Posts Tagged ‘cover songs’

Song #19 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Crossroads”, originally by Robert Johnson and covered by Cream. Here’s the original: Robert Johnson was just an amazing pioneer of blues music, who had a huge influence on rock and roll music. Odds are pretty good that if you like rock, you’re familiar with some [...]

Song #21 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Superman”, originally by The Clique and covered by REM. Here’s the original: Add this to the long list of “I didn’t know this was a cover” songs. Of those, this might be my favorite previously-unknown original. Unlike a lot of them, which really needed a [...]

Song #22 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “You Really Got Me”, originally by The Kinks and covered by Van Halen. Here’s the original: Man, I love these old black and white videos – you can tell this one was dubbed from a VHS tape. And I have no idea what that was [...]

Song #23 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Me And Bobby McGee”, originally by Kris Kristofferson, and covered by Janis Joplin. Here’s Kristofferson’s original version: I love Janis Joplin’s iconic version of this, but there’s something about Kristofferson’s voice that just gets to me. When he sings the line about how Bobby is [...]

Song #24 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “I Will Always Love You”, originally by Dolly Parton and covered by Whitney Houston. Here’s Dolly: Yes, I continue to have a soft spot for the movie version of “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas”. Tiffany and I saw a stage production of it a [...]

Song #25 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Mad World”, originally by Tears For Fears and covered by Gary Jules. Here’s the original: Never heard it before. I’ve listened to rock radio for most of my radio-listening life, and back in the 80s the only Tears For Fears songs that got played on [...]

Song #26 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Walk This Way”, originally by Aerosmith, and covered by Run-DMC. Here’s the original: I figure if there was ever a time to post a video with lyrics, this would be it. And if you’re not grimacing musically while listening to that, then you just don’t [...]

Song #27 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Hound Dog”, originally by Big Mama Thornton and covered by Elvis Presley. Here’s the original: Okay, so 1) I had no idea Elvis’ version was a cover; 2) That was awesome; and 3) That’s Buddy Guy on the guitar, which makes this even more awesome. [...]

Song #28 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Wild Horses”, originally by the Rolling Stones and covered by The Sundays. Here’s the original: I’ve never been a huge Stones fan, but I like this song, and I love this acoustic version of it. Mick Jagger, man. What can you say? Here’s the cover: [...]

Song #29 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, originally by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Here’s the original: I have heard this version before, but I daresay I’m not alone when I say it’s not in the top two when I [...]

Song #30 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, originally by the Rolling Stones, and covered by Devo. Here’s the original: I trust we’re all familiar with this one. I love seeing 60′s-era videos of the Stones. For all the freaking out certain cultural types did over Elvis and [...]

Song #31 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Everybody’s Talkin’”, originally by Fred Neil and covered by Harry Nilsson. Here’s the original: Nice little country ballad. Never heard it before, but nice. Here’s Harry Nilsson: I take it back, I have heard this before, I just hadn’t realized it by the title and [...]

Song #32 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Got My Mind Set On You”, originally by James Ray and covered by George Harrison. Here’s the original: Add this one to the “Songs I hadn’t realized were covers” pile. Recorded in 1963, it was already an oldie by the time Harrison got his synthesizer [...]

Song #34 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Unchained Melody”, originally by Todd Duncan and covered by the Righteous Brothers. Here’s the original: I’m willing to bet you’ve never heard that version before. You can see the bones of the Righteous Brothers’ version there, though, which is easily the most famous of the [...]

Song #35 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “No More I Love Yous”, originally by The Lover Speaks and covered by Annie Lennox. Here’s the original: I’m familiar with the song because we have the Annie Lennox CD that contains the featured cover version, but that’s the only version of the song I’d [...]

Song #36 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Hard To Handle”, originally by Otis Redding and covered by the Black Crowes. Here’s the original: I’ve known for awhile that this was an Otis Redding song – not as far back as when the Crowes version came out and was all over the radio, [...]

Song #37 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Everybody Knows”, originally by Leonard Cohen and covered by Concrete Blonde. Here’s the original: Is it just me, or does Cohen bear a striking resemblance to another famous Leonard, Leonard Nimoy? I’m now picturing Cohen as an alternate-universe version of Mr. Spock, which I think [...]

Song #38 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Now”, originally by Neil Diamond and covered by Urge Overkill. Here’s the original: To borrow from Linus Van Pelt, of all the Neil Diamond songs in the world, that one may just be the Neil Diamond-est. I can’t believe Dave [...]

Song #39 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Without You” by Badfinger, and covered by Harry Nilsson. Here’s the original: Another song I didn’t recognize by the title, but once it started playing I knew what it was. Of course, it’s the cover version I’m familiar with, so here it is. I suspect [...]

Song #40 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “La Bamba”, originally by Ritchie Valens, and covered by Los Lobos. Here’s the original: And here’s the Los Lobos cover: Very similar, and deliberately so since they recorded it for the Valens biopic “La Bamba”. I’ve been a big fan of Los Lobos since “How [...]

Song #41 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Smooth Criminal”, originally by Michael Jackson and covered by Alien Ant Farm. Here’s the Gloved One: That’s the radio edit – my Youtube search shows that the full version of this song is more than nine minutes in length. I’ve never been much of a [...]

Song #42 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Mr. Tambourine Man”, originally by Bob Dylan and covered by The Byrds. Here’s the original: I’ve lost track of how many songs I’m familiar with that I didn’t know were Dylan covers. I should probably just assume any song whose provenance I don’t know was [...]

Song #43 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Blue Suede Shoes”, originally by Carl Perkins and covered by Elvis Presley. Here’s the original: And here’s Elvis: I’m just going to quote the Popdose writer here, because I can’t add anything to this: “Blue Suede Shoes”” is such an early rock song that it [...]

Song #44 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Blinded By The Light”, originally by Bruce Springsteen and covered by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Here’s the original: Note that the lyric is “Cut loose like a deuce”, not “ripped off like a douche”, or whatever it is you hear Manfred Mann sing. “Deuce” is [...]

Song #45 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “China Girl”, originally by Iggy Pop, and covered by David Bowie. Here’s the original: Yet another “Song that I didn’t know was a cover” song. The instrumentation is different, but you can certainly see where Bowie was coming from in his version from this. And [...]

Song #47 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Red Red Wine”, originally by Neil Diamond and covered by UB40. Here’s the original: I’ve known forever that Neil Diamond wrote this song, but I’d never heard his version of it. It’s…well, it’s Neil Diamond. As Dave Barry knows, people feel very strongly about Neil [...]

Song #48 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Tears Of A Clown”, originally by Smokey Robinson, and covered by English Beat. Here’s the original: Smooth as silk. There was nothing else quite like Motown at its peak. Here’s the cover: There have been many times in this series where I’ve been completely unfamiliar [...]

Song #49 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Black Magic Woman”, originally by Fleetwood Mac, and covered by Santana. Here’s the original: Yeah, I’ve never heard that version before. Of course, most radio stations don’t play anything of theirs prior to 1975, so there you have it. Here’s Santana: Such a pity that [...]

Song #51 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Summertime Blues”, originally by Eddie Cochran and covered by The Who. Here’s the original: Just a classic song, one every bar band in the country knows. I don’t know offhand what version of this I hear on the radio – it sounds mostly like this [...]