Awesome Covers

Equipped with her electric guitar, a microphone, effects pedals, and loop box, multitalented musician Kawehi follows up on her breakout performance of Nine Inch Nails’ Closer with a fantastic street corner cover of The Hand That Feeds. Who knew Lawrence, Kansas was so cool?

The members of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain reminisce about the past as they look to a future in which they can once again travel the world. Backing their slideshow video is their warm and cheery cover version of the theme song from Star Trek: The Original Series.

João Fuss’ YouTube channel is loaded with great classical guitar performances. Among our favorites is this cover of the Muse track Uprising which not only shows off João’s talents but the musicality of the original’s composition. His covers of Radiohead’s Karma Police and Dire Straits’ Your Latest Trick are also fantastic.

Synthwave musician Astrophysics programmed iconic Japanese vocaloid Hatsune Miku to sing the The Weeknd’s hit track Save Your Tears. The fat electronic sounds are the perfect complement to the synthesized vocals, and fit right in with The Weeknd’s 1980s vibe.

New Orleans is home to some of the world’s most talented musicians. Sid Kuhn shared this street performance by Doreen Ketchens belting out one of the best and raspiest clarinet solos in a cover of The Animals’ House of the Rising Sun. We recommend listening to the complete performance, but the solo hits at 3:33.

Musician Alex Melton proves yet again that just about any song can be done in the style of Blink-182. His latest take on the pop-punk maestros imagines what the Oasis track Wonderwall might have sounded like if Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus created the song instead of Noel and Liam Gallagher.

Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin wrapped up their 2021 Hanukkah Sessions with a gravelly-voiced cover of the KISS classic Rock and Roll All Nite. Dave went with Gene Simmons’ makeup while Greg donned Paul Stanley’s star eye. Then they tried and put gasoline into a Tesla.

Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin are back with a new series of Hanukkah Sessions for 2021. The kicked things off right with this very special performance of Lisa Loeb’s Stay. While it starts with the same folksy charm as the original, things escalate quickly as it turns into death metal. (Thanks Harriet!)

Musician Joe Porter plays a variety of percussion instruments. Sit back and enjoy as he performs a sampling of video game music on an instrument made from plastic soda bottles, timpani drums, steel pan, and more. He has an earlier video game medley and a collection of commercial jingles that are worth a listen too.

Musician Jamie Dupuis gets out his harp guitar for another great rock cover. This time he performed a warm and expressive acoustic arrangement of Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The peaceful and idyllic location stands in stark contrast to the song’s bleak urban imagery.

Saskatchewan bluegrass band The Dead South takes on The Doors 1967 classic People Are Strange, giving it a twangy country sound and a music video that reminds us that space aliens are people too. From the EP Easy Listening for Jerks – Part 2, a collection of their rock covers.

Now that it’s mid-November, we figure it’s okay to start playing a little Christmas music. Let’s start off the festivities with this great instrumental cover of The Pogues’ cynical classic Fairytale of New York, performed beautifully by the Vitamin String Quartet. We love how the fiddle embodies the spirit of Irish folk music.

Musician 826aska performs a spirited arrangement of the track Friend Like Me on her electronic organ. While we will always miss Robin Williams, her version serves as a delightful and uplifting tribute. If you enjoy Disney musicals, check out her arrangements of A Whole New World and Circle of Life too.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s Blue Bear School of Music, Jack Black joined a group of talented kids from the school to perform a cover of David Bowie’s Suffragette City. This just makes us want a sequel to School of Rock in which the original kids are now the teachers.

It doesn’t get more bubbly than the 1984 Wham! hit Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. But Jeremy Hunter of Ska Tune Network cranks the bubble machine up to 11 with his effervescent cover of the track, jamming it full of energy and upgrading it with a great brass section.

Because absolutely nobody asked for it, here is a music video of SpongeBob SquarePants singing a cover of Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise. Apparently, Negan Jeffrey used an AI-based vocal synthesizer to make SpongeBob sing the words to the 1995 hit track.

What’s better than one of Luna Lee’s gayageum covers of popular music? A medley of five of them in a single video. The tracks include CCR’s Have You Ever Seen The Rain, John Lennon’s Imagine, George Michael’s Careless Whisper, Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4, and Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.

Appearing on the Footloose soundtrack, the Bonnie Tyler and Jim Steinman song Holding out for a Hero is the poster child for 1980s musical excess. Leo Moracchioli swaps synths for screams with a heavy metal cover of the track that would give John Lithgow’s judgmental reverend a heart attack if he heard it.

Never gonna stop, give it up. The Knack’s track My Sharona was one of the biggest earworms of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli gives the song his own groovy style with an energetic acoustic guitar cover. We thought we might miss the drumbeat, but Luca gives us plenty of rhythm from the guitar’s wooden body.

If you haven’t seen Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers yet, what are you waiting for? During production of this most excellent documentary, Wright convinced “Weird Al” to perform an accordion cover of Sparks’ track This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us from their 1974 classic album Kimono My House.

The Melodicka Bros. took The Animals’ classic House of the Rising Sun and transformed it into a dark and moody song that’s so emotive that it almost certainly will turn up on a soundtrack to set the stage for an intense movie or TV scene. The music video’s direction works perfectly with the gloomy track.

The ELO track Mr. Blue Sky has turned up in a variety of movies and cover versions over the years. Now, The Muppets join that list with a joyful rendition of the tune by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. The performance is part of the Dear Earth special, celebrating our planet and helping to raise awareness about climate change.

The members of Epic Symphonic Rock provide their orchestral take on three rock classics by Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water, Burn, and Highway Star, a song that brings back memories of getting our asses handed to us playing Rock Band on Expert difficulty.