I Never Expected That!

Hmmm...*thinks*...the only examples I can think of right now are Johnny Cash's cover versions of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" and Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". I never really liked him, but I must admit he did a great job there!

 

Faith No More surprised me with their rendition of "Midnight Cowboy", the theme from the sixties movie of the same name. The style of the FNM cover was very cheesy for that band, but inexplicably, I loved it.

 

Alex Skolnick doing a smooth jazz rendition of the Scorpions, Still Loving You. Not so much for him covering the song. But for the way he covered it. No vocals, no rock atitude, etc. Nothing at all like the original.

 

Has anyone heard the latest AFI single, Girls Not Grey? My God that song is amazing, and DEFINATELY not something i've come to expect from the boys!

Awesome, simply awesome.

 

well, I would be surpised if Stanley Clarke starting putting out serious bass-centric music again. Kind of the reverse of what you proposed in your question Mr.Wchuck...

 

I was just as amazed by their cover of The Commodores tune "Easy". The FNM version is awesome.

The Man In Black also does great covers of Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage", and U2's "One". All of them are equally as impressive.

 

Dead Kennedy's Viva Las Vegas

 

six feet under with smoke on the water, it's really funny and suprising.

 

Noisy Pink Bubbles, by Devin Townsend.

 

Justin Timberlake's whole solo album was a pleasant surprise.

 

Billy Corgan covered that creaky old standard, My Blue Heaven. Not that it was any good, but I certainly didn't see it coming.

Others...John Fahey doing We Three Kings Of Orient Are. And I never expected Ry Cooder to do stuff like A Meeting By The River (with VM Bhatt, and *damn good*).

 

I'll check those ones out, too!

I just remembered another example: About two years ago a friend of mine recommended to me to have a listen to Erasure's album "Loveboat", which had just been released back then.
I've always liked electronic music, but Erasure being one of the exceptions (really liked Vince Clarke in Depeche Mode and Yazoo, though).
My friend said when listening to "Loveboat" for the very first time he couldn't find anything good about it...until a few days later, when he didn't know what to listen to - he gave it another go, and suddenly it started growing on him.

And I made exactly the same experience when borrowing the CD! In the end I even bought it off him

 

Celtic Frost - Mexican Radio (Wall of Voodoo)

What makes it so strange is that it's not a "metal" cover, instead, it's faithfull, with Warrior even doing the "Whoa-oh!" parts pretty well.

I just kept waiting for the double bass or metal riffing to kick in. No, it's a straight cover, and not overly ironic either.

Weird...

 

I can't believe you guys missed 'Crazy Horses' by The Osmonds! No one expected that.

 

Tori Amos' take on Slayer's "Raining Blood".

 

maxwell's live cover of NIN CLOSER on his unplugged album.

Christina Aguleria covering Etta James AT LAST

Another was KEb'Mo covering Joni Mitchell's BIG YELLOW TAXI again not the best, but he totally blindsided me with that.

 

Tori did a whole album of strange covers (STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS).

I didn't think that anyone could make a creepier version of Eminem's BONNIE AND CLYDE and i sure as heck wouldn't have figured it would be TORI AMOS.