Top 10 Favorite Cover Songs
Cover songs aren’t just for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes! Most bands have done at least one cover. Since covers are quick and easy to record, bands will often contribute them to projects such as compilations, tribute albums, and soundtracks. Covers get a bad rap, but every once in a while you come across one that is well-done, possibly even better than the original. Here are my top 10 cover songs, in no particular order:
- Nirvana‘s cover of “The Man Who Sold The World” by David Bowie (listen)
- The Blood Brothers‘ cover of “Under Pressure” by Queen & David Bowie (listen)
- At the Drive-In‘s cover of “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” by The Smiths (listen)
- Between The Buried And Me‘s cover of “Colorblind” by Counting Crows (listen)
- Thursday‘s cover of “Ever Fallen In Love” by the Buzzcocks (listen)
- The Number Twelve Looks Like You‘s cover of “My Sharona” by The Knack (listen)
- Taking Back Sunday‘s cover of “Suburban Home/I Like Food” by Descendents (listen)
- Youth Group‘s cover of “Forever Young” by Alphaville (listen)
- Muse‘s cover of “House Of The Rising Sun” (listen)
- Gary Jules‘ cover of “Mad World” by Tears for Fears (listen)
Runner Up: The Postal Service‘s cover of “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins (listen)
Cover songs are also really common at live shows since they’re so much fun and everyone can sing along regardless of whether or not they are familiar with the band playing the cover. These typically aren’t recorded, but we always have YouTube. Here’s one of my favorites; Davey Havok of AFI singing with the band Ceremony to a cover of “Straight Edge Revenge” by Project X:
Many thanks go to Kristi for her post Covers: Do or Don’t? which inspired me to make this list. Her blog is 100% awesomeness and we’re actually affies now! 
// EDIT
I just found out 2 seconds ago that “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’conner is a cover of a Prince/The Family song and now I wish I could ammend my post because I fucking love that song! Ugh!
October 19th, 2011 at 8:27 am
I love Nirvana’s cover of “The man who sold the world”!
- Angelica
October 19th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
I didn’t know that The Man who Sold the World was a cover for the longest time. I felt so bad when I found out! If you look it up on youtube Nirvana’s version comes up first and has a LOT more views! I wonder who Mr. Bowie feels about that :P
I adore Muse’s version of House of the Rising Sun. Also Feeling Good by Muse is a pretty cool cover, methinks :D
Live covers are always awesome! I saw this video of Foster the People covering Weezer’s Say it Ain’t So and the crowd was singing along. Pretty cool :) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtVdifQJLJg&feature=related in case you wanna watch )
- Kristi
October 20th, 2011 at 8:33 am
I looove that My Sharona knack. I remember one of my friends from high school finding it on my mp3 player and being obsessed with it even though she normally didn’t listen to music like that.
And despite being a huge Blood Brothers fan for years, I’d never heard that cover, so thanks Ashley!
- Irene
October 20th, 2011 at 9:46 am
I love Nirvana so much, they did some amazing amazing covers and The Man Who Sold The World is definitely one of them.
I didn’t know Sinead’s song was a cover either! Ahh, there are many songs I come across that are actually covers. I don’t know if you’ve heard of or listen to Anberlin but they’ve done quite a few covers of The Smiths’ songs and they are so good. When I first heard them I thought, “this is too good to be sung by Anberlin” haha! Not that Anberlin aren’t good – they’re great!
I’ve heard a few covers of My Sharona but not many are very good!
Also, don’t know if you’ve heard of the Punk Goes… series but it’s worth checking out for some really good covers of punk bands doing other kinds of music. It’s pretty awesome. :D (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_Goes...)
- Georgina
October 21st, 2011 at 8:18 am
if you want to talk about covers of songs by the smiths, georgina, you should hear at the drive-in’s cover of “this night has opened my eyes” by the smiths. probably the best cover i’ve heard of one of their songs. i also know that “how soon is now” has been covered at least a couple of times, but the bands that covered the song are horrible, so the resulting product is shameful.
also, there is a pretty good cover of rudimentary peni’s (penis with an apostrophe – haha) “nothing but a nightmare” that nofx did.
nirvana has done plenty of great covers. “D7″, which was originally done by the wipers, is an amazing cover by nirvana. you get the feel of how well kurt emulates greg sage’s vocals, and even how greatly the wipers influenced nirvana as a result.
caustic christ (ex- aus rotten from pittsburgh) did a pretty decent cover of flipper’s “ha ha ha”. however, i don’t think the greatness of flipper can ever be replicated.
there are just too many covers to do this idea justice, so i’ll finish with that.
- Justin
October 22nd, 2011 at 1:35 am
@ Georgina: I know about the Punk Gies ____ series but to be honest have always found the artists on those comps to be lame. For instance: New Found Glory, blessthefall, The Starting Line, Yellowcard, Sugarcult, Halifax… yuck! They should be called Pop Goes ____
But yeah, in a similar vein, have you heard of Vitamin’s String Quartet series? There are a couple decent ones.
@ Justin: Oh yeah, speaking of Nirvana and The Smiths, I know it’s not technically a cover but I love when Kurt sings songs in the deep, slow Morrissey voice! haha
- Ashley
October 22nd, 2011 at 9:29 am
Wow, I actually have never thought of it like that! But now that you mention it I 100% see what you mean. I know that there’s this whole image that people who listen to vinyl are “hipsters” because they’re “too cool for mp3s” (which is total bs!!), or that they think that playing guitar or whatever instrument makes them look cool. Or maybe I’m straying from your original point D:
But yes, band photography is always very cool!! I love viewing photos of a band playing at an intense gig or backstage shots after a gig. I do think that it is the best way to capture the energy of live music. The fact that you’ve even tried it is seriously cool! Photography has always been something I’ve wanted to get into. Maybe someday . . . *starts singing Someday by The Strokes* hehehe :D
- Kristi
October 22nd, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I completely forgot that Blood Brothers existed! Thank you for… liking them! Haha
I listened to the Rocky Horror Punk Rock Show obsessively when I first got it. Tsunami Bomb does a great “Plant, Schmanet, Janet”.
- B
October 22nd, 2011 at 7:19 pm
These are some good reccomendations! Nowadays i’m more into indie music but a few years ago, i was really into pop rock/alternative stuff. I remember like way back, I was so into Taking back sunday when they first came out!! Covers are awesome too~ singers add their own special touch to the song :P
- Joyce
October 23rd, 2011 at 9:23 pm
There are so many cover songsout there and some are really great, but others…not so much. My favorite cover song is Umbrella, who was covered by Train, it’s one of my favorite versions of the song. Nothing Compares 2 U was an original Prince song, but I do like the way Sinead O’conner covered it.
- Elizabeth
October 24th, 2011 at 12:22 am
@Joyce: Yeah, I’m not a fan of Taking Back Sunday or really any of those MTV bands from that era, but I heard this Descendents cover on a Tony Hawk video game and really really liked it, haha.
- Ashley
October 24th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orSnWUKu9YI
this is one of my favorite groups covering the church’s “under the milky way” …they’re synthy, not sure if you’re into that type of music but i think it’s such an awesome cover.
- stujessica
October 27th, 2011 at 9:24 am
I haven’t heard the original version of The Man Who Sold The World but Nirvana’s version is love.
I think My Chemical Romance and The Used did a cover of “Under Pressure”: in all honesty, it wasn’t my kind of thing at all!
At Reading My Chemical Romance covered “We Will Rock You” by Queen: Gerard Way had the words written on his hand, haha. I like cover songs, to a degree. They’re hard to nail, though. In my magazine they had a CD of Nirvana covers to honour Nevermind’s 20th anniversary: the songs were all good on their own, but as covers they weren’t that great.
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I do tend to house things inside but I get them out via writing, guitar, etc. so I never just hold them in there. Everyone has secrets: I think it makes us who we are.
Take care! xx
- Georgia Kate
October 29th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Muse’s cover! I love it. I thought their cover of Feeling Good was not bad either. I’m not a fan of cover songs but… I know almost every single cover of Bieber’s songs are good haha. I’m biased.
And Kristi is on my blogroll! Every time I go to her blog I have new music to listen to.
- Lixin
October 29th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Sorry for the double comment – a HUGE mistake in my previous one!!! **almost every single cover of Bieber’s song is good i mean. Sheesh.
- Lixin