Pretty Vacant [Delltones / Sex Pistols]

There are very few covers that can leave me completely speechless, this is one of them. The do-wop group, the Delltones, covering the Sex Pistols' Pretty Vacant. 

Personal Jesus

Someone once told me that the Macarena dance started out as the Personal Jesus dance. I think they were trying to be funny, but it totally works, especially with Marilyn Manson covering the Depeche Mode original.

Smooth Criminal

Until they covered Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal in 2001, no one had heard of Alien Ant Farm. But thanks to a video that was equal parts loving tribute and scathing parody of the gloved one, for a brief moment they were totally unstoppable. Then without warning they disappeared. I somehow blame 9/11. Gone but not forgotten, at Jackson's funeral last year they were asked to "please move out of the way, we're trying to get through."

Black Hole Sun

Black Friday, so let's do a cover of Black Hole Sun. Here's Peter Frampton giving his take on the Soundgarden staple. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like "Frampton" must be yelled and never spoken? 

Hotel California

For Thanksgiving I give you a Turkey. Covering the Eagles classic, Hotel Califonia, is William Hung.

P.S. Did you ever notice Hung and Arnold pronounce California the same way?

P.P.S. What the hell is Colitas? 

Word Up

This video scares me. The dogs have people faces! It's just so wrong!!! Make it stop!

Korn covering Cameo, BTW.

Paper Planes [Street Sweeper Social Club / M.I.A.]

Is there some kind of secret contest between Tom Morello, Jack White and Dave Grohl to see who can be in the most bands at once? I mean it seems to me with every new issue of Rolling Stone at least one of them has a new band featured in it. I mean how long before one of them tries to form a band with Tyler Hanson? Anyway here's Tom Morello's latest band with Bootsy Riley called Street Sweeper Social Club covering M.I.A.'s Paper Planes.

With A Little Help From My Friends [Deep Cover]

It's time for another Deep Cover, a song so much identified by the cover version, that the original version is almost forgotten about. 


Sure "With A Little Help From My Friends" was a Beatles song, but it was a Ringo song. So when Joe Cocker took the song and sang it with every fiber of his being at Woodstock, he owned it from that moment on. 


From Wikipedia : 


There have been at least 50 cover versions of the song and it has achieved the number one position on the British singles charts three times: by Joe Cocker in 1968, Wet Wet Wet in 1988 and by Sam & Mark in 2004.


Joe Cocker's version was a radical re-arrangement of the original, in a slower, 6/8 meter, using different chords in the middle eight, and a lengthy instrumental introduction. It was used as the opening theme song of the American television series The Wonder Years and is one of Cocker's most famous songs. His cover was ranked number two in UpVenue's top 10 best music covers of all time in 2009.

Float On

This Modest Mouse cover comes from the soundtrack to the film John Tucker Must Die. Which apparently was a movie of some sort. The cover is by Ben Lee who apparently is an australian actor/musician of some sort. In 2008 Lee was nominated as PETA's World's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2008. However Lee admits he eats fish, so apparently he's a vegetarian of some sort.

Love Fool

Remember that late 90's one hit wonder the Cardigans? Well apparently the band New Found Glory did and decided to cover Love Fool for the album titled "From the Screen To Your Stereo II." Yes, this was their second album of all cover songs made famous from movie soundtracks. It's no Goonies R Good Enough, but it is pretty darn good anyway, even if I can't quite remember what movie it was in.

My Heart Will Go On [Los Straight Jackets / Celion Dion]

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((Rockabilly - Vocals) + Mexican Luchadore masks) x (Titanic - Celine Dion) = Los Straightjackets covering "My Heart Will Go On

See math is important. I saw these guys a couple months ago and let me tell you that they totally kicked ass.

Hot in Herre

Normally I avoid posting covers that aren't commercially available in some form or another, but I'll make an exception for my favorite 80's band Wang Chung!


Yes, this Nelly original was proformed on the NBC version of the BBC show "Hit Me Baby One More Time." You might have missed it as it only aired five episodes in the middle of summer 1995. The concept of the show was simple, trot out a bunch of forgotten about one hit wonders, Tiffany, Arrested Development, Flock of Seagulls, Cameo, Club Nouveau, Haddaway and others. They play thier one hit, and a cover of a current hit, pretending as if they could have a hit one more time. 


So sit back, relax and take off all your clothes for Wang Chung!

Under The Bridge [Cover to Cover]

More new features to the blog? When will the insanity end?

"Cover to Cover" is just that. Two (or more) cover versions of the same song, in one post. So that you can compare and contrast the similarities and differences in a three page essay. Got it, good. And belive it or not this is actually harder to come up with than you might think. I mean, yes I could play three versions of Landslide for example, but by the third the Landslide really would have brought you down. Made that mistake once. Never again.

Three versions of the Red Hot Chili Peppers original "Under the Bridge." The first is by mid-90's girl group, All Saints best known for their hit ...uhm .. well they had a number one hit in like 1997. If you heard it you'd remember it and so would I. The second is by the Gym Class Heroes from the Punk Goes 90's album. The final version is by Scala and Kolancy Brothers, a Belgian girls choir. Wait, what? Anyway, you'll see them back on the blog someday as they do some killer covers.