Awesome Covers

Guitarist Kfir Ochaion shows off his talents with a phenomenal cover version of Prince’s 1984 classic Purple Rain. The performance is as engrossing to watch as it is to listen to, thanks to The Endorphinmachine guitar by Jens Ritter. The custom version of his Jupiter guitar is covered with more than 11,000 purple Swarovski crystals that sparkle in the light.

James Blunt’s track You’re Beautiful is about as soft as pop songs get. But thanks to Otu Suurmunne of Moonic Productions, the 2004 hit song just got way more intense. His growly impression of German lead singer Till Lindemann is spot-on. His Rammsteined versions of Baby One More Time and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! are similarly entertaining.

Lorde provides her take on Talking Heads’ cover of Al Green’s Take Me to the River. It’s chill and minimalist, but you can still chicken bop to it. The single is part of A24’s upcoming tribute album, which will feature covers of songs that Talking Heads played in their 1984 concert fil Stop Making Sense. The list of artists is on A24’s Instagram page.

Franzoli Electronics is back with another high-voltage cover of a classic song. This time, his musical Tesla coils performed a version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. Take our strong advice and remember to always think twice before playing with this much electricity.

Speedbag Bard has a unique talent – he can punch a speed bag in time with music. Here, he shows off his bag skills with a rhythmic performance of the hit Gorillaz track Feel Good Inc. His YouTube channel is packed with other speed bag covers, includingPost Malone & Swae Lee’s Sunflower, and Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger, and Sisqo’s Thong Song.

A group of talented kids celebrated their friend’s birthday with a kick-ass performance of the Nine Inch Nails track Wish. The music video serves as a fundraiser for the O’Keefe Music Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps offer free music lessons and music camps to young musicians. Crank up the volume to 11 for this one. (Thanks, Myriam!)

veridiz vz•tv put together a full-length recreation of Pink Floyd’s classic album Dark Side of the Moon using 8-bit synthesizer sounds. After a very monotonous start with Speak to Me, things kick into gear by the time they hit On the Run and Money. veridiz has also made chiptune covers of Another Brick in the Wall, Echoes, and The Final Cut.

Musicians Alexandr Misko and Alexander Boldachev performed this powerful acoustic arrangement of The Cranberries song Zombie as a tribute to fallen Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The duo’s nuanced performance serves to remind us not to be indifferent zombies and to stand up to oppression.

Without The Beatles, rock and pop music might have evolved very differently. We’re not sure if there’s a direct connection to bands like Green Day and Blink-182, but it sure seems like it after listening to Daniel Swisher’s medley of Fab Four songs performed in ’90s pop-punk style. Like what you hear? There’s a second video with eight more tracks.

We’ve heard some of Peter Bence’s fantastic piano playing before. Like his other flourish-filled performances, Peter’s arrangement of The Police’s creepy stalker track Every Breath You Take has him tickling the ivories and live-looping notes to create layered rhythms.

AI voice generation software has made it relatively easy to create songs and speech that sound like anyone. But can an AI singer beat a professional like Anthony Vincent? The Ten Second Songs host asks you to be the judge. While the technology certainly is impressive, we will always be Team Human when it comes to creative pursuits.

For the first minute or so of this video, we thought it really was a Doors cover. Then the lyrics kick in and it’s clearly Metallica. Musician Denis Pauna seamlessly blends two very different styles of rock music in his remake of Enter Sandman. It’s a slow burn, but a hot one.

Mardi Gras might be over, but Jazz Fest is just around the corner. So there’s no better time to enjoy this New Orleans-style cover of the Oasis track Don’t Look Back in Anger, performed with aplomb by vocalist Robyn Adele Anderson, accompanied by musicians Ben Covello, Charlie Himel, Shareef Taher, Ben Golder-Novick, and Jacob Melsha.

AC/DC sant all of its songs in English. Irish student band TG Lurgan performed this unique cover of the band’s hit Thunderstruck in traditional Gaeilge (aka Gaelic). If you’d like to sing along, the word “toirneach” means “thunder,” and “tintreach” means “lightning.” The band has also done gaelic covers of songs by Oasis, The Killers, and Billie Eilish.

Hey-oh-way-o! In 1986, The Bangles had a hit on their hands with their unstoppable pop-rock track Walk Like an Egyptian. The song was quirky on its own merits, but this country-bluegrass performance from The Cleverlys on Country Road takes it to a whole new level. Like that? Check out their cover of CeeLo Green’s profanity-free Forget You.

Daft Punk were masters at incorporating talkbox and Vocoder effects in their music. Nashville-based musician Russ Pahl shows off his skills with an excerpt of the robots’ track Within, performed on a pedal steel guitar, with his vocals processed through an analog talkbox. We also enjoyed Russ’ otherworldly tune Butt Call from Mars.

Musician Alex Melton is known for taking popular songs and changing up their genres. His cover of Van Halen’s Jump is unlike any we’ve heard before. His toned-down indie pop arrangement of the track imagines what the song might have been like if John Mayer or Hozier sang it. Melton’s version could totally be a hit on its own merits.

Because the theme song from Super Mario Bros. never gets old, here’s a banjo cover version by the trio Foggy Mountain Spaceship. After bringing their twangy styling to World 1-1, they head down the warp pipe for a banjo version of the Underworld theme. But it’s not all bluegrass here, and things head down a psychedelic prog-rock path by the end.

UK band Deco took The Verve’s 1997 hit Bitter Sweet Symphony and imagined what it might have sounded like if it came out a decade earlier. Their version replaces the violins with a synth-pop sound inspired by bands like The Human League, OMD, and Pet Shop Boys. Also, their Soft Cell-ized take on Smells Like Teen Spirit is so wrong, it’s right.

This waxed canvas cover is just the right size for protecting 3.5 x 5.5″ Field Notes and Moleskine Cahier journals. Its front side has pockets for pens and pencils, while its interior has slots for credit or business cards and a mesh pouch for memory cards or other small items.

David Gilmour’s guitar solo in Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb is something special. Musician Will Wilde performed the same part on harmonica and blew us away with his expressiveness. His 4-minute-long Freebird solo is amazing too.

There’s no question that the members of 40 Fingers are incredibly talented guitarists. For this mini-concert, they performed an acoustic medley of hit tracks from Michael Jackson (and the Jackson 5), including excerpts from Black or White, Smooth Criminal, Beat It, I Want You Back, Human Nature, and more.

Puddles Pity Party takes on two prog rock classics from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The sad clown’s back-to-back covers of Brain Damage / Eclipse are dark, brooding, and every bit as intense as we hoped they would be. Credits to James Beaton for the arrangement and piano, Tim Delaney on the bass and drums, and Derek Ennis on guitar.