I recently tweeted about hearing bluegrass covers of Ozzy Osbourne’s songs in a coffee shop. They sounded great. Here is a short list of a few genre bending cover songs.
- Iron Horse performed the bluegrass versions of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath songs. They also have bluegrass tributes to Metallica (and a second to Metallica) and to the Goo Goo Dolls.
- There are a ton of bluegrass covers of rock songs out there. It seems to be a pretty foolproof formula. Dolly Parton’s cover of “Shine” by Collective Soul is great.
- A cello tribute to Metallica is rather interesting. It’s weird that there are so many Metallica tributes. What gives?
- Although not an album of covers, Metallica recorded an album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. I like the version of “One” on this album.
- U2 is my favorite band. While, in general, their songs on the Joshua Tree are perfect and should not be remade, I love this electronica cover of “Where the Streets have no Name” by the Pet Shop Boys.
- Muzak versions of rock songs should be its own category. I started to feel old when my music started to become muzak. I once heard a muzak version of U2’s “One” that was the worst cover ever.
- Tori Amos’ alternative cover of Eminem’s “Bonnie & Clyde” is the creepiest cover I have ever heard. Tori Amos has done a lot of alt covers of songs that have been written and performed by men (she has a whole album of them!). Gender and genre bending covers are quite thought provoking, since they make me view the original song in a different light. That, too, should be its own category.
- Some genre bending covers are without a doubt better than the original songs. I like CCR’s cover of “I put a spell on you” and No Doubt’s “It’s My Life.”
I could go on and on forever. I apologize for the complete diversion from operations research, but tweets from OR nerds on this subject required a response longer than 140 characters.
What are your favorite genre bending cover songs? Do you like or loathe your favorite music being remade in other genres? How do you feel about muzak versions of your favorite songs?
Punk Rock Operations Research 
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:29 am
Scala & Kolacny Brothers covers are an odd change of pace and decent listen:
Police – Every Breath You Take: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZICJ2ZPh63Y&feature=related
Coldplay – Yellow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWuqtNl0Bog
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:41 am
A classic in the field (shows my age…) is Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:46 am
I like the Reel Big Fish version of “Take On Me” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ4S-UiNmzo
September 23rd, 2011 at 11:17 am
Matt, Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower is a classic. I didn’t know it was a cover for the longest time.
September 23rd, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Cool topic–I start each episode of my WVCW radio show with a “genre bender” (thanks for that phrase!). Playlists and recordings are at
http://wvcw.org/wvcw-shows-2/wvcw-music/anarchy-from-the-archives/
Recent examples: Rolf Harris’s “Stairway to Heaven”, Devo’s “Are You Experienced”,
Toots and the Maytals “Take Me Home Country Roads”, and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s version of “Anarchy in the UK”. To my ears, at least, all very cool examples.
Looking forward to finding some of the others here, though my next week’s opening song is already (almost) picked. Hayseed Dixie doing Green Day’s “Holiday” or their version of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” are in the lead at the moment.
Thanks Laura–my favorite topic since Ice Cream Trucks!
–Dan Ream, VCU Libraries
September 25th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Don’t know about genre-bending, but for genre-warping look no further than http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNT-sc1ymEM.
I also saw Lou Christie come on stage at an oldies show and start rapping, but he was just messing with the audience, so that doesn’t count.
September 25th, 2011 at 9:38 am
I’m about to prove that I’m even older than Matt. A number of doo-wop songs were covers of much older songs. “Heart and Soul” was written in 1938 and covered by pretty much everybody except Tiny Tim (http://bit.ly/pGGCLG). I think Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser might consider the cover by The Cleftones (1961) genre-bending (not to mention the cover by Jan and Dean the same year). “Blue Moon” was written in 1934 (http://bit.ly/r1hmdN); The Marcels hit #1 with it in ’61, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t sound the same in ’34. (Reunion version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzG7bPRZvMk.)
September 25th, 2011 at 10:08 am
+1 for Tori Amos (also, personally, I prefer her take on Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit” and Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence“).
+2 for Alanis Morissette’s adaption of Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps“.
(And, of course, there are also quite entertaining mashups out there.)
September 25th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Florian, I was going to mention Tori Amos’s cover of Smells like Teen Spirit, but I didn’t. Thanks for bringing it up. While Tori and Nirvana are both “alternative,” the cover sounds like it’s in a different genre.
I forgot to mention one of my favorite covers: Cake’s cover of “I will survive” is amazing. Cake should be in it’s own genre of “half singing, half talking.”
If you have Netflix streaming, watch the documentary “Young @ Heart” It’s about a choir of senior citizens who sing rock songs to sold out audiences. It’s genre bending and age defying. Some of their songs are incredibly moving. Their version of “Forever young” made a strong impression on me.
September 25th, 2011 at 9:16 pm
The Zimmers’ “My Generation” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY
also does a great performance with senior citizens singing.
September 26th, 2011 at 1:01 am
Re: Bluegrass
Look up “Your Wildest Dreams” by the Moody Blues, then look up the cover by Moody Bluegrass. The cover actually sounds a great deal better than the original.
September 29th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
The Ben Folds Five bossa nova version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zhDFgGGhE) of the weird Flaming Lips tune She Don’t Use Jelly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfpyoGFJNNE).
And a haunting Cat Power version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbMeAOTPJzM) of the doo wop classic Sea of Love, among my favorite songs of all time.