Pick a songwriter. Your 5-10 favorite covers of their work?

the melvins cover of ballad of dwight fry is also awesome... unfortunately i don't know any other decent alice cooper cover

 

Burt Bacharach

Do You Know The Way To San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Look Of Love - Dusty Springfield
Always Something There To Remind Me - Sandie Shaw
Close To You - Carpenters
Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin


I admit I picked a really easy one and then did only the minimum work required

 

Queen

1. George Michael - Somebody To Love

and that's it!

It's really difficult to cover Queen songs without a great singer.

 

Rex's Blues - Jay Farrar and Kelly Willis
Flyin' Shoes - Lyle Lovett
Colorado - Steve Earle
Jason Molina - Tower Song
Cowboy Junkies - To Live is to Fly

 

Tom Waits

Diamond in Your Mind -- Solomon Burke

New Coat of Paint -- Bob Seger

Trampled Rose -- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

The Long Way Home -- Norah Jones

I Don't Want to Grow Up -- The Ramones

And this one:

 

Russ Ballard

Since You've Been Gone - Rainbow
Liar - Three Dog Night
God Gave Rock n Roll to You - Kiss
New York Groove - Ace Frehly
I Don't Believe in Miracles - Colin Blunstone
I Surrender - Rainbow
---------------------------------
Some more hits for others:

So You Win Again - Hot Chocolate
Winning - Santana
You Can Do Magic - America
I Did it For Love - Night Ranger

 

Dolly Parton:

1. "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" - Merle Haggard & The Strangers
2. "God's Coloring Book" - Charley Pride
3. "To Daddy" - Emmylou Harris
4. "Jolene" - The White Stripes
5. "Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man" - Skeeter Davis
6. "Here I Am" - Percy Sledge
7. "There'll Always Be Music" - Tina Turner
8. "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" - Laura Marling
9. "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" - Loretta Lynn
10. "Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind" - Rhiannon Giddens

 

Carole King

The Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
The Drifters - Up On The Roof
James Taylor - You’ve Got A Friend
The Chiffons - One Fine Day
Aretha Franklin - A Natural Woman
Mariah Carey - If It’s Over
The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday
Tina Arena - So Far Away
The Drifters- Some Kind of Wonderful
Isley Brothers - It’s Too Late

 

Swap in Rod's "Mama you been on my mind" for "Tomorrow is a long time" and we agree.

 

Steve Earle songs:

"The Devil's Right Hand" - Johnny Cash
"Guitar Town" - Emmylou Harris
"Lucy Dee" - Vince Gill
"My Baby Worships Me" = Tom Principato
"Nothin' But You" - The Nighthawks

 

Kurt Cobain:

Jessica Lea Mayfield-“Lounge Act”

Tori Amos-“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

The Vaselines-“Lithium”

Scala and Kolacny Bros.-“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Kawehi-“Heart-Shaped Box”

 

you know a song is flawless when it’s virtually impossible to make a bad cover of it. Surprised you didn’t include Chromatics or Theo Bleckman’s takes on it

 

Hmmm... I need to hear that one again.

 

Rodgers & Hart

Little Girl Blue - Nina Simone
Manhattan - Blossom Dearie
This Can't Be Love - Nat "King" Cole
Glad to Be Unhappy - Sinatra
I Didn't Know What Time it Was - Peggy Lee

 

Brian Wilson

Wonderful/Song for Children -- Rufus Wainwright



Gettin' Hungry -- Faces

Gettin' Hungry

I Wanna Pick You Up -- Alex Chilton

I Wanna Pick You Up

Awake -- American Spring

05. Awake - American Spring (1972)

You're So Good to Me -- M. Ward

You’re So Good to Me

Farmer's Daughter -- Fleetwood Mac

The Farmer's Daughter (Live 1980, Santa Monica, CA)

Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Soulder) - Elvis Costello and Anne Sofie Von Otter

Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) (Anne Sofie Von Otter)

Guess I'm Dumb -- Glen Campbell

Guess I'm Dumb

 

Some of my favourite covers of Beatles and Lennon/McCartney songs include :

Fiona Apple - Across The Universe (also her performance of 'Let Me Roll It' with The Roots)
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence
Tangerine Dream - Tomorrow Never Knows
Sonic Youth - Within You Without You
Kurt Cobain - And I Love Her
Alison Krauss - I Will (Also covered nicely by Art Garfunkel)
Celine Dion - Here, There And Everywhere
Bryan Ferry - Jealous Guy
Georgia Satellites - Don't Pass Me By
Steve Hillage - It's All Too Much
Florence And The Machine - Oh! Darling


Special mention for The Pixies 'Wild Honey Pie', Jeff Healey's 'While My Guitar' and Ringo's 'I Call Your Name' and I also enjoyed Lewis Capaldi's recent take on 'Yesterday'.

 

brillant list. Brillant composer. One of the greatest

 

The keyboards don't sound that good to me in the Chromatics' version. The Theo Bleckmann version is just too slow and quiet.

 

Bill Anderson

"I'll Go Down Swinging" - Porter Wagoner

"Cold Hard Facts of Life" - Porter Wagoner

"I've Enjoyed As Much of This As I Can Stand" - Porter Wagoner

"The First Mrs Jones" - Porter Wagoner

"The Lord Knows I'm Drinking" - Cal Smith

"Face To The Wall" - Faron Young

"City Lights" - Ray Price

"Once A Day" - Connie Smith

"Cincinnati, Ohio" - Connie Smith

"Then And Only Then" - Connie Smith

 

Dylan-
Percy's Song- Fairport Convention

Peter Paul & Mary;
Blowin' In The Wind-
Don't Think Twice

The Byrds-
You Ain't Going Nowhere
My Back Pages

 

Another Bob Dylan covers top 10 -

Joan Baez - Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
Jason and the Scorchers - Absolutely Sweet Marie
Bic Runga - One More Cup of Coffee
The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man
Mary Black - Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Carlene Carter - Trust Yourself
Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
Rod Stewart - Mama, You Been On My Mind
The Faces - The Wicked Messenger
Joan Baez - Love is Just a Four Letter Word

 

John Hiatt

Roseanne Cash - The Way We Make a Broken Heart
Dave Edmunds - Something Happens
Bob Dylan - The Usual
Rick Nelson - It Hasn't Happened Yet
Bonnie Raitt - Thing Called Love
Emmylou Harris - Icy Blue Heart
Willie Nelson - Across the Borderline
Nick Lowe - She Don't Love Nobody
Marshall Crenshaw - Someplace Love Can't Find Me
Rodney Crowell - She Loves the Jerk

 

Sonny Curtis

'I Fought the Law' - the Bobby Fuller Four/the Clash
'Love Is All Around' - Hüsker Dü
'Walk Right Back' - the Everly Brothers
'More Than I Can Say' - Bobby Vee/Leo Sayer
'A Fool Never Learns' - Andy Williams

 

I’m A Believer - Monkees

Red, Red Wind - UB40

Cracklin’ Rosie - Pogues

A Little Bit Me - A Little Bit You - Monkees

Kentucky Woman - Deep Purple

All written by Neil Diamond.

 

Dead Flowers, New Riders of the Purple Sage