A collection of great covers for your consideration

For a while now I’ve wanted to write about covers. An artist takes a song made famous by another artist and puts his or her own stamp on it. I thought at first that I’d try to come to with the 10 or 20 greatest covers of all time. This seemed like a daunting task. There are literally hundreds of worthy examples and narrowing it down to just a few would be next to impossible. I’m sure there would be more than a few that I’d forget. So, I thought I’d try to talk a little bit about what makes a good cover and why a good cover is such an enjoyable thing.

There are so many more covers than there used to be because of the explosion in the number of live recordings out there. Bands like Widespread Panic do hundreds of shows per year and they’re all recorded. Most bands mix a couple of covers into their live sets and rather than doing the same ones every night, they have dozens to choose from. Panic even plays a set every Halloween of just covers. One of those was released as an album, Jackassolantern, that includes covers of everyone from Blue Oyster Cult to The Doors to Nelly (more on that later). I’ll try to break down some types of covers as we go.

So here is a playlist of 20 covers that I particularly enjoy. First some ground rules. As far as I’m concerned, in order to qualify as for this list the original version of the song has to be better known than the new version. Technically, Bonnie Raitt’s version of “Thing Called Love” is a cover of John Hiatt’s song. Likewise, Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” is a cover of Otis Redding’s original and “Blinded by the Light” is not a Manfred Mann’s Earth Band song, it’s Bruce Springsteen’s. I like the undiscovered versions of already popular songs.

One of the things that I think makes covers so cool is knowing that a band or artist you know is influenced by, or at least really likes, another artist you like. When you see a connection between an earlier band and somebody more recent, it’s good to know that the newer artist saw it too. The Clash covered The Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law,” which, it could be argued, is the first Punk song. Know your roots.

Sometimes the opposite is true. An artist is going against type. I don’t think the guys in Widespread Panic grew up listening to Nelly. The probably just decided that there’s a really good groove in “Hot in Herre” and they really can play anything. Give that one a listen, it’s really good.

I know there is certainly some overlap between these categories. And I also know these aren’t conscious decisions by the artists. Lindi Orega did not say to herself, “I’m going to put my particular stamp on this Bee Gees song” when she recorded “To Love Somebody” and included it on her excellent album Faded Gloryville. But she certainly did just that. With at least some of these songs, I tried to find covers many people will not have heard before.

Know Your Roots

Since James Brown died, Warren Haynes is the hardest working man in show business. He works with everybody in music and this Gov’t Mule 15-minute version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” includes former Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed. Back when I was younger and didn’t know any better, I used to say that Van Morrison was one of the few people on the very short list of white guys with soul. That list is, of course, longer than that young man’s bad joke made it seem. JJ Grey’s version of Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey,” is proof of that. Lyle Lovett’s roots are varied and widespread. I’d bet if you asked him he’d list Ray Charles among them. “What I’d Say” appears on a compilation album (Smile) of songs Lovett has done for motion picture soundtracks.

Leave Out the Words

Did you ever wonder what a Led Zeppelin song would sound like if it was played by a band fronted by three guys playing trombones? The guys from Bonerama obviously did, and they decided on the relatively obscure Zeppelin tune “Ocean.” The first time I heard it, I knew the tune sounded familiar, but it took a while to make the connection. Multi-instrumentalist Karl Denson and his Tiny Universe do the same with The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”

Tongue in Cheek

Widespread Panic’s version of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” falls into this category. This is not to say that the artists are making fun of the original song or artist only that the differences in interpretation can make for a funny juxtaposition. The String Cheese Incident’s cover of the KC & The Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” is another case of a Jam band taking on a dance tune.

But the two best examples of songs in this category are Alt Country pioneer Ryan Adams’ version of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and The Gourdes’ cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice.” Adams, in fact, covered all of Swift’s album 1989 on an album of his own by the same name. His point, I suppose, was that the difference between a Pop song and any other genre is just delivery. It actually works. Taking all the bubble gum out of the song leaves you with a pretty good tune. The Gourds decided that if you took a Rap song, kept the lyrics and backed it with a Bluegrass band it might be entertaining — assuming you can look past the misogyny and the 12-letter curse words. Like I said, keep your tongue in cheek and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Put Your Own Stamp on It

Just about all covers technically fall into this category, but sometimes there’s just good to hear somebody take a good song into a completely different direction. Peter Tosh decided that Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” would make a good Reggae song, and he was right. Johnny Cash included a number of covers on one of his last albums. My favorite was U2’s “One.” He took a song that we always suspected was a classic and confirmed it. Toots Hibbert’s fantastic album Toots in Memphis is a collection of the Reggae crooner’s (yes, that’s a thing) take on a collection of Stax and Sun Records classics including Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.” I threw Lindi Ortega’s version of “To Love Somebody” into this category.

Just a Great Tune

One of Sharon Jones’ final recordings before her much-too-early death was a commercial for Lincoln Motor Co. covering The Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider.” In the long version of the ad on YouTube, Jones’ band The Dap-Tones, assembles and starts the familiar tune before Jones shows up to belt out a verse and a chorus. Matthew McConaughey then gives a knowing nod at the end while driving a big, black car. Didn’t make me want to buy a Lincoln, but I did want to hear the rest of the song. Warren Haynes combines with Railroad Earth and Grace Potter on a great version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman.” I’m immediately reminded of what an incredible song the original was. Stevie Nicks, for all her flowy, spinny weirdness, is a great singer.

Bob Dylan Songs

My wife has a theory about Bob Dylan. She thinks he should just write songs and let other people sing them. I’m not sure I fully agree, but there was a time when he sounded like he had the mother of all sinus infections when he sang. One of those times was on the original version of “Serve Somebody.” That song has been covered many times and a version I particularly like is the bluesed-up live recording by Tommy Castro & The Painkillers. Joan Osborne, who no one could argue has a bad voice, did an entire album of Dylan covers that’s worth a listen or 10. “Highway 61 Revisited” is on the playlist here.

From Our Childhood

The internet is full of bands covering Disney songs. There’s an entire album of bands doing Schoolhouse Rocks songs. I’m sure there’s a Punk version of the Spongebob Squarepants theme out there if you look hard enough. My two favorites in this category happen to come from the same Disney movie, The Jungle Book. One is the Los Lobos version of “I Wan’na Be Like You.” Luis Prima’s original is epic. But Los Lobos just treat it as a straight Rock song and it works great. The other comes from the most recent version of the movie. New Orleans own Kermit Ruffins, may be the closest thing to Luis Prima going these days, teams with Bill Murray on a version of “The Bare Necessities.” It’ll make your day. Also on the same soundtrack, “I Wan’na Be Like You” is sung by Christopher Walken. Predictably wacky but not included here.

One for the Son

My 24-year-old son Max and I have a long-running discussion about music in which he tries to find bands he listens to that he thinks I’ll like. Many of them are actually good. When I said I was writing this column he mentioned that he might have a contribution. Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place” is covered on the playlist by a band called Iron & Wine that I know nothing about other than they do an excellent job on this song. The rest of the album is not bad. You can hear the Talking Heads influence on most of the songs.

So, there’s 20. They’re not “The 20 Greatest Covers of All Time.” They’re just 20 that I really like. I could probably come up with 20 more off the top of my head that would be just as good, but this is already longer than it probably should be. Got one you really like, mention it in the comments. If there are enough, I will put together a second playlist.