{"id":4350,"date":"2011-09-12T19:42:54","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T02:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/?p=4350"},"modified":"2011-09-12T19:42:54","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T02:42:54","slug":"the-100-greatest-cover-songs-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/12\/the-100-greatest-cover-songs-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The 100 Greatest Cover Songs of All Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collected by popdose<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s generally agreed upon that if you don\u2019t have any new flavor to add to the original, you shouldn\u2019t bother doing a cover. \u00a0But what exactly are the ingredients for a great cover?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no secret recipe. \u00a0Some of the songs below are great because they completely deconstruct the original, stripping it down to its most basic components of chords and lyrics, and build it back up again in a completely different style. \u00a0For others, the genius of the original song was always present but the presentation was lacking, and when the talents of a different performer are added, the song gains a gravity that it didn\u2019t have in its original form. \u00a0And some of them, whether by generational ignorance or through the general obscurity of the original artist, simply didn\u2019t receive the exposure they needed for their greatness to be recognized until they were delivered by a more familiar voice. \u00a0But the finest of these, the ones we love the best, are simply great songs by great artists where the addition of a new twist and a new voice creates something that is greater than the sum of its parts. \u00a0You can hear and recognize the glory of the original version in every note of the cover, but the listening experience is taken to another level through the talents of the covering artist.<\/p>\n

The process for generating our list was fairly simple. \u00a0We created a huge list (800+ songs) of nominees, and each of the authors that participated selected their own top 100. \u00a0Those top 100 lists were weighted on a curve and used to generate the list that you see below. \u00a0Next week, we\u2019ll publish a separate \u201chonorable mention\u201d post featuring some of the songs that didn\u2019t earn enough votes to make the list, but were important enough to individual authors that we wanted to make sure they received some attention as well. \u00a0If you\u2019ve got a Spotify account, you can listen to most of the originals\u00a0here<\/a>, and the cover versions\u00a0here<\/a>. \u00a0If you don\u2019t have an account yet, you can request an invitation (they issue them pretty promptly now). \u00a0Enjoy! \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>100. \u201cAlone\u201d \u2013 Heart. \u00a0<\/strong>Originally performed by I-Ten.<\/p>\n

<\/em>The people who end up becoming the top pop songwriters often end up in that position because their days as pop performers never came or ended too early. Linda Perry or Richard Marx, for example. People like that. Or the duo of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Steinberg had a pop band in the late \u201870s called Billy Thermal, with whom he recorded his composition \u201cHow Do I Make You,\u201d far better known for being sung later on by Linda Ronstadt. Soon thereafter, Steinberg met session and backing musician Tom Kelly, and they started writing together. They scored a ton of hits, for other people, primarily women \u2013 they had an uncanny knack for writing songs from a female point of view. Their songs were recorded over the last three decades by Pat Benatar, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, the Bangles, and the Divinyls. But back in 1983, they still had those pop star dreams they couldn\u2019t quite let go, so Steinberg and Kelly formed a band called I-Ten. One of the songs they recorded was a sheeny rock ballad called \u201cAlone.\u201d It was not a hit. Nor was it when it was covered for the first time by, of all people, John Stamos, in character as Gino Minelli of the fake rock band The Dreams on the 1984 sitcom Dreams. Then Heart got a hold of it, well into their second era as an \u201880s arena rock band. A million miles from \u201cMagic Man,\u201d they were free to make \u201cAlone\u201d an even slicker, junior high-slow-dance histrionics n\u2019 hooks kind of song than even I-ten could do. \u201cAlone\u201d wound up being Heart\u2019s biggest hit ever, going to #1 for three weeks in 1987. \u2014 Brian Boone<\/p>\n

99. \u201cJersey Girl\u201d \u2013 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Tom Waits.<\/em><\/p>\n

Springsteen sure knows how to pick the best cover songs, as he proved when he chose this 1980 Tom Waits to close out his series of concerts at the Meadowlands in 1981. Waits\u2019 tender lyrics are so tapped into the same Jersey mythology that Bruce popularized, and the Boss sings Waits\u2019 song with such reverence and conviction (with only some minor lyrical changes), that it almost seems as if \u201cJersey Girl\u201d was written specifically for Springsteen. Everything about this recording sparkles: the beautiful harmonies by Little Steven and Clarence Clemons, the subtle guitar and organ accompaniments, and the lovely sax solo by the Big Man to bring the song to a close. \u201cJersey Girl\u201d was never an official from Springsteen; that it remains one of his most popular songs is attributable to the E Street Band\u2019s stellar performance and the beauty of Tom Waits\u2019 composition. \u2014 Scott Malchus<\/p>\n

98. \u201cI Know (I\u2019m Losing You)\u201d \u2013 Rod Stewart.\u00a0<\/strong>Originally performed by The Temptations.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rod Stewart had already begun to stir up a considerable buzz by 1971, both with the Faces and on his first two solo albums, which were moderate hits. However, that year\u2019s\u00a0Every Picture Tells a Story<\/em>\u00a0and its hit single \u201cMaggie May\u201d rocketed him into the stratosphere. The album is rightly considered by most to be the best record he ever did, and this Temptations cover, recorded with the full Faces lineup of Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones, Ron Wood and Ian McLagan (contractual issues required that the sleeve credits be vague, since Rod solo was on Mercury and the Faces were with Warners), is regarded by many as one of the best tracks. Where the Temps played it smooth, the Faces apply their usual instinctively loose and ragged bash and crash, and Rod\u2019s sandpaper vocal brings out the hurt and heartbreak inherent in the lyric. The middle section where the boys \u201cmm-hmm-mm\u201d as Rod sings down low over Mac\u2019s piano, is a revelation. Wonder whatever happened to that Stewart fella, anyway? Never mind, I don\u2019t think I wanna know. \u2014 Johnny Bacardi<\/p>\n

97. \u201cIf Not For You\u201d \u2013 George Harrison.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Bob Dylan.<\/em><\/p>\n

Have I ever told you how achingly I crushed on Olivia Newton-John at the dawn of my pubescence, even before \u201cGrease\u201d? She was so adorable \u2014 and yet somehow so sexy \u2014 early in her career, with those doe eyes and that crystalline voice and those Aussie-goes-country singles of hers, and I can\u2019t imagine anyone else singing \u201cIf Not for You\u201d with anything like the austerely romantic groove she brought to it. Oh \u2014 this is about George Harrison\u2019s version? Yeah, that\u2019s good, too. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>96. \u201cI Need Love\u201d \u2013 Luka Bloom.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by LL Cool J.<\/em><\/p>\n

Covering LL Cool J\u2019s seminal rap-ballad was not easy, says Luka Bloom: in an interview he called it \u201cthe most challenging song I\u2019ve ever learned\u2026It took me a year to get [it] right.\u201d Bloom\u2019s version exchanges the slickness of the original for a warmer, more intimate vibe. The language is still hip-hop circa 1987, but the sound is a seductive mix of folk rock and Irish traditional music. For Bloom, the connection between his form and LL\u2019s is a simple one: both come from, and are for, the people in the streets. \u2014 Robin Monica Alexander<\/p>\n

\"\"95. \u201cHow Soon Is Now\u201d \u2013 Love Spit Love.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Smiths.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not thrilled with the idea of anyone covering songs by the Smiths \u2014 there\u2019s very little anyone could do to any of them to make them better (or even do them justice). But if someone held a gun to the head of a kitten and told me that to save its life I had to articulate a genuine complaint about \u201cHow Soon is Now,\u201d I\u2019d say that perhaps their near-perfect anthem to loneliness meanders along too much and the music eventually becomes repetitious. Although Richard Butler and Love Spit Love were initially reluctant to meddle with the classic when asked to record their own interpretation for the 1996 witchcraft movie \u201cThe Craft,\u201d they eventually relented and delivered a version that trims the song down to just over four minutes, and adds just the right amount of angst to counterbalance Morrissey\u2019s self-pitying shyness. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

94. \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d \u2013 Tori Amos.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Nirvana.<\/em><\/p>\n

As different as their musical styles may be, Kurt Cobain and Tori Amos have a few important things in common: they\u2019re both angry, damaged weirdos who came of age in the 1980s and weren\u2019t too thrilled about it. Both are also masters at putting across a lyric that is somehow brutally honest and darkly comic at the same time. Kurt shreds away at a song (with voice and guitar) while Tori keens over her piano, but when the latter covered the former\u2019s breakout record, she matched his intensity note for note. Tori Amos\u2019 \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d is the yang to Nirvana\u2019s yin, the feminine response to the original\u2019s moment-defining adolescent male fury. \u2014 Robin Monica Alexander<\/p>\n

\"\"93. \u201cBaby, Now That I\u2019ve Found You\u201d \u2013 Alison Krauss.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Foundations.<\/em><\/p>\n

This was #1 on my personal list not just because I love Alison Krauss, but because she accomplished something with \u201cBaby, Now That I\u2019ve Found You\u201d that no other cover on this list did. She took a song that had DESERVEDLY faded into obscurity, because the Foundations\u2019 original recording was pretty terrible to begin with and had aged badly to boot, and turned it into a classic with one of the most exquisite vocal performances of the last two decades. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>92. \u201cRaspberry Beret\u201d \u2013 Hindu Love Gods.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Prince.<\/em><\/p>\n

In which the late great Warren Zevon and the non-Stipe part of R.E.M. got together while recording Zevon\u2019s 1987\u00a0Sentimental Hygiene<\/em>\u00a0album, got very drunk, and cut a bunch of old blues songs. They also worked up this cover of the Prince hit, and when the results finally saw release in 1990, this was the single, which made it to #23 on the Modern Rock charts. It\u2019s a fun, rocking romp with an intriguingly syncopated opening riff (hats off to the sadly missed Bill Berry) that\u2019s repeated often as the song goes on, and a bemused vocal by Zevon which plays up his ability to sound sincere and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. \u2014 Johnny Bacardi<\/p>\n

