10 best rock covers

Rock musicians have been doing covers for songs of other performers since time immemorial: Elvis Presley and The Beatles “covered” their less successful colleagues from the 40s. Most often, they do it so well that the original is not just forgotten, but seems to be erased from history.

No one has any idea that their favorite band’s hit was actually recorded by someone else, and sometimes both versions become popular. It is these cases that will be discussed.

10 Children of Bodom — Oops, I Did It Again! (Britney Spears)

The pop princess recorded this song for her self-titled album in 2000 and the composition immediately became a hit. She topped the charts in 15 countries, and sales of the single reached 4 million copies worldwide.

The song turned out well and even the Finnish death metallers Children of Bodom liked it. In 2009, as an experiment, they covered it, including it on the Skeletons in the Closet compilation.

The musicians themselves explained this by the fact that they were simply interested in working with such unusual material and they did not think that even fans of Britney Spears would like their cover.

9. Marilyn Manson — Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)

Annie Lennox, with her collection of Oscars, Golden Globes, four Grammys and eight BRIT Awards (a record number) is one of the most successful women in the world of music. Her duet with David A. Stewart Eurythmics recorded many good songs, the most famous of which was Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).

The most amazing thing is that Marilyn Manson glorified the song more than its authors by recording a cover of it. This allowed him to gain a foothold in the mainstream and get into rotation on TV, significantly increasing the number of his fans.

In addition to the new sound, Manson added several new lines to the song: “I wanna use you and abuse you / I wanna know what’s inside / Gonna use you and abuse you / I’m gonna know what’s inside.”

8. Muse — Feeling good (Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nZ8wcpsiQw

The composition Feeling good is one of the most recognizable in the work of British rockers Muse, although its authors are completely different people.

The original song was recorded by fellow countrymen Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse in 1964 and covered by Muse in 2001.

It is worth noting that many musicians from other genres have remade Feeling good in their own way: for example, in 2015, DJ Avicii released his own version.

7. Scorpions — White Dove

The Hungarian band Omega recorded the song Gyöngyhajú lány (Girl with pearl hair) in 1969, and almost a quarter of a century later, in 1994, it was decided to cover it with Scorpions.

In fairness, it should be noted that they used only the music from the original, and completely replaced the text with their own, since they did not like the romantic version of the Hungarians. Their version was successful and gave Gyöngyhajú lány, now White Dove, a second life in the mid-90s.

4. Led Zeppelin — Dazed and confused (Jake Holmes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rmtJ6-EY1E

The song Dazed and confused, recorded by the Zeppelins in 1969, is considered a classic of the band’s work in particular and rock in general, but its author is the already forgotten Jake Holmes.

It was featured on his 1967 album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes and was a hit with Jimmy Page, who was still playing with the Yardbirds at the time.

He decided to rework it to his liking, making it much heavier and doing his trademark trick with playing the bow on the electric guitar. He even performed it in concert, but the general public only learned about the song after it was included on Led Zeppelin’s debut album.

5. Janis Joplin — Me and Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)

Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the song Me and Bobby McGee in 1969, had no success with it. He was not even the first to sing it: at first, country musician Roger Miller and Gordon Lightfoot sang it, and separately. They did better than the direct author, but the composition became a hit only performed by the legendary Janice.

She recorded a cover just a few days before her death and it was included on the 1971 album Pearl. It was this single that climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the only one in Joplin’s discography.

4. Plаcebo – Running up that hill (Kate Bush)

The British singer Kate Bush in the 80-90s gathered huge halls, and when the song Running Up That Hill (recorded in 1985) was playing, everyone present sang along. Then she disappeared from the stage for a long time, but her music lived on, and other performers were also interested in her.

Placebo frontman Brian Molko released his version in 2003, including the track on the album Covers. After Kate Bush returned in the XNUMXs and started performing again, she had to get used to the fact that her old composition is now known to many in a different performance.

3. Johnny Cash — Hurt (Nine Inch Nails)

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

The ability to correctly choose a song for a cover is also a talent, and Johnny Cash is more than endowed with it. Young and not very popular in those years, Nine Inch Nails recorded the composition Hurt in 1994, and when in 2002 Cash decided to make a cover, they were skeptical about it.

The bandleader Trent Reznor was the one who was most dissatisfied, but then he admitted that Cash’s version turned out better than their original.

2. Pearl Jam — Last kiss (Wayne Cochran and the С.С.Riders)

Extravagant, but damn talented Wayne Cochran was quite popular in the middle of the last century, but his song Last kiss failed in the charts. Even Elvis Presley, who was friends with Cochran, tried to give it a new sound, but his cover did not become a hit either.

The song was forgotten for almost 40 years, until Pearl Jam included a cover of it on their 1999 album No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees.

1. Iggy Pop — Real wild child (Johnny O’Keefe — Wild one)

Johnny O’Keeffe is an Australian rock and roll artist who has become the most famous representative of the genre in his homeland.

He recorded the song Wild one in 1958 and it even entered the American charts, which for an Australian at that time was a real achievement.

After almost 30 years, Iggy Pop decided to rework the song: calling it Real Wild Child, he released it as a single and included it in the album Blah Blah Blah. The cover turned out to be successful, and that album is still the best-selling album of Iggy’s career.