Leprous Creates Prog-Metal “Take On Me”

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Aug 292025
 
Leprous

The five-piece Norwegian prog-metal group Leprous has been making a name for itself since their first album in 2009. Now, they’ve released a video of their live cover, which was created as a part of Musora’s YouTube channel challenge: Covers on the Spot! In this series, each band is tasked to ‘take on’ a surprise song of the director’s choice. 

This Northern European–infused cover goes hard, but still manages to keep a bit of that lighthearted feeling that the original 1985 hit had. Not to mention, this video is live and fun. When musicians make music live and are figuring things out, there’s often swearing and laughter. You’ll find both in this 17-minute challenge-based video.  Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of May 2025

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Jun 022025
 
Best Cover Songs of May
Chewy Rodriguez — Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift cover)

This beautiful performance aired on South Dakota Public Broadcasting and, as of this writing, has 81 views, half of which are mine. (To be fair, presumably more people saw it when it aired on actual TV). But this Sioux Falls singer-songwriters beautiful Taylor Swift cover deserves a far bigger audience. It’s simply done, no frills or gimmicks, but he sells the hell out of it. Continue reading »

The Best Covers of 1980s One Hit Wonders

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Jun 302023
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

1980s one hit wonders

Is the 1980s the best decade ever for one-hit wonders? So many classic songs came out that decade by not-so-classic bands. It was, perhaps, a particularly fickle time to be chasing pop-chart success. Many of the oft-discussed one hit wonder bands have killer catalogs, but, for whatever reason, those catalogs contain only one tune that is widely remembered today. If you like “Take on Me” or “Safety Dance,” check out the respective A-Ha and Men Without Hats albums they came from, both just as good! The same holds true for many other ’80s bands. Dead or Alive, pictured above, has some other killer jams too, but alas, these days they’re best known as the “you spin me right round” band.

So today, we celebrate the big one-off hits in new wave, synth-rock, easy listening, and other very-’80s genres with some knockout covers. From “867-5309/Jenny” (Tommy Tutone) to “Turning Japanese” (The Vapors) to “In a Big Country” (Big Country — maybe hard to follow-up a hit that has your band name in the title). Rock down to Electric Avenue, and let these covers take you higher.
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The Best Cover Songs of September 2022

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Oct 032022
 
best cover songs september 2022
Confidence Man – Heaven (Bryan Adams cover)

For their recent Like a Version performance, Confidence Man, a duo of Janet Planet and Sugar Bones, covered Bryan Adam’s “Heaven.” Well, sort of. They really took their cues from the hit club cover of “Heaven” by DJ Sammy. “We didn’t actually know [it was a cover],” said Planet. “Stu, our manager – who’s old – told us that. We listened to [the original], and it’s not that good.” Ouch! But their cover is a blast to watch, all charisma, choreography, and energy from the two of them in front of an ominously veiled band. As NME points out, Confidence Man are the third act a a cover of a cover on the show. In 2017, Alex Lahey covered Natalie Imbruglia’s hit cover of Ednaswap’s non-hit “Torn” (we wrote a feature explaining the backstory there). And in 2018, garage-rock septet West Thebarton covered Florence + The Machine‘s cover of The Source and Candi Staton’s “You’ve Got the Love.” Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of November

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Nov 302021
 
The Best Cover Songs of November
Barbaro – Believe (Cher cover)


Progressive bluegrass quartet Barbaro takes on a few obvious inspirations on their new EP Under the Covers. Gillian Welch’s “Dark Turn of Mind,” makes sense. Wilco’s “Jesus Etc,” sure. But the other two tunes venture a little further afield. Sheryl Crow’s pop hit “If It Makes You Happy” makes for a jaunty fiddle and banjo number, as does, surprisingly, Cher’s “Believe.” Continue reading »

A YouTuber Covers “Take on Me” By Hitting Himself in the Face a Bunch

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Jun 292021
 

Yeah. So. This is pretty much what it says on the tin. YouTuber RamsesthePigeon’s original take on the A-ha classic ‘Take on Me’ sees him smacking, slapping and flicking his face to recreate the track. It really is a sight to behold.

The song builds slowly as he introduces each blow to his face that results in a different sound within the track. Funnily enough, this track reminded me of an Australian busker, Pipe Guy, who plays house and techno using a thong (that’s a flip-flop to you Americans) and an intricate series of PVC pipes. At its height, Ramses is taking multiple wallops to the face per second and really makes you wonder what his cheeks looked like after that day of shooting.

Check out the very painful rendition below:

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