\"\"91. \u201cGot the Time\u201d \u2013 Anthrax.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Joe Jackson.<\/em><\/p>\n

Young metalhead as I was in 1990, I looked at the credits for Anthrax\u2019s\u00a0Persistence of Time<\/em>\u00a0album and wondered aloud, \u201cWho the hell is Joe Jackson?\u201d I figured he must be some kind of clever badass to write a song as catchy and yet as aggressive as \u201cGot the Time.\u201d Turns out that even in my ignorance I was right. \u2014 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

90. \u201cYou Are In My System\u201d \u2013 Robert Palmer.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The System.<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert Palmer had this great knack for taking tunes made for R&B radio right after their release and turning them into mainstream rock hits. \u201cYou Are In My System\u201d was released by The System only a short time before Palmer\u2019s version in 1983 and while the original burned up the R&B charts, his version climbed the Billboard Hot 100. I\u2019ve always loved what Palmer did for black music. He took soul and funk and made it rock enough that white radio would play it therefore exposing the original artist to the best of both worlds. \u2014 Dave Steed<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"89. \u201cCrimson and Clover\u201d \u2013 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.<\/a><\/strong>Originally performed by Tommy James.<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of rock and roll songs pretend to be about something complicated when all they are really about is someone wanting to get freaky with someone else. \u201cCrimson and Clover\u201d does not pretend. It\u2019s pretty clear what \u201cI wanna do everything\/What a beautiful feeling\u201d means, no matter who\u2019s singing it. The only mystery is exactly what \u201ccrimson and clover\u201d refers to. Tommy James claimed that it was simply a merging of his favorite color and favorite flower. Maybe he could get away with that in 1968, but add fifteen years and Joan Jett to the equation, and now we know exactly what it means. Ask Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci, who made passionate, fucked-up love to it in the film\u00a0Monster<\/em>. \u2014 Robin Monica Alexander<\/p>\n

\"\"88. \u201cBizarre Love Triangle\u201d \u2013 Frente.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Originally performed by New Order.<\/p>\n

<\/em>While almost noone is going to make the mistake of thinking that this was a Frente original, what may come as a surprise to most folks is that the cover from the Austrailia-based quartet performed better on the charts than the original did. \u00a0\u00a0Frente\u2019s light touch adds the right touch of yearning to the protagonist of the song, who comes across as rather aloof in the New Order version. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

87. \u201cAll Through the Night\u201d \u2013 Cyndi Lauper.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Jules Shear.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a time in the 80?s, it seemed like Jules Shear was going to break through in a big way- he had a couple of well-regarded solo albums, and his earlier band The Polar Bears had generated a lot of buzz. Plus, people were covering, and in a couple of cases, even having hits with his songs. He even parlayed that success into a hosting gig on the first iteration of MTV\u2019s\u00a0Unplugged<\/em>\u00a0program. But, as so often is the case, the momentum stalled and now he\u2019s an afterthought. Part of the problem was that he never had a mouthpiece that had as much mojo as the then up-and-coming Cyndi Lauper, whose Betty Boop coo gave her synth-heavy cover of his song (which had appeared on his Rundgren-produced\u00a0Watch Dog<\/em>\u00a0album the previous year) a winsome, starry-eyed, yet melancholy charm which resonated with listeners who were already charmed by Lauper\u2019s first big hit \u201cGirls Just Want to Have Fun\u201d. This one went to #5, and helped make\u00a0She\u2019s So Unusual<\/em>\u00a0the monster hit record that it was. \u2014 Johnny Bacardi<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>86. \u201cMy World Is Empty Without You \/ I Hear A Symphony\u201d \u2013 The Afghan Whigs.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Supremes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Greg Dulli doesn\u2019t have the prettiest voice (though in fairness he has smoothed out a lot of his rough edges over the past five years), but he\u2019s got heaping truckloads of soul to make up for it. As a fan of classic R&B, Dulli took many opportunities with the Afghan Whigs to put his own personal stamp on his favorite songs, and the Whigs\u2019 cover of \u201cMy World Is Empty Without You\u201d just might be their greatest cover ever. So powerful was this recording when I first heard it blaring out of my car radio as I was driving down the road, I had to pull over so I could take it all in without getting myself into a wreck. This is the song that made me a Dulli fan for life. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

85. \u201cA New England\u201d \u2013 Kirsty MacColl.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Billy Bragg.<\/em><\/p>\n

Billy Bragg was 21 years when he wrote this song, or so he claimed. It\u2019s about the joys and frustrations of young adulthood, happy for MacColl and wistful for Bragg. The lines written to be sung by a diffident man become ambivalent feminism in MacColl\u2019s version:\u201dI put you (you put me) on a pedestal, they put you (me) on the pill\u201d; \u201cI don\u2019t feel bad about letting you go, I just feel sad about letting you know\u201d; \u201cAll the girls I left at school already pushing prams\u201d. It was the first single on Bragg\u2019s first album,\u00a0Life\u2019s a Riot with Spy vs Spy<\/em>, but it was MacColl\u2019s cover that cracked the UK Top 10. She later recorded with The Pogues and was killed by a renegade motor boater while snorkeling in Mexico, thus doing the unimaginable and failing to outlive Shane MacGowan. \u2014 Annie Logue<\/p>\n

84. \u201cKiss\u201d \u2013 Art of Noise with Tom Jones.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Prince.<\/em><\/p>\n

My junior year in high school, I had an English teacher who decided to give the entire class a birthday party and asked all of us to write down what we wanted. My wish: to see her dancing on top of a table in the quad to the strains of Art of Noise and Tom Jones\u2019 cover of \u201cKiss.\u201d Unbelievably, she actually did it. Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power of Tom Jones. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>83. \u201cJust a Gigolo\u201d \u2013 David Lee Roth.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Louis Prima.<\/em><\/p>\n

David Lee Roth may be rock n\u2019 roll\u2019s biggest clown, and I say that with nothing but love and respect. I mean, the guy was (and is now again) the lead singer of one of the awesomest hard rock bands of the 1980s, and he went toe to toe with that band\u2019s hot shot guitarist in ways that many of us feel were the hallmark of of what made hard rock so fun, before it devolved into hair metal excess. He did this by balancing Eddie Van Halen\u2019s seriously awe-inspiring guitar chops with a kicked-up, party-all-the-time attitude in nearly everything he did. It was Diamond Dave\u2019s sense of humor that carried his best known solo hit, a cover of the classic Louis Prima medley of \u201cJust a Gigolo\u201d and \u201cI Ain\u2019t Got Nobody.\u201d Dave was just the guy to bring a taste of the swing era into the \u201980s, and while he didn\u2019t really veer too far off from the overall feel of the original performance, his wild eyed charisma made it impossible to resist. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>82. \u201cEasy\u201d \u2013 Faith No More.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Commodores.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTurn the lights off, baby,\u201d coos Mike Patton at the start of Faith No More\u2019s take on the Commodores\u2019 classic \u201cEasy,\u201d and if nothing else, you know this perhaps is not going to be the most reverent cover version you\u2019ve ever heard. Yet despite that (and Patton\u2019s little-boyish, girls-are-icky-sounding \u201cEwww!\u201d leading into the solo), the song works \u2014 partly because it\u2019s just a damn good song that\u2019s always going to work when played by half-decent musicians, and partly because the humor doesn\u2019t undercut the song or diminish it. If the band winks here and there, it\u2019s to let you know that this song is not, in fact, something \u201cfor the ladies in the house\u201d: it\u2019s a sweet, soulful groove that deserves to survive and be heard without necessarily calling to mind images of guys in flared pants trying to lure chicks upstairs and into the waterbed. Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

81. \u201cDancing in the Street\u201d \u2013 Van Halen.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Martha and the Vandellas.<\/em><\/p>\n

While not nearly the triumph that \u201c\u201dYou Really Got Me\u201d\u201d was, I\u2019ve always enjoyed Van Halen\u2019s take on this Martha Reeves & the Vandellas gem. It\u2019s one of the lighter songs the original quartet ever recorded, but its nimble arrangement works in its favor. That Eddie Van Halen synth part has always fascinated me, but of course he steals the show with another ridiculously effortless guitar solo.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

80. \u201cWe Can Work It Out\u201d \u2013 Stevie Wonder.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Beatles.<\/em><\/p>\n

I love the way Stevie Wonder records his drums. It\u2019s like your head is basically stuck inside the can and he\u2019s beating the skin above you. Catch that dirty riff in the opening of the track too\u2013is that a guitar or a fuzzed-out organ? There\u2019s acres of space inside this cut; you could build a house and live in it. There are worse places to reside. \u2014 Matt Springer<\/p>\n

79. \u201cWorking My Way Back to You\u201d \u2013 The Spinners.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Four Seasons.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s sacrilege for a Jersey native to admit this, but on some days I prefer the thumping disco beat of the Spinners\u2019 take on this track to the more easy-going, Motown-esque arrangement of the 4 Seasons\u2019 original. Those vocals, they\u2019re just so damn smooth. And then when the late Pervis Jackson drops in with those bass vocals (\u201cbeen payin\u2019 every day!\u201d), it\u2019s just too much awesome to deny. \u2014 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>78. \u201cWild Night\u201d \u2013 John Mellencamp and Meshell Ndegeocello.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Van Morrison.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey made it all about the bass line,\u201d a friend said to me bitterly as this duet rode up the charts. And yeah, maybe they did a little, but when you\u2019re talking about a bass player like Meshell Ndegeocello, why\u00a0wouldn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0you want to hear the bass? \u201cWild Night\u201d provided John Mellencamp\u2019s\u00a0Dance Naked<\/em>\u00a0album with not only its only hit, but also with its most lively and liberating song, an upbeat highlight to a generally morose and introspective record. Mellencamp and Ndegeocello sound great together, Ndegeocello plays awesomely (did I say that already?) and the song as a whole is irresistibly energetic \u2014 the perfect prelude to a wild night. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

