Awesome Covers

A group of five talented musicians from the Colorado Symphony got together for a wonderful outdoor performance of the Eurythmics classic Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). While we still can’t get out to see orchestras perform in person, please remember to support your local musicians.

(PG-13: Language) Get a bucket and a mop out for resident metalhead Leo Moracchioli as he transforms Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s unambiguously smutty pop track WAP into a heavy metal song and replaces the shameless images of well-endowed women with a cute little kitty taking a shower.

The musicians of Pulse Percussion perform an energetic marimba cover version of the fast-paced techno track Megalovania from Undertale. We’re impressed that three musicians playing on the same instrument don’t bump into each other.

Musician DØVYDAS takes on the infectious sounds of Reel 2 Real’s f/The Mad Stuntman’s 1994 reggae dancehall hit I Like to Move It. If you’re like us it’ll surely have you grooving along either in body or spirit. Now why his audience didn’t catch dance fever is a mystery to us.

Musician Matt Brockman plays the trumpet alongside himself in this fun medley of familiar tunes from movies, TV, and pop music. The arrangement was put together by Kevin McKee, but the performance is 100% Matt and his lips. We also enjoyed his performances of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and the theme from Jaws.

Combining bowed, keyed, and mechanical elements, the hurdy-gurdy is definitely one of the stranger musical instruments. Enjoy as musician Michalina Malisz shows off her hurdy-gurdy skills with a little medley of System of a Down riffs. If you haven’t heard it before, her guitar riffs compilation is worth a listen too.

Musician Luca Stricagnoli performs the classic Beatles track While My Guitar Gently Weeps to show off a neat new add-on he invented. Built by luthier Davide Serracini, the Reverse Slide Neck adds a twangy country sound to his acoustic guitar.

The musicians of Scary Pockets continue to impress with their funky cover versions of classic songs. Led by the smooth, soulful vocals of Maiya Sykes, they performed a awesomely unexpected take on the 1994 Soundgarden track Black Hole Sun.

A few years back, Alexey Rom’s video of Bohemian Rhapsody performed by a 100-year-old self-playing organ was a massive hit. We recently stumbled onto one of his follow-ups, a version of ABBA’s 1974 hit Dancing Queen. For each song, Alexey painstakingly creates his own custom player scrolls.

We’ve all heard a billion and one covers of Toto’s Africa by now. Though we have to hand it to Kestrel Tapes for his unique spin on the hit song. Played in a minor key, and accompanied by salad tongs, the track takes on a creepy new vibe that sounds like it came from a horror movie soundtrack.

Playing Dick Dale’s track Misirlou already requires some fast fingers. But guitarist Alexandr Misko amped things up to 11 as he performed the track using a fingerstyle technique. He somehow managed to retain the vibrato surf rock sound, despite his dramatically different playing style.

We already know that Anthony Vincent is an expert vocal impressionist. He’s also great at rearranging songs into different styles. This time, he took The Weeknd’s hit Blinding Lights and took advantage of its ’80s influenced sounds to turn it into a Depeche Mode song.

The Metallica track One is already a pretty grim and evocative song. Musician Poolad Torkamanrad’s stripped-down cover version only adds to the emotional weight, as he performs the tune on a Santoor, a type of hammer dulcimer originating from the Middle East. He’s also covered Dream Theater’s rock opera Lost Not Forgotten.

There I Ruined It upholds its sworn duty to destroy songs with yet another unwanted reworking of a classic track. This time, they took Survivor’s victorious rock anthem from Rocky III and turned it into a really bad 1950’s doo-wop song. Hit play at your own risk.

Musician Dan Dubuque continues to wow us every time he sets his fingers flying across the strings of his lap slide guitar. Crank up the volume and enjoy his awesome performance of The Pixies classic Where Is My Mind?, embellished with a great new twang. He also recently posted a sweet cover of Pumped Up Kicks.

Leo Moracchioli covers Run DMC’s 1986 hip hop hit It’s Tricky, taking a rap metal approach not dissimilar to Red Hot Chili Peppers version of the Ohio Players’ Love Rollercoaster. We love how Leo still managed to work in some scratching.

It looks like SirTremendous could use a housekeeper, but we’ll forgive the mess in the background because his performance of the Green Hill Zone soundtrack from Sonic the Hedgehog is just too good to ignore. His YouTube channel has more great covers like Want You Gone from Portal 2 and a Star Wars medley.

Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli takes on The Weeknd f/Daft Punk track I Feel It Coming. While we still love the buttery smooth vocals and electronic grooves of the original, Luca’s masterful plucking and strumming is equally pleasing to our ears.

For all of the laughs that Rickrolling has delivered over the years, musician Rick Astley has proven his talent time and time again. Here, he wows us with an unexpected cover of Post Malone’s Better Now, bringing his smooth and soulful vocals to the hit track.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Anthony Vincent of Ten Second Songs takes on the Radiohead classic Creep, first with an impression of Thom Yorke, then belting out unique interpretations in the styles of David Bowie, Luther Vandross, and more. The Hollies and Lana Del Ray bits were a clever nod to accusations of plagiarism.

Musician Richard Jones performs a heartwarming rendition of Randy Newman’s Toy Story classic You’ve Got a Friend in Me, starting out with a pizzicato intro sequence, then using a loop pedal to turn those sounds into the rhythm for his bowed violin performance.

Watch a crowd slowly gather in a UK department store, as then 11-year-old Cole Lam sits down at the store’s grand piano and bangs out an amazing performance of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody that will make you want to sing along like Wayne and Garth. Since recording this video, Cole has continued to step up his game.

“There are times when all the world’s asleep. The questions run too deep.” Supertramp’s 1979 track The Logical Song is loaded with thoughtful poetry and brilliant instrumentation. While we don’t know if anyone will ever top the original, Pomplamoose have definitely assembled an excellent cover of the track.