Randomness: Cover versions

I like a good cover version. It's nice to see another artist's interpretation of songs. Providing they do a decent job. I can name numerous good cover versions but for every one of them I can probably think of two or three crappy ones. I've linked to the covers and originals for your listening pleasure. Or pain as the case may be.

Top of this list of crimes against cover versions is Jedward's cover of Blink-182's All The Small Things. I mentioned this in a post a few weeks back, but to reiterate, it is heinous. Seriously, I tried to be nice about it, but my ears were traumatised. I had to drown them in loud, shouty music to make it go away. This monstrosity is followed by the Jonas Brothers' version of Busted's hit Year 3000. This isn't so much an awful cover (although it's not exactly good), but Busted were the band of my early teens. I loved them, idolised them even. Busted were never an epically amazing band, but they were mine (possessive, sorry). Hearing a band like the Jonas Brothers' cover them was horrifying. What makes it worse though was the fact that so few people (at least on the video I first found on youtube) actually realised it was a cover. Now, I know Busted weren't that big in the States where the Jonas Brothers have their biggest fan base, but that pissed me off. I left a couple of snarky comments. Nothing too harsh, just pointing out that firstly, I don't like JBs and I thought the cover was pretty poor and secondly that the Busted version was infinitely better. I got a response to the first one from some total psycho of a fangirl who essentially shouted at me over the internet (she had a capslock problem) that if it was such a poor cover, why were they making so much money from it? To which I once again pointed out that it was a cover - they didn't write it, the lyrics, music and whatnot are good, but the cover wasn't. Oh, and that the curly haired one (name, anyone?) had a voice that I didn't think suited the song. I think I called him whiney. I was really quite restrained considering half my brain was screaming that I should throttle her through the internet. To this I got the following reply:


"Y U SAY DAT BUT DA JONAS BROTHERS DRED AND HE SOUND GOOD AND NO U CANT HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOLZ I GAT JOKES LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1NO HARD FEELINGS"

Told you she had a capslock problem. My initial reaction to this was, dear god, it's a troll, my bad. I checked the user page. If it was a troll, this was the only act of trolling I could find, so I came to the conclusion that she was just a crazy rabid fangirl. With piss poor taste in music in my opinion.


Anyway, moving on down my list of appalling cover versions. Avril Lavigne's live cover of System Of A Down's Chop Suey! is pretty scarily bad. I only came across it a few weeks ago and I had to stop the track a few seconds in because oh dear god my ears were going to bleed. Bad song choice, Ms Lavigne. I like Avril Lavigne, but I really wish she hadn't even attempted this song. She can't scream/growl/even get her voice to do what's necessary to make the song sound right.


Now, what else do I have on my list? Hmmm... well, I think here we move on to the not so much bad, as just should-never-have-been-done. Again, purely my opinion. Let's start with Leona Lewis' cover of Snow Patrol's beautiful Run. I first heard the cover when my parents picked me up from uni at Christmas in first year. I was traumatised. Now, I like Leona Lewis' voice. But she warbles SO MUCH. Run does not need someone warbling over it. It's a beautiful song that calls for soft, straightforward singing. Hence why I hugely prefer the original. Much more suited to the tone of the song.


Next on this list of should-never-have-been-done covers is Madonna's cover of Don McLean's classic American Pie. Again, there's nothing particularly bad about Madonna's version, it just doesn't work. It sounds a bit autotuned to me (I have a major aversion to autotune) and it's a bit bland - it doesn't have the soul that McLean had. Also, I'm so much in love with the original that I object to cutting out verses. Hey, I get annoyed that the radio stations never play the full version because it's just too damn long.


Moving on. Glee. Oh, yes, Glee. I have nothing against Glee. Well, I do. Slightly. In that, I suspect that at least some if not many of the kids who watch it don't know who did the originals of some of them songs. I'm not saying they all do. Indeed, I'm sure a lot of them know the originals. What set me off about this though is my old secondary school's annual House Music competition. One of the House's is using Glee's version of Bonnie Tyler's epic Total Eclipse of the Heart. I asked my friend why they were using that version and the answer I was given was "the original's like 7 minutes long". Yes, darling, that's the album version. Try listening to the single version, it's about the same length as the Glee version. Same arrangement just about and everything. What worries me is that maybe the song was picked because someone had heard it on Glee and only knew that version, had no idea who the hell Bonnie Tyler is. This upsets me. Bonnie Tyler has a beautiful, distinctive voice, but instead of basing their House Music entry on her version, it'll be based on Glee, which is bland. Yes, the cast can sing, but there's not the power and emotion there that Tyler has. Ahem. Ranting. Moving on.


Then we have the covers that aren't actually covers, but samples. I only have the one example to include here, although I know there are more. Gym Class Heroes sampled Supertramp's Breakfast In America for their single Cupid's Chokehold. I have no problem with this. In fact, I actually rather like the song. What I don't like is that once again, kids didn't realise it was a sample. On the bus home from school one day not long after Cupid's Chokehold was released, Breakfast In America was played on the radio and I was horrified to hear one of the younger kids say, and I quote (yes, it's actually burned into my memory):


"Oh my god, someone seriously covered it already?"


They got a bit of a shock when I turned round and rather sharply told them that this was the fucking original and maybe they should expand their knowledge of music. I was rather a lot harsher than I intended to be, but I was so annoyed. Again, moving on before I go off on a major rant about young teens and their taste in music.


And then there are the cover versions that I think are awesome. VersaEmerge are particularly good at these, I've found. Their cover of Britney Spears' Toxic is amazing. Also, it has the seal of approval from Ms. Spears, thanks to the power of Twitter. And then there is this wonderful girl called Juliana Daily who writes her own material, but also covers other artists. My favourite by her has got to be her version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - just beautiful. Also high on my list of favourite cover versions are most of the tracks included on Fearless Records' Punk Goes... series. At least the ones I've heard. Yes there are bad ones in there too, nevershoutnever!'s cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody currently far down on my most loathed list, but for the most part they're lovely refreshing covers.

My all time favourite cover version? John Cale's version of Hallelujah. Yes, I love the song. It was John Cale's wonderful voice that actually got me listening to the song. It's seriously a beautiful version. I know a lot of people prefer the original or Jeff Buckley, but John Cale just has such a magical voice... I'm going to stop there before I babble too much. I think that'll do - I've just realised how long this post is and most of it's ranting. My bad. Sorry, folks.