The Top 10 Best Song Covers

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6. Foo Fighters – “Darling Nikki” (Prince)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoYKYA9oHE&w=575&h=390]

Back in the heyday of the Foo Fighters (yes, the Foo Fighters, like Green Day and The Offspring haven’t always sucked dick for Skittles), they released this cover only as a B-side and the easiest version to find is a pirated one. It offers a glimpse of the heavy-metal Grohl, which wouldn’t fully flesh out until the short-lived-if-you-can-even-be-that-generous side-project Probot. It shreds, it wails, and it’s just fucking cool.

7. The White Stripes – “Jolene” (Dolly Parton)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4rYaLBUpLA&w=575&h=390]

So I know it’s not cool to like The White Stripes or something. But they remain one of my favorite bands, and it really all comes down to a piece like this. Released as a B-side to the single “Hello Operator,” it couldn’t be more right. Slowing down Parton’s pace, and warbling as though through tears, White himself almost becomes inseparable from the pleading lyrics, and the listener almost believes that he’s an insecure woman, worried she’ll lose her husband to a raving beauty. But then the guitars kick in and White blasts it out and reminds you he’s one of the most badass (and wealthiest, and probably least insecure) rock stars on the planet.

8. Nirvana – “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (written in 1925 but original artist is unknown. The earliest popular recordings are by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylbjb4O07V0&w=575&h=390]

Up to now, I’ve been trying to keep the list clear of live covers, because almost all live covers are amazing, beautiful, wonderful things, since, unlike recorded covers, no money can be made off of them (except in cases like this where the performance is recorded and then sold, but as a general rule, live covers are done out of a pure love for the song). This cover from the Unplugged album is transcendent. Though that album features quite a few brilliant covers (including one from the Vaselines, a David Bowie, and two collaboratives with The Meat Puppets), the hurt and pain in Cobain’s voice matches the tragedy of the lyrics (something the Leadbelly and Guthrie versions lack entirely). Its agony is penetrating, but only later would it come to be viewed as foreshadowing.

9. Jeff Buckley – “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4&w=575&h=390]

Okay, I’m a sentimental, cliché piece of shit sometimes. So sue me.

10. Sublime – “Summertime” (from Porgy and Bess)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayE6Shlv598&w=575&h=390]

It’s true that Janis Joplin did this one and owned it. But for some reason (probably that I grew up in SoCal and have cousins who give their kids names like ‘Bradley’ and ‘Gavin’—think Nowell and Rossdale), this one has always really stuck with me. Like the original from the musical Porgy and Bess, it embodies that slow, lazy haze of summer, and artfully translates it for a punk-ska generation of beachcombing burnouts.

FOOTNOTES

[1] This first rule of thumb is what disqualifies catastrophes like Madonna’s “American Pie.”

[2] This second rule of thumb is what disqualifies those covers that are done purely for some abstract kind of ‘music cred,’ like The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Landslide,” or The Counting Crows’ “Big Yellow Taxi.”

[3] The principle is that all Beatles songs are already perfection. Since no band since the Beatles has been perfect, any cover by another band will inevitably fall way short of living up to the original. It’s a wonder to me that people don’t get that.

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