Mariah Carey was the 2026 MusiCares person of the year and at the gala held to celebrate, the Foo Fighters and Taylor Momsen teamed up to cover a lesser-known corner of Mariah’s catalog. Continue reading »
Feb 102026
Apr 012024
Aoife O’Donovan — The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Bob Dylan cover)
Bartees Strange — You Always Hurt The Ones You Love (Mills Brothers cover)
Beyoncé — Blackbird (The Beatles cover)
Aug 312023
Amanda Palmer and The Righteous Babes — The Last Day of our Acquaintance (Sinéad O’Connor cover)
You’re going to notice a theme here. We have the usual grab-bag included below (see “Best of the Rest”), but, for our featured covers up top, it’s all Sinéad. There were so many wonderful tributes performed, often in concert and always powerful and moving. Many did “Nothing Compares 2 U,” technically a Prince cover but really a Sinéad song now and forever, but others selected from elsewhere in her catalog. Of this one, which just came out Tuesday, Amanda Palmer wrote, “This song means a great deal to me, as does the artist who penned it, along with everything she still stands for.” A portion of the money from sales will be donated to The Irish Women’s Survivor Support Network. Continue reading »
Jun 162023
On the final day of the 2023 Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio, the Foo Fighters marked their third gig with their new live drummer, John Freese. With an impressive record of bands in Freese’s touring history, such as Blink-182, Guns n’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails, and several others, Dave Grohl introduced the new touring addition through covering notable songs from bands on Freese’s resume. It was the Foo Fighters’ third gig playing with Freese, and the audience was more than receptive with Dave Grohl’s introduction to the new addition. Continue reading »
May 262023
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
In July of 1958, a Prince was created. That was the month Charles became Prince of Wales. Earlier this month he was officially crowned King.
In June of 1958, another Prince was created. He died seven years before Charles’ coronation, but he had long before passed beyond the arena of royalty into the field of the celestial.
Prince was, if not a god, a divine presence, more felt than understood. That he was a musical genius was almost taken for granted; his prolific recording, his tremendous work ethic, his mysterious appearances where you least expected him (On Muppets Tonight?? Making fun of Hee Haw???)–all served to make him more myth than man, and now he’s less man than legend.
Prince famously told George Lopez that “covering the music means your version doesn’t exist anymore,” but that’s not quite so. Prince may not (or may) be immortal, but his music definitely is, and the covers that continue to roll in are all the proof you need. This post offers some of the evidence. (Certainly not all of it – more nominations missed the cut than made it, and the great majority of them were very worthy.)
Before we begin: to qualify, a Prince song needed to have been officially released before the cover version. Sadly, this means the Bangles’ “Manic Monday,” Sheila E’s “The Belle of St. Mark,” Celine Dion’s “With This Tear,” and others didn’t get considered.
And now for our selections. And don’t worry, Charles–it’s good to be King. It’s just more magical to be Prince.
–Patrick Robbins
NEXT PAGE →
Jun 182022
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
There are a lot of weird and wacky images within Alan Aldridge’s 1969 cult classic book The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics. One of the most memorable is a drawing imagining what John, Paul, George, and Ringo will look like as senior citizens. In this fantastical portrait, John and George are depicted as eccentric elders. Ringo, in keeping with his everyman persona, is shown as a shopworn sad sack. But it is Paul McCartney who offers the most disturbing vision of the future. “The cute one” appears as a conservative besuited and well-fed bank manager. His smug grin suggests he is proud to have finally outgrown all that silly pop music nonsense. Continue reading »