Awesome Covers

Tim from Gud Nuse presents a surprising stripped down performance of Bruno Mars and Cardi B’s hit song Finesse, featuring only his layered vocals, recorded in an echo chamber for added impact. Don’t they look good together?

The guys from Pomplamoose perform an excellent mashup of pop hits with the word “Bad” in the title – Michael Jackson’s Bad, Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, and Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, with a little bit of Inner Circle’s Bad Boys tossed in for good measure.

Musician Andy Rehfeldt loves to turn metal songs into jazz tunes. His latest makeover? Transforming Metallica’s magnum opus Master of Puppets into something even dear old Mom and Dad would enjoy. Though at 5:00