Other fave covers: like all good Withanil fans I hold as seminal King Curtis' version of A Whiter Shade of Pale; I adore Ewan MacGregor's Your Song in Moulin Rouge, and while we're on movie covers the imcomparably sexy Juliette Lewis singing P J Harvey's Hardly Wait in Strange Days; and Counting Crows rendition of Oasis' Live Forever lends a pathos to the Gallaghers' demented adolescent angst that it really doesn't deserve. Oh, and Eels, Feeling Good (from Oh! What a Beautiful Morning). On bad, I'm with Asinthecity that the definitive ruination of a song was All Saints Under the Bridge, after which they should have seen their careers go up in a little puff of smoke. And, by no little chance, they did. Hurrah.

And if you like The Leningrad Cowboys (and let's face it, who doesn't?),

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

This is the first of theirs I've heard, I think.

[tamborine.livejournal.com]

Groan...Jerry Springer is giving me a bad name

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

There's a William Shatner version, too...

[tamborine.livejournal.com]

Ouch!

[briggsy.livejournal.com]

Tori Amos :: Strange Little Girl (The Stranglers)
Inkubus Sukkubus :: I Just Can't Get You Out of my Head (Kylie Minogue)
Harry :: Imagination as mentioned above

hehe Rolf Harris :: Stairway To Heaven

If I had music related tv channels I'm sure i'd be able to name some abysmal covers beyond Atomic Kitten who seem to enjoy raping good 80's songs.

Silly Covers

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

Let us not forget....

The Cardigan's cover of "Iron Man" originally by Black Sabbath.

and to reverse the continium...

The Storm Troopers of Death cover "Que sera, sera." by Doris Day.

Since I have to assume some responsibility

[anam-uk.livejournal.com]

Good
cocteau twins "Frosty the snow man"
Tori amos "ring my bell" (its soooo rude)
Laibach "final countdown"
some minor stuff like attila's Iron men of rap (the iron man rif on a mandola), otway house of the rising sun (audience participation version)

Bad
atomic kitten
all saints
and the sanity sapping vic reeves cover of vienna

Re: Since I have to assume some responsibility

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

cocteau twins "Frosty the snow man"


Scared now.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The Richard Cheese cover of Only Happy When It Rains is amusingly silly. And the Pet Shop Boys cover of Girls And Boys utterly rocks. Shatner's Diamonds is completely horrendous and was the prime motivation for one of the features of DisOrder.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

The Cowboys also did a magnificent _Yellow Submarine_.

I am not sure if Lehrer's _Clementine_ counts as a cover but I very much enjoy it.

Midnight Configuration's only worthwhile music was covers - their _No Limits_ is highly humorous.

Rosetta Stone did a decent _Spaceman_ and _Living on the Ceiling_ - their _Venus in Furs_ is not so good.

The Dream Disciples' _Sweet Dreams_ is good, and was later introduced with "by the way, we had it before that pillock" which pretty well sums up how I feel about the Marilyn Manson version too.