\"\"77. \u201cI\u2019m Free\u201d \u2013 Soup Dragons.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Rolling Stones.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tapping into the Manchester\/baggy music scene that swept through the UK in the early 90?s, Soup Dragons covered this obscure Rolling Stones b-side and took us on a funky soul ride. Together with Junior Reid (whose shout out \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid of your freedom\u201d seemed to wake up many of the dormant college crowd just before the 1992 election), the Soup Dragons found themselves on MTV and a part of the burgeoning alt-rock scene that was finding its footing on the FM dial. For most of us, it came as quite a shock that this danceable expression of free will was written by the same corporate gods who were charging a hundred bucks a pop for one of their stadium shows. The popularity of the Soup\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Free\u201d was a reminder that once upon a time Mick, Keith and company played as if their lives depended on it. \u2014 Scott Malchus<\/p>\n

76. \u201cAlways On My Mind\u201d \u2013 Pet Shop Boys.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Brenda Lee.<\/em><\/p>\n

Three months after they hauled Dusty Springfield out of mothballs for \u201cWhat Have I Done to Deserve This?,\u201d Pet Shop Boys reached back into the past, sprinkling a few layers of pillowy-soft synth dust on this country standard and striking the perfect blend between plastic \u201980s artifice and classic pop songcraft. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>75. \u201cWichita Lineman\u201d \u2013 Glen Campbell.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Jimmy Webb.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen this described as the \u201cfirst existential country song\u201d, and that is pretty apt, but it\u2019s the stirring string arrangement, heart-rending guitar (by James Burton- that solo is to die for), and of course Campbell\u2019s oh-so-sincere Arkansas countryboy vocal which makes this, in the words of Stuart Malcone, \u201cThe greatest pop song ever composed\u201d. Jimmy Webb never had a finer interpreter than Campbell, who was riding high with his CBS primetime variety show\u00a0The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour<\/em>\u00a0at the time. \u201cAnd I need you more than want you\/and I want you for all time\u201d is simply a genius couplet, no doubt about it. \u2014 Johnny Bacardi<\/p>\n

\"\"74. \u201cI Love Rock n\u2019 Roll\u201d \u2013 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Arrows.<\/em><\/p>\n

Of all the songs on this list, I felt sentimentally obliged to tackle this one. The Arrows were a British rock band fronted by American singer Allan Merill, who wrote \u201cI Love Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u201d in 1975 as a Slade-influenced pop-glam song with his bandmate Jake Hooker. Released as a B-side, then as a single, the song tanked in England despite the Arrows\u2019 relative popularity (they had a TV variety show!), but it became something of an underground classic. Which is how Joan Jett came to record her version, ultimately her biggest hit and signature song, in 1981. She changed a couple of things: she made it more metal, and she switched the genders of the song\u2019s principals around. Because while arguably the definitive rock n\u2019 roll song that namechecks rock n\u2019 roll itself, \u201cI Love Rock n\u2019 Roll\u201d isn\u2019t really about rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. At least not in the musical sense; it is about rockin\u2019 and rollin\u2019 in the blues slang sense. By which I mean bonin\u2019. It\u2019s about lusting after somebody near the jukebox who is \u201cabout 17,\u201d give or take. The Arrows did it about a girl and it seemed predatory and weird, yet still innocent as it falls into the canon of pop songs about underage girls (\u201cYou\u2019re 16,\u201d \u201cSweet Little Sixteen,\u201d \u201cInto the Night,\u201d \u201cSeventeen\u201d), while Jett\u2019s seems amusingly predatory and cool, because what cocky 17-year-old broseph wouldn\u2019t want and wouldn\u2019t be surprised by Joan Jett stalking him at the record machine? Jett\u2019s version went to #1 in the U.S. and #4 in the U.K. Other artists that have covered \u201cI Love Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u201d include Britney Spears, the Dresden Dolls, L.A. Guns, and Weezer, who called their version \u201cBeverly Hills.\u201d \u2014 Brian Boone<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>73. \u201cWild Thing\u201d \u2013 The Troggs.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Wild Ones.<\/em><\/p>\n

A, A, D-D-D E, E. With those three chords, played just that way, the Troggs minted arguably the greatest garage-rock song ever. It began life as anything but: the original version of \u201cWild Thing\u201d is a ramshackle, utterly undistinguished affair, with a honking harmonica line and a comically drawled vocal suggesting Sonny Bono doing his very worst Dylan parody. When it found its way across the Atlantic to Troggs lead singer Reg Presley, he had the great fortune of hearing not the Wild Ones\u2019 version but the original demo by songwriter Chip Taylor. Taylor, not a trained guitarist, banged out a simple I-IV-V chord progression with a distinctively punchy rhythm, and it was that hook that sold the song to Presley and his bandmates. Add a vintage rock n\u2019 roll \u201cWhat the hell is that?\u201d moment \u2014 an ocarina solo in the bridge \u2014 and a too-cool-for-school vocal, and you have one of rock\u2019s DNA numbers, a song that any band can play and that will never go out of style. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

72. \u201cHallelujah\u201d \u2013 Rufus Wainwright.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Leonard Cohen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Who HASN\u2019T covered \u201cHallelujah\u201d in the years since Jeff Buckley\u2019s death? Rufus doesn\u2019t venture too far from the Cohen\/Buckley template here, but his version of \u201cHallelujah\u201d gets bonus points for bringing a highly charged emotional moment \u2014 and a very adult one, at that \u2014 to the wedding-preparations scene in \u201cShrek.\u201d \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

71. \u201cJealous Guy\u201d \u2013 Roxy Music.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by John Lennon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bryan Ferry spent almost as much time recording other people\u2019s music as he did recording his own \u2014 and in the last 20 years, that ratio of covers to originals has gone from 30:70 to 80:20 \u2014 but most of his spins on other people\u2019s songs seem to be for a lark, the work of a guy trying to get his ya ya\u2019s out (a fitting reference, considering he covered \u201cSympathy for the Devil\u201d) while waiting for inspiration to strike. In the case of Roxy Music\u2019s decision to cover John Lennon\u2019s \u201cJealous Guy,\u201d however, it went the other way around. Ferry wasn\u2019t waiting for inspiration so much as he was dumbstruck by tragedy, and what began as an honorary cover version in the band\u2019s live set shortly after Lennon\u2019s death in 1980 eventually turned into a 1981 studio recording and, subsequently, Roxy Music\u2019s only #1 single. It admittedly reeks of opportunism, a criticism the band had to deal with at the time, but of the many, many songs Roxy Music covered in their illustrious career, never have Ferry and his mates sounded so determined to make someone else\u2019s song their own. And that\u2019s exactly what they did. \u2014 David Medsker<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>70. \u201cThe Passenger\u201d \u2013 Siouxsie and the Banshees.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Iggy Pop.<\/em><\/p>\n

Siouxsie and Banshees\u2019 1987\u00a0Through the Looking Glass<\/em>\u00a0is a game-changer in a couple of ways. The smartest, most focused covers album since Bowie\u2019s\u00a0Pin-Ups<\/em>, it runs through an idiosyncratic mix of cult favorites, 60s classic rock, and Tin Pan Alley. The horn punches and razor-sharp guitars of \u201cThe Passenger\u201d show the Banshees reinventing themselves as well as reinventing the songs, evolving from droning goth-rockers to a shiny, spiky hyper-pop outfit. \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

69. \u201cGet it On (Bang a Gong)\u201d \u2013 Power Station.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by T.Rex.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marc Bolan\u2019s one and only major U.S. hit, written as a Chuck Berry swipe (as many of Bolan\u2019s songs were, to be honest), proved an apt canvas for what the ad hoc group Power Station wanted to do. Recorded while the double Duran was on hiatus and a bit of a coming out party for DD guitarist Andy Taylor, the followup to their first hit \u201cSome Like It Hot\u201d featured crunchier, nasty guitar, vocals by the late Robert Palmer (who by that time had become a dab hand at clever cover versions himself) and the Station\u2019s one true ace in the hole\u2013Chic drummer Tony Thompson, who brought his thunder and elevated it above the norm. \u2014 Johnny Bacardi<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>67. \u201cMrs. Robinson\u201d \u2013 The Lemonheads.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Simon & Garfunkel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The gentle, lilting rhythms of the Simon & Garfunkel original, which is indelibly associated with the 1967 film The Graduate, are a very good representation of the kind of folk music that Paul Simon and similar artists were producing at the time the film was released. Similarly, when the Lemonheads released their own version in 1992 as part of a celebration of the movie\u2019s 25th anniversary, their upbeat version perfectly encapsulated the post-punk stylings of the early nineties. Lemonheads\u2019 leader Evan Dando fell from grace in the late nineties due to an addiction to crack cocaine and has rarely been heard from since, but this song remains his greatest legacy as one of the defining acts of alternative rock. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

\"\"66. \u201cYou Really Got A Hold On Me\u201d \u2013 The Beatles.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Miracles.<\/em><\/p>\n

What made the Beatles the Beatles? Tough question. I have no good answers. Certainly they were incredible musicians, some of the best songwriters of all time, leveraging the studio as an instrument by sheer force of will. Part of it had to be their unique ability to mix up the Liverpool gumbo of rock, blues, country, and soul into a single unified sound. Here we find the Fab Four paying dutiful homage to the soul part of their heritage with a cover of a Smoky Robinson classic. The star here is John Lennon\u2019s vocal; I know history tells us he always hated his voice, but good gravy was he crazy to feel that way. There have been few sharper blades to emerge from the mouth of a singer in the decades since. It\u2019s all there\u2013the anguish, the anger, the pain. \u2014 Matt Springer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>65. \u201cSuperstar\u201d \u2013 The Carpenters.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Delaney & Bonnie.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Carpenters were certainly not the duo anyone would have expected to cover a tune whose original title was \u201cGroupie Song,\u201d but Richard knew a good melody when he heard one, and Karen\u2019s wholesome, yearning voice turned what was originally somewhat tawdry into something truly heartbreaking. \u201cSuperstar\u201d has been sung by numerous artists, in various styles, including rock, pop, and R&B, but the Carpenters\u2019 interpretation has become the definitive version: like all their best music, it is painfully beautiful, with an emphasis on pain. \u2014 Robin Monica Alexander<\/p>\n

64. \u201cTry a Little Tenderness\u201d \u2013 Otis Redding.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Ray Noble\/Bing Crosby.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTry a Little Tenderness\u201d doesn\u2019t deserve to be as low as #65 on ANY list, as far as I\u2019m concerned \u2014 but who the hell remembers anymore that this is a cover? Otis\u2019 vocal, particularly on that much-imitated, never-ever-EVER-equaled finale, virtually defines male soul singing \u2014 and the MG\u2019s contributions on horns and in the rhythm section are similarly iconic. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>63. \u201cThe Air That I Breathe\u201d \u2013 The Hollies.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Albert Hammond.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is an old story among comedians that you should never tell a joke while Robin Williams is in the room, because not only will he use it, he will tell it better than you ever will. One wonders if a similar story circulated around the Hollies when they were at their peak. George Harrison may have told the press that their version of his song \u201cIf I Needed Someone\u201d was rubbish, but behind closed doors, you had to think that he secretly shook a fist at Allan Clarke for turning in a better vocal than George ever could. Fledgling folkie Albert Hammond, on the other hand, surely felt no such misgivings about having another group sing circles around him. Indeed, Phil Everly had already beaten the Hollies to the punch in not only covering the track (with an arrangement by Warren Zevon, no less) but outperforming the original, so Hammond surely welcomed his song getting Hollified, for lack of a better word. The Hollies\u2019 major contribution over Hammond and Everly\u2019s takes: holding the note in the chorus from major to minor and through the next four measures, creating one of the most memorable hooks in all of pop music. Dozens of artists have tackled the song since the Hollies turned it into a Top 10 hit in seven countries in 1974, but none of them have tried to replicate both the triple-decker harmonies and the 13-second note that the Hollies made famous. There\u2019s a reason for that \u2014 they couldn\u2019t possibly do it better. \u2014 David Medsker<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>62. \u201cRing of Fire\u201d \u2013 Social Distortion.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Anita Carter.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the purposes of performing a cover version is to add something new to the original, and Social Distortion essentially takes Johnny Cash\u2019s biggest hit (originally penned by June Carter and Merle Kilgore and recorded by June\u2019s sister Anita), rips off the restrictor plate, and flushes about six straight charges of nitrous oxide straight through the engine manifold. The end result is a breakneck vision of a scorched-earth relationship that burns hot, bright, and fast, and can only reach its inevitable conclusion in a tattoo removal parlor, a prison cell, or a morgue. Social Distortion\u2019s self-titled 1990 album was the group\u2019s major label debut and their first exposure to attention outside of the punk scene, and while \u201cTake Away This Ball and Chain\u201d and \u201cStory of My Life\u201d provided fans an opportunity to see what they had to say, their cover of \u201cRing of Fire\u201d showed everyone else what they could actually\u00a0do<\/em>. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

61. \u201cYou Can Leave Your Hat On\u201d \u2013 Joe Cocker.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Randy Newman.<\/em><\/p>\n

As is so often his wont, Newman wrote and recorded this song from a loser\u2019s point of view \u2014 the unappealing fumblings of a sweaty, skeevy would-be Lothario whose come-ons would make any sensible woman\u2019s skin crawl. Joe Cocker took it and turned it into a soulful expression of triumphant lust. A classic example of how a cover can work even if the person covering it doesn\u2019t share the writer\u2019s intent. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

60. \u201cIstanbul (not Constantinople)\u201d \u2013 They Might Be Giants.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Four Lads.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sort of witty novelty that rarely gets written anymore, but was terrifically commonplace in the postwar years, \u201cIstanbul (Not Constantinople)\u201d four decades later allowed They Might Be Giants to whip up one of the most successful in their series of hyper-verbal alt-rock souffles. Why haven\u2019t they pursued a dozen other such covers in subsequent years? That\u2019s nobody\u2019s business but the Turks\u2019. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"59. \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d \u2013 Roberta Flack.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Peggy Seeger.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally done in a straight folk style by Peggie Seeger, \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d was very nearly overlooked when it was re-recorded by Roberta Flack in 1972. It took Clint Eastwood\u2019s stalker horror flick\u00a0Play Misty for Me,<\/em>released three years later, to demonstrate what had been sitting there in plain sight all along: this is a powerful, dramatic, even unnerving performance, with Flack\u2019s voice alternately booming and sighing against a murmurous background of double bass, piano, guitar and strings. Ewan MacColl, the political songwriter who penned it (allegedly on a bet), hated Flack\u2019s version, yet 35 years have done nothing to diminish its slow-burning passion and impeccable craftsmanship. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

58. \u201cLove Hurts\u201d \u2013 Nazareth.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Everly Brothers.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to tell you all the reasons why this is such a great cover, but Rob Smith already said everything I could possibly think to say about the song \u2014 and more \u2014 in\u00a0his Death by Power Ballad column back in May<\/a>. What he said, man. \u2014 David Medsker<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"57. \u201cStop Your Sobbing\u201d \u2013 The Pretenders.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Kinks.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was in 8th Grade in Youngstown, Ohio when the Pretenders cover of \u201cStop Your Sobbing\u201d came out. The DJ at WHOT said that the singer was from Akron \u2014 just up the road! \u2014 and that she got bored one day, dropped out of Kent State, and bought a plane ticket to London. That told me that there were possibilities in the world that I had not imagined up until then. Hynde\u2019s dream was even bigger; she was a huge Kinks fan and wanted to meet Ray Davies, who first sang \u201cStop Your Sobbing\u201d. Unlike most teenage fangirls, though, her wish came true; she had an affair with Davies (\u201cThe Adulteress\u201d on Pretenders II) and bore his child. And, she wrote several amazing songs all by herself. \u2014 Annie Logue<\/p>\n

56. \u201cThing Called Love\u201d \u2013 Bonnie Raitt.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by John Hiatt.<\/em><\/p>\n

John Hiatt\u2019s\u00a0Bring the Family<\/em>\u00a0is one of my all-time favorite records, and there isn\u2019t a note on the thing that needed to be interpreted by another artist \u2014 which makes it that much more impressive that Bonnie Raitt ended up turning her version of the\u00a0Family<\/em>\u00a0standout \u201cThing Called Love\u201d into a classic in its own right. It didn\u2019t hurt Hiatt\u2019s bank account, either. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

55. \u201cMy Back Pages\u201d \u2013 The Byrds.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Bob Dylan.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally released by Bob Dylan on his 1964 album\u00a0Another Side of Bob Dylan<\/em>, the Byrds swiped it in 1967 for their\u00a0Younger Than Yesterday<\/em>\u00a0album, the last in a string of popular Dylan covers by the band in the 1960s (\u201cMr. Tambourine Man,\u201d \u201cChimes of Freedom,\u201d \u201cThe Times They Are a-Changin\u201d). It may seem like sacrelige but this one\u2019s my favorite. Dylan\u2019s version is good, earnest, folkie Dylan; the Byrds dig deep to find the bittersweet message at the heart of the song. \u201cI was so much older then; I\u2019m younger than that now\u201d may be one of the greatest lines Dylan ever wrote, but it\u2019s one of the best tunes the Byrds ever recorded. \u2014 Matt Springer<\/p>\n

54. \u201cMustang Sally\u201d \u2013 Wilson Pickett.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Mack Rice.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mack who? \u201cMustang Sally\u201d made Mr. Rice a one-(minor)-hit wonder as an R&B singer, though he would go on to write songs like \u201cCheaper to Keep Her\u201d and the Staple Singers\u2019 \u201cExpress Yourself.\u201d But \u201cMustang Sally\u201d is his greatest legacy because the Wicked Pickett, a year removed from finding his signature groove with \u201cIn the Midnight Hour,\u201d gave \u201cMustang Sally\u201d a similarly horny (I mean that in more than one way) and big-voiced treatment. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>53. \u201cI Didn\u2019t Mean To Turn You On\u201d \u2013 Robert Palmer.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Cherrelle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert Palmer\u2019s sudden surge of success in 1985, after fifteen years in the business, was attributable to a perfect storm of good decisions: his stint with the Power Station, those unforgettable videos with the expressionless models, and bold, witty choices of material. \u201cI Didn\u2019t Mean to Turn You On,\u201d originally recorded by R&B cutie Cherrelle a year earlier, went to #2 on the Hot 100. The absurdity of a thirty-something man singing lyrics clearly intended for an ingenue struck Palmer himself as extremely funny. He laughed all the way to the bank. \u2014 Robin Monica Alexander<\/p>\n

52. \u201cTrapped\u201d \u2013 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Jimmy Cliff.<\/em><\/p>\n

