After a long and tortured production process, the Michael Jackson biopic Michael comes out in theaters today. Is the movie any good? Does it matter? It’s enough of an excuse for us to count down covers of his biggest songs!
The legacy of Michael Jackson the person is—to put it mildly—complicated. But the legacy of Jackson’s music is unimpeachable. Dozens of songs that are all-time classics, and that get covered frequently, in every genre imaginable. Here are our favorites:
Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were veteran session musicians. Robert Plant and John Bonham hadn’t turned 21 yet. The first time the four of them got together, they played “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” and in Jones’s words, “the room just exploded, we could see the grins spreading, and we said, ‘Right. We’re on, this is it, this is going to work!'”
Eleven years and change later, the band released a statement: “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”
In between, the band that someone predicted would go over like the world’s biggest lead balloon became the biggest band in the world. Led Zeppelin were pioneers in so many ways. Hard rock, AOR, studio wizardry, stadium touring, album cover design – all saw the band at the forefront. Most importantly, their music was what brought people to them, and what kept them there. All the members were among the best in the world at what they did, and together their alchemy made their songs, whether loud or soft, catch in their listener’s minds and hearts.
When Francis Malofiy called Led Zeppelin “the greatest cover band in all of history,” he didn’t mean it as a compliment. Malofiy was the attorney suing Zeppelin for stealing “Stairway to Heaven”‘s opening riff from the Spirit song “Taurus,” and he certainly wasn’t the first to take the band to court to get songwriting credit. But whether the greatest cover band in all of history synthesized, swiped, or supplanted their influences, the cover bands that came after them were given deep, deep cupboards to plunder, and plunder they did.
We’ve come up with thirty-five top covers of Led Zeppelin songs. Like the band, they branch into blues, country, reggae, folk, and hard rock (and, unlike the band, even jazz). Like the band, they take something great and make it greater. And like Robert, Jimmy, John and John, once you hear it working, your grin is going to spread.
Before Bon Iver played “Who Is It?” one night in Washington, D.C., frontman Justin Vernon told the crowd they were about to cover Björk. Then he added, “Somebody told me that we’re doing a Björk cover because it’s so hip to do Björk covers. I just kinda like good music.”
He’s right on both counts. It is good music, and it is hip to do Björk covers. Has any other artist been covered by both Radiohead and Robyn? Not to mention Death Cab, The Decemberists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the aforementioned Bon Iver. If they were all over Pitchfork in the 2000s, they’ve probably covered Björk. (Or, maybe more to the point, all over Stereogum, which curated an entire Björk tribute album with the buzziest indie-rock bands of the moment like Dirty Projectors, Liars, and Atlas Sound.)
Björk seems to fall at that sweet spot for forward-thinking indie or “alternative” artists. She’s innovative, experimental, and downright weird… but she’s also really really popular! Her strange and inventive videos were on constant rotation on MTV in the 1990s. She’s got a ton of amazing deep cuts to mine, but she also has household-name hits too. As Justin Vernon said, it’s just good music.
35. Thao with Secret Sidewalk — Human Behaviour
After all these years, “Human Behaviour” might remain Björk’s signature song. It’s one of those songs that, even though it’s very much of its time, it’s so distinctly Björk that it almost sounds out of time. It’s closely tied to her and her distinct voice and vocalizations, but also to the electronic sounds around her voice.
American singer-songwriter Thao decided she should do a band version. Well, sort of. She enlists a saxophonist, with her taking guitar, and with a drummer joining. Most of the electronic elements remain, courtesy of a DJ, so for the first two minutes the song is remarkably similar, despite the live instrumentation and two instruments not present in the original recording.
But then they take the song to a radical place, vamping during a bridge that feels improvised. When they return to beats and melody, they are less faithful as the song slows and Thao chants some of the lyrics as she solos. To complete the transformation, there’s a brief saxophone solo after Thao’s solo. It’s still recognizable as “Human Behaviour” at the beginning and mostly at the end, but it gets way out there in the middle. — Riley Haas
34. RIAYA feat. John Mark McMillan — Hunter
As you can probably tell from its epic, over-the-top vibe, this cover of “Hunter” was created for use in a movie, specifically 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate. You can practically smell the popcorn as it plays. Alas, it only ended up featuring in the trailer. All kidding aside, there is something so wonderfully glorious and earnest about this “Hunter.” It sounds less futuristic than was probably intended and more like music to wave your sword to, as you lead your “Army of Me’s” over the hill. It’s hard not to smile during the cover’s climax, where McMillan and the piano stand alone on their sonic mountain and presumably look over the horizon. “I’m the Hunter” indeed. Onward!— Hope Silverman
33. Emily Hope Price — Come to Me
Björk’s “Come To Me” is somehow both alluring and maternal, warding off any acknowledgement of love while at the same time making it clear that love is what’s making her sing these words. The musical bed she gives it is sort of Bond goes Bollywood in zero-G, with strings, synths and tabla creating their own atmosphere.
