The Best Cover Songs of February 2026

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Mar 032026
 
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Asher White — Casper (Jessica Pratt cover)


Why does Asher White have a record titled Jessica Pratt? Because, as it turns out, it is a full-length cover of singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt’s 2012 debut record—which happens to be self-titled. Pratt herself approves: “White’s curiously inventive renditions took me by surprise,” she said in a press release. “A broad sweep stylistically and production-wise. Not just homage, but a record in its own right.”

The Belair Lip Bombs — Happiness (The 1975 cover)

“It was the first single that came out of their latest record and I just listened to it for like two years straight,” singer Maisie Everett said of the 1975 song the band covered on Like a Version. “I still do.” Continue reading »

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 »

Review: ‘Keep Me In Your Heart: The Songs of Warren Zevon’

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Jan 262026
 

Were he still alive, Warren Zevon would be on a roll, scarcely able to believe the belated acclaim coming his way. Of course, plaudits came his way in life, but Zevon was the epitome of a cult artist, beloved more by critics and other musicians than necessarily a buying public. It’s fair to say his songs tended more to niche listeners, with a taste for the left field. That sure describes a lot of us here at Cover Me, and we have endeavored to keep his flame alight, in our own small way.

“Mr. Zevon had a pulp-fiction imagination,” said the New York Times, and they weren’t wrong. If his most celebrated song was about werewolves, that was not unique, as other songs were to celebrate, if that is the right word, child serial killers and headless mercenaries. With a penchant for the dark side, Zevon was unafraid to tackle the most unusual of inspirations, while at the same time being able to pen some of the tenderest and gentlest of love songs. Truly a paradox.

Now here is Keep Me In Your Heart, a double album containing a wide selection of his songs, covered by a large cast of peers and acolytes. Curated by Long Island record label Paradiddle Records, this set is populated more by jobbing musicians on that local circuit, rather than the bigger names that gathered for a tribute concert in L.A. last fall, or indeed, the ones on his earlier tribute album, 2004’s Enjoy Every Sandwich. As such there is allowed a greater scrutiny of the song and the performance, over any recognition of already established voices and styles. Having said, there are a few higher profiles present also, a memento of how well appreciated was Zevon as a writer, by his colleagues and contemporaries.
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The 30 Best Warren Zevon Covers Ever

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Nov 072025
 

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

Warren Zevon Covers

This weekend, Warren Zevon gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after decades of eligibility. So, as the culmination of a week-long tribute to the 2025 Rock Hall class where we posted covers of every artist (catch up here), we are sharing a countdown of the 30 best Zevon covers ever.

Warren Zevon is one of those musicians that other musicians love, so he bats way above his commercial weight in cover songs. The most casual person probably only knows one Zevon song—and it’s appropriate this list is posting just after Halloween. Many music nerds, though, including many musicians, revere the full catalog. Artists way more famous than Zevon, from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, have paid tribute, as have a host of younger acts that consider him a primary influence.

So whether you always hum along with the air conditioner in “Desperados Under the Eaves” or just like aah-ooo-ing to “Werewolves of London,” dive into the Zevon catalog via thirty amazing versions of his songs.

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Full Albums: Warren Zevon’s ‘Excitable Boy’

 Posted by at 10:30 am  5 Responses »
Jan 102025
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

Excitable Boy

Warren Zevon was quite an excitable boy himself, it seems, if not necessarily in the league of the character described in the song of that name, a highpoint in his third album release. A maverick individual with a bag of demons, he cast a spiky flame across the AOR uplands of the ’70s and ’80s, falling in and out of favor, exasperating and alienating friends, family and fans alike. A couple late career upturns brought him back into focus as the century turned, before lung cancer scythed a swath through his renaissance. It also supplied him the means for some exceptional last gasp, literally, material, releasing The Wind just one month before his 2003 death.

Like many of that era, Zevon’s career began as a songwriter for hire/jingle composer. The Turtles were early recipients of his style. His 1970 debut Wanted Dead or Alive sank with little trace, sending him back to supper clubs and session work. Jackson Browne gave him a huge break, producing and promoting his second disc before taking him out on tour, as his support and gig-buddy. The Browne connection, and the prestigious Asylum label, contrived to bring attention earlier lacking, his quirky songs now available to a much larger audience. This eponymous 1976 album was duly hailed “a masterpiece” by Rolling Stone.

Bolstered by recognition, two years later saw the release of Excitable Boy, again helmed by Browne, together with guitarist Waddy Wachtel. This saw Zevon’s career-best sales, going platinum and attaining a Billboard Top 10 placing. Furthermore, the single from the album, “Werewolves Of London,” #21 on the US chart, prove also an unlikely critical hit in the U.K., at a time when punk rock was more the emergent flavor of the day, alerting this writer to his oeuvre, a love maintained immediately and thereafter.

So let’s see how it and rest of Excitable Boy has lasted, as inspiration and influence for the covers work of others.
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