Friday random thirteen: Cracked covers

You know how much I love lists and cover songs, so you should not be surprised to learn that this 20 worst pop music covers list in Cracked, which I discovered while looking for their story about dirty old-time songs for my previous entry, would be catnip to me. I have thirteen of the listed songs in my collection, some by the original artist, some by a different cover artist, and one by Cracked’s named offender, so I just went with them all rather than whittle them down to 10. Here they are:

1. You Shook Me All Night Long – Bing Ji Ling (orig. Ac/DC, bad cover by Celine Cion and Anastasia)
2. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Warren Zevon (orig. Bob Dylan, bad cover by Guns N Roses)
3. American Pie – Don McLean (bad cover by Madonna)
4. My Generation – The Who (bad cover by Hilary Duff)
5. Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles (bad cover by The Presidents of the United States of America)
6. Walk This Way – Aerosmith (bad cover by Macy Gray)
7. I’m A Believer – The Monkees (bad cover by Smashmouth)
8. Sweet Child O’ Mine – Sheryl Crow (orig. Guns N Roses)
9. Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell (bad cover by Counting Crows)
10. Anarchy In The UK – Sex Pistols (bad cover by Motley Crue)
11. Behind Blue Eyes – The Who (bad cover by Limp Bizkit)
12. (Sittin’ On The) Dock Of The Bay – Otis Redding (bad cover by Michael Bolton)
13. And It Stoned Me – Van Morrison (bad cover by Bob Dylan)

For what it’s worth, I like the Smashmouth and GNR covers, the former of which was prominently featured in the movie Shrek and the latter of which got a fair amount of radio airplay back in the day. I will also note that Popdose, from whom I got that Sheryl Crow version and several others of “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, had the same complaint about not doing the riff. The others I can’t say I’ve heard, and for the most part I can’t say I want to hear them, though I’m sure I’ve come across the Michael Bolton cover in my nightmares. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any song covers that truly offend me, but Rod Stewart, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra and a choir, doing “Pinball Wizard” may be the most ridiculously over the top cover I’ve ever heard. What are your least favorite cover songs?

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One Response to Friday random thirteen: Cracked covers

  1. j.davis says:

    It looks like the Cracked article was originally published in March of 2007.

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