cover songs! love hate situation..

Anyone who does covers should expect to see their career go away... I am a serious fan of Depeche Mode, and the only cover I can possibly respect is Johnny Cash's cover of 'Personal Jesus'. The rest only mangle songs that were written specifically by Martin (the Marvelous) Gore for himself and for Dave (Glorious) Gahan. And Soft Cell's sound IS fitting to the song because they did it first... that makes it original, therefore the benchmark version. When you're my age, and some semi-talent or 'personality' is covering your personal favorite, all this will become clear. That manson thing should crawl back into the hole it came from... too bad it didn't find any talent when it first crawled out.

I agree about covers, its a love hate situation. However, even if i am disappointed from most covers, I like listening to them if the song is good, because it is nice to see an alternative view on the same song. In the metal genre, most covers are pretty good, unless the band to sing comes from a way different background than the original band. Nice covers: Marilyn manson- sweet dreams+tainted love, iced earth- black sabbath and many more Bad covers: nevermore-love bites, and sadly i cant remember another one.

There was a time, probably a half a century ago, that songs got released in such a way that no one really knew which was the original version, & which are the cover versions. Two, sometimes three different versions were released. There was the version for the younger generation (which would later be called "rock & roll" by Alan Freed), the 'standards' version for the older generation, & a third version of some sort. Quite often, when someone releases a cover song, I like to say, "destroyed by ..." or "demolished by ..." Sometimes, it is just done because of the lack of new material, & the singer or band needs sufficient material for a new album & has a deadline to get that album released. At the same time, quite a few cover songs did a lot better than the original, & quite often, people don't even know it is a cover song. One example is Whitney's Houston's Greatest Love Of All. George Benson was the original artist, but his version didn't do very well. Then there's Power Of Love ... Originally written & released by Jennifer Rush, but didn't really do well. It got covered by several others, but Celine Dion was the one who had a big hit. People probably don't even realize that My Girl by the Temptaions was really a cover song. It was written by Bill (Smokey) Robinson & another Miracle, Roger White. David Ruffin & Berry Gordy heard it while the Miracles were making the record in the studio, & after a while, Berry ordered Bill to have the Temptations record a version. As a result, instead of having the song sung by the usual lead singers (Eddie &/or Paul) he decided to have David sing lead on that one.

I am ok with people doing cover songs. I look at a song as art, and people are welcome to their different interpretations of a song. I think that sometimes you could hear a song and not relate to it at all, and then another artist puts a different spin on it and for some reason you just "get it". There are a lot of bad cover songs...Michael Bolton's Cover of Dock of the Bay, Britney Spears cover of "I Love Rock and Roll", any song sung by William Hung, Jessica Simpson's cover of "These boots were made for walking", "Papa Don't Preach" by Kelly Osborne, "Dirty Laundry" by Lisa Marie Presley, ... Korn's version of "another brick in the wall" is a travesty... I really respect a lot of the covers that Tori Amos does. She has an interesting way of looking at songs. I like her version of Love Song - but not as much as the original. I like her version of Daniel better than Elton Johns. She does a good cover of the Stones "Angie". I like Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" the best. Jimi Hendrix Version of All Along the Watchtower is better than Bob Dylans original. I love Kim Sozzi's cover of Heart's "Alone". Save Ferris' cover of "Come on Eileen" isn't better than the original but it's just as good. I love Fiona Apple's cover of "Across the Universe" and don't like the Beatle's version at all. Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" is a cover and that is an awesome song.

Well I like Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt better than I like the original NIN version. I like other songs like the Demons and Wizards cover of Zeppelin's Immigrant song... Blind Guardians cover of Mr Sandman... Deftones did a cover of Sade's song Nor Ordinary Love and I think it's brilliant... put a different spin to it anyway. Can't think of one off hand that I didn't like.

Classic songs like "I Drove All Night", "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "American Pie" should never be touched. As much as i love Madonna, i loathed the fact she chose to do a cover of american pie. I loved Cindy Lauper's version of "I drove all night". She treated the song with the respect it deserved. Celine Dion, however, KILLED the tune.

Some covers are better than the originals. If you're interested in cover songs, check out a podcast called Coverville. You can subscribe to it through iTunes or other programs, or check its Web site at Coverville.com. Coverville has the best, and worst, of cover songs. Some are really great, some are so bad they are funny.

I definitely agree on you about the Last Kiss by Pearl Jam, I guess they have put more emotions to it than the original. Mr. Big also made good covers, especilly their own rendition of Wide World. Eric Martin and Paul Gilbert were an awesome tandem, they ROCK!=) Also, I liked Ugly Kid Joe's version of "Cats in the Cradle" which was originally sung by Cat Stevens and lots more..

well, the first song that comes to mind is boys of summer by the ataries, originally done by the eagles. That song just sounds like it was meant to rock and the do it better. going back, i like CCRs version og heard it through the grapevine then any of the others.

Well it really depends on how the one who covers the song performs it. I think sometimes the cover is better than the original,but sometimes they make it a trance version from the original song and i don't think that is good. I prefer it better when they cover the song with the original singer like U2 with Mary J blige it's way better than the orignal song from U2 and she really adds something special to the song.

Not a big covers fan. However, The Damned did a good cover of Eloise. Stairway to Heaven was well covered by The Far Corporation. I also heard a good cover on the latest episode of CSI, Placebo do a pretty cool cover of Kate Bush - Running up that hill.

I agree with you about last kiss- Pearl Jam did it so much better. I have to disagree about tainted love- I'm not a fan of either version of that song, but I despise marilyn manson's- it just sounds... I don't know, but not pleasant. One of my favorites is Love Rollercoaster. I think the Red Hot Chili Peppers did a killer job covering that song- it's a lot more fun than the original. I also like Cake's version of I Will Survive. I like it because they put their own twist on it, and it almost sounds like a Cake song. Funny, I usually don't like that. I don't like many cover songs- Cats in the Cradle- the original is better. Signs- the original is way, way better. I don't like the cover of Turn the Page, I forget who did it, Bob Seger was the original.

i think covering other people songs is a form of plagourism even though it is not illegal in most cases. I think good songs or classics should be left as exactly that and personally think people should sing their own songs or buy new songs from other song writters. There are many undiscovered classics and people are always looking for new sounds and stars, leave the classics to the master and create your own work, dont sing someone elses song when you cant think of a new one or just because you know people like it. I agree about the madonna song it sucks.

the mad world cover is good, not sure if i like it better than the original, idk mostly covers are just kind of a lazy way to make money in my opinion.

Now, one of my favorite cover songs which I like even better the original is Marilyn Manson's version of Tainted Love. It is so cool. The new one adds style and I love the music video of this song to.

Usually I Don't like cover songs, but everyonce in a while I'll come across one I like, like the Ataris' cover of "Boys of Summer" or funny covers this one amateur hxc band's cover of Britney Spear's "toxic."

I don't know if anyone of you have heard of Arnel Pineda and His band. They do cover songs from the 80's which are mostly rock songs. He was recently hired by the group Journey to be their frontman replacing Steve Perry after watching his rendition of Faithfully, the group's original song. Go watch their other videos on youtube.com Just search for faithfully - the zoo band. You might loved it as well.

I don't mind the remake version of "I think we're Alone Now" by Tiffany from the early 1990s, because I think it fits a female. (Although I do like the original just as much.) However, I cannot STAND that new version of "These boots are Made for Walkin'". The new style for that song...I don't know...whatever it is...it is W-R-O-N-G. I think the original song in the good ol' rock 'n roll style is MUCH better!