COVER TO COVER

Valerie by Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse

An absolutely brilliant, Northern Soul-ish take on The Zutons original, this was the standout track on Ronson’s double platinum covers album, Version. Also love MR’s version of Dylan’s ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine’.
Have a look at Amy Winehouse t-shirts

Dancing In The Street by Van Halen

One of Motown’s most iconic tunes, covered by everyone from Dusty to the Mamas and the Papas to the Dead to Bowie/Jagger and, perhaps most improbably, by Van Halen on 1982’s Diver Down where it becomes a hypnotic hammer-on-hammer-off Eddie fest.
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Wooden Ships by Jefferson Airplane

The original was byCrosby, Stills and Nash, written onDavid Crosby’sboat in Florida by him and Stephen Stills with Paul Kantner. A boat off the coast of Florida sounds an incongruously idyllic place to come up with a song about the horrors of surviving a nuclear apocalypse, but there you have it. Airplane recorded it the same year and in their hands it became more science-fiction, more scarey and apocalyptic, though for reasons unknown they missed off the last verse.
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You Really Got Me by Van Halen

Now this feels more like Van Halen territory – you can see why Eddie would want to get his teeth into that unforgettable killer riff from The Kinks. He chews it up and spits it out like a 6 string T.Rex with a sound bigger than David Lee Roth’s ego. And that’s big, baby.
Have a look at Eddie Van Halen t-shirts

I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself by The White Stripes

Burt and Hal’s early Sixties beauty is best know for its Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick versions, but this is a scorching, pumping, desperate delight – and not just because of the video with Kate Moss poll dancing.
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Delilah by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Huge Hammer Horror-ish slabs of guitar, overdriven synthesiser, bellowing vocal – this is like Tom Jones after being operated on by an insane scientist in a tower laboratory. We saw Tom does this in Vegas last year and are delighted to report he does the SAHB version these days. The guitarist wasn’t dressed as a psycho clown though, sadly.
Have a look at Sensational Alex Harvey Band t-shirts

Hurt by Johnny Cash

The original, by Nine Inch Nails, is a fine song, but Cash made it great with the desperate, ageless sadness of his vocal. From the Rick Rubin collaboration, this cover is nothing less than a matter of life and death.

Dear Prudence by Siouxsie And The Banshees

Not very punk, but still rather awesome. Always loved her.

All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix

“Bob Dylan couldn’t sing, it never stopped him,” said Jimi. The original is on John Wesley Harding, an oblique and muted piece of understated brilliance; Jimi ramps this up to another level and makes those three chords do a hell of a lot.
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Comfortably Numb by The Scissor Sisters

A most unlikely triumph: a glam, flirty, androgynous piece of lovely trash. What next? The Great Gig In The Sky done disco?

Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds

Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds
Done by Pete Seeger previously, but the lyrics themselves are from that popular beat combo The Book of Ecclesiastes. Seriously: Chapter 3, verse one – “To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Yeah, like right on, man.
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Pictures at an Exhibition by Emerson Lake And Palmer

A brilliantly ambitious and delightfully overblown interpretation of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 suite for piano and orchestra, brought to you in 1971 by Messrs E, L and P recorded live at Newcastle City Hall in front of a lot of men with a lot of hair breathing brown ale fumes. Lovely.
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Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley

Seriously, that X Factor butchery of this made you want to blow up a building – more emotion does not make a song more emotional, it makes less emotional, ok? I bet those that bought the Shriek Factor bleching also think Michael Bolton sings Dock of the Bay better thanMarvin. Still, at least Lenny got a few bob out of it. Buckley’s take, on the other hand, is just beautiful; as opaque as a ginger haired girl’s skin.
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A Message To You Rudy by The Specials

Dandy Livingstone’s ska classic of youth gone bad was fitting material for disaffected London in 1979; the languorous, cheeky trombone solo on The Specials’ version is by Rico Rodriguez – who also played on the original. Allowed men to dance aggressively enough to prevent them getting in touch with their feminine sides.

Smells Like Teen Spirit by the Ukulele

Orchestra of Great Britain
Hard rocking, hard driving, hard banjo. That riff sounds great on a uke for some reason.

A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall by Roxy Music

Really like this cover: its kind of itchy, almost Tourette’s-like twitchiness really brings out the paranoia and sense of foreboding of Bob’s original. A reminder that before he came out as a reactionary country squire type, Ferry was an art school boy with art school sensibilities. Danced like man who’d had a stroke though.

I Will Survive by Cake

The ultimate pissed-secretary-at-karaoke anthem gets a stripped down, bitter makeover. Gloria Gaynor’s defiance is replaced by simple drink-to-forget spite. Excellent.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Great White

If it’s good, it’s only gonna be better with a massive dose of hair rock. Although Ian Hunter’s accent is much cooler. Enough hair spray to kill a planet.

The Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana

A pretty faithful cover of David Bowie’s third album title track, but none the less superb for that and so poignant. Has that dark heroine vibe all over it. Can’t imagine Bowie performing it in an old mohair cardi though.
Have a look at Kurt Cobain t-shirts

Summertime Blues by The Who

At once vintage and totally modern. Check out the Live At Leeds barnstorming. As ever Entwistle’s bass sounds like five instruments and all of them set on stun. And Mose Allison’s Young Man Blues on the same album may just be the best live track they ever played.
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