This is a fun game that my readers can play.

The question was:

And these were my two immediate answers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt1Pwfnh5pc

I’m open to other opinions on this one, though.  The Zevon one in particular may simply be hardcore bittersweet nostalgia on my part; Warren Zevon was one of the defining voices of my early adulthood. I still miss him.

32 thoughts on “This is a fun game that my readers can play.”

  3. Thanks Moe, I did not realize that Zevon did that cover. I got old and haven’t bought an album (by anybody) since “Sentimental Hygiene.”

    The first thing that came to my mind was Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me,” but man, “Hurt.”

    1. I hadn’t heard “Hurt” before, had to go look up the original. Boy, Johnny C. sure pulled that song through the looking glass.

  5. I can’t top Hurt.
    But Areatha Franklin’s version of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. comes close.
    .
    I’d list off a slew by Kris Kristofferson, but can you really call them covers when he wrote the songs in the first place? (Pride of place goes to Me and Bobby McGee.)
    .
    Honourable mention for Conway Twitty’s version of The Rose. (It just works better with a gravelly baritone.)

  9. I’ve got you all beat.
    The winner is Jimi Hendrix, All Along The Watchtower. Even Bob Dylan who wrote it calls it Jimi’s song.
    Runner-up is Janis Joplin, Me And Bobby McGee.
    Honorable mention goes to They Might Be Giants, with Istanbul (Not Constantinople).

    1. I used to use “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late” as a profile quote.

    3. Second honorable mention: Nirvana’s live cover of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World.

  13. Hmmm …
     
    Linda Ronstadt doing Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” …
     
    Harper’s Bizarre doing S&G’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” … (wow, has it been that long?!)
     
    Aretha Franklin doing Otis Redding’s “Respect” …
     
    Cat Stevens doing Sam Cooke’s “Another Saturday Night” …
     
    The Byrds doing Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” …
     
    Jimi Hendrix doing Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” (as others have said)

  14. Lots of good things already listed, but I’m particularly fond of Richard Cheese’s cover of Disturbed’s ‘Down with the Sickness’ from the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack. But I like big band covers in general.

  17. A little late to the party, and it’s perhaps a bit obscure, but the Fountains of Wayne cover of the Kinks’ “Better Things” took a good tune and made it great.

    1. I have that on vinyl! It’s good. Also don’t forget Ray Stevens doing chickens covering In The Mood, which he used to do for his friends just as a joke until someone finally persuaded him to record it.

  20. I’d probably put Hurt on top myself, but others:
    .
    The Ramones covering the Spider-Man theme.
    U2 doing The Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat”
    Tom Jones doing “Kung Fu Fighting”
    Tori Amos covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
    Devo covering “Satisfaction”
    Dr. Demento used to play an Irish jig version of Patrick Swayze’s “She’s Like the Wind” but I can not find a copy of the thing.

  21. There’s a local Atlanta punk band that does covers of Simon & Garfunkel songs.
    Yes, it’s just as surreal as it sounds.
    I first ran across them at a live show when they were doing I Am A Rock.

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