The 50 Best Cover Songs of 2024

 Posted by at 9:00 am  4 Responses »
Dec 202024
 

Follow all our Best of 2024 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

best cover songs of 2024

Welcome to the 50 Best Tom Petty Covers of 2024!

We kid, of course. But for whatever reason, this year’s big trend in covers was: Tom Petty. At one point there were something like 20 Petty covers on our longlist. Many came from two all-star tribute albums that dropped, entirely coincidentally, the same year (they both made our Best Albums list). We narrowed it down, of course. Three Petty covers ended up in this Top 50, one not even from those albums. Then, just this week, another high-profile Petty cover dropped: Snoop and Jelly Roll reworking “Last Dance for Mary Jane”! Suffice to say that one wouldn’t have been a contender even if it hadn’t arrived too late.

That was the big surprise trend in 2024 covers. The less-surprising trend you could have called from a mile out: The new wave of young pop divas—Chappell, Sabrina, Charli—got covered a lot. We could have done an entire 50-song list of their covers, too (the “Good Luck Babe”s alone!). But, if we had, we would have missed out on gospel R.E.M. and country The Weeknd and electropop Mott the Hoople and soul Green Day and… you know what, just read the list.

(Moo-chas gracias and Deng-ke schoen to Hope Silverman for this year’s tiny-hippo art.)

NEXT PAGE →

Check Out Reb Fountain’s Stripped Down Cover of OMC’s “How Bizarre”

 Posted by at 9:00 am  No Responses »
Jun 042024
 
reb fountain how bizarre cover

“How Bizarre” by Kiwis OMC is one of the 1990s’ great one-hit wonders. It stood out on the radio for its faux-flamenco guitar, its Polynesian rhythms, Pauly Fuemana’s unique voice and Kiwi accent, that brass, the backing vocals and the incongruous lyrics. It really sounded like nothing else. Its strangeness perhaps explains why there have been so few covers over the years; it sounds inimitable and many people are probably unsure of how to go about tackling it, not wanting to ape the original. At Cover Me, we literally have written up one cover of it over the years. Continue reading »

Download This: ‘Seven Year Itch’ Covers Compilation

 Posted by at 5:00 pm  No Responses »
May 202011
 

Download This scours the web’s dark corners for cool cover freebies. View past installments.

Toronto-based indie label Paper Bag Records boasts an impressive roster of bands, featuring both Canadian and international artists. SXSW breakthrough band P.S. I Love You, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Born Ruffians all call the label home. You Say Party! also worked with the label before breaking up last month. Continue reading »

Congrats Lakers. Here’s Five Covers of “I Love L.A.”

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  No Responses »
Jun 182010
 

The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship last night, putting them only one behind the Boston Celtics in total rings. Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” became an unofficial theme song for the team, which is pretty funny when you think about it. The song is partially ripping on the city. Sure, it does so lovingly, but it’s hardly “New York, New York.” Newman sings about a bum “down on his knees” and lists streets with some of the poorest people in the area.

Even funnier are the covers this inspires. Take this nine-year old singing, “I’m rolling down the Imperial Highway with a big nasty redhead at my side.” Or Alvin and the Chipmunks catching some waves while singing about the homeless. Does no one read lyrics?
Continue reading »