"Worst" cover songs

[um]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIhg0Au14lU

I am not sure if anyone else created a thread like this.

But I found a YouTube video about the "worst" cover songs ever made, meaning songs that were originally done ( or at least originally made famous) by certain music artists but then other well-known artists made a version of that song.
(It actually took me a while to learn what "cover song" meant).

I can agree with essentially all the cover songs pointed out in the video, but also, since the video presents a lot of cover songs who's original version I never heard, (and by artists I may not have heard about) I would probably dislike both versions.
I really stopped paying strict attention to the music scene back in the mid 80s or so when I started going to college.
Anyway, to comment on a few of the songs on the video, Madonna's "American Pie" (originally by Don McClean) sounds like just a parody, not serious. I don't know when she made that cover version but it must have been approximately in the 80s, maybe to introduce a then, newer generation to what Don McLean's music of the 70s, or at least a very iconic "anthem" of that decade ( and the song is reported to have a lot of hidden meaning that Don McLean himself has never really made clear, but he has indicated it is partially about the death of Buddy Holly).
I have heard of Aaron Carter but, of course, I have not heard his cover version of a song that I never originally heard of and I think it is dumb to consider a child's record as a serious contender for worst cover song. Of course ironically, it means that Aaron Carter's song is considered serious enough to judge along with those of adult recording artists, but it is like judging Ricky Seagall's record back in the early 70s ( remember him from the Partridge Family?) along with that of The Allman Brother's band, or at least the Bee Gees. Aaron Carter was a boy singer several years back but now he is somewhere in his 20s I think and there is little or no news of his singing career that I know of.
There are other groups in the YouTube video who I never heard of covering songs I never heard before.

Anyway in the video it is said that any band or singer who made a cover song of any of the Beatle's songs is just not going to do themselves justice, or the music of the Beatles. It is said, "Rule Number ! or covering The Beatles, don't cover The Beatles."

I have heard that Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" is the main song that was ever sung by other singing artists from Frank Sinatra to , whomever else,
in the history of music.
Interesting since you have to wonder what song was covered by other singers before "Yesterday" was written and made famous by Paul McCartney.

It may be a topic for a completely different thread, but there are songs that cannot just be done by just any singer than the original person who made the song famous, not with good results.
Of course in general The Beatles material should not be covered by any other group or singer, but I have mixed feelings about Elton John's "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." He does make it sound like a completely different song that is his own, but when I heard Elton's version , I myself was at an age in which I did have a basic recollection of the original Beatles of the 60s but had not heard all their songs, and I was in my mid teens when "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" became a hit by Elton and it was played more often than the original one by The Beatles.
It sort-of made the Beatles version seem to be the cover version.

Thoughts?

[Mace Dolex]

a couple of bad ones according to me:

"It's My Life" by No Doubt (original by Talk Talk)

"Take My Breath Away" by Jessica Simpson (original by Berlin)

[DJM77]

I listen to this for laughs and laughs only.

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

Here's ten Ray Charles covers that are better than the (very good) original versions:

All I Ever Need Is You (Sonny and Cher)

If Wiki is right, Ray recorded the song first.

[um]

I think that the "ooga chaka" version of "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Suede
is one of the worst cover songs ever. I don't know why it was never mentioned
in the video.
What if some other singing artist were to cover the Blue Suede version?

In order to make the worst song ever, (or at least one of the worst ever), which singing group or singer should sing it?

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by um

I think that the "ooga chaka" version of "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Suede
is one of the worst cover songs ever. I don't know why it was never mentioned
in the video.
What if some other singing artist were to cover the Blue Suede version?

[Hawkee]

The song I would say is the worst cover song ever done in music history is Counting Crows version of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi with Vanessa Carlton and I don't know why or how it got to be a huge hit on the music charts but when it came out it was played everywhere in places like stores and the radio. I always perferred Amy Grant's version of Big Yellow Taxi to the Counting Crows version because it sounds almost identical to Joni Mitchell's original version
Bestie

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

The song I would say is the worst cover song ever done in music history is Counting Crows version of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi with Vanessa Carlton and I don't know why or how it got to be a huge hit on the music charts but when it came out it was played everywhere in places like stores and the radio. I always perferred Amy Grant's version of Big Yellow Taxi to the Counting Crows version because it sounds almost identical to Joni Mitchell's original version
Bestie

Isn't one of the points of doing a cover song supposed to be that is sounds a little different than the original? I always liked Counting Crows and Vanessa Carlton's rendition of Big Yellow Taxi.

[JO Sweet Heart]

My late beautiful precious Billy Joe Royal was the first to do a song named "I Knew You When". It was later on done by the Osmonds. Enough said there.

God bless you and Billy Joe's family always!!!

Holly

[Edward216]

What? Frank Sinatra did a cover of Bad Bad Leroy Brown?! I had no idea. I'll have to find that and take a listen, that can't be good. But I've never been a Frank Sinatra fan anyways. I think the man's kind of overrated.

Some "cover" versions of songs I think are terrible:

I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, originally written and sung by Dolly Parton. As far as I'm concerned Whitney Houston took a beautifully sad and gentle song and totally ruined it!

Hmmm, and I can't think of any more right now. I'll have to think about it some and post more later.

Ed.

[UMFaninMD]

Madonna's cover of American Pie was actually done in 2000. Doesn't make it any better though.

Another Saturday Night by Cat Stevens is downright painful. He sounds very uncomfortable singing it. I guess if the majority of your material are folk songs, and new-age like ballads, going to a Motown cover where you complain you can't get a woman to go out with you would be very jarring.

Smith's Baby It's You is also painful to listen to. They take a peppy upbeat song about pining for a guy and turn into this long, drawn-out slow song and the lead singer sound like she's physically hurting. Yet this is the one the oldies stations play.

You also can't forget Sheryl Crow's infamously bad cover of Guns & Roses' Sweet Child O'Mine. I literally gasped when I first heard it. Now, I'm not a huge GNR fangirl by any means, but the original is a great 80's hard rock song and only Axl Rose can do it justice.

I actually like the Salt & Pepa version of Twist and Shout. I think it's because the video is a lot of fun to watch and I like the beat. But The Beatles' version is also a cover. The original is done by The Top Notes, and it's way different than all the other versions though (my favorite cover is by The Isley Brothers).

[Mace Dolex]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

So hilarious would have been if the Hoff's version were used in the Guardians Of The Galaxy trailers.

[Edward216]

So I found Frank Sinatra's version of Bad Bad Leroy Brown on YouTube. Good grief, it was actually a bit worse than I thought it'd be. I don't know who thought that was a good idea but it obviously wasn't. Wow.

As far as I'm concerned Jim Croce's original recording of it is the only good one and the only one that matters. Sometimes you just can't mess with perfection.

Ed.

[Bonniegirl]

Bert Parks singing The Wings song 'Let em in" Someones knocking at the door! From a Miss America 1976 Pageant !


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJBDcb7kq_g

[Penny Lane]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I agree with this, but I tend to think that pretty much anything the Isley Brothers recorded is the best version.

Except for "Twist And Shout"(A Beatles classic) John Lennon nails it! None better