The Best Cover Songs of January 2026

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Jan 302026
 
The Best Cover Songs of January 2026
The Beaches — I Ran (So Far Away) (A Flock Of Seagulls cover)

The Beaches released one of the best albums of last year with No Hard Feelings. Now they’ve followed up with a Flock of Seagulls cover. Why? Why not! They don’t veer too far away from the original arrangement, but add an extra dose of indie-rock crunch. Halfway through it gets a little more shoegazy and expansive, with a huge build.

The Damned — Making Time (The Creation cover)

This deeper cut is a high point of the Damned’s new covers record, which, per our review, “takes the song into near heavy metal territory, if leavened by the catchy choral chorus, which, especially with the bass and drums, comes over like the Who in their prime.” Continue reading »

GWAR Return to AV Club to Cover “Pink Pony Club”

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Jan 202026
 
GWAR

The newest cover from the A.V. Club’s resurrected Undercover series has hit the internet featuring a performance by GWAR, and the internet is responding with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm. This season’s list of songs that artists could select to cover included Nick Lowe‘s “Cruel to Be Kind,” and The La’s “There She Goes.” But GWAR went to the most timely choice: Chappell Roan‘s “Pink Pony Club.” Continue reading »

The 50 Best Cover Songs of 2025

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Dec 192025
 

Follow all our Best of 2025 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

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.

Cover art by Hope Silverman

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The Best Cover Songs of July 2025

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Jul 312025
 
Best Cover Songs
Benson Boone — Seventeen Going Under (Sam Fender cover)

Bruce Springsteen — Poor Side Of Town (Johnny Rivers cover)

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The Best Cover Songs of June 2025

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Jun 302025
 
The Best Cover Songs of June 2025
Alex Lahey — Rock & Roll Queen (The Subways cover)


Four years ago, Australian singer/songwriter Alex Lahey topped our year-end list with a truly phenomenal cover of Faith Hill’s 1998 hit “This Kiss.” She made the Top 10 again in 2023 singing Mama Cass’s Make Your Own Kind of Music.” At this point, whenever Lahey drops a new cover, we’re immediately interested. Her latest, the b-side to a new single supporting trans rights, tackles indie-rockers The Subways 2005 single “Rock & Roll Queen.” Unlike some of her other covers, Lahey doesn’t change it that much (no need to make the already loud-and-rocking song louder and rockier like “This Kiss”). Still, it rips. Continue reading »

Chappell Roan Covers Heart in Primavera Sound Headlining Set

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Jun 102025
 
Chappell Roan Covers Heart

Midway through her set at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, Spain, Chappell Roan performed a cover of a Heart song that is clearly close to her… well, you get the idea.

After the final notes of “Hot to Go” rang out, the chugging guitar and harmonics that are the instantly recognizably opening to Heart’s “Barracuda,” filled the air. Roan and her band kept close to the original and, given her vocal strengths, hitting some of those Ann Wilson notes did not prove to be any kind of problem. Continue reading »

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