Kings of Covers

I can't stop thinking about covers. Ever since Thursday's post about the worst covers of all time, I've found myself constantly listening to re-workings of different songs. It's got to the point now where I'm not sure what's original and what isn't. Now when I look in the mirror, I don't see myself any more, but a rather poor rendition of Gary Jarman's face.

So, considering last week I told you all about when cover versions go wrong. I thought I might as well show you the other end of the spectrum. My initial idea was to simply do a list of some of my favourite covers. However, when I started listing them, I realised that the majority of them came from a small cluster of bands.

As a result I'm just going to give you a list of people who can well and truly conquer the cover. The kings of covers. Once again, there's no particular order, and if you want to listen to any of the songs I've mentioned, there's a playlist at the bottom.

1. Ramones/Joey Ramone
Despite being founding members of the punk scene in 1976, the Ramones were heavily influenced by some of the more straight-laced bubblegum pop that was around in the 1950s and 1960s. When covering other songs, the Ramones often approached the task in one of two ways. Either by doing it like for like ('Needles and Pins', 'Baby I Love You') or giving it their own punk twist ('California Sun', 'Do You Wanna Dance' and Joey Ramone's version of 'What a Wonderful World'). Whichever way they would choose, it worked every time.

2. Franz Ferdinand
Despite predominantly being a guitar band, it's always been possible to tell that Franz Ferdinand have very pop style sensibilities. This is probably why more often than not they choose to cover songs that either were chart classics ('Sound and Vision', 'Call Me') or songs that could be considered classics in the future ('What You Waiting For?', 'Womanizer'). The thing that makes them a great cover band is that they decide to have fun outside of their typical style of music.

3. Oasis/Noel Gallager
Say what you want about Oasis, but they produced some exceptional material in their time. Usually having an album of their own material (insert Beatles sound-a-like joke here if you wish) and then releasing a reworked classic as a B-Sides to their singles. Songs of choice usually came from their influences, such as The Beatles ('I am the Walrus') and The Who ('My Generation'). Noel's also been known to cover a few classics while doing his own shows.

4. The Cribs/Ryan Jarman
The Cribs don't often cover songs that the majority have heard of (perhaps with the exception of The Smiths classic 'Panic'). However, whatever they choose to do, they always manage to make it their own. Song choices usually come from their influences (Huggy Bear's 'Concrete Life', Comet Gain's 'Saturday Night Facts of Life', The Replacements' 'Bastards of Young'), friends (Kaiser Chiefs' 'Modern Way) or a girlfriend (Kate Nash's 'Do-Wah-Doo').



There you go. If you want to listen to any of the songs (including the originals), then just click here. The only exception is 'Saturday Night Facts of Life', which is apparently too good for the likes of Youtube. Anyway, you can listen to The Cribs' version of that by clicking here.