Blender's recent article "The Wackiest Cover Songs on the Web" inspired me to compile today's Top 10. Of course, my list is way better than theirs.
Some entries are good/weird. Others are just good.
Enjoy. There are YouTube links to all of them.
1. "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," The Raconteurs
Leave it to Jack White to create something amazing out of a Nancy Sinatra/Cher song.
2. "Bitches Ain't Shit," Ben Folds
Dre ain't got shit on this.
3. "Mother," Christina Aguilera
No other contemporary pop star could have done this song better.
4. "Dazed and Confused," The Allman Brothers Band
Short clip but you get the idea. Haynes sings. He and Trucks kill with a twin guitar attack.
5. "Satisfaction," Cat Power
She really can't get any.
6. "Like a Rolling Stone," Jimi Hendrix
Everyone knows the guitar god's cover of "Watchtower" but this one's a gem, too, with Hendrix truly having fun with the epic kiss-off.
7. "Time After Time," Miles Davis
The Cyndi Lauper ballad gets the royal treatment. Dig Miles' shades.
8. "Boyz in the Hood," Dynamite Hack
Folds definitely wasn't the first nerdy white boy to cover a song by an N.W.A. member.
9. "This Magic Moment," Lou Reed
Never thought you'd hear Reed cover The Drifters, eh?
10. "Happy Birthday," Bob Dylan
Dylan forgets to buy his "very special friend" a birthday present; leads shocked Australian crowd in birthday sing along.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2007.