Truly terrible covers of the good and the great

[ezbass]

14 minutes ago, Rich said:

I hate it when opera singers have a bash at 'popular' music. It never works. Never. 

Or when rock and pop singers try crooning. It sounds like what it is - cashing in.

[Woodinblack]

Probably brought a tear to his eye, thinking how much he makes each day from andy summers riff!

[Woodinblack]

55 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Or when rock and pop singers try crooning. It sounds like what it is - cashing in.

 

I don't know, it can work. I love 'This guys in love with you' by Faith No More, and obviously when it comes to crooners, you can't beat Richard Cheese..

 

 

 

[ezbass]

6 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I don't know, it can work. I love 'This guys in love with you' by Faith No More, and obviously when it comes to crooners, you can't beat Richard Cheese..

 

 

I'm thinking more Rod Stewart & Robbie Williams (I'm sure there have been others). It feels more like a case of needing/wanting to put out an album but having no material, rather than being moved by big band swing.

[lowdown]

3 hours ago, ezbass said:

I'm thinking more Rod Stewart & Robbie Williams (I'm sure there have been others). It feels more like a case of needing/wanting to put out an album but having no material, rather than being moved by big band swing.

 

I'm not sure about Rod Stewart's real reasons for the Song Book albums. To me, he just sounded like a Rock singer badly hacking away at standards and cashing in. Probably like you say, maybe a lack of original material. Who knows...

 

But, Robbie Williams was a  Sinatra lover, so a Big Band album was probably on the cards. I read an article some years back where he said it had always been something he wanted to do when he was older, with more experience behind him, and his voice was more mature. As it happens, I think he made a very good job of it.

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, ezbass said:

I'm thinking more Rod Stewart & Robbie Williams (I'm sure there have been others). It feels more like a case of needing/wanting to put out an album but having no material, rather than being moved by big band swing.

 

Apart from robbie williams doing a very bad advert for cat food - I guess that is a money thing more than anything else. Rod Stewart, well, I heard him doing the rounds on the last album on chat shows and his voice (which I never liked) seems to be completely gone.

[lowdown]

I know the thread is about cosmic shi*e covers...but regarding Robbie Williams (and in my opinion), vocally he's not on the level of Bobby Darin (or George Benson for that matter), but he recorded a very decent cover of this great tune...An excellent band as well:

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by lowdown

[diskwave]

I always cringe when anyone does Eric Carmens ...All By Myself, The way he sings it is so precise and extraordinary and not a single performer since can do it right. You hear other tunes being butchered in TV ads too...Horrendous.

[BillyBass]

I can't stand the Lemonheads version of Mrs Robinson.  The bass line does my head in.

[LowB_FTW]

On 12/04/2023 at 14:17, tauzero said:

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned William Shatner yet, for every single one of his covers.

 

Telly Savalas did a pretty shocking version of "If" too.

Nooooo, I love The plopped. hahaha

I'm not professing any of his musical output is better than the originals, but I can absolutely get behind what he does in his 'musical' career.

 

Mark

[LowB_FTW]

Wow, I can't shorten Shatner's name to what it is commonly referred to.

Sad times.

 

Mark

[PaulWarning]

14 hours ago, BillyBass said:

I can't stand the Lemonheads version of Mrs Robinson.  The bass line does my head in.

there you go, opinions, love the version and the bass line, it's almost playing the lead, we play it regularly, always goes down well

Edited April 16, 2023 by PaulWarning

[BillyBass]

29 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

there you go, opinions, love the version and the bass line, it's almost playing the lead, we play it regularly, always goes done well

I realise I must have a minority opinion, judging by how often I hear it on the radio.  If I wasn't driving my van I would change station but as it is, I grit my teeth and wait for it to end.

 

[Piers_Williamson]

35 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

there you go, opinions, love the version and the bass line, it's almost playing the lead, we play it regularly, always goes done well

Can I be a heretic and say I like it more than the original

[SpondonBassed]

 

[Barking Spiders]

On 14/04/2023 at 10:49, ezbass said:

I'm thinking more Rod Stewart & Robbie Williams (I'm sure there have been others). It feels more like a case of needing/wanting to put out an album but having no material, rather than being moved by big band swing.

Maybe it's because both realise their own stuff is such utter gash the only way is up however dire the covers are

[Mickyk]

On 11/04/2023 at 21:41, Shaggy said:

There are so many.   Cover of “Comfortably Numb” by The Scissor Sisters springs to mind.

Also that awful dirgey cover  of “Mad world” a few years ago that spawned a thousand other awful dirgey covers - it would depress me too much to google who it was (though I guess excluded from the thread as he was neither great or good)

 

Worst one for me - and everyone here will disagree with this, as for some reason it’s regarded as a classic - is Joe Cocker’s “With a little help from my friends”.  I have to turn the radio off if it comes on......

 

 

Edit: Actually no, I have wronged poor old JC.   I have a cheapo Christmas compilation CD with a cover of “Fairytale of New York” sung by Máire Brennan of Clannad (who makes a pretty decent stab of her part) and Ronan Keating (who really, really doesn’t)....🙁

Lets face it Shaggy ,the Original wasn't that good was it ? 

[TrevorR]

On 15/04/2023 at 22:34, greavesbass said:

I always cringe when anyone does Eric Carmens ...All By Myself, The way he sings it is so precise and extraordinary and not a single performer since can do it right. You hear other tunes being butchered in TV ads too...Horrendous.

…not forgetting that Eric Carmen’s All By Myself was a cover of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, M’lud.

[TrevorR]

On 14/04/2023 at 08:02, EssexBuccaneer said:

Joss Stone’s brutal murder of The Green Fields of France is my shout. FWIW the Dropkick Murphys did the best rendition of this ‘un

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8uoBDW-URvw

This is artistic genius compared to her and Angelique Kidjo’s demolition of Gimme Shelter! And this album won a Grammy!!!!!

 

[Nail Soup]

On 13/04/2023 at 09:40, Hellzero said:

This is not an opinion, this is a fact!

 

 

It's bad I agree.

But it's just bad through incompetence, which I can easily forgive.

For me, to a truly bad cover has to contain the element of intent.

[Nail Soup]

I think any one is free to cover anything, but I don't hold with doing a cover 'ironically' or to poke fun at the original.

And don't get me started on the acts whose whole thing is "A-in-the-style-of-B" (Metal in bajo style, Elvis in Nirvana Style, Led Zep in Reggae).

 

[TrevorR]

9 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

And don't get me started on the acts whose whole thing is "A-in-the-style-of-B" (Metal in bajo style, Elvis in Nirvana Style, Led Zep in Reggae).

Are you including Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox in that classification? Coz I think that most of their stuff is pretty good. Some of it is brilliant (their versions of The Final Counrdown, Mr Blue Sky and Wannabe, particularly)

Edited April 27, 2023 by TrevorR

[Nail Soup]

5 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

Are you including Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox in that classification? Coz I think that most of their stuff is pretty good. Some of it is brilliant (their versions of The Final Counrdown, Mr Blue Sky and Wannabe, particularly)

Just checked them out on youtube. They cover stuff from a whole bunch of genres into a single style - so they don't get included. And they sounded OK too.