There may be no artist more comfortable with performing covers than Bruce Springsteen. Although he has focused on mostly his own material for albums, his live shows have featured cover songs from the start. The \u201cDetroit Medley\u201d made famous by Mitch Ryder was a climactic moment at his marathon shows for years, as were such rock and soul chestnuts as \u201cQuarter to Three\u201d and \u201cTwist and Shout.\u201d When he\u2019s not cherrypicking sixties party classics for his encores, Springsteen selects covers that echo and amplify the thematic concerns of his own material. First covered on the 1981 River tour and recorded for release on the 1984 Born in the USA tour, \u201cTrapped\u201d fits in with the Boss\u2019s righteous anger toward a country willing to slowly destroy its working class in favor of the rich and entitled. Aside from Springsteen\u2019s vicious vocal, the standout here is \u201cMighty\u201d Max Weinberg\u2019s drumming, mowing down any who wander into its path. \u2014 Matt Springer<\/p>\n

51. \u201cSummertime Blues\u201d \u2013 The Who.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Eddie Cochran.<\/em><\/p>\n

The average Who fan in 1970 had probably never even heard of Rockabilly, but the group understood and appreciated the history of rock. This Eddie Cochran classic was a staple of the Who\u2019s live set early on, and they had honed it to vicious perfection by the time Live at Leeds was recorded. The fun, upbeat spirit of the original is still very much intact, but here it\u2019s infused with a thuggish intensity \u2014 not to mention an extra 1,000 decibels or so. How many arms did Keith Moon have anyway? \u2014 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>50. \u201cBlueberry Hill\u201d \u2013 Fats Domino.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Gene Autry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why is \u201cBlueberry Hill,\u201d recorded by so many, a Fats Domino song in the end? First, because it was Fats\u2019 biggest hit\u2013bigger than \u201cAin\u2019t That a Shame,\u201d bigger than \u201cI\u2019m Walkin\u2019\u201d\u2013and second, because Fats introduced it to the rock and roll era. Before him, the song had been recorded by Glenn Miller, Gene Autry and Louis Armstrong; after him, it would be covered by Elvis, Little Richard, and the Everly Brothers. Fats Domino\u2019s 1956 version isn\u2019t just a damn good record; it\u2019s part of a moment in musical history. \u2014 Robin Monica Alexander<\/p>\n

49. \u201cBlack Magic Woman\u201d \u2013 Santana.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Fleetwood Mac<\/em><\/p>\n

Carlos Santana and his original Woodstock-era band made a career out of repainting others\u2019 tunes in their own image, from Willie Bobo\u2019s \u201cEvil Ways\u201d to Tito Puente\u2019s \u201cOye Como Va\u201d and \u201cPara Los Rumberos.\u201d But it was Santana\u2019s definitive rendition of Fleetwood Mac\u2019s Peter Green-penned \u201cBlack Magic Woman\u201d that we remember best. That driving intro, with fluid lead guitar melodies that could come from no one else, set the tone for a Latin-ized workout on an otherwise obscure English blues rock tune. Better still was Santana\u2019s awe-inspiring segue from \u201cBlack Magic Woman\u201d into Gabo Szabo\u2019s \u201cGypsy Queen,\u201d an intense, percussive instrumental that effectively serves as the coda to \u201cBlack Magic Woman\u201d and takes the tune to a universe that Peter Green never imagined. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

48. \u201cTears Of A Clown\u201d \u2013 The English Beat.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Smokey Robinson.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the things I love about Motown (and there are many, many things I love about Motown) is that it was a cultural force created and defined by African-Americans that defined itself simply as \u201cthe Sound of Young America.\u201d Two-tone bands like the Beat made the pitch explicit; the groups, like the audiences, were racially integrated, and brought an Afro-Caribbean twist to the Motown formula \u2014 cleverly written, expertly-played, and compulsively danceable \u2014 most explicitly with this joyous homage; the children of Smokey and the Skatalites, making good on the promises of their elders. \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>47. \u201cRed Red Wine\u201d \u2013 UB40.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Neil Diamond.<\/em><\/p>\n

While Neil Diamond takes the writing credit, UB40?s take on \u201cRed Red Wine\u201d is the direct descendant of another cover, recorded in 1969 by Tony Tribe. For what amounts to an ode to drinking your cares away, it certainly struck a chord in my teenage heart \u2014 despite having never had a taste of the titular nectar. \u2014 Michael Parr<\/p>\n

46.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Everytime You Go Away\u201d \u2013 Paul Young.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Hall & Oates.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to it in the background \u2014 in the frozen foods section of your grocery store, or perhaps at the dentist\u2019s office \u2014 and \u201cEverytime You Go Away\u201d sounds like just another synthy \u201980s ballad, albeit one with a better-than-average blue-eyed soul singer handling vocals. But it\u2019s really so much more: One of Daryl Hall\u2019s finest moments, and one of the last true torch songs to come out of the rock era. Strip away all that production, and what are you left with? A timeless, brokenhearted plea. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>45.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>China Girl\u201d \u2013 David Bowie.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Iggy Pop.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Iggy Pop released the original version of \u201cChina Girl\u201d on his classic 1977 album\u00a0The Idiot<\/em>, the sound was very cold, stiff and unfunky, like just about everything David Bowie had been recording at that time. The entire album was essentially an extension of Bowie\u2019s Berlin period with Iggy as the lead singer, which gave it the reputation of being one of the least Iggy-sounding albums in his entire catalog. Bowie ended up hearing something else bubbling in \u201cChina Girl\u201d and in 1983, he gave it a new reading with a dash of pop and funk, along with a stereotypically Chinese-sounding synth riff that serves as the song\u2019s hook, and a 100-times-sexier vocal. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

44.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Blinded by the Light\u201d \u2013 Manfred Mann\u2019s Earth Band.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Bruce Springsteen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently someone thought that \u201cBlinded by the Light\u201d was going to be a big hit for Bruce Springsteen, because it was the first song on his debut album\u00a0Greetings from Ashbury Park, NJ<\/em>, and was the first song released as a single. But much like the protagonist of his song, The Boss was left stranded as the song failed to even appear on charts. Fortunately, Manfred Mann and his Earth Band pulled up in their curly-wurly, retooled the lyrics to squeeze in more internal rhyme than an Edgar Allen Poe poem, and gave Bruce and his song a ride all the way up to #1. It was a nice bit of visibility for Springsteen during the long hiatus between\u00a0Born to Run<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Darkness on the Edge of Town<\/em>, and provided Manfred Mann and his Earth Band with the biggest hit of their career. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

43.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Blue Suede Shoes\u201d \u2013 Elvis Presley.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Carl Perkins.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBlue Suede Shoes\u201d\u201d is such an early rock song that it seems definitive. It was the first big hit for the first big rocker, Elvis Presley. It was also a cover, written by rockabilly star Carl Perkins. Perkins was always bitter that Presley got the stardom that he wanted, although he was no slouch; the rights were controlled by Sam Perkins, so neither singer made much money off of it. This was my number one pick because it\u2019s fascinating that the earliest rock song was a cover, involved a feud, and had rights that belonged to someone other than the writer. Is there anything more rock and roll? \u2014 Annie Logue<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>42. \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d \u2013 The Byrds.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Bob Dylan.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Byrds most recognizable song, the jingle jangle sound Roger McGuinn\u2019s Rickenbacker and the lovely, folk rock of the band not only broadened Dylan\u2019s popularity, but also set the foundation for future generations of laid back, jangle rock from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers to R.E.M. to The Jayhawks. The best cover songs build upon the originals and create fresh, unique experiences. With the lovely guitar\/bass intro to the pitch perfect harmonies by the band, The Byrds reimagined Dylan\u2019s folk hit and created something wondrous. \u2014 Scott Malchus<\/p>\n

41.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Smooth Criminal\u201d \u2013 Alien Ant Farm.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Michael Jackson.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try for a moment, if we can, to abandon the inevitable when talking about Michael Jackson. Let\u2019s instead discuss the music, and the songs, because the man was a tremendous pop R&B songwriter\u2013and somewhat underrated in that department, if selling 750 million albums worldwide can be called \u201cunderrated.\u201d Here Alien Ant Farm finds the bones of one of Jackson\u2019s great paranoid cuts and rebuilds it as incisive pop-punk. Even in this format \u2014 even in the hands of a band that probably doesn\u2019t deserve its brilliance \u2014 it\u2019s almost impossible to listen and sit still; that\u2019s how powerful Jackson\u2019s songs are. \u2014 Matt Springer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>40.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>La Bamba\u201d \u2013 Los Lobos.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Ritchie Valens.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLa Bamba\u201d brought Ritchie Valens \u2014 n\u00e9e Ricardo Valenzuela Reyes \u2014 into the pantheon of rock \u2018n roll, standing as an inspiration to generations of Mexican Americans and providing him with his best-known, most enduring hit. How fitting then that it should do exactly the same for Los Lobos, Valens\u2019 spiritual successors and possibly\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0great unsung American rock band. (And how disappointing that, nearly three decades later, this is still the song for which Los Lobos is best known. Sometimes karma is double-edged.) Veterans of the same L.A. club scene that produced X and the Blasters, the Wolves don\u2019t even break a sweat tearing into this song, David Hidalgo\u2019s powerful baritone and Cesar Rosas\u2019 vintage tremolo guitar solo both radiating an infectious joy. And just to remind us where it all came from, there\u2019s a brief acoustic coda linking the song back to its Mexican folk roots.\u00a0\u00a1Arriba arriba!<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

39. \u201cWithout You\u201d \u2013 Harry Nilsson.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Badfinger.<\/em><\/p>\n

