Born to Run and other covers........

[bluehighlighter]

Inspired by the Born to Run fiasco on Sunrise (go Kochie) it got me thinking, are there any bands or artists of note who have had other well known songs, high selling albums, or successful careers and yet will best be remembered for a cover they've done.

These are generalisations based on commercial airplay (when I walk past someone else's radio at work or travel in a dodgy friend or family member's car), Muzak (in store radio stations or approved tracks being played in shopping centres), or other means of diffusion (movies, TV, etc.)

So here goes my list so far;

Faith No More - Easy
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
Youth Group - Forever Young
Sinead O’Conner - Nothing Compares 2 U (the 2 and U are not me being hip and happening, that’s one of Prince’s signature things with song titles).
Kylie Minogue - Locomotion (really included just to prove that the cover to launch your career can stick with you for life)
Peter Andre - Gimme A Little Sign (really only included so that someone can pull me up on the comment "artists of note who have had other well known songs, high selling albums, or successful careers")
Pearl Jam - Last Kiss (seriously wish they hadn’t covered that and don’t understand why Triple M have that so high up their play list).
Run DMC - Walk This Way (rappers doing a ‘metal’ song)
Anthrax - Bring The Noise (metalheads doing a ‘rap’ song)

To a lesser extent I could add;

Nirvana - Any well known cover they did on the MTV Unplugged Album (although anyone would clearly say Teen Spirit would define them, again Triple M play the "Unplugged" songs coz there more radio friendly).
Guns N Roses - Knocking on Heaven's Door (and whilst they'll play the radio edit of Sweet Child they'll play the full version of this)

Anyway, just food for thought.

I'd have added;

Something For Kate - Born To Run (but that would just be bad form).

[sheeps]

Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal

Forever Young and Locomotion are covers?

[antipersonnel]

Consider this: I dont really like youth group ever since i found out that forever young was a cover. Now i dont know much about youth group and hell, they may have a massive back catalogue that ive never heard of which may be filled with great music but my first impressions of them is that theyre unoriginal by releasing this cover as a single.

And then some people out there have never heard of something for kate and when they tune in to sunrise in the morning and they see born to run being played then they may have the same reaction and think "oh what an unoriginal band".

I guess im just saying that i guess its not really right to judge a band negatively because they do a popular cover. That might not have much to do with the issue at hand but yeah.

[sheeps]

Who played the original Forever Young? Eskimo Joe have a song called Forever Young but it's different, .

I liked the song "Someone Elses Dream" by Youth Group, it was a good song. Forever Young never really interested me and interested me MUCH less after some of the live performances I've seen on tv or heard on the radio or wherever.

[Troy Dann]

The original of Forever Young was by Alphaville

[MD]

Forever Young really screwed things up for Youth Group.

They had released two excellent albums. They had quite a few songs being played on the radio, both in oz and overseas (eg. Shadowland, Skeleton Jar, Someone else's dream). I think what happened with Forever Young was that the OC people wanted them do the cover (original by Alphaville) because they liked their other stuff. I think the cover only came out as a single when it became stupidly popular, but maybe I'm wrong on that. And now they're seen as a one-hit wonder and their gigs are full of randoms who only care about one of their songs.

I didn't realise Pearl Jam's Last Kiss was a cover... I quite like it though

[Troy Dann]

I bet it's gonna be like that for next week's Death Cab gig. People who only know soul meets body, and then will go "this band are shit" after hearing their actual decent stuff. Don't get me wrong, Plans is a good album, the others (Transatlanticism and Photo Album in particular) are much better.

[yabba_dabba_drew]

If you dont like youth group because of forever young, heres more reason: They didnt cover it because they liked it and felt like it, they were approached by the OC guys who said 'will you do a cover of forever young for us?' and they went and did it. talk about selling out

Anyway, a couple off the top of my head:

Bodyjar - Hazy Shade Of Winter
The Herd - I Was Only 19
Cake - I Will Survive

[Troy Dann]

Hmmm... being a Bodyjar fan... I'd have to disagree.. but I don't know.

And how about Cake's Short Skirt, Long Jacket and Goin' The Distance?

[MD]

Wha, hazy shade of winter is a cover too? How come no one tells me these things?! hahah
It was the song that really made me take notice of Bodyjar, though I do like a lot of their other stuff - good nomination. As for the herd and cake... I don't think so

About Youth Group selling out, fair enough. I didn't really think about it that way, but damn, I guess that's exactly what it is.

maybe:
one dollar short - not pretty enough
big heavy stuff - hyperballad (well according to last.fm it's their most popular song !)

[Troy Dann]

Hazy Shade of Winter was originally by Simon and Garfunkel

[Troy Dann]

How could we forget?

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

Don't get me wrong, I love him, the Grace album is amazing and him live very much so, but if you asked most people what song they could name by him, it'd be the cover!

[sheeps]

Muse - Feeling Good. Great cover.

Or are we only talking about evil covers?

We could talk about someone who lives off covers like Michael Bublei.

[Jurds]

Hazy Shade of Winter was originally by Simon and Garfunkel

And was also covered by The Bangles

[kim-b]

dan said:

I bet it's gonna be like that for next week's Death Cab gig. People who only know soul meets body, and then will go "this band are shit" after hearing their actual decent stuff. Don't get me wrong, Plans is a good album, the others (Transatlanticism and Photo Album in particular) are much better.

I wouldn't say those two albums are MUCH better. They're just different, I really like Plans. I didn't even know Soul Meets Body was a big song

edit - holy crap, next week?!