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Quote: from stevedvg on 12:08 am on May 12, 2007[br]William Shatners spoken word version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" wins this hands down, no contest
Have you heard his version of "Common People"?
It’s better than the original.
I’m still going with Aretha.
Steve<br>
Unfortunately not! Thinking about it a little more sometimes a cover version can be so bad it becomes good!
With Aretha its a case of a good artist with a sudden case of bad taste.<br> So in a similar vein I would suggest that David Bowie covering the Beach Boys " God only Knows" falls into this category in his wilderness years during the eighties.
All lovers of great music will be appalled at the Operababes strangulation of Puccini’s One Fine Day.<br> It’s the musical equivalent of spewing-up over a Turner.
insomniac
have you listened to any Emerson Lake and Palmer?
Those guys could butcher classical music in their sleep.<br>Their album of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is a fine example.
Duran Duran’s take on Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines (Don’t Do It) is a shocking omission.
Katie Melue’s lounge version of Teenage Kicks is bad; and so is every other folky cover of a punk song (i.e., the one of Another Girl, Another Planet off the phone advert).
Similarly, I’m not fond of this trend for indie bands to do ironic covers of pop songs (usually Girls Aloud) either live or on Jo Wiley’s live lounge, i.e., Starsailor trying to give the lyrics to an S Club 7 song a ‘deep’ resonance. It makes my brain cringe.
Also, remember that song by Jet which deconstructed Iggy Pop’s Lust For Life and fused it together with post-millennial angst? No, of course you don’t: they straight plagiarised it, so that should count.<br>
I think the ironic covers of pop songs backfire on the bands that record them, Starsailor’s cover of "Don’t Stop Moving" showed up their own output as the 6th form 3 chord dirges that they are. Most of the other Live Lounge offerings do the same. Simply Red released a cover of Positively 4th St a few years back. Arse-clench inducing pap.
Peter Sellers cover of ‘A Hard Days Night’ springs to mind.
:old:
(Edited by jilly at 11:18 pm on May 13, 2007)
Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris<br>Everything & Anything by The Karaoke Queens aka Westlife<br>
Just about every song Westlife have ever made.<br>I think they’ve done 1 song that wasn’t a cover.
Worst that I have ever listened to is Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris as previously mentioned by davidbrady.<br>I’ve been told that Cilla Black did a cover version of Imagine ( with the help of Cliff Richard ) which I can only imagine ( sorry, no pun intended ) must be the worst of all time but I’ve never heard it and I hope I never will.
I have always found Cher’s cover of Mark Cohn’s classic ‘Walking In Memphis’ to be really irritating. The upping of the tempo just takes all the quality out of the song.
Agree with Adrian on Madonna ‘throttling’ American Pie. Stick to your own stuff, dear!
William Shatner’s ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ was so bad it was almost legendary!
Can’t be having anybody listing records by Rolf Harris though. Now where’s the wobble board…..
Rob
Another vote for Madonna‘s American Pie.
I’m not in any way in love with the original, but this was sonic buggery at its most heinous!
<br>(Dave, our daughter loved MM’s Tainted Love – we warmed to it and I think you’re being a tad harsh!)
I was going to go for Grease’s "You’re the one that I want" by Arthur Mullard and Hilda Baker, but on reflection I’m beginning to think it’s actually the very best cover I’ve ever heard.
Altogether now:
‘I got chills, they’re multiplyin…’ (ad nauseam).
Mike
Grassy sets the standard with Under The Bridge but the Scissor Sisters shoot that down in flames with their annihilation of Comfortably Numb. Mind you the tossers [band, surely? – Ed] destroying U2’s One at Newbury before racing today deserve a mention too.
To use an oxymoron, Comfortably Numb is a very original cover version. It is so different from the PF original that I think of them as two completely different songs, and it’s easier to appreciate both at the same time like that…
Quote: from stevedvg on 12:08 am on May 12, 2007[br]William Shatners spoken word version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" wins this hands down, no contest
Have you heard his version of "Common People"?
It’s better than the original.
I’m still going with Aretha.
Steve<br>
Best version of "common people". Stiff Little Fingers"
Rocks man, it Rocks.
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