Awesome Covers

Ah, there’s nothing quite like a Finnish bluegrass band performing a Lenny Kravitz song in a French street corner restaurant. So sit back, crank up the volume, and enjoy as Steve ‘n’ Seagulls gives the 1993 hit Are You Gonna Go My Way a fresh new sound.

It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark… Fortunately, musician Luca Stricagnoli is here to shine his light on it, with a simply fantastic fingerstyle cover version of Michael Jackson’s 1984 megahit Thriller.

Toronto’s awesome pop music choir performs a moving tribute to The Cars’ frontman and songwriter Ric Ocasek, along with bandmate and Drive lead singer Benjamin Orr. We like to imagine the two have reunited somewhere on the other side, and are banging out power pop hits for a whole new audience.

Pierre Fontenelle and Cristian Perciun of accordion/cello duo Made in Belgium turn in an energetic and powerful medley comprised of three tracks from the James Bond universe – John Barry’s original theme, Adele’s Skyfall, and Sam Smith’s Writing’s on the Wall.

Musician Costantino Carrara takes Queen’s iconic 1975 rock opera track and turns it into an equally impressive classical piano piece, packed with wonderful flourishes, and epic transitions. Think you can keep up with Costantino’s fingers? Buy the sheet music here.

The very talented Scott Bradlee took The Doors’ 1967 classic People Are Strange, and put his own unique spin on it. His old-timey arrangement feels like it would be right at home on the saloon’s player piano in Westworld, as a pair of hosts fight over a poker game.

We already know that Britney Spears’ songs have an underlying dark side to them. In this clip from musician Jack Baca, he transforms the pop star’s 1998 track (Hit Me) Baby One More Time into a depressing ballad about unrequited love.

(PG-13: Language) Who doesn’t love the Lizzo track Truth Hurts? Well, resident metalhead Leo Moracchioli certainly enjoys it, and shows how the song lends itself surprisingly well to a hard rock arrangement. It certainly had us banging our heads and throwing devil horns here in the office.

Archaelogist dusted off Claude Debussy’s famed classical piece Arabesque No. 1 and reworked it as a masterpiece of prog rock, giving it a powerful edge we’re certain the composer could have never envisioned back in the late 19th century when he wrote it.

Music teacher and arranger Michael Charles Smith knows how to get the most out of the marimba, as is demonstrated by his students Preston Bushnell, Sophia Domreis, Tyler Griffith, and Baden VanHuis cover of The Postal Service’s 2003 classic Such Great Heights.

It took musician Jacob Collier hundreds of hours of video editing to put together this multitrack arrangement of Lionel Ritchie’s 1983 hit All Night Long, performed by Collier and dozens of collaborators, but we think the richly layered result is worth it, and is the perfect way to kick off any weekend.

Inspired by their plans to go see Joker – and the passing train outside the window, Puddles the clown and his pal, guitarist RL Martin decided to record a little impromptu session – an awesomely stripped-down acoustic cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1980 rock classic Crazy Train.

Musician Anthony Vincent of Ten Second Songs freely admits he’s not Freddie Mercury, but he still has quite the vocal skills. In this clip he expands on a fan favorite snippet from his Welcome to the Black Parade video, performing the entire song in the style of Queen.

Jimmy Fallon and The Roots were joined by Ringo Starr to perform a low-fi classroom instrument cover of The Beatles’ 1968 classic Yellow Submarine in a just slightly more psychedelic version of The Tonight Show’s formerly green room. And the band begins to play…

Musicians Bei Bei Zheng and Vera Yaqi Mackay perform a unique arrangement of Dick Dale and the Del Tones’ 1963 surf rock classic Misirlou, giving it a distinctively Asian flair when led off by a 21-string Chinese instrument known as a guzheng, with accompaniment on piano.

Musician Marcos Kaiser is a master of fingerstyle guitar technique. Check out his awesome renditions of themes from Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario World, and Mortal Kombat, then browse his YouTube channel for more great covers from TV and movies.

Porcapizza takes a wildly inventive approach to making music, playing only unconventional, homebrew instruments, like a tennis racket guitar, a typwriter and Pringles can rhythm section, and a piano made from knives. Here, he makes a Jimi Hendrix classic his own.

Upon hearing the news of the death of The Cars’ frontman Ric Ocasek, Grammy-nominated musician Joseph Arthur recorded a contemplative one-take performance of himself covering The Cars classic You’re All I’ve Got Tonight. Arthur’s Come Back World tour starts 10/10/19 in Kansas City.

…also known as Toxicity on a Toilet. Here’s something you don’t see every day – some guy playing the percussion section of System of a Down song on a miniature drum kit… in his bathroom. He’s also done the same for Twenty One Pilots, Green Day, and The Cranberries, among others.

Musician Peter Bence captured a live-looped sample of his performance of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, then used its energetic rhythm to segue into a version of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, which features a similarly intense pace. The two compliment each other so well, you’d think they were one song.

Musician Luca Stricagnoli continues to wow us with his fingerstyle arrangements of popular songs, this time taking on Eminem’s rap anthem Lose Yourself from the movie 8 Mile, giving it a whole new sound and texture that still had us moving our arm to the beat when the rhythm kicked in.

We all know Weezer loves to cover classics. Musician Jenn Champion pays it forward with a remake of Weezer’s The Blue Album, replacing the original’s garage rock with chunky synth rhythms, and smooth, feminine vocals. Her cover of Undone streams for free, while the full album is exclusively on vinyl from Turntable Kitchen.

Heavy metal musician and cover artist Leo Moracchioli takes on the original German version of Nena’s 1983 pop hit 99 Luftbaloons, giving the song the kind of angry and severe sounds you’d expect from the country that gave us Rammstein.