Huge classic hits, but rarely or never covered

[Gully Foyle]

 

[prowla]

You'll never get a band covering this:



Oh, hang on...

Oh, and...

 

[Fletz]

It's hard to spell too!

touche

 

[prowla]

touche

hehe...

 

[Xandrell]

Now, those are two gems you don't hear covered every day.

Itchycoo Park has a neat bass line and I get to use my SY-300 Synth as well. It's a really good crowd pleaser.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

OMG this list from these pages looks like my songlist from the 80's. I still hear most of them on the radio though.

 

[logicman69]

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
Van Halen - Jump
Somebody - Bryan Adams

...just a few off the top of my head from the '80s...should be classic enough hits?

My band opens the night with Jump. People go nuts!!

Gonna try and talk them into doing Panama too

 

[b/o 402]

"Is that Mr Bean on the guitar there?"

Good pull!

 

[onlyclave]

Who has ever covered this song in their band?

I have covered this with my band. It's only been twice but we tried it out.

 

[DavC]

i would go thru the BillBoard top 10 hits from every year that's in your wheel house ...

i did that with classic rock stuff ... but i'm old .. !!

Vehicle - The Ides of March

Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers

Stay with me Tonight - Jeffrey Osborne

We're an American Band - Grand Funk

Easy Living - Uriah Heap

see ... told u i was old ...

 

[tlc1976]

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
Van Halen - Jump
Somebody - Bryan Adams

...just a few off the top of my head from the '80s...should be classic enough hits?

"Money for Nothing" was my favorite song when I was 9 or 10. My folks took me into a local bar where they covered it.

 

[SteveCS]

This thread is very interesting because my band goes out of its way to play classic hits that not many others do. BTW, we are an acoustic/electric trio with no drums...bass, guitar, lead singer (all sing).
We cover:
Hotel California, Still the One, Don't Stop Believing, Paradise By The Dashboard Lights, Too Much Time On My Hands....and a host of others. I still get psyched every time we play because people don't expect this from an acoustic act (we get more bookings and more $$)

Ive also played in numerous ensenbles with no drummer and in many ways it is more rewarding - more than just the $$ split. In my current band we are just piano, bass and vox. We have looked for drums/perc but to no avail, so I've recently taken up the role of drum programmer!! I have to say that it is rewarding in that the overall impact of the band has been enhanced but, more, my intimaowith the songs has gone through the roof. Listening to them time and time again, matching tempo changes and the nuance of some really great drummers (Mick Fleetwood, Paul Cook, Bob Siedenberg, Stewart Copeland...) really gets you under the hood...
YMMV

 

[Josh Kneisel]

On Topic:

I have never seen or heard covers of these iconic (in my mind) rock tunes:

David Essex -- Rock On
The Outfield -- Your Love
anything by Warren Zevon

(I always thought a Warren Zevon 'tribute' band would be awesome ...... No one else seems to think so ......)

Ive been in bands and seen bands cover the Outfield one...

 

[Xandrell]

Who has ever covered this song in their band?

Nice. Of course you'd have to do some Loverboy with it.

 

[PauFerro]

Sometimes the songs have so much production and specialized sounds that a typical band can't duplicate the tune in a way that works. Some tunes work with all kinds of different instrumentation, but others require faithful reproduction to even work.

So the tune falls by the wayside. Check out A-Ha's "Take on Me" from the 80's. Very few people can pull off those vocals and not all have the synth sound or chops to make the song work. So I've never seen it covered live locally.

 

[Gully Foyle]

Sometimes the songs have so much production and specialized sounds that a typical band can't duplicate the tune in a way that works. Some tunes work with all kinds of different instrumentation, but others require faithful reproduction to even work.

So the tune falls by the wayside. Check out Ah Ha "Take on Me" from the 80's. Very few people can pull off those vocals and not all have the synth sound or chops to make the song work.

Sometimes a radical genre change can take a song a long way - i first realized this from the cover of VH's Jump on the 'Everybody Wants Some' compilation, which is all genre-shifted. It took a keyboard driven uptempo rock/pop number and made it the ultimate pensive lilith fair feminist folk anthem, and was miraculous. I later took a page from this book and did a reggae Crazy Train, that worked really, really well. I'd bet 'Take On Me' would find lots of new life in new genres that didnt require all the synth programming. In my head maybe I can hear what a death metal version would be. The grunting would really take away the fear of that high note!

 

[Richland123]

Sometimes a radical genre change can take a song a long way - i first realized this from the cover of VH's Jump on the 'Everybody Wants Some' compilation, which is all genre-shifted. It took a keyboard driven uptempo rock/pop number and made it the ultimate pensive lilith fair feminist folk anthem, and was miraculous. I later took a page from this book and did a reggae Crazy Train, that worked really, really well. I'd bet 'Take On Me' would find lots of new life in new genres that didnt require all the synth programming. In my head maybe I can hear what a death metal version would be. The grunting would really take away the fear of that high note!

You mean like this?

 

[Gully Foyle]

You mean like this?

great googly moogly!!

 

[Richland123]

great googly moogly!!

Ask, and ye shall receive!

 

[Pops OB]

Well, in the Cult Classic world it has been a huge classic hit since the late 60s... The Iliad, by Ed Sanders (also longtime member of The Fugs). To my knowledge, it's never been covered.