Covers

One night I was listening to music in the wee hours of the morning, a CD my friend had burned ahem, given to me. The music was Shinedown, with a few tracks by Lacuna Coil thrown in to use the extra space.

"Let me know which are your favorite tracks," my friend said when she gave it to me. It sounded like an odd request, but hey, she does keep company with me. Oddity is a given.

So I was listening late at night. Track five was a bit slow to start. Impatient, I fast forwarded a bit. "You have no riiiight to ask me how I feeeel..." Phil fucking Collins. The bitch.

She loves '80s music. I do not. It's a running joke between us--when we're out in my car, I threaten her with my "emo-screamo crap," and when I'm with her, she threatens me with Phil Collins. Or Genesis. Or something equally against the grain of my picky tastes.

With the exception of Metallica and The Cure, I really don't much care for '80s music. But I'll be darned, '80s pop makes for really good cover songs. A good cover song has to capture enough of the original, but add something new--otherwise, it just seems like a shadow of the original.
So, here are a few good ones.

Dead or Alive's "You Spin me Round (Like a Record)" as covered by industrial group Dope.
The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" as covered by Marilyn Manson.
Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" as covered by Marilyn Manson (eh... Manson's video is nsfw).
Genesis's "Land of Confusion" as covered by Disturbed.
New Order's "Blue Monday" as covered by Orgy.

Actually, it isn't just '80s stuff.
Metallica's cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" is in my humble opinion better than the original.
Ditto for Shinedown's cover of Lynard Skynard's "Simple Man" (Shinedown's vocalist is incredible; that's 90% of it right there).

And this last one is... Well, there's a trend in these songs for my preferring industrial renditions better than the originals. The last one reverses the trend, and it almost feels blasphemous to say, but...

I like Nine Inch Nails. A lot. And I like their song "Hurt," but Johnny Cash's rendition just blows them away. When I heard Cash's version, I think my heart broke a little bit. Heck, a lot. He strips it down and makes it bleed with regret. If you don't click any of the links, at least watch this: