We now reach the end of our trip through the wacky world of cover songs, and as promised, today I am revealing what I believe to be the best and worst covers songs of modern music. I say modern music, because in reality, Mozart and Beethoven are probably the most covered artists in history, but I am no classical music expert to pick out the best there (and most classical music today are covers!) It won’t surprise anyone reading my blog that both songs today come from The Beatles. As I have said, The Beatles are the most covered band in modern music and as such the chances of finding the best and worst are higher.
Let’s start with the bad and end with the good, shall we? I must ask forgiveness in advance for including the following cover in that, it is so bad, you will probably stop listening before it is through (I know I did).
I really like William Shatner. I am a big Star Trek fan and I even like the over the top stuff he does today. Is he a good actor? Probably. Is he a good singer? Not at all. In fact, he did record an album, The Transformed Man, which is more of reading of songs set to music, but I am considering them covers because of the music and that it was commercially distributed. On this album there is the infamous recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. When I listened on YouTube, I just kept saying to myself, why did he do this, and why did someone let him do this? Was it a joke? Were they all stoned? Maybe they were. According to Shatner, the concept was to read from famous poems and juxtapose them with their modern counterparts, pop lyrics. Whatever. When you listen, but remember I warned you!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2oZGlrHXqM]
Now for the good! I think the best cover of a Beatles song and of any song is Joe Cocker’s
With a Little Help From my Friends. The song is a great song to begin with. Cocker, or course, broke all of my rules! He changed the style and even some of the music. But it worked. And it became a bit hit. He sang it live at Woodstock and it has become his most famous work. Here are two clips of it, one from Woodstock and one from 2002 which shows that he still has it!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOwl_APqVm4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wG6Cgmgn5U]
Enjoy!