Mark Arminio
The Late Movies: Awesome Cover Songs
by Mark Arminio - July 30, 2009 - 10:00 PM

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I’m a sucker for cover songs, especially of the acoustic variety (most likely out of some subconscious desire to be a musician).  Tonight for the Late Movies, I’ve assembled a few of my favorite covers: everything from Rihanna to George Michael.  Some of these are haunting, some of them are just fun. Enjoy!

Here’s a cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” by Mat Weddle.  It really makes you appreciate how great the original lyrics are.

Gary Jules covers the Tears For Fears classic “Mad World.” The song is haunting enough, but the video makes it even more intense.

Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard had a side project called The Postal Service, who recorded the track “Such Great Heights.”  However, Gibbard credits Iron + Wine with making this song popular.

Iron + Wine’s cover even made it into an M&M’s commercial.

One of my favorite covers is The Mountain Goats performing Ace Of Base’s “The Sign.” The only clip I could find is lead singer John Darnielle rocking the tune alone.

Here’s a fun acoustic cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” by Marie Digby.

And I’ll leave you tonight with Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright covering George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.” Simply awesome.

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Comments (34)

  1. Two of my personal favorites:

    The Gourds cover of Snoop’s Gin ‘N Juice and Hot 8 Brass Band’s version of Sexual Healing.

    posted by Katie on 7-30-2009 at 11:03 pm

  2. These are great! Thanks for sharing them… Please tell me you subscribe to the Coverville Podcast if you’re into covers, its won a couple of best of I-tunes awards over the several years he’s been producing it. If you want to dig in and get familiarized with it, check out the Coverville Countdowns at the end of each calendar year.
    http://coverville.com/
    (December 2008 archive – with 2008 Countdown episodes)
    http://coverville.com/archives/2008/12/

    posted by Chris P. on 7-30-2009 at 11:33 pm

  3. One more comment, if you like Ben Folds covers… you should check out Julia Nunes. Her cover of Gone (below), led to her being invited to sing with him on stage at several of his shows (second link). She does a fun multi-track recording harmonizing with herself and her ukelele playing.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pmpo8THQJk

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-CbFwVFzIc

    posted by Chris P. on 7-30-2009 at 11:41 pm

  4. Here are two of my favourite covers:

    posted by Justen on 7-31-2009 at 12:09 am

  5. Okay, the embed didn’t work. Here are the links:

    Diana Krall – “A Case of You”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrsc5FeQDs&fmt=18

    Dame Shirley Bassey – “Get The Party Started”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqNcyFNMfLM&fmt=18

    posted by Justen on 7-31-2009 at 12:11 am

  6. I love the Careless Whisper cover!

    Gemma Hayes and Magnet do a really interesting cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay”

    I also really like Battlestar America’s version of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What Its Worth.”

    As for acoustic versions, Scott Simons covered Umbrella too

    posted by Darbi on 7-31-2009 at 12:22 am

  7. Careless Whisper is a fantastic song, Seether does a pretty sweet cover of it too
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7imqO-OBVk

    posted by Kyle on 7-31-2009 at 1:22 am

  8. What about Alanis Morisette’s cover of “My Humps”?

    posted by Ben on 7-31-2009 at 1:36 am

  9. Cake doing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”

    posted by Jonny on 7-31-2009 at 2:43 am

  10. And, as a Bob Dylan fan, I enjoy many covers of his songs, of course, I still prefer Dylan’s version(s). But some of my faves:

    Sinead O’Connor – “I Believe In You”

    Sheryl Crow – “Mississippi” – which he reportedly gave to her as a Bday gift, to record before his was released on Love And Theft.

    Joan Osborne – “Man In The Long Black Coat”, which I had the pleasure to hear live at SummerFest in Milw a few yrs back.

    posted by Jonny on 7-31-2009 at 2:49 am

  11. Speaking of Ben Folds, how about his cover of Dr. Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Sh#t?”

    posted by Joel on 7-31-2009 at 8:21 am

  12. Macha and Bedhead covering Cher’s “Believe.”

    posted by jesse on 7-31-2009 at 8:24 am

  13. You’ve got to be kidding! “Awesome” Careless Whisper cover??? How about awful! When will they get NOT to try George Michael covers!

    posted by Janet on 7-31-2009 at 8:26 am

  14. The Atari’s cover of Don Henley’s Boys of Summer and Dynamite Hack’s cover of Boyz in the Hood are my personal faves. However, with everyone and their brother doing covers these days, this list could go on and on and on. The Dan Band, in particular, does nothing but covers. They are the best!

    posted by Ian on 7-31-2009 at 8:46 am

  15. Ozzy Osbourne and Dweezil Zappa’s cover of Stayin’ Alive is one of the all time best covers!

    posted by Wayne on 7-31-2009 at 9:05 am

  16. Nickel Creek covering Britney Spear’s Toxic. And I second Jonny’s recommendation of Cake singing I will survive. They also have a great cover of Guitar Man.

    posted by Diana on 7-31-2009 at 9:13 am

  17. Again with the Ben Folds (might have been Ben Folds Five) – he does a fantastic cover of Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic” that I found online a few years ago. Never seen a video for it, but it’s worth looking for the tune.

