The Best Cover Songs of March 2025

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Mar 312025
 
Best Cover Songs
Cher — Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn cover)

Cher’s pushing 80, but, as seen most recent on the SNL 50th concert, she can still command a stage like nobody’s business. At the recent Love Rocks benefit concert in NYC, she reprised her ‘90s “Walking in Memphis” cover, complete with full Elvis costume, pompadour very much included.

Dååth ft. Paul Masvidal from Cynic – Run (Air cover)

A heavy-metal cover of the least heavy group of all time (they are French, after all): Air. Dååth (you “know it’s heavy with that punctuation in the name) writes: “Our version of “Run” has been a long time coming. It’s a creepy, weird song I’ve wanted to cover since I first heard it… This is a weird song. If you haven’t heard it, listen to the original, then ours. To do it justice, we needed an unconventional mix that could also go full metal. Gautier Serre, of Igorrr, was the obvious choice. If he can handle Igorrr, he can handle this—and being French, he already knew the song. The result is truly unique. If you’re expecting pure extreme metal, you might be disappointed—and that’s fine, because we do what we want.” Continue reading »

Fionn Record a Folk-Rock Cover of System of a Down’s “Toxicity” On the Spot

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Nov 252024
 
fionn toxicity

Musora is a music education company in British Columbia. I know them from their Drumeo brand’s YouTube channel where famous drummers teach drumming. What I like, though are the videos where these famous drummers try to play along to songs they’ve never heard before. Basically, they listen to a song without the drum track and have to make up their own drum part on the spot. It’s a fun way of showing off the musical talent of the drummer while also showing their human side.

Now Musora itself has a series of videos riffing off the Drumeo idea, with an artist coming in to their studio, listening to a song they don’t know (or don’t know well) and covering it on the spot. The latest video is pop duo Fionn (also from BC), made up of twin sisters, covering System of a Down‘s “Toxicity.” Obviously the song is outside their wheelhouse and only one member of the backing band is able to identify the song to start. Continue reading »

The 50 Best Cover Songs of 2023

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Dec 152023
 

Follow all our Best of 2023 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

I like to think that badass lady in the artwork up there (done by our own Hope Silverman!) embodies the spirit of this year’s list. Not that they’re all CBGB-style punk songs—though there are a couple—but in her devil-may-care attitude. “Who says I shouldn’t do a hardcore cover of the Cranberries? A post-punk cover of Nick Drake? A hip-hop cover of The Highwaymen? Screw that!”

As with most good covers, the 50 covers we pulled out among the thousands we listened to bring a healthy blend of reverence and irreverence. Reverence because the artists love the source material. Irreverence because they’re not afraid to warp it, bend it, mold it in their own image. A few of the songs below are fairly obscure, but most you probably already know. Just not like this.

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The Best Cover Songs of September 2023

 Posted by at 9:55 am  2 Responses »
Sep 292023
 
best cover songs
Al Green — Perfect Day (Lou Reed cover)

It’s been 15 years since the last Al Green album. Does “Perfect Day” signal the beginning of his comeback? Unclear — I thought so after his last single, another cover, and that was five years ago. But we can hope. “I loved Lou’s original ‘Perfect Day’—the song immediately puts you in a good mood,” Green explained. “We wanted to preserve that spirit, while adding our own sauce and style.” Continue reading »

Check Out Eartheater’s Weird, Subdued Cover of “Chop Suey” by System of a Down

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Sep 212023
 
Eartheater

Eartheater is the name New York-based musician Alexandra Drewchin releases under. Though originally an electronic artist, she’s also dabbled in folk and related genres. Like many contemporary singers, she sings with a little bit of an affect so her voice is an acquired taste. It’s that voice, and the effects she puts on it, that is most likely to get people to tune out her fascinating cover of System of a Down’s 2001 hit “Chop Suey.” Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of July 2023

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Jul 312023
 
best cover songs
Bob Dylan — Bad Actor (Merle Haggard cover)

Bob Dylan has been on a covers roll this year. On tour, he has primarily covered a number of Dead (“Truckin’,” “Stella Blue,” “Brokedown Palace”) or Dead-associated (“Not Fade Away,” “Only a River”) songs. But he’s dipped into other classic catalogs occasionally too. He did Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” for the first time and then, not long after, maybe the deepest cut yet: Merle Haggard’s 2016 track “Bad Actor.” The tape took a while to surface. It was worth the wait. Continue reading »

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