Readers recommend their favorites. Submit your own—especially if the cover goes across genres—via hello@theatlantic.com, and please include a short description of why you love it so much.
I’m PRETTY sure I haven’t seen this up on Notes yet, but I absolutely love Maxence Cyrin’s piano cover of the Pixies’ “Where is My Mind” (referenced in your call for “great movie scene” TotDs but not yet featured in a cover). I can’t quite put my finger on what I love so much about it. It’s so recognizable, and yet so different than the original version. The pacing and volume control are amazing, and I think it manages to maintain the same sort of slow / haunting feel as the original.
(Submit a song via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
In Nine Inch Nails’ catalogue of gloriously spittle-flecked airings of self-pity, only “Something I Can Never Have,” off of 1989’s Pretty Little Hate Machine, is so raw as to be nearly unlistenable. That’s not a criticism. With a far-off-sounding piano, some bad poetry, and his inimitably ugly wail, Trent Reznor absolutely captured the devastation of a young man humiliated by his own desire.
But a haunting cover from Kite Base—a new band featuring Ayşe Hassan of the fearsome rock act Savages—uses female voices and electric bass to turn Reznor’s pathos into dark, dignified grandeur. With chanting used as rhythm and Kendra Frost’s steady, affectless delivery of Reznor’s lyrics, this new take on the song highlights the simple musical power of the original without taking too much emotional toll:
(Submit a song via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
Reader Anthony says he “love[s] this cover concept, and my favorite so far is Peter Tosh’s “Johnny B. Goode.” His pick for the series:
So there I was driving down the highway and who should pop up on the local classic rock station but Metallica (no surprise there) playing “Whiskey In a Jar,” that old folk song that … uh … well just listen to it. Metallica owns it now.
(Submit a song via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
Reader Mike Kludt recommends a sweet and pathos-tinged rendition of a classic Eagles song:
This came to my attention years ago. It’s from The Langley Schools Music Project, a compilation of 1976-77 recordings by a Canadian music teacher of elementary school kids singing contemporary pop songs. (Yes, you read that right. Look it up. It’s a cute story [’Tis].)
It’s a solo rendition by a young girl of “Desperado.” She does a very nice job, but to me the key is to imagine that she’s singing about her dad. This gives it an emotional edge that is almost startling to someone like me who remembers when the original came out and who frankly didn’t give it much thought.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
Reason? Really? The feeling of it conveyed by his phrasing, the drama, the power of his simple rhythm work on the guitar, just a broken hearted, woebegone, it’s over, it’s over. And “I can’t fit. I believe it’s time for us to quit, and when we meet again, introduced as friends, PLEASE don’t let on that you knew me when I was hungry and it was your world.”
A more transformative version is embedded above, featuring Havens segueing from Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” into the Dylan cover.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
Reader Mike Kludt really lives up to the daily 4:20 p.m. timestamp for our Track of the Day feature:
I’m not sure I’d call these transformative, but they are eye-and-ear-catching. A friendly discussion of Bob Dylan led me to this: Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs playing a bluegrass version of Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35.” The sound is so completely different from Dylan’s, yet you can see a similar mischievousness in their faces as they play. Hearing two veteran bluegrass performers sing “everybody must get stoned” is priceless.
While channel surfing recently, I happened upon that fount of surreal covers, The Lawrence Welk Show. There on my television were Gail Farrell and Dick Dale singing “One Toke Over The Line” [seen above]. At first I couldn’t believe this snuck by Lawrence; perhaps the references to Jesus and Mary gave it cover as a spiritual. But I realized that despite the overt mention of marijuana use, it isn’t really a pro-drug song; the main character is in pretty rough shape. (Seeing Myron Floren choke on the introduction is good for a chuckle, too.)
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
Caroline from Los Angeles—“a long-time reader, first-time poster”—writes:
Most people, like me, probably experienced Beck’s “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime” for the first time in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry’s haunting sci-fi fable about the desperate things we do to pretend that awful things didn’t happen. This fan video of the song is showing its age, but it’s maybe kinda cool and appropriate that it’s faded and blurry with time.
What surprised me was that Beck’s version is a cover. The song started out as a 1983 synth-pop reverb-fest by an outfit called The Korgis. (Trivia note: James Warren said he wrote it in 10 to 15 minutes—it just came to him—and yet he we are.)
The Beck version was also used in the Omega episode of the short-lived Fox TV series Dollhouse, scoring the moment when Echo started to reclaim her identity. But Eternal Sunshine will probably be how most of us remember it, to the extent that it lasts in our imperfect memories.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
I’ve been following it intermittently for a while now, especially when I need a break from political coverage. It first caught my eye when you featured Richard Thompson, [who also sang] “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” I had just shared that video, again, on Facebook, and friends were certain that I had suggested it. But I digress.
Covers of songs—sometimes they are great, sometimes they are terrible. Pearl Jam has covered so many songs that I could spend all day just talking about and listening to their covers. Scrolling through the archive, I thought first of Jeff Buckley, which of course led me to think about I’m Your Fan, a compilation of Leonard Cohen covers by various artists. [CB: There’s another compilation of Cohen covers, I’m Your Man, which I bought after seeing the 2005 documentary of the same name, and two of its best covers are Rufus Wainwright’s “Chelsea Hotel #2” and Antony Hegarty’s “If It Be Your Will.”]
But I think I’ll take this opportunity to show some love to The Church’s album of covers from 1999, A Box of Birds. They cover the Monkees, the Beatles, Ultravox, and Neil Young, among others. I enjoyed the eclectic song selection and the hints at the band’s sense of humor and fun. Some of the tracks are faithful to the originals, others are uniquely The Church. Here’s their cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” in all of its trippy glory.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
I am the type of person that doesn’t think TV soap operas are cool. I certainly disapprove of “kiddy country” acts. I also like to think that I don’t go for over-produced, artfully designed to tug-at-your-heartstrings music or video.
But I love this video of two young girls singing a Lumineers song on an extremely soapy network TV show, Nashville. So sue me.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
After his 2013 album For Now I Am Winter, Bafta award-winning artist Ólafur Arnalds collaborated with vocalist Arnor Dan, with whom he also performed on the Broadchurch soundtrack. Most of Arnalds’ music is classified as “neo-classical,” and though Destiny’s Child may seem a strange choice for such an artist, his cover of “Say My Name” emphasizes the desperation in the lyrics with slow, lush strings and somber acoustic piano.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
A reader in London, David Durant, takes out the cowbell but adds a lot more:
Without doubt, my favourite totally transformed cover song is Apollo 440’s version of the classic Blue Oyster Cult 1976 hit “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” (The Bangles cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Hazy Shade of Winter” is also awesome, but Apollo 440 takes the crown here.) I love the way the timeless smoothness of Blue Oyster Cult’s lyrics remains in place but is enhanced by the high energy of a rhythm section. This is what I want played at my funeral.
(Submit your own via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
A reader in Mississippi, Amy Jones, recommends a cover that really brings out the creepiness of the lyrics:
An episode of the American drama series Stalker highlighted the cover of Blondie’s hit in its fifth episode, though I first stumbled upon it via Spotify. I try not to look at my phone while driving, but I had to glance down to check if this was a cover of that old song I had never thought much about but dismissed as silly.
The band, Until the Ribbon Breaks, describes their style as one that “blends genres like electronic, pop, rock, and hip-hop … with a sharp alternative edge.” Their cover of “One Way or Another” certainly fits that description, with soft beats underlying harmonies with just enough dissonance to be beautiful but interesting. My favorite covers are those that recast the lyrics in such a different light that the listener considers them in a new way, and this British band succeeds as their vocalist croons the old playful words with haunting conviction.
Debbie Harry was inspired to write the original song after her experience with a stalker. She told Entertainment Weekly:
I was actually stalked by a nutjob, so it came out of a not-so-friendly personal event. I tried to inject a little levity into it to make it more lighthearted. It was a survival mechanism.
(Submit a cover via hello@. Track of the Day archive here. Pre-Notes archive here.)