    There’s also a great recording of Chris Cornell covering “Thank You” by Led Zeppelin – he does a really beautiful job.

    posted by Bert on 7-31-2009 at 11:00 am

  18. Speaking of Cake, they do a version of War Pigs that they really make their own. Its awesome!

    posted by Doug on 7-31-2009 at 11:06 am

  19. Much respect to The Gourds, but I’m partial to Sissy Bar’s version. I’m sorry that I can’t figure out how to paste in a hyperlink. Please cut and paste.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDq2FGsEGd8

    posted by Patrick on 7-31-2009 at 11:14 am

  20. You forgot Jonathan Coulton’s version of “Baby Got Back”. Jill Solbule also does a great version of “It’s getting hot in here” by Nelly.

    posted by Christine on 7-31-2009 at 11:48 am

  21. How about ridiculously intense cello quartet Apocalyptica doing Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”? I think it’s better than the original.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTozgoj9OQ

    posted by Cristy on 7-31-2009 at 12:04 pm

  22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjL9BQQKlks

    Punch Brothers covering Radiohead’s Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
    (Chris Thile is a genius)
    They also cover Beatles, Mozart, The Strokes, various bluegrass, Bach, etc.

    reCAPTCHA: your babies

    posted by Nick on 7-31-2009 at 12:50 pm

  23. The Postal Service also did an amazing cover of Phil Collin’s “Against All Odds”
    Also, I love Elbow’s cover of Massive Attack’s song “Tear Drop”

    posted by Izam on 7-31-2009 at 1:30 pm

  24. My friend Butch Ross does an awesome cover of “Eleanor Rigby” on the mountain dulcimer.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H59YAeZiLa8

    posted by Michele on 7-31-2009 at 1:34 pm

  25. I love Boyce Avenue’s cover of Umbrella personally. They also covered With You which I enjoy.

    I can’t make a comment without also mentioning Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt. Amazing!

    I saw Five.Bolt.Main live once and Chris Volz sang Easy by the Commodores which rocked.

    Last one that I can think of off the top of my head…I saw Lonestar live and they did a cover of Mary Jane’s Last Dance which also rocked.

    posted by aj on 7-31-2009 at 2:14 pm

  26. All American Rejects did a cover of the Britney song “Womanizer” that was amazing, but it got pulled from the site I had bookmarked. :( But it included an accordion!

    posted by geb on 7-31-2009 at 3:28 pm

  27. The B-52s “Dance This Mess Around” covered by the all-acoustic Asylum Street Spankers

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYulEKYcCgo

    posted by Dustin on 7-31-2009 at 6:15 pm

  28. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRHZqg8yVXQ

    Travis doing Britney Spears, and you realize, it’s actually a great song!

    posted by Kathleen on 7-31-2009 at 6:18 pm

  29. The Magic Numbers did a great acoustic version of Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCDrsqxwpu0

    posted by gmcfly on 8-1-2009 at 12:15 am

  30. These are awesome — even better, I’ve actually seen two of them performed live (Mountain Goats, probably more than once, and the Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright duet). Great stuff!

    posted by emilyca on 8-1-2009 at 9:25 pm

  31. Darren Hayes covering anything, but especially Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing and Britney Spears’ Gimme More. Amazing.

    I love, love, love that Marie Digby cover of Umbrella.

    The Taylor Swift cover of Better Than Ezra’s Our Last Night is lovely.

    311 one did a good cover of The Cure’s Lovesong for the 50 First Dates soundtrack.

    And of course, the Glee cast doing Don’t Stop Believin’. Awesome!

    posted by Anna on 8-2-2009 at 10:17 am

  32. Frente’s cover of Bizarre Love Triange” is pretty sweet

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ1c9ErCn7w

    Ryan Adms doing “Wonderwall” is a favorite of mine as well…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wV2AII4t8U

    posted by Troy Lee Wells on 8-3-2009 at 1:18 pm

  33. Jenny Owen Youngs – Hot in Herre

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwuIIsDjgZg

    posted by Mae on 8-5-2009 at 9:19 pm

  34. OK, here’s a fun one for you… Van Atta High covering Afternoon Delight, and this video is just great:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OatWwF5S7FU

    posted by Alison on 8-23-2009 at 10:52 pm

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