Come As You Are

Ever wonder what Elvis would be doing if he were alive right now? He'd be screaming "Help! Help! get me out of this coffin!" That's such a fourth grade joke, I know. I'm proud of myself. Anyway I'd like to he'd still be in Vegas, belting out songs by Joy Division, AC/DC and Nirvana.

Anyway, that's what Irish Elvis impersonator Jim Brown, AKA The King would like to think. And who am I to argue?

Fireflies

I still have no idea who Alex Goot is. But his mutli-track covers were he's every instrument and voice on the song is the bomb shniggity. Here's his cover of Owl City's Fireflies with a free download even. Score!

Chop Suey!

I love Richard Cheese. Love! In fact I didn't actually know the lyrics to System of A Down's Chop Suey until I heard this loungified cover of it. 

Boom Boom

I love Big Head Todd and the Monsters. They've got that jam band sound, without that holier than though mentality. Here they are covering John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom. Any one else hungry for Chili's now?

Love Song

On of the Cure's most covered songs is "Love Song" or "Lovesong" as called to on some of thier re-released / greatest hits albums. If the band can't make up their mind what the song's name is, how the hell do they expect the tags in my iTunes library to be immaculate? Rat Bastards.

Anyway off her 21 album, here's Adele's soft sultry take on "Lovesong."

Real Love

I love covers of obscure songs, here's Regina Spektor covering Real Love by Jodi Watley. No ... Real Love by Slaughter? Mary J. Blige? Doobie Brothers? Bob Seger? Micheal McDonald?  ... 

Shit who did the original then? Beatles?!? Never heard of them.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

I wanna know, have you seen the Spin Doctors since 1995? Me either. Here they are though covering CCR.

Tonight, Tonight

Wasn't Passion Pit the burger joint where everyone hung out on 90210? Well even if it wasn't, here's a band called Passion Pit covering the Smashing Pumpkins. Oh and just as a warning, this dude's falsetto is like if Berry Gibb got kicked in the nuts by giraffe. It's that high.

Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town [Leonard Nimoy / Johnny Darrell]

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Originally recorded by Johnny Darrell, Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town was made famous, as a cover, by Kenny Rodgers and the First Edition. It's been covered by Cake, Carl Perkins and the Killers to name a few. I feel like I should be labeling this cover a Crappy Cover, but by gum ... I like it. A lot. More than the original. So here's Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, with his take on the song.

Tiger Woods

It takes big balls to cover someone like Dan Bern. Akrasia thinks they have those big balls. Big as grapefruits, big as pumpkins, yessir.

My Humps

You oughta know this cover as it was a YouTube flash in the pan a few years ago. Alanis  Morissette (See what I did with that "you oughta know," clever huh?) covered the Black Eyed Peas. I for one loved the video. She looked hot. Dave Coulier must be kicking himself.

Mandy [Deep Cover]

It's been a while since I've gone all Deep Cover on you, so let's do it now shall we?

For those of you who failed to take notes last time, a Deep Cover is a cover song that has eclipsed the original version of the song in famousness. Is that a word? Famousness? Anyway often times in the case of a Deep Cover the original version is practically forgotten about.

That's certainly the case of the Scott English song "Brandy." Never heard of it right?  The original Scott English cover was an upbeat bubble gum pop tune, the cover was a sad somber song which Clive Davis suggested a small lyrical change too. And the rest as they say is musical history.

Oh, yeah I almost forgot, that small lyrical change, Brandy became Mandy, and Barry Manilow had his first hit single. The true test between a Cover Lover and just someone who just is mildly interested in covers is their knowledge, or lack there of that bit of trivia.

Also worth noting before becoming a singer, Barry Manilow did jingles. He wrote the "I'm Stuck On Band Aid" and "Like a Good Neighbor" jingle and did the vocals for Mickey D's "You deserve a Break Today" campaign.

Yeah, I fucking love Barry Manilow. My guilty pleasure.

Hey Soul Sister [Alex Goot / Train]

Who the hell is Alex Goot? I have no idea. He looks like a 15 year old "Weird" Al Yankovic. But he's got some great covers including this one of Train. 

Maria

Thought I'd go to the more obscure side for this one. Here's a The Short Fuses from the album "How Many Bands Does It Take to Screw Up a Blondie Tribute, covering Blondie's Maria.