Cellist Emily Hope Price’s cover takes all the quilts, blankets, and pillows off that bed, rendering it spare but still rich and luxuriant in its own way. Even her intakes of breath provide their own sense of lushness, and her vocal is that of someone who wants and needs more than to care for someone. She needs that someone, and you can feel her pain at that someone being just out of reach. — Patrick Robbins
32. Bartok v Björk — Bachelorette
A child who could make music from an early age. Fully trained in the art and method of classical music, but also deeply linked to the folklore and folk music of their homeland. Someone whose defiance of convention led to being pilloried by some critics, but lauded by others. Someone who refused to be silenced when they saw what they believed to be injustice.
No, I’m not talking about Björk. I’m talking about Béla Bartók. Bartók’s journey was a more painful one, ending in exile, and he never saw the widest recognition of his genius, but he is nevertheless a good pairing for Iceland’s great musical gift to the world.
Composer Steve Hackman’s fusions between classical and modern work are a bridge of sorts, but the Björk vs Bartók project is particularly inspired. The show tours regularly, with top-class musicianship on display. Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is one of the great works of 20th-century classical music, and, when combined with words from Björk’s first three albums, there are great musical and personal stories to be heard.
The entire show is available online, but the version of “Bachelorette” captures some of the best features of the work as a whole. The French horns and brass section do some great work, and the three vocalists are mesmerizing. Whether by design or as a feat of acting they attempt to embody, in addition to the sound, the emotions of the creator of these songs. Steely determination. Awe at what they are producing. Fear that the work will go off the rails. Singers and Muses. — Mike Tobyn
31. Madison Cunningham — Army of Me
Much of Björk’s appeal is based around the contrast between the light and airy vocal against the dense hum of electronica she places beneath it. Madison Cunningham doesn’t deal in such, preferring organic sounds, conventional instrumentation and orchestration. How is it, then, that she manages to find equivalent eeriness in this haunting song? Her voice is cold and dispassionate, which renders further the eldritch spirit of the original, the absence of emotion, all the more chilling. As the orchestra swirls and the timpani clatter, you know the battle, and any resistance, is lost. — Seuras Og
“We are The Clash!” they sang on their final album. The artists below are not The Clash (even if one of them, in covering that very song, says they are). For the most part, they sound nothing like The Clash. It turns out, though, that Clash songs sound great in a wide array of styles, from trip-hop electronic to orchestral pop, olde-time a cappella to walking-bass lounge jazz.
Go straight to our clampdown—sorry, countdown—of the 30 best Clash covers on the next page.
Last year’s unexpected theme was Tom Petty covers. For no obvious reason, he popped up again and again on our 2024 year-end list. And whaddya know, Tom’s back this year, with two more Petty covers on our list. This year, however, he is not the most-covered artist on our list.
That’s a tie between two artists, one extremely of-the-moment, one timeless. With three covers apiece, Chappell Roan and Neil Young share the most-best-covered crown. (Artists with two covers apiece this year, in addition to Petty, are Gillian Welch, John Prine, and—this one’s surprising—Nelly Furtado!)
Spoiler alert: None of those appears in the number-one position. Number one covers an artist who I don’t think has ever appeared on one of our year-end lists. But don’t skip ahead. There are 49 equally (well, almost) as good covers to get through first, spanning genres and sounds and eras and ages. Here we go.
Hip-hop oldies become jazz instrumentals. Cult folk songs become grand spaghetti-western soundscapes. Blink-182 hits become DIY bedroom jams. We’ve got ’90s hardcore bangers shredded on acoustic guitar, Spanglish Latin-pop takes on Air Supply and Elvis, and, maybe most outrageously of all, a wild experiment in turning everyone from Chappell Roan to Smash Mouth into emo/screamo.
It’s an especially unruly set this year, but a rewarding one. Enough preamble. Dive in.