To say that Badfinger\u2019s jaunty, acoustic-based original version of \u201cWithout You\u201d differs from Harry Nilsson\u2019s hit 1972 cover is to say a pleasantly bright day at the beach differs from a billion-ton cloud of solar plasma launched by the sun that\u2019s coming to wipe out life on this planet as we know it. Seriously. Just like it. It\u2019s aproduction<\/em>\u2014the kind of shit nobody makes anymore, cuz they don\u2019t have the budget or the time, and ProTools, for all its bits and bytes, cannot graft Harry Nilsson\u2019s throat onto yours. The tension producer Richard Perry builds through two verses, with the piano and strings and Nilsson\u2019s voice, just explodes in the second chorus\u2014a trio of Nilssons crescendo and cascade down with the force and fire and beauty that could stop traffic, change weather, and, best of all, crack the hardest of hearts. It\u2019s been covered by everyone from Mariah Carey to Shirley Bassey to Donny-fucking-Osmond, and no one can touch Nilsson and Perry\u2019s definitive take. It\u2019s not just a great song\u2014it\u2019s a monumental record. \u2014 Rob Smith<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>38.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Girl, You\u2019ll Be a Woman Soon\u201d \u2013 Urge Overkill.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Neil Diamond.<\/em><\/p>\n

After a string of his songs were turned into hits by the Monkees, Neil Diamond cemented a reputation as a songwriter well before he was recognized as a performer. And Diamond\u2019s songwriting chops were showcased for an entirely new generation when \u201cGirl, You\u2019ll Be a Woman Soon\u201d was featured in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Although surrounded on soundtrack by artists and songs from a different era, Urge Overkill and their version of the song fit in perfectly thanks to a brilliant performance that smooths out the rough edges of Diamond\u2019s original version and cozies up much more credibly with the likes of Al Green, Ricky Nelson, and Dusty Springfield. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

37. \u201cEverybody Knows\u201d \u2013 Concrete Blonde.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Leonard Cohen.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDid you ever get the feeling that everything in America is completely fucked up?\u201d If there were ever a perfect summary of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cEverybody Knows,\u201d it would have to be the opening salvo delivered by Christian Slaters\u2019 Happy Harry Hard-On in the 1990 film\u00a0Pump Up the Volume<\/em>. While Cohen\u2019s version is heard often in the film, it\u2019s the soaring vocals of Concrete Blonde\u2019s Johnette Napolitano that delivers the knockout punch needed in the film\u2019s final act. Remember, kids: eat your cereal with a fork, and do your homework in the dark. \u2014 Michael Parr<\/p>\n

36.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Hard to Handle\u201d \u2013 The Black Crowes.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Otis Redding.<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps the second-best cover of an Otis Redding original, \u201cHard to Handle\u201d brilliantly grounded the Black Crowes\u2019 updated Southern Rock in Muscle Shoals tradition, and demolished the last barrier between the Robinson brothers and the pop success their debut album so greatly deserved. It has always seemed blasphemous (apart from \u201cRespect\u201d) to tinker with Otis, but the Crowes amped up the guitars, dumped the horns, and turned a soul obscurity into a rock classic. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

35.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>No More I Love You\u2019s\u201d \u2013 Annie Lennox.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Lover Speaks.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Lover Speaks was a quirky little English band, and \u201cNo More I Love You\u2019s\u201d was a quirky little English single with lead vocals that leapt all over the place and backing vocals that, while interesting, needed to be reined in. Nine years after its first appearance in 1986, Annie Lennox got hold of it, and approached it with all the discipline that the original lacked. She found the ethereal beauty that the original only promised \u2014 and by finding a nicely controlled middle ground between the Enya-like backing vocals and her own tendency to belt, she created by far her best work as a solo artist. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>34.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Unchained Melody\u201d \u2013 Righteous Brothers.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Todd Duncan.<\/em><\/p>\n

For nearly a half-century now, this dramatic ballad has served as a yardstick by which seemingly every great pop singer feels the need to measure him- or herself. All of them are doomed to fall short, however, in comparison to the righteous Bobby Hatfield\u2019s ethereal, exquisite 1965 rendering. With Phil Spector tweaking the production knobs and ladeling on the strings, Hatfield took an already much-recorded number (it was written for an obscure 1955 prison film) and attached it permenently to himself. A major hit for the Righteous Brothers on two occasions, \u201cUnchained Melody\u201d has been attempted in recent years by U2, Sarah McLachlan, Smashing Pumpkins, Atlas Sound, and pretty much every American Idol contender ever \u2014 but every one of their attempts, compared to Hatfield\u2019s definitive one, has immediately been rendered Ghost like Swayze. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

33. \u201cKilling Me Softly With His Song\u201d \u2013 The Fugees.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Lori Lieberman.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although Roberta Flack\u2019s 1973 cover of this song was a bigger critical and commercial success, spending four weeks at the top of the Billboard chart and winning three Grammy awards, Lauryn Hill\u2019s 1995 reworking of this oft-covered song was the one that resonated with the authors here at Popdose. Lauryn Hill takes makes this version so memorable by dropping most of the instruments and replacing them with harmonies constructed of her own voice, taking the song out of a dimly lit lounge where it was conceived and out into the streets of the city where it belongs. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

\"\"32.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Got My Mind Set on You\u201d \u2013 George Harrison.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by James Ray.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGot My Mind Set On You\u201d wasn\u2019t the first time George Harrison tried to scale the charts with an obscure 1950s cover song. He had tried it in 1982 when he released a fairly straight reading of the Stereos\u2019 doo wop classic \u201cI Really Love You,\u201d to little excitement and no serious chart action. However, something about the Jeff Lynne-produced \u201cGot My Mind Set On You\u201d really resonated with the American public in 1987, and George found himself with the last number one hit of his career. It could have been how he varied his vocal tones in ways that recalled both his Beatles and solo guises, it could have been those ELO-esque background vocals or those huge sounding drums\u2026 but really, a big part of it was probably the fact that a taxidermied squirrel plays the honkin\u2019 sax solo in the video, which was one of the most awesome videos of the entire decade of the 1980s. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>31.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Everybody\u2019s Talkin\u2019\u201d \u2013 Harry Nilsson.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Fred Neil.<\/em><\/p>\n

In its original version, \u201cEverybody\u2019s Talkin\u2019\u201d was a desperate, one-take manifestation of singer\/songwriter Fred Neil\u2019s ambivalent attitude toward his art \u2014 he really did want to skip over the ocean like a stone, and wrote the song as a way of placating his manager, who wanted one more track before he\u2019d wrap the album. Harry Nilsson, on the other hand, was one of the most gifted interpreters of the rock era \u2014 and he proved it here, taking Neil\u2019s sneering dismissal of the music industry and turning it into a heartbreakingly universal expression of loneliness and longing. If ever a cover song deserved a Grammy, it\u2019s this one. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

30.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d \u2013 Devo.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Rolling Stones.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to cover one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever, playing it straight is not an option. So that\u2019s why Devo\u2019s take on \u201c\u201d(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d\u201d is pure genius. It morphs a pulsing, swaggering guitar anthem into a creepy, herky jerky New Wave classic thanks in large part to Mark Mothersbaugh\u2019s frenetic lead vocals and Alan Myers\u2019 robotic percussion. So complete was the transformation that you\u2019d swear the lyrics were written by Devo instead of Mick Jagger, as they sure seem to fit the band\u2019s well-known de-evolution credo. \u2014 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>29.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>I Heard It Through the Grapevine\u201d \u2013 Creedence Clearwater Revival.<\/strong>Originally performed by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a CCR best-of sitting on my desk that I stole off a guy I used to work with. Three CDs, with liner notes all in German. Now, if four hours seems a bit excessive for any greatest-hits collection, especially one by a foreign band who never sang in your language, well, I had the same thought. Listening to this bludgeoning take on \u201cI Heard It Through the Grapevine,\u201d though, I caught an inkling of what the Germans saw in Creedence. It\u2019s a drawn-out, radical expansion of the song, but you can\u2019t even properly call it a jam; the groove doesn\u2019t evolve appreciably over its fourteen-plus minutes, but locks into a repetitive rock-steady pulse that plays like a blueprint for\u00a0motorik<\/em>\u2014 that peculiar strain of krautrock perfected by bands like Neu!. It\u2019s a hypnotic throb precision-tooled to be listened to while driving, optimized for the no-speed-limits straightaways of the autobahn, the Motown slink pared down to a relentless piston-thump as the miles slip away under your wheels. \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

28.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Wild Horses\u201d \u2013 The Sundays.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Rolling Stones.<\/em><\/p>\n

The end-of-the-prom slow dance, transformed. The Stones original is maudlin late-night country blues, endearingly ragged, wearing its heartbreak on every note. The Sundays, by contrast, play it delicate and precise and very English, the exquisitely-layered guitars and Harriet Wheeler\u2019s cut-glass vocals a gorgeous front that can\u2019t quite keep the ache from seeping through. It draws us in more, by giving away less. \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

27.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Hound Dog\u201d \u2013 Elvis Presley.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Big Mama Thornton.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elvis Presley was like the Frank Sinatra of rock n\u2019 roll in that his strength wasn\u2019t songwriting, but rather interpreting others\u2019 songs in his own iconic, culture-shifting way. So to single out any one Elvis performance over his others, especially given how prolific he was during his short life, is a huge challenge. \u201cHound Dog\u201d though is fairly classic. Even those who did not grow up in the 1950s know it as Elvis\u2019 song, and most remarkably we don\u2019t seem to care all that much that his version repeats the second verse three times before ending again with the first. We\u2019d probably bitch and moan if it was someone else, but 1950s Elvis could get away with almost anything, so long as he employed his signature swagger and sneer. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>26.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Walk This Way\u201d \u2013 RUN DMC.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Aerosmith.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all that often that a cover song redefines an entire genre of music but that\u2019s what happened when Run-DMC teamed up with Aerosmith to remake \u201cWalk This Way.\u201d It marked the first time rap and rock were combined so successfully and helped make Run-DMC a huge act and put Aerosmith back on the map after a couple dead years. Sure, Run-DMC went to the well a few too many times with the rap-rock combo over the years but the first one is always going to be their best. \u2014 Dave Steed<\/p>\n

\"\"25.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Mad World\u201d \u2013 Gary Jules.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Tears for Fears.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gary who? Everyone knows \u201cMad World\u201d and a good number of people can tell you that the original version was done by Tears for Fears. Even more people probably can tell you that Adam Lambert sung it onAmerican Idol.\u00a0<\/em><\/em>But ask them who sang the sad \u201990s version from Donnie Darko and most won\u2019t know. Sometimes it can be sad to see that the only song a songwriter is really known for is one that he covered but in this case it\u2019s a career defining moment delivered with such passion and heartbreak that you can\u2019t help but fall in love with it. \u2014 Dave Steed<\/p>\n

24.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>I Will Always Love You\u201d \u2013 Whitney Houston.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Dolly Parton.<\/em><\/p>\n

If, as William Blake wrote, the Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom, then Whitney Houston is screaming towards enlightenment in a neon-pink Cadillac, blowing through every toll booth in a shower of hundred dollar bills, tires smoking. Or, to put it plainly, sometimes more is more. \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>23.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Me and Bobby McGee\u201d \u2013 Janis Joplin.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Kris Kristofferson.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kris Kristofferson was writing some of the grandest songs of his generation at the end of the 1960s, and leave it to the unforgettably fiery Janis Joplin to show us just what Kris\u2019 songs could do. \u201cMe and Bobby McGee\u201d has a great title in that the name of the song\u2019s subject could be male or female, so literally anyone can sing it about any type of lover. Janis sung it with far more passionate longing that Kris did, and her brilliant dropping of the resolving chord before the chorus created a form of tension that was a hook in and of itself. This cover may be one of Janis\u2019 greatest achievements, and one of the most flattering gestures Kris ever received. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

22.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>You Really Got Me\u201d \u2013 Van Halen.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Kinks.<\/em><\/p>\n

No disrespect to the Kinks, who I love, but the Mighty Van Halen\u2019s cover of this track didn\u2019t just overshadow the original \u2014 it obliterated it. Released as part of the group\u2019s 1978 debut album, the full power of the group is on display here. David Lee Roth keeps things relatively restrained on the vocals, but nonetheless oozes machismo. Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen are completely locked into a groove, and of course Eddie is equally ferocious on lead and rhythm guitar. Legend has it that when the Kinks toured America after 1978, fans told them they did a great job covering Van Halen. Like I said, obliterated. \u2014 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

21.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Superman\u201d \u2013 R.E.M.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Clique.<\/em><\/p>\n

By 1986 R.E.M. were the supermen of alt-rock \u2014 a genre that, ever since the advent of punk, had habitually rejected most of what came before in its perpetual search for the new. Leave it to the Athens crew to find (in somebody\u2019s record collection, probably) an obscure 1969 B-side that they could make their own. This was a track Mike Mills was born to sing; indeed, his vocals are amazingly similar to those of Clique singer Gary Zekley (who joined R.E.M. onstage one night that summer). By transforming a Tommy James sound-alike into a modern rock rager, and proving (finally) that they didn\u2019t always have to be so damn serious, R.E.M. here built a bridge to the mainstream success everyone had been predicting for years. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>20.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Der Kommissar\u201d \u2013 After the Fire.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Falco<\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re covering foreign-language pop, you can approach the job in one of two ways. You can be a translator, more-or-less replicating the original track with English vocals, maybe even using the original backing tracks, as if you were putting subtitles on\u00a0Yojimbo<\/em>. After the Fire choose instead to make\u00a0A Fistful of Dollars<\/em>, using Falco\u2019s skeletal original as a scaffold on which to hang Duran Duran-style sequencers, angular shards of guitar, a clappy folk breakdown, winningly-goofy white rapping and a monstrous gang chorus. Cool formalist black-and-white period piece, blown out into gloriously nutso Cinerama Technicolor epic.\u00a0Alles klar<\/em>? \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

19. \u201cCrossroads\u201d \u2013 Cream.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Robert Johnson.<\/em><\/p>\n

For most people, Cream\u2019s cover of \u201cCrossroads\u201d was an introduction to the haunting blues of Robert Johnson, the early 20th Century blues singer who, as legend has it, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the gift of playing the guitar. While Johnson\u2019s performance of \u201cCrossroads\u201d is just the man and his guitar, Cream opens up the song and turns it into one of the earliest examples of heavy metal. You can\u2019t listen to this song, with Eric Clapton\u2019s kick ass solo, Jack Bruce\u2019s driving bass and the madness of Ginger Baker\u2019s drums, without hearing the influence it would have on Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple. That makes this version of \u201cCrossroads\u201d not only one of the best cover songs of all time, but also one of the most important. \u2014 Scott Malchus<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>18. \u201cI Feel for You\u201d \u2013 Chaka Khan.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Prince.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kids of the \u201980s loved it because of the gimmicky rap component, but Chaka Khan\u2019s version of \u201cI Feel for You\u201d holds up because it\u2019s so much fun \u2014 and so damn soulful \u2014 in every other respect. Stevie Wonder\u2019s harmonica bounces against a rubbery bassline, bright synth splashes light up the soundscape, and Chaka\u2019s gloriously untethered vocals glow like sunshine. She was clearly angling for a hit here \u2014 but just as clearly, that isn\u2019t always a bad thing. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

17.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>I Fought the Law\u201d \u2013 The Clash.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Bobby Fuller Four.<\/em><\/p>\n

It might as well have been written just for them. The Clash had traded in outlaw cred since Day One, and their supercharged romp through \u201cI Fought the Law,\u201d all galloping drums and roaring guitars, made the song forever theirs while securing their renegade reputation. Who says crime doesn\u2019t pay? \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

16. \u201cThe Man Who Sold the World\u201d \u2013 Nirvana.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by David Bowie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even Kurt Cobain kept a list of his favorite albums, and he listed David Bowie\u2019s science-fiction tinged, glam-rock spawning effort\u00a0The Man Who Sold the World<\/em>\u00a0as number 45. In tribute, he performed the title song with Nirvana during the band\u2019s legendary 1993 performance on MTV\u2019s Unplugged. Although it\u2019s inconceivable that Cobain meant to engage in a hostile takeover of the song, legions of Nirvana fans were completely oblivious to the song\u2019s origins and Bowie later expressed his own frustration at the ignorant \u201ctossers.\u201d \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

15.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Tainted Love\u201d \u2013 Soft Cell.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Gloria Jones.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTainted Love\u201d is one of those songs you might not even realize is a remake. There are at least a couple dozen covers of the tune out there with everyone from Marilyn Manson to the Pussycat Dolls taking a crack at it. And I\u2019d bet they would all say they are remaking the Soft Cell song. That\u2019s what makes their version so damn good. When you remake a song so well that it essentially becomes your own, you\u2019ve hit gold. I\u2019d bet Gloria Jones can\u2019t have too many issues with this as she probably finally gets a check every month for the tune she originally recorded. \u2014 Dave Steed<\/p>\n

14.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>With a Little Help From My Friends\u201d \u2013 Joe Cocker.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Beatles.<\/em><\/p>\n

All great pop songs acquire a certain amount of baggage over the years that obscures their greatness and makes them difficult to appreciate for the fresh, bold statements they often are. In the case of Joe Cocker\u2019s version of \u201cWith a Little Help From My Friends,\u201d you have two associations to contend with: its use as the theme tune of the sentimental boomer comedy\u00a0The Wonder Years,<\/em>\u00a0and the piss-take impersonation of Cocker performed by a seemingly unhinged John Belushi in the early days of\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/em>. Look past it, brothers and sisters, to a song that boldly re-conceives a rock classic and succeeds with flying colors. From a psychedelic shuffle to a loose R&B groove, from a hangdog vocal by rock\u2019s most beloved clown to a volcanic full-throated howl \u2014 there is no aspect of the song that Cocker doesn\u2019t forcefully make his own. Not many can claim to have recorded the definitive version of a Fabs song. Joe Cocker can. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>13. \u201cProud Mary\u201d \u2013 Ike and Tina Turner.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ike and Tina liked to do things nice and rough. That included this scorching version of CCR\u2019s hit. Whereas the Creedence original had all of the folk rock signatures of the group\u2019s sound, Tina Turner digs into the working man lyrics and makes the struggle of the narrator all her own. She teases us in the \u201cnice\u201d opening, but good golly, when the bands lets loose for the uptempo portion of the song, it\u2019s like a freight train barreling toward you a hundred miles an hour. Both versions of \u201cProud Mary\u201d are legendary, but this one really gets your heart pumping, standing as one of the best R&B songs of the 70?s. \u2014 Scott Malchus<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Take Me to the River\u201d \u2013 Talking Heads.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Al Green.<\/em><\/p>\n

The gospel according to the Reverend Al was often a bright, sunny, straight-forward and soulful affair. However, in the hands of Talking Heads, \u201cTake Me to the River\u201d became a jittery, strangely confident yet awkwardly funky romp unlike anything else the band had ever attempted. It sticks out like a big red warning sign on the band\u2019s second LP (to steal a title from another stand-out song on\u00a0More Songs About Buildings And Food<\/em>), and it was and still is an irresistible radio brightener at that. \u2014 Michael Fortes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>11.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Papa Was a Rolling Stone\u201d \u2013 The Temptations.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Undisputed Truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

A hi-hat. Six bass notes. Some wah-wah guitar and heavily studio-fied strings and trumpets.\u00a0One freakin\u2019 chord.<\/em>\u00a0From such humble ingredients was made a sweeping, sprawling masterpiece. After a less-then-successful outing with proteges The Undisputed Truth, producer and co-writer Norman Whitfield refashioned \u201cPapa Was a Rollin\u2019 Stone\u201d into a funky, avant-garde epic, where the disembodied voices of the Temptations weave a protracted tale of domestic tragedy. Just as the music stubbornly follows a single chord, so does this story repeat the same dour dynamic: the children have heard appalling accusations against their deceased father, and they plead with their mother to \u201ctell them the truth\u201d \u2014 that is, to tell them\u00a0anything<\/em>\u00a0that might redeem their disgraced patriarch. Each time, mama supplies the same unsatisfying answer. It\u2019s tough and tragic at the same time, and one of the coolest-sounding R&B records ever made. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

10. \u201cHazy Shade of Winter\u201d \u2013 The Bangles.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Simon & Garfunkel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Man, Simon & Garfunkel rocked! One could be excused for thinking so after hearing the Bangles execute one of their own most rocking moments on this hit from the \u201cLess Than Zero\u201d soundtrack. Repurposing a minor S&G hit, the L.A. ladies vanquished every smidgen of folky preciousness (in part by jettisoning half the second verse), cranked up the Fenders, and fashioned the perfect theme to a story about losing oneself in cocaine \u2014 without puttting too fine a point on the \u201cwinter\u201d and \u201csnow\u201d connotations. This summer the estimable Ann Powers ranked the Bangles #3 among L.A. girl groups (behind the Go-Go\u2019s and the Runaways). I don\u2019t buy it. For my money, the Bangles are tops, and this awesome Vicki-and-Susanna duet is all the evidence I need. \u2014 Jon Cummings<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>9.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Sweet Jane\u201d \u2013 Cowboy Junkies.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Velvet Underground.<\/em><\/p>\n

While a perfect cover can change a song almost beyond recognition, sometimes it takes just a few taps of the chisel, as it were, to turn a great song into a perfect one. Cowboy Junkies don\u2019t actually make any radical changes to this Velvet Underground classic \u2014 they adopted and essentially copied an earlier version from a 1969 concert, released years after the faster, more lyrically dense studio version came out in 1970. Recorded through a single microphone and drenched in natural reverb, the Cowboy Junkies\u2019 version proceeds at a sleepy, almost narcotized pace, yet there\u2019s nothing lazy or offhand about it. Vocalist Margo Timmins adds just enough melodicism to bring out the song\u2019s longing without overselling it, or worse, smothering it under excess prettiness. The result is one of the most distinctive and authentic love songs of the rock era \u2014 one that had to wait twenty years to be given its definitive treatment. \u2014 Dan Wiencek<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Piece of My Heart\u201d \u2013 Big Brother and the Holding Company.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Erma Franklin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes a cover shows respect for the original; other times, it completely reimagines the song from the ground up. And sometimes, an artist emerges and simply rips a song from whence it came and claims it as her own. That\u2019s what happened with Janis Joplin\u2019s version of \u201cPiece of My Heart.\u201d Credited to the band for which she was lead singer, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joplin devours the material; there\u2019s some nice guitar work, and backing vocalists, and you are vaguely aware there\u2019s a backing band involved. But this cut lives and dies by Janis\u2019 raw roar of anguish, pleading for a lover to claim her affections with a desperate rage. Originally recorded by Aretha Franklin\u2019s older sister Erma in 1967, the Big Brother take came just a year later; it\u2019s said that when Franklin heard their version on the radio, she didn\u2019t recognize it as the song she\u2019d taken to the top ten of the U.S. R&B charts. \u2014 Matt Springer<\/p>\n

\"\"7.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Twist and Shout\u201d \u2013 The Beatles.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Isley Brothers.<\/em><\/p>\n

While the Beatles\u2019 performance on \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d \u2014 released fewer than two years after the Isley Brothers scored a Top 20 hit with it \u2014 is perfectly fine, it\u2019s elevated to immortality on the shredded throat of John Lennon. Lennon\u2019s vocals were captured in one take at the end of a marathon ten-hour recording session, and on top of that he was battling a cold. He turned in a performance for the ages just the same, and in the process provided the perfect ending for the Fab Four\u2019s debut LP. The fact that a whole new generation was turned onto the song thanks to Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off \u2014 it had a seven-week run in the U.S. Top 40 in the summer of \u201986 \u2014 merely served to reinforce its greatness. \u2014 Chris Holmes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>6. \u201cNothing Compares 2 U\u201d \u2013 Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by The Family.<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Save for the truly hardcore fans of His Royal Badness, I doubt anyone had any idea that Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u201cNothing Compares 2 U\u201d was originally recorded by The Family \u2014 who, for non-Prince fans, was a group formed from the ashes of The Time. Sure there is the tell tale use of numbers and capital letters in place of words, but outside of that, this was as far removed from Prince as you could get. The stark, almost soulless arrangement lends itself to the despair in O\u2019Connor\u2019s voice as she delivers the vocal. The video completed the picture, with O\u2019Connor conveying the heartbreak straight into the camera, with nothing to distract the viewer from the utter pain on her face. While it isn\u2019t as soulful as Prince\u2019s take, it definitely holds its own. \u2014 Michael Parr<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Hurt\u201d \u2013 Johnny Cash.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Nine Inch Nails.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trent Reznor is one my favorite artists and to hear \u201cHurt\u201d close out\u00a0The Downward Spiral<\/em>\u00a0is quite a moving moment. But the Man in Black took the song to a whole new level. The rawness of Cash\u2019s vocals and the video that goes along with it bring a tear to my eye every time I hear his version. It\u2019s the defining moment of the end of his career without a doubt. If you don\u2019t feel anything after listening to it, I hate to tell you but you might be dead. \u2014 Dave Steed<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Hallelujah\u201d \u2013 Jeff Buckley.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Leonard Cohen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Simply magnificent. The original version of this song, as written performed by Leonard Cohen, features a choir of about a dozen voices backing up the singer, diluting his efforts and sapping attention away from his greatest strength \u2014 his languid baritone. The Welsh musician John Cale stripped everything else from Cohen\u2019s gospel version until all that remained was a piano and his own voice, and it was this framework that Jeff Buckley used to display his own extraordinary vocal talents. Soaring into a range that Cohen couldn\u2019t touch in the feverish falsetto of a 78 rpm dream, Buckley turns this song into something truly magical. It\u2019s such a beautiful, ethereal piece of music that one could almost believe that Buckley had recorded this song in advance so that it could be played at his own funeral to wring just a few more tears from those who mourned his tragic and desperately premature end. \u2014 Zack Dennis<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>3.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>(What\u2019s So Funny \u2018Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding\u201d \u2013 Elvis Costello.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Brinsley Schwarz.<\/em><\/p>\n

From the start, this was song divided against itself. Nick Lowe has said that he began writing it as a satire of hippie attitudes and platitudes \u2014 but that as he worked at it, he began to ponder seriously the rhetorical question he\u2019d set for himself: \u201cWell, really, what\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0so funny about peace, love, and understanding?\u201d On the one hand, Costello\u2019s rendition only ramped up those ambiguities; its placement as the capstone of an album as punishing as\u00a0Armed Forces<\/em>\u00a0(whose working title, lest we forget, was\u00a0Emotional Fascism<\/em>) might suggest that the titular trinity were just another self-deception. But the bracing fury of his performance goes a long way towards reconciling them, reminding us that compassion and anger come from the same place of a response to injustice, and that the righteous man must be of necessity both tough and kind, both hard-headed and tender-hearted. And so \u201cPeace, Love and Understanding\u201d becomes, in Costello\u2019s hands, an anthem in spite of itself. \u2014 Jack Feerick<\/p>\n

2. \u201cAll Along the Watchtower\u201d \u2013 Jimi Hendrix.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Bob Dylan.<\/em><\/p>\n

A swirling kaleidoscope of psychedelic stylings as only a genius could dream up. Hendrix took Dylan\u2019s folky little number from 1967 and created the quintessential song from the Vietnam War era. With layers upon layers of mind tripping effects, a vocal performance that lives up to the howling wind mentioned in the lyrics, and a guitar solo that moves, grooves, cries and sings, this song is Hendrix\u2019s masterpiece. To this day is still sounds innovative and otherworldly, making it easy to forget that Bob Dylan, the most important songwriter of the 1960s, wrote it. \u2014 Scott Malchus<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>1. \u201cRespect\u201d \u2013 Aretha Franklin.<\/strong>\u00a0Originally performed by Otis Redding.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to claim the definitive version of a song that\u2019s been covered by Tina Turner and Janis Joplin. It\u2019s quite another to do it when the song in question was originally written and recorded by Otis Redding. And yet, when nine out of 10 people think of \u201cRespect\u201d \u2014 hell, when they just\u00a0hear the word<\/em>respect \u2014 it\u2019s Aretha\u2019s voice they hear. Through a dizzying blend of flawless technique and raw power, she\u00a0owns<\/em>\u00a0\u201cRespect\u201d \u2014 and it\u2019s just one of many reasons why, even through a string of ill-advised projects in the \u201970s, \u201980s, \u201990s, and aughts, she\u2019s never lost ours. \u2014 Jeff Giles<\/p>\n

Bonus: something I realize all too often… <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Collected by popdose It\u2019s generally agreed upon that if you don\u2019t have any new flavor to add to the original, you shouldn\u2019t bother doing a cover. \u00a0But what exactly are the ingredients for a great cover? There\u2019s no secret recipe. \u00a0Some of the songs below are great because they completely deconstruct the original, stripping it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}