Readers won't let go of this thread. One writes:
OMG! How's about Diamond Dave's bluegrass version of Van Halen's "Jump"? And I can't think of anything the beats Hayseed Dixie doing pretty much anything. Here's Motorhead's "Ace of Spades."
Another writes:
My favorite of all-time: a gorgeous acoustic rendition of Outkast's "Hey Ya."
Another:
Don't forget Popular Science's contributing troubadour Jonathan Coulton and his absolutely brilliant cover of Sir Mix a Lot's "Baby Got Back."
Another:
Has anyone passed along Ben Folds' cover of Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit"? It's an absolute classic.
And definitely NSFW. Another:
Here's a lovely acoustic version of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" by Nina Gordon.
Of course the Cardigans, the Swedish twee-pop band, made it a point to include a Black Sabbath cover on every album they released. Here’s "Iron Man."
And this one doesn’t “soften” much, since the source material wasn’t all that hard to begin with, but a band called The Ukrainians have done an admirable job of covering the Smiths in, well, Ukrainian and traditional instruments. Here’s "Bigmouth Strikes Again."
Another:
How do you have four posts on the subject and miss the ultimate example?
See above.