Huge classic hits, but rarely or never covered

[MegaSwing]

<snip>

Vehicle - The Ides of March <snip>

I subbed in a big band with a horn section at a high-dollar gig on NYE 2006. Out of the blue, they called this song, without ever rehearsing it or discussing it. It was so wired into me that the band played it without a hitch or any kind of discernible mistake. Truly, one of my best remembrances of on-the-fly gigging.

 

[Richland123]

 

[Buster Brown]

Just recalled a number of songs by Donnie Iris - this one in particular:



We did 4-5 of the songs from his first album....the crowd always loved them!




And here's one song that I ALWAYS wanted to play at every gig - and did for a while - until we noticed a lot of tears in the audience. So, we stopped playing it. In reality, it WAS sort of a buzz kill.....

 

[oldrocker]

IMO way too many changes for a typical cover band. Locomotive Breath seems to be the popular alternative.

 

[oldrocker]

...

I rarely heard any one doing these
...
Can't find my way home Blind Faith (we covered it)
..

My current band does this one. Check it out:

 

[Pops OB]

My current band does this one. Check it out:

My friends, Plus Size Models, will no doubt be covering Can't Find My Way Back Home tonight.

 

[Pirate Captain]

You hear her cover of half a dozen songs more than the originals, practically her whole career is built on it.

FWIW, I think she and that crack band/production team improved on most of them.

not Zevon

 

[Madhouse27]

Played quite a few hits from the 70's and 80's but never had the pleasure of performing four of my all time favorite songs in a band (yet). I'd love to stumble into a bar and hear some guys ripping through these:

Cowboy Song-Thin Lizzy
Fool for the city-Foghat
My kinda lover-Billy Squier
Don't look back-Boston

 

[pklima]

I hated this song.

Ha, back then I definitely did too! But over the years it's grown on me.

Funny how even the minimalistic beat has aged well. It's much closer to today's trends than most other R&B from that era.

 

[electracoyote]

not Zevon

Opinions are like belly buttons.

Personally, I prefer Ronstadt's versions of his songs. To each his own.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I'd venture to say, just about any Grateful Dead covers are rare. I could never get any band I was with to try them. Truckin' and Sugar Magnolia have nice harmonies and were both hits; probably harder to play than Casey Jones or Friend of the Devil.

We played both Truckin' and Sugar Magnolia in my old band. And we weren't a Dead cover / tribute band either. Those two songs were just part of our setlists that also included original material.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I am not sure I have ever seen an 80s band that didn't cover 'Money for Nothing". If they had a guitarist who could hang

You sure you're not thinking of "Sultans Of Swing"? The "Money For Nothing" guitar part seemed tailor-made for semi-pro musicians to churn out in bars.

We just started working on Kirsten Dunst version of Turning Japanese lol.

I've only seen/heard that video once, but I was fairly certain she was lip-syncing to another vocalist's part. Has that song actually been released under Dunst's name?

 

[Mosfed]

You sure you're not thinking of "Sultans Of Swing"? The "Money For Nothing" guitar part seemed tailor-made for semi-pro musicians to churn out in bars.



I've only seen/heard that video once, but I was fairly certain she was lip-syncing to another vocalist's part. Has that song actually been released under Dunst's name?

The fact of the matter with any Dire Straits is that if your guitarist is wedded to his pick and isn't competent at finger picking, you'll just never get the swing right. The chops in Money for Nothing are easy enough - the feel isn't quite as obvious.

 

[MCF]

The fact of the matter with any Dire Straits is that if your guitarist is wedded to his pick and isn't competent at finger picking, you'll just never get the swing right. The chops in Money for Nothing are easy enough - the feel isn't quite as obvious.

Yep. Few can pull them off. Same with a lot of Lindaey Buckingham's Fleetwood Mac and solo material.

 

[JimK]

20 years ago, I had a friend who lead a Hard Rock cover band...his thing was learn the parts exactly as the recording...then show up for the odd rehearsal pre-gig.
They did "Aqualung" exactly as recorded. They did Rush, Yes, Deep Purple, Led Zep, etc. too.
Best local Hard Rock cover band I 've heard around here...
(RIP, Dave)

 

[JimK]

It's me again...another friend's band, The Squares ('80s) pulled this one off beautifully.
Oh, Oteil Burbridge was The Squares' bassist at this time. He destroyed this tune...in a good way!

 

[JimK]

Well, you got me on this one. "Undun" is one of my all-time favourite Pop tunes.
1st time I heard it...I'm in a hoagie store in south Philly. Back then, they had these miniature juke boxes in the booths & on the counter. I'm sitting there watching an older-than-me-guy (cooler/longer hair than me, too) with his girlfriend scrolling through the tunes. They stop on "Laughing" (the A-side) but they select the flipside (the B-side), "Undun".
That struck me as too cool...after that, I always checked out entire LPs & always played both sides of my 45s.

 

[obimark]

I played in a band that did a lot of obscure covers. It was good to be able to hear the crickets in between songs and connect with nature.

Other than Money for Nothing and Sussudio a lot of these songs that are being suggested are too obscure.

 

[pklima]

The idea of this thread was songs which are very much not obscure, but which are rarely covered because they're inconvenient, difficult, or just plain hated by musicians. It's kinda gone off in another direction, which is fine, but I was thinking tracks more like this:

 

[Pops OB]

The idea of this thread was songs which are very much not obscure, but which are rarely covered because they're inconvenient, difficult, or just plain hated by musicians. It's kinda gone off in another direction, which is fine, but I was thinking tracks more like this:

LOL! Never heard it until I just played it.