Cover songs are often used by bands that may not have the talent to produce their own material – or by bands wanting to get a start with music familiar to the listeners. But occasionally a cover band comes along that produces some amazing covers that are extremely unique. This list will hopefully introduce you to some bands you may not be familiar with or at least bring back some nice memories.
If the Ramones had been from Sweden, they might have vandalized Abba’s rehearsal studio, stolen all of their songs and cranked out a little something like this…
Formed in 1995 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes specializes in punk covers of 60′s and 70′s light rock and folk tunes. They also like to dress in costumes to match the theme of the music at each show.
A French band that does bossa-nova style covers of New Wave songs. The various female singers performing with the group only play songs they have not heard so each will have an original quality about it. [JFrater: This is one of my all time favorite bands and I couldn't recommend their music enough!]
A German band which does Gregorian chants of popular songs, often covering songs that have religiously-themed lyrics.
The lounge act all of our favorite rock and metal stars will be doing someday in Vegas. Available now for your listening (dis)pleasure.
Ever wonder what Black Sabbath would sound like if they had formed during the 14th century? Well, Rondellus wondered exactly that, and the result was “Sabbatum”, a tribute album that offers an new (old) take on many of Sabbath’s classic tunes. Unfortunately there are no youtube clips for the band, but you can hear some music at their myspace page.
An artist that has more original materials than cover songs, but his 1997 album “In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy” must be included here for it’s campy take on several hard rock and heavy metal classics.
Not strictly a cover band, Canadian alt-country band Luther Wright and the Wrongs are most widely known for their country-bluegrass remake of the Pink Floyd epic “The Wall” in 2001 titled “Rebuild the Wall”. Their take on “The Wall” is very difficult to find online, so there is a different song above – a cover of a Cash song.
Originally started as a bluegrass AC/DC cover band in 2001, Hayseed Dixie has branched out to cover many other bands and styles.
Tortelvis & Co. mix up reggae-flavored Zeppelin covers with a flair only the King (or a good impersonator) could pull off. Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant has said that Dread Zeppelin is his favorite Led Zeppelin cover band.
Contributor: BishopWhitet
Very Entertaining.
Awesome
Nice list, my favourite cover band is an AC/DC tribute band from British Columbia called AC/BC.Enjoy your site a lot….Happy Holidays from Victoria b.c!
No Beatallica?
#s 9 and 6 are like opposites of each other
can’t believe the gimmie gimmies were only nine! totally awesome band
Nice, happy to find Hayseed Dixies, but what happend to Weird Al Yankovic? He’s been around for a while …
What about Lezzeppelin ? The lesbian zeppelin coverband
Sorry, all of these cheesy lounge acts make me want to yawn out loud. I went to see a band named “Buddhist Priest” last year. You can doubtless guess who they sought to emulate, but wow, they were torturous. There should be some kind of law limiting cover bands to weddings and bar-mitzvahs.
I love a good cover band, especially when they don’t try to emulate the sound of the original. I’m sure that there are thousands of songs, which go on to become classics, that are covers, and no one would ever know.
Cool list. I quite like the Eazy Star All-stars. They’ve done reggae/ska versions of Dark Side of the Moon “Dub Side of the Moon” and Radiohead’s OK Computer “Radiodread”. Brilliant!
Apocalyptica is pretty sweet if you like Metallica done with cellos. Some of their songs sound like they could have been written back in the days of Mozart.
how on earth was weird al not on this list?
ummmm weird al, anyone????
I actually own some Hayseed Dixie. They’re popular among our faculty.
What a fun list for a Saturday morning.
Weird Al Yankovic is not a “cover band”. He’s a parody singer, and he happens to do a polka once in a while consisting of many cover songs (so his polkas could be considered “cover medleys”), but most of his work is song parodies, not covers.
I think Fantômas would deserve a honorable mention with their “Directors Cut” album that is avant-garde metal versions of famous movie scores(like Rosemary’s Baby and The Godfather). The best thing is that it has more than curiosity value, it is actually a damn fine album.
Hayseed Dixie is great !!! Truly original…
What I really came here to say is that I’ve heard all of Richard Cheese’s songs, and they’re HI-LARIOUS! He takes some of the most aggressive rock songs and mellows them down, and the result is lol-inducing. I highly recommend it!
Oh and cool list!
The Fingers are pretty good too, and Rasputina has also done a few good covers, I would recomment them too ^_^ The Fingers do jazzy covers and Rasputina errm… is a bit darker and play a cello
I love Richard Cheese! haha
As I was reading this list I was mentally composing my complaint about how could you possibly forget Dread Zeppelin, and then I saw them at number 1. Great choice and thank you for a cool list.
“Original Coverband” Kind of an oxy-moron isn’t it?
Can’t like them all, to be honest
but we get it, you don’t like the list, no one cares
I liked it
I nominate John Pizzarelli “Meets the Beatles.” Although not a cover band, this album of Beatles covers is fantastic.
the only band i know on this list is Nouvelle Vague, which is one of my favorite bands. their covers are amazing. nice to see them on the list.
What about mini kiss.The whole band are little people.Saw them on halloween a few years back.Was a good show.
Nouvelle Vague sounds gorgeous
How about Ten Masked Men? they do Death Metal covers of many pop songs. They have lots of videos on Youtube.
You missed the best cover band of all, Notorious. Notorious was a S.F. cover band, able to reproduce just about any sound called for: http://www.notoriousrocks.com/NotoriousWeb/mainvideo.html
see for yourself.
…Australian Pink Floyd anyone…?
I expected The Australian Pink Floyd Show to be #1. Damn.
I meant the Lost Fingers… yikes, going to be late and waking up early…. ^_^;;
I was lucky enough to see Dread Zeppelin live.
I was front row. I will never forget when Charlie Hodge stepped from stage left with a towel to wipe Tortelvis’ sweaty brow. It was at that moment I was fortunate enough to touch the hem of the King’s white bell bottoms as he towered from the stage, like some glistening god.
Tortelvis’ big ol’ gold belt shone with the radiance of a thousand suns, as if the very king of rock and roll was a doorway to some other place where all was green and good.
It was the most joyous few seconds of my life..
Thanks BishopWhitet (and Jfrater for the edit under the Nouvelle Vague post), I’m really liking Nouvelle Vague, interesting takes on the originals. Kind of reminds me of Mazzy Star in a way.
I would add “Rain: The Beatles Experience” — An excellent cover band of the best band ever, The Beatles. Check them out sometime: http://www.raintribute.com
has anyone ever heard of The Dan Band?
THats so funny i work with a canadian guy who is good friends with “Luther Wright and the Wrongs” i can remember him making us listen their music when he was training us.
I think you need to watch this:
Very interesting list.
38. psychosurfer: when I tried the link, I got a notice that it was no longer available.
No Rockapella????
That is a SIN! A capella versions of supremely popular songs? How can you NOT like that?
That´s strange, it works when I click it, try this one:
Hope you like it
In some cases, Gregorian’s covers are much better than the original song.
let’s not forget the spot on zany sound of The Rutles. More of a parody band than covers, they channel the vocal chords and the mind set of the Fab Four to a very educational “T”. When you hear the Rutles sing “Cheese and Onions” or “Piggy in the middle”, you can observe the workings of John Lennon’s mind a6 its most psychedelic, I’m-all-right-Jackness.
One of the creators and guiding lights of The Rutles was Eric Idle (This would have been about the time Holy Grail was in theatres.)
Check ‘em out; they will entertain you and maybe even educate you a little.
Yay Richard Cheese! He’s possibly the only cover artist that gets hate-mail from the fans of the bands he covers. (You can imagine that fans of Papa Roach might not like lounge jazz that much.)
Pat Boone’s cover of Holy Diver – Kickass
You forgot to list Elvis Presley! He was the greatest cover musician of all time.
I want to go out and buy gregorian now.
Oh my God! What a GREAT list! I was down in the dumps today, and this brought me right out of it. I can’t believe anyone else has heard of Hayseed/Dixie – I saw them at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and they blew everybody away! Me First and the Gimme Gimmies and Lounge Against the Machine are AWESOME! I definitely liked some of the other bands that I hadn’t heard of yet… More CDs to buy!
The only one I can think of to add to the list is Joe Jackson – he and his band did a one-time cover album of old 40′s tunes called Jumpin’ Jive. It is excellent.
Thanks, Bishop Whitet, great job!
I like the band Boss Hoss from Germany.
I was waiting with bated breath for Dread Zepplin. That is even the exact song I have on a cd in my car.
41. psychosurfer:That´s strange, it works when I click it, try this one:
Hope you like it
****
It worked! I love it! I love the upright bass player jumping up and down. I love the addition of the accordion. Adding accordion to anything automatically makes it funnier.
Thank you for going to the trouble of finding a link that worked for me. That was so nice, and something you really didn’t have to do. I’m very, very glad you did though!
43. evacreek: let’s not forget the spot on zany sound of The Rutles.
****
Absolutely! They are hilarious, even if cartoonish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaHG6g7uFw
Every Beatles fan simply has to make sure they are familiar with the Rutles!
I love Me First and Gimmie Gimmies…Their cover of I believe I can fly is actually one of the ringtones on my phone.
Not exactly a cover artist per-se,but you should check out Ben Harper and the innocent Criminals’cover of “*****ual Healing” drom the “Live From Mars” album. WOW!!!
Great list!
They don’t really qualify for this list, but if anyone is intersted, The Bad Plus is an amazing acoustic piano trio that does some amazing jazz/rock, both original and covered.
apocalyptica are an amazing cover band but seriously, what about the Ten Masked Men, they do death metal covers of pop songs, they kick total arse, check out their version of Justin timberlakes ‘Cry Me A River’
aline ant farm has a couple of covers and audio slave has done some covers of radio head
Check out the Easy Star All-Stars.
They do dub/reggae covers of popular albums. The best being Dub Side of the Moon.
It’s amazing.
ASimmons, yes I have. also a good addition.
Julia Nunes does some pretty amazing covers. alot of her stuff can be found on her youtube page.
love the cheese and ive heard about me first as for the rest no idea cool tho
Try this group: Big Daddy. No better way to hear popular music than through the melodies of a 50′s doo-wop group. And they Pre-date all the others on this list.
Check the poster’s youtube page for more of their songs