Unusual covers

Spooky Bones · Feb 10, 2021

I like finding covers of songs that are unusual or cross-genre, or even by artists that would surprise you. It reinterprets and even subverts the original in an interesting way and is fun and sometimes quite musically worthwhile in itself. Covers that sound like the original are boring IMO.

(I also dig stripped down acoustic versions of songs with a lot more than that going on, and female covers of male singers like the Tom Waits one below.)

Some random examples:

(The first one is by Postmodern Jukebox, a group that does nothing but this: popular songs arranged in the style of various classic eras.)

Anyone else like this sort of thing?

Maskull · Feb 10, 2021

I love this kind of thing. It could also be a fun game to go to https://secondhandsongs.com/ and bring something unique back.

HarveyMCR · Feb 10, 2021

One of my favorite softer-metal bands is Avantasia. I really like their music, and I own several of their albums. A couple months ago I found out, from a tiktok trend, that one of my favorite songs of theirs is actually just a Mama Mia/Abba cover

Lord of the Large Pants · Feb 10, 2021

Ten Masked Men do death metals covers of pop songs.

Stilgar of Troon · Feb 10, 2021

Walk Off The Earths's cover of "All Time Low" by Jon Bellion is an interesting take on the original.

A shitty ass clover · Feb 10, 2021

I think Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt is the poster child of this.

Kosher Dill · Feb 10, 2021

I like this new-wave version of "Puttin' On The Ritz":

Marissa Moira · Feb 10, 2021

This one

aud · Feb 10, 2021

Going by recent stuff since I tend to forget about old stuff, Lingua Ignota's cover of Jolene is exactly what you're describing

WhoBusTank69 · Feb 10, 2021

Prophetic Spirit · Feb 10, 2021

Showing a oldie comparasion.

The thing is... I prefer Spiderbait version

CapricornusRex · Feb 11, 2021

Sriracha · Feb 11, 2021

Pretty obvious call, but this channel does quite unusual covers.

Titos · Feb 11, 2021

Pretty much all of Negative XPs covers are weird but I like most more than the originals.

Chad Holdenford · Feb 11, 2021

You can't talk about unusual covers and not mention Faith No More's takes on The Commodores' "Easy" and The Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke", plus a few others they played on occasion.
And when they reunited? Naturally they played Peaches & Herb's Reunited as their show openers. Fun times.

Turns out Radiohead covered Glen Campbell's classic hit early in their career, possibly as a joke during their first US tour. And it sounds surprisingly good.

Another fun cover was that of Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time"... by Travis.

The Melvins have their share of unusual covers as well. They even released a cover album entitled "Everybody Loves Sausages". One such take is on Roxy Music's "In Every Dream Home A Heartache", which Jello fucking Biafra on lead vocals.

Speaking of cover albums, any artist who's ever released one of these will have at least one track that doesn't exactly fit with the rest of their discography. Such is the case of Weezer's cover of TLC's "No Scrubs"...

... and Johnny Cash's covers of 90's classics. The aforementioned "Hurt" is his most famous, but there's also these.

Speaking of Chris Cornell, the man actually took Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and turn it into the dramatic song its lyrics expose.

To finish off, Morrissey did a cover of The Pretenders' most well-known song.

Juan? · Feb 13, 2021

Pale Empress · Feb 13, 2021

Obligatory mention of Death in Rome, a band that almost exclusively plays covers of pop songs in a martial folk style (as their name would suggest, their primary influences are Rome and Death in June).

Some of their highlights include: