Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Covers

I just want everyone to hear my Nickelback covers.

robotot — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:50:28 -0800

Why are there so many covers songs on youtube? I've searched for "acoustic covers" on youtube, and read youtube's policy and I can't reconcile the two.

Obviously, performing a cover on youtube is copyright infringement. Do the majority of these youtube users get away with it 'cos the rights holders don't care, or would they all have got permission?

Know any good music covers I should hear?

internet!Hannah — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:56:48 -0800

I love the Dope metal cover of You Spin Me Right Round, and the Reel Big Fish ska cover of Take On Me. What other awesome covers are out there I should be looking for? I was in the shopping mall when I heard a neat slow cover of Jimmy Eat World's A Praise Chorus (and if you have any guesses as to who that cover might be by, that'd be awesome, though this question is more general than that) and it got me thinking about what other neat covers might be out there. In some cases the covers surpass the original, or are very interesting just due to the genre switch and it's those I'm most looking for.

Covers I already know of, to give you an idea of what I'm looking for:

Dope - You Spin Me Round (Dead or Alive)
Reel Big Fish - Take On Me (A-ha)
MXPX - Barbie Girl (Aqua)
Bettie Serveert - Lover I Don't Have to Love (Bright Eyes)
Ben Folds Five - Bitches Ain't Shit (Dr. Dre)
The Decemberists - Human Behavior (Bjork)
Something Corporate - Unravel (also Bjork)

There are also some that are more remakes that I like, such as the Mindless Self Indulgence version of Tom Sawyer, so I'd be all for suggestions along those lines too.

So, anyone have any suggestions? Like I said, I love covers that really shake up the sound or the genre, and I'm a sucker for remakes of 80s hits, so if you know of any good ones out there please let me know!

Have Mercy

dortmunder — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:17:58 -0800

Help me find a version of the song "Mercy" I heard on the radio. Yesterday, I heard a southwesterny Calexico-like song with a female singer on a local college radio station. I googled the line of lyrics "There's no Mercy in Your Eyes," and it turns out the song is called 'Mercy" and performed by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, although I don't know if it's an original of theirs or a cover they do. Anyway, I want to find the version I heard yesterday. Who sings it? Anyone know? Thanks.

When is a cover song not a cover song?

SansPoint — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:13:30 -0800

Is it still, technically, a cover song when the original songwriter records a track that they wrote for someone else? Take, as an example, Iggy Pop's "China Girl" - written by David Bowie for Iggy and recorded in 1977. In 1983, Bowie rerecorded it and put it on the Let's Dance album. Another example, slightly more obscure is "Video Killed the Radio Star" - written by Trevor Horn for Bruce Wooley and The Camera Club, and then re-recorded by Horn's group Buggles. We know which of those versions was better known.

There's other examples too. Are the re-recorded versions, then, still covers, or is there some other term for this?

I'm looking for locations in NYC of iconic album covers.

phirleh — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:04:12 -0800

I'm traveling to NYC soon and I'm looking for locations of where iconic album covers were shot. Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys taken at Ludlow and Rivington comes to mind, any others?

mashup classics / polar opposite covers

chrissyboy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:05:42 -0800

I'm looking for mashups / bootlegs that are classics or defining moments of the genre. Ideally the mashups are 2 easily identifiable songs put together; for some reason the only example I can think of at the moment is Missy Elliot over AC/DC's 'Back in Black', but as far as I can remember that was a white label that preceded the mashup craze by a year or so.

What synthpop, electronic or dance music tunes are covers of older non-electronic tunes?

iivix — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:08:01 -0800

Having recently discovered the original northern soul version of Tainted Love by Gloria Jones, I'm keen to find more songs like this, i.e. acoustic, rock, folk, soul, etc. songs which have a later and well known synthpop or electronic cover version. So I'd like to put together a mix set of slightly to very obscure tunes of music made using real instruments, where all the songs have that "Oh, I know that one!" feeling, because you've heard the well known, iconic, synthpop or electronic version.

Basically, what I'm looking for is a list of synthpop, new romantic, electronic pop, dance music, etc (from 1980 onwards) tunes that are cover versions of older, non-electronic tunes, so that I can track down the originals. I'm not bothered about the quality of the originals - in fact, in many ways, the worse they are, the better.

Christmas Carol Covers

simplethings — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:20:16 -0800

Christmas Song Filter: I'm looking for the best, current, classic Christmas song covers by today's popular artists. I want to make an awesome Christmas song album for this year but I need music.
I love covers... and covers of covers and Christmas is the best time to find them.
My list is a little specific:
-The songs should be relatively new. Anything after 2005 would be great.
-The artists should be well known, preferably pop or 'alternative' performers.
-They must be covers of classic Christmas songs arranged in the style of the artist singing.
-They have to be awesome.

Some info on my musical tastes: I love Christina Aguilera but her Christmas Album didn't appeal to me at all. I think she took her runs too far.
Same with Michael Buble, his voice makes me melt, but his Christmas covers were boring and unoriginal.
I recently heard The Fray's cover of Happy Christmas (the one done by John Lennon) and it was awesome at first... but they decided to keep the choir aspect and that made it suck.
I remember back in the day, when Rosie had her show, she released a Christmas album (or 2) featuring popular singers at the time singing with her (yikes, I know). Aside from Rosie's not-so-pleasant voice there were some really nice and fun covers. I love unlikely pairings!
I also love likely pairings... back when Jessica and Nick were together they did a cover of Baby It's Cold Outside which I thought was adorable. It showcased Jessica's strange as hell, overacted, airy voice as a compliment of sorts to Nick's smooth, boy band voice. It was a bit comedic but enjoyable.
This isn't Christmas-Christmas but I love Fiona Apple's take on Sally's Song from Nightmare Before Christmas. The feel of the song became more dark and soulful with the new arrangement (What's This? covered by Fall Out Boy was also great). That's the kind of awesome cover I'm looking for.

Any suggestions?

Avoiding the "One-man wedding band" trap

anthom — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:31:48 -0800

Help me find some well-known songs to cover that don't suck! I'm a keyboardist/singer/songwriter who's recently started playing open mics again for the first time in years. I've got a relatively big catalog of originals that I play, but I've found myself wanting to throw some good covers into the mix as well, if only to have something people will recognize.

The problem is, my tastes tend toward the more obscure side of things. I want to try and cover songs I'd love to have written, but an average coffeehouse audience isn't necessarily going to be won over with American Music Club, or "Ballad of El Goodo." I've covered Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (which themselves verge on overdone cover status, but people seemed to like them, and I didn't feel dirty for singing them), but I want to expand the repertoire.

There's nothing wrong with "Candle in the Wind" or "Piano Man," but I'd rather not have to play stuff like that just because I happen to use a keyboard instrument.

...and so I call upon the hive mind: can you think of songs that would sound good in a piano/vocal arrangement with some semi-universal familiarity that aren't uber-cheesy?

Help me find some music?

bradth27 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:23:19 -0800

I need some suggestions for covers or original songs by performers who are "out of their league." I need to find some music by performers who have either recorded a cover of a tune outside of their own particular style ( for example, Snoop Dogg's "My Medicine" or Faith No More's cover of "Easy.") This could include performers who take an original song and "turn it" into their own style ( Pat Boone's entire "In a Metal Mood" comes to mind, or many of the Cash covers that were put out on his last albums) or those who choose to keep the song in relatively original form.

I see that there have been previous questions about metal covers, but not really anything covering the whole spectrum.

What are your favorites?

Basically I need James Taylor to cover a Jay Z song.

allkindsoftime — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:18:01 -0800

Best nerdy white band / artist covers of rap songs (the more offensive the better). OK so a friend recently played The Gourds' cover of Gin & Juice for me and it was clear that its pretty much her favorite thing ever, and I'd like to make her a little birthday mix-CD. Here's what else I have so far:

Jonathan Coulton - Baby Got Back
Nina Gordon - Straight out of Compton
Dynamite Hack - Boyz in the Hood

This question had a few answers that helped, but I need more of this specific type if ya'll have them. Bonus points for any suggestions including links to where I can buy / DL the songs.

Help me find more electronic covers of old punk songs.

23skidoo — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:37:07 -0800

I have recently found Of Montreal's cover of Where Eagles Dare, and I love it. Can you recommend me some more electronic(kish) covers of old punk songs? I am not looking for anything that is not an electronic(kish) cover of an old punk song. Please no "Not exactly what you asked for, but..." answers. What I asked for is exactly what I am looking for. Thanks.

Covers for dinner music?

shotgunbooty — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:18:01 -0800

Putting together a dinner music playlist entirely composed of covers... And I need suggestions/recommendations! Anything and everything really that would be appropriate to play while having dinner/cooking.

I've already got Jose Gonzales' cover of Heartbeats and Ryan Adams cover of Wonderwall, Cat Power's cover albums, and Bright Eyes' cover of Devil Town.

Also, anyone know where I can find Matt Weddle's cover of Hey Ya in mp3 or other high quality audio format?

Trance covers/remixes

jmd82 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:47:20 -0800

Looking for trance covers/remixes. I love trance. I'm particularly fond of female vocals in trance. I stream it all day from the Internet at work.
I've also always loved covers of popular songs.
Fuse the two, and now I'm looking for trance remixes of popular songs! I'd be interested in forms other electronic music (techno, jungle, etc), but I always come back to trance in the end.

While I'm already aware of OCremix and more than have my fill of console remixes, I'm not particular to any specific genre. Anything from classical music to 80's pop to heavy metal, I'm all ears.
Artists who specialize in creating remixes are a plus.

I loved being sincerely welcomed to the jungle.

crinklebat — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:02:03 -0800

I want to hear songs that are ironic reimaginings of other, more popular songs. This is hard to explain; examples inside. This morning I heard They Might Be Giants' "Welcome to the Jungle" (which amiably welcomes a number of people to the jungle and invites them to enjoy the various wonders they will encounter). I pretty much died of delight. Since then I've been thinking about how I could find other songs like that - songs that seem like they'd be covers, based on their titles or some other fundamental thing about them, but then they turn out to be different in a completely hilarious way. I already love the Residents and think they've kind of made a career of doing this kind of goofy stuff, so don't bother.

So I guess what I'm looking for is maybe songs that are covers but changed in such a way that they're ironic (like the Residents' cover of Jailhouse Rock in which the singer sounds criminally deranged, or of Satisfaction in which the singer sounds, um, extremely unsatisfied), but much better would be songs that use the name of more popular songs but interpret the names in a different way that is vastly goofier/more clever/both.

If you have ANY songs that come close to fitting the bill, you are awesome. I would also appreciate being told whether this is a proper use of the adjective "ironic"; I'm always nervous about misusing it.

How do I clear celebrity photos easily and effortlessly?

Elle Vator — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:27:43 -0800

"We need to use that picture of that pregnant singer from the cover of Mary Claire in the next show," says my boss. "What's my budget," I ask? There's a pause. My budget is nothing. "Can't you just get permission? As a promotion?" I make a note. "When do we need it by?" "Yesterday. As long as you get me the release by Friday, we're good." Yes, this is my job. Anyone have tips on successfully licensing photos of celebrities... for as little money and hassle as possible? I am in an interesting situation in which I am employed doing 'visual research' on a TV show that has little money and is months behind schedule. This is one of those 'opportunity' jobs, in that if I succeed I am a hero, if I fail I am relatively expendable.

I need to go after that nude picture of Xtina, for example, but I can't afford any expenditure, any delays and need that release on file.

If you know anything that can help me - either specific to this situation or for my job in general, please let me know. Feel free to send me a message as well.

Help put together my setlist

tdismukes — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:44:54 -0800

Help me figure out a vocal repertoire. A long time ago, I used to drop in at the local open-mike night with my acoustic guitar and sing whatever songs I liked that I could find the chords and lyrics for. My singing sucked, but that was okay because my playing sucked too. My ear wasn't developed enough for me to tell how bad I was, so I didn't mind all the suckiness.

Then I got into a band (not as the singer), and started learning to be a better musician. Along the way, I realized how bad my old solo repertoire was compared to what I could play with the band, so I gradually dropped the solo performances and forgot most of my material.

Now I'd like to start doing a little bit of singing and playing solo again. The difference is that this time my standards are higher. I'd like to perform songs that I could actually do a passable job of singing. My vocal range is fairly limited, and my voice is a bit lower than average. Most of the songs I like to listen to just won't work that well for my range. I've gotten a decent reaction to a recording I just knocked out of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows (my version here). I'm trying to find other songs in this same vein that would suit my voice.

I've got a preference for the folk/folk-rock genre, but I'm open to trying other directions. Other considerations being equal, I'd also prefer songs which are obscure enough so that not everybody will be intimately familiar with the original. (That being the case, links to existing performances of any suggested songs will be welcome, since I might not be familiar with them either.)

ストロベリー・フィールズ・フォーエバー

Infernarl — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:08:31 -0800

Covers of Beatles songs with Japanese Instruments, mostly koto and shakuhachi. They were featured as the BGM on the Japanese telivision program テリビチャンピオン２. Does anyone know any information?

I need new cushion covers!

crewshell — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:23:52 -0800

I need covers for the cushions on my couch. Where can I get them with these custom dimensions for a reasonable cost (20ish a piece)? I have 3 that are 17.5 x 23.5
and 3 that are 24 x 25
both sets are 5 inches thick.

What are my best options for finding these? I just want a solid color.. maybe dark gray or black, very dark red would work too.

I could try to make them... but I dont think that would turn out well.

Suggestions?

(i've tried surefit, they dont really have cushion covers, which is odd considering its easier to make those than full couch covers!)

I want more satisfaction.

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:36:01 -0800

What are some cover versions of well known songs that have refashioned or rearranged the piece so dramatically as to seem not exactly the covered song, but more of a unique work in and of itself? Example: Devo's version of Satisfaction.

What could be worse than Captain Kirk singing Dylan?

Astro Zombie — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:30:48 -0800

What are the worst covers of Bob Dylan's songs of all time? I mean the equivalent of George Burns singing "With a Little Help from My Friends" or Ed McMahon's rendition of "Thank Heavens for Little Girls"; just hideously idiotic pairings of the songs with inappropriate artists, or abominably misconceived versions of Dylan's music. Obviously, Bill Shatner's "Mr. Tambourine Man" would start this list. What else?

Why aren't there any Rap covers by Rap artists?

ssmith — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:00:20 -0800

Why aren't there any Rap covers by Rap artists? This question was semi-inspired by the covers post the other day, but it's something that I've had on my mind for awhile. (Please note that I'm not talking about covers of Rap songs by non-Rap artists like Johnathan Coulton's "Baby got back", The Gourds' "Gin and Juice", etc.)

I find it fascinating that I can't come up with a single example of a Hip-Hop/Rap artist flat out covering another Hip-Hop/Rap artist's song. What is it about Rap that makes it run counter to pretty much every other genre of popular music?

What's stopping 50 Cent or Kanye West from ripping up "White Lines" or "Fight the power" and just making it their own?

iTunes bug or "feature"?

zooropa — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:46:45 -0800

"Simple" iTunes question -- why do some covers get grouped together and others do not? I'm sure there is a simple answer here, but I'll be darned if I can't figure this out.

I'm using iTunes 7.0.2 in Windows XP. I love the new "view by covers" feature (thank you CoverFlow!), but there's some curious behavior taking place. When I scroll through the covers, I notice that some tracks are "grouped" together while others are not. Here's an example:

I bought the Sting album "Ten Summoner's Tales" from the iTunes Store. When I scroll though the tracks, the cover gets shown only once.

I also recently bought three tracks from the Police album "Ghost in the Machine." When I scroll through the tracks, the cover is displayed three separate times.

I'd like to have the cover only display once when I'm scrolling. I have 3500+ tracks in iTunes, and anything I can do to cut down on the amount of scrolling would be a plus.

Any ideas?

How about another MusicFilter question?

twine42 — Mon, 21 May 2007 09:29:30 -0800

MusicFilter : I'm looking for not-so-serious covers which have been yanked from one genre to another. How do you expand upon a fairly basic "recommend me more music" question?

I'm currently loving Hayseed Dixie's covers (rock->bluegrass), Weird Al's covers (various->polka) and the rather more serious "Rhythms Del Mundo" covers (various->latin).

So, I'm after some suggestions of other music that's been brought from one genre to another, and preferably stuff that's ended up in a similar kind of style to those mentioned above (ie, turning 'Strawberry Fields' into a thrash metal track probably won't do it for me).

Is there a website where you can put in features of artwork from a CD/album, and it'll find what the album is?

trampesque — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:12:12 -0800

Is there a website where you can put in features of artwork from a CD/album, and it'll find what the album is? I might have dreamt this, but seem to remember a website where you could put into the search box, for example, 'Tiger' and it would return all the albums with the picture of a tiger in the artwork.

I'm trying to track down what some CDs are and literally only have small thumbnails of the covers - the title is too small to decipher - and a website like this would help immensely!