Into something rich and strange: Top 25 cover versions

Now you all know about my barely concealed disdain for the current rash of what I loosely call 'shite' cover versions. These can be heard mainly on The Radio 1 live lounge album II and Mark Ronson's Version (Best British Male indeed- cock). But I'm not tarnishing all covers with the same skanky old brush, no sir. There are some sublime covers out there which, at their very best are utterly transforming, and every bit as good as their originals. It's a contentious subject though, and If anyone actually read this blog I'd be slightly worried about getting a kicking.

25 Richard Cheese and Lounge against the Machine Enter Sandman (Metallica)
Without doubt my favourite from the inimitable loungers- and I don't just like them because of their excellent punnery - although that makes my lexical universe feel warm and fuzzy. I'm fond of this because Enter Sandman was one of my karaoke numbers in Japan. I particularly enjoyed singing it when I was beyond unbelievably pissed. To my mind, I sounded like Richard Cheese, in reality I sounded like this- Rahrahrahrahblahblahrahrah. Happy memories. For me at least.

24 Rod Stewart The First Cut is the Deepest (Cat Stevens)
I couldn't believe this was a Cat Stevens song! And I'll tell you why, when I was lying on our living room floor listening to my mum's The Best of Rod Stewart album (you remember, that pink one. all mums had it by law.) I totally BELIEVED that Rod was singing this song from the very bottom of his sincerest, truest, beauty-really-is-more-than- blond-deep heart. I felt every single word of his pain like I was there with him, being torn limb from limb by the horrors of first love. It came as a totally surprise that, you know, Perhaps Rod's heart wasn't really in it. If only I'd seen this appearance on Top of the Pops, the game might have been up a lot sooner.

23 Futureheads Hounds of Love (Kate Bush)
So apart from a couple of (reputedly) pretty shitty cover albums by (reputedly) pretty shitty bands, the first real Kate cover was probably Placebo's Running up that Hill, which is actually pretty fine. Kudos to them for taking on the (reputedly) un-take-on-able, and kudos to the Futureheads for not only that, but for the sheer brilliance of their choice of song. They manage to do exactly what Kate Bush does, that is, make a really silly song sound, well, not silly, but quite good. Damn! How do they do that?! Makes Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds sound like pussies.

22 Sugarbabes Living for the Weekend (Hard Fi)
A surprise entry given my current displeasure with the Live Lounge, but my God this song is lush! Imagine a song about yoof dissatisfaction in small town England, where the only relief you get from your piss poor pathetic life is when you go out and get totally wasted at the weekend. And then imagine the beautiful, shiny, glossy Sugarbabes singing said song. And then luxuriate in your own glorious disorientation. My favourite lines are of course 'Ah shit, so my clothes are all counterfeit, so my name isn't on the list' -The Sugarbabes' names not on the list? carrying fake Gucci bags? You are joking right? Ah, but out of the mouths of babes.....

21 White Stripes I Just don't know what to do with myself (Dusty Springfield-kinda)
Ah the White Stripesiness of the White Stripes. This song is full on sexy, which perhaps goes someway to explaining the Kate Moss/pole dancing video thing.

20 Sinead O'Connor Nothing Compares 2 U (Prince/The Family)
I could have believed Sinead O'Connor had written this- her first album had some really nice stuff on it. Anyway, she didn't, but I totally BELIEVED she did, just like Rod Stewart all over again. I'm pleased she had this success, because I like Sinead O'Connor, and can't help thinking she has been misrepresented. Unless she is actually a catholic mental.

19 The Bangles Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon and Garfunkel)
Now some people might think that the Bangles are lame, but I beg to differ. Does that long time crush I had on Susanna Hoffs have anything to do with it? Well, I'm going to say no, to preserve my artistic integrity, but I can't stop you laughing at me behind my back now can I? The Bangle's cover does what any great cover should do- it transforms the song into something new and wonderful whilst somehow retaining the essential beauty of the original. And that guitar riff!

18 S Express Hey Music Lover
I suppose it's really S'express (although I must give a nod to Betty Boo) that marked my final acceptance of Disco as a viable medium, albeit through the channel of Dance music. I don't actually notice that the two are related until the late 90s but I was never particularly quick on the uptake. Oh. And I can't find the original band name anywhere. Anybody help me out?

17 Flying Lizards Money (The Beatles)
Generally speaking, Beatles covers are pale imitations of the originals. I mean, no one needs to hear another Beatles ballad do they? But this cover is so off the wall it's brilliant.

16 Soft Cell What! (Judy Street)
Just a tantalising taste of how fabulous Soft Cell are at the art of the cover version. There are about 6 songs in the world that make me feel full on happy. This is one of them.

15 Happy Mondays Step On (John Kongos)
Ah the Happy Mondays in their hayday. You knew it couldn't last so best just to neck one and enjoy the ride. And where did they find this song?

14 Donna Summer McArthur Park (Richard Harris)
In my addled teenage brain, I always thought that this song was from Camelot, and the cake was something to do with Merlin. Which is a strange but easy enough mistake to make. To imagine you could turn that 6 minute Harris ramble, into a glamorous disco opus is stranger still. Now that's magic!

13 Placebo Running up that Hill (Kate Bush)
Like I said. Kudos for having the nerve to cover her.

12 Johnny Cash Hurt (Nine Inch Nails)
My dad (long time Johnny Cash devotee) totally hated the The Man comes around album. He hated that Johnny C had finally lost his voice, It made him feel his own mortality he said- that even Johnny Cash couldn't sing forever. For me the failing voice adds new shades of meaning to the song- feelings of loss, mortality, frailty, getting old. And the video is perfect. A fine epitaph indeed.

11 Robert Wyatt Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello)
Elvis Costello says that this song has "The best lyrics I've ever written". He wrote it for Robert Wyatt- and even though he later recorded it, he couldn't surpass it. As a comment on the Falklands and the 80s in general it by far surpasses Costello's more caustic numbers (I'm thinking Tramp the dirt down), and it remains a glum reminder of just how grim-up-north it was in the 80s.

10 Sundays Wild Horses (The Rolling Stones)
This is the 12" b side of the first single release from the Sundays second (and not that well received) album Blind. I bought it on vinyl when it came out and thought I was the only person in the world who had heard it. Then (10 years later) it starts appearing all over the show- Buffy, Garden State.... spooky. And lovely.

9 Dread Zeppelin Hey Hey (Led Zeppelin)
There isn't much to say here except Robert Plant loves Dread Zeppelin. I prefer the later smoothness of De-jah Voodoo, but I can go the earlier rough and ready easily enough. They are just fucking inspired. And isn't that a pun?

8 Tori Amos Smells like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
Some people totally hate this song. I am totally not one of them. This still makes me sad when I hear it, because I am a sentimental divvy.

7 Scissor Sisters Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
Sometimes when I'm talking about music this strange urge to talk in DJ cliches overwhelms me, and I start wanting to say things like, totally rocks, kickin', cool, guitar licks and blows my mind. To my mind this song is a masterpiece of cheeky irreverence. Not so much a thumbs up to Pink Floyd, so much as the finger at Pink Floyd. At least that's what I like to think. And man, it is so cool it blows my mind.

6 Gary Jules Mad World (Tears for Fears)
It's utterly inspired this isn't it. The saddest thing in the world. Almost inseparable from the perfect ending of Donnie Darko, it rivals Mrs Robinson at the end of The Graduate for the most perfectly placed piece of music in a film ever. (I feel another list coming on...)

5 Soft Cell Tainted Love (Gloria Jones)
I was 14 when this song came out. I had already lived through the camp bonanza that was 70s glam rock, I had seen punk, new wave and the mincing foppery of New Romanticism was just getting underway. Nothing though, had prepared me for Mark Almond and Soft Cell. Me, and everyone I knew, had never seen anything like them. Only Boy George's appearance on Top of the Pops the following year would come close to it. And the song was out of this world! Everybody was just totally blown away by it (is there a dj in the room?) Like Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah, it's the Soft Cell cover that artists now cover, not the original. The mark of a truly inspired cover.

4 Sandy Shaw Jeane (The Smiths)
I was never much taken with Sandy Shaw really, but somehow she brings this kitchen sink-y Smiths drama to life in a way that the original never does. And this live version does all those DJ cliches to me again!

3 Ellen McIllwaine Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder) I had been listening to this song for about a year before I realised it was actually the Stevie Wonder Higher Ground, I thought the title was just a coincidence. It's hard to imagine anything ever coming close to the original, but this song does it and some. Its like Stevie Wonder possessed by a Haitian monkey devil during a medicine man exorcism. After half a pint of peyote.

2 Jeff Buckley Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
There are two things that annoy me when people talk about Hallelujah. The first is people saying 'I prefer the original'. I mean, I love Leonard Cohen as much as the next man, but his Hallelujah was never hailed as one of his greats because, well frankly it's a bit of a dirge. Obviously it's poetically breathtaking, but when Jeff Buckley sings it, it becomes this shining thing, something so beautiful it's practically a religion. A bit like Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas or Twiggy wearing Mary Quant. The second is people saying 'I prefer the Rufus Wainright/Kathryn Williams/Imogen Heap/Bon Jovi/U2 version', because like the Tainted Love covers, these songs are covers of a cover (Jeff Buckley's), which you've got to admit, just isn't that cool.

1 This Mortal Coil Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley)
Funny that my top 2 covers are oddly connected. Not only is Jeff the son of Tim, he also went out with Elizabeth Frazer (they met at his request because he had loved her version of his dad's song). I first heard this on one of those long nights listening to seven shades of shit on John Peel to hear the occasional good song. He was the Cocteau Twins' number one fan bless him. If I try hard enough I can still remember the chill this song used to give me whenever I heard it. The first time I went to Gwen's house when I was 17, she played Ghosts, Stairway to Heaven, and Song to the Siren. We are still mates obviously. Who could fly in the the face of that kind of good omen? It was like nothing I had ever heard before. I got into Tim Buckley much later, and totally get why some find him a hard nut to crack. What I admire about Elizabeth Fraser is that at 21 she had not only cracked it, but rendered it richer and stranger than its (in its own right very beautiful) original. Seems only fitting that she should be rewarded with Jeff Buckley really. If only for a short while.