[Bruvva]

I was perusing itunes earlier trying to find Proud Mary by Ike and Tina Turner (it was my last resort, I couldn't find it anywhere else) and I noticed the sheer number of different versions of the song by different people including Elvis, Tom Jones and.....Status Quo. It made me track down a few other versions of songs including a fantastic ska version of Ring of Fire by the Skatalites who I'd never heard of before and probably never will again. So I'm wondering if any of you lovely people have discovered slightly off beat versions of famous songs - good or bad

[MK Chris]

I love the Nirvana covers of the Meat Puppets songs that are on the Live and Unplugged album, just fantastic, especially Lake of Fire. The originals are great too.

Worst cover: Madonna's American Pie?

[Yudster]

Madonna's American Pie should have resulted in Madonna being shot. But the worst ever cover is Ronan Keating and Moire Brennan's version of Fairytale of New York.

[claradooblue]

Big Fun's "Blame it on the boogie" was pretty dire. If anyone should have been shot, it should have been Pete Waterman in the late'80s.

[MK Chris]

But the worst ever cover is Ronan Keating and Moire Brennan's version of Fairytale of New York.

Ah yeah, good call.

[Bruvva]

Madonna's American Pie should have resulted in Madonna being shot. But the worst ever cover is Ronan Keating and Moire Brennan's version of Fairytale of New York.

You're spot on there. It made me want to cry when I heard that.

[Yudster]

Everything ever recorded by Robson and Jerome could be on this list too.

[Yudster]

And the new Boyz II Men Motown album should be included.

[pjordan2000]

The Beat Goes On covered by Britney Spears. The original aint great but the cover is even worse in my opinion

[Zoot]

Sheryl Crow's version of Sweet Child o' mine was pretty shit

[MK Chris]

I heard a weird version of Outkast's "Hey Ya" (I'm not sure who the cover was by) on the Blackhole the other day, I thought it was alright actually.

The Vines also did a version of Hey Ya, which wasn't bad.

[Bruvva]

Tori Amos's version of Smells Like Teen Spirit's an odd one as well. Although it was only after hearing it that I worked out what all the words were.

[Nicola_Red]

Ah, this is my area of interest. I'm a big fan of the unusual cover version.

First port of call would be everything recorded by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, a punk band made up of members of other punk bands like NOFX. All their songs are covers and each album has a theme - show tunes, country & western, etc. I love them so much.

the other favourite covers in my mp3 player playlist include:

A few of the Live Lounge album ones - Arctic Monkeys doing Love Machine and You Know I'm No Good, The Fray doing Hips Don't Lie, Biffy Clyro doing umbrella, Franz Ferdinand doing What You Waiting For

A few of the Est 1967 ones - Foo Fighters, The Feeling, Girls Aloud, The Klaxons, Hard-Fi

Lostprophets B sides - Cry Me A River, View To A Kill, Need You Tonight

From the Bowling For Soup albums - Summer Of 69, Baby One More Time, I Melt With You

All of New Found Glory's From The Screen To Your Stereo album

All of the 'If I Were A carpenter' album (Carpenters covers)

China Drum, Wuthering Heights

Marilyn Manson, Tainted Love & Sweet Dreams

Sugababes, I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Girls Aloud, I Predict A Riot & Hanging On The Telephone (from the Greatest Hits bonus cd)

Revolting c0cks, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy

Manics, Suicide is Painless

Fun Lovin' Criminals, I'm Not In Love

Foo Fighters, Baker Street (no idea where I got this!)

Gun, Word Up

Limp Bizkit, faith

Machine Head, Message In A Bottle

I could go on...

[MK Chris]

Marilyn Manson, Tainted Love & Sweet Dreams

I forgot about those, I agree (the former more than the latter.)

[Zoot]

The Foo Fighters - 'Band on the run' is one of the best covers i've heard,

Lucie Silvas did a great version of 'nothing else matters'

Velvet revolver did a fantastic version of 'wish you were here' by Pink Floyd last time I saw them live

Gun - Word Up as Red said up there ^^^ is fantastic, as is Faith No More's version of 'Easy'

[Nicola_Red]

There's Personal Jesus too, but I don't like that one as much. He's also covered Suicide Is Painless and a fair few others.

[Yudster]

A cover I absolutely love is Frankie Goes to Hollywood's version of Born to Run. Their version of War was pretty amazing too.

[kendra k]

i hate rod stewart's cover of "the first cut is the deepest", sheryl crow's too. (i guess i should lump james morrison in there too.) people, it's all about pp arnold!

a cover i really like is jay-z's "99 problems".

[Vivienne]

Natasha Bedingfield's cover of Madonna's "Ray of Light" was simply stunning. The most beautiful cover I think I may have heard in my life to date.

[MK Chris]

I actually agree with that Viv, which is a big surprise because I don't like Madonna, I don't like Bedingfield and I certainly don't like the original version, so it should have been a recipe for disaster.

[claradooblue]

The Fall's Lost in music was brilliant. Legendary band.

[Nicola_Red]

The ukulele orchestra of Great Britain's version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Sheer genius.

They've played at my theatre a few times, they always sell out. i saws them on Space Pirates too!

[ladbroke]

All time favourite would be Oasis-Cum on Feel The Noise. Think Noel and Liam are mates with Noddy Holder.

Others would be:
Pet Shop Boys-Go West (Village People)
Pet Shop Boys-Always On My Mind (Elvis)
Norman Cook-Brimfull Of Asha (Cornershop)
Arctic Monkeys-Love Machine (Girls Aloud)

Worst would have to be Ronan Keating murdering Fairy Tale Of New York. They should of set the dogs on him for that, NOBODY could ever cover that tune well.

[claradooblue]

Didn't Norman Cook just remix Brimfull of Asha, rather than cover it?

[Andy B]

Hendrix - All along the Watchtower
China Drum - Wuthering Heights


I'm sure I'll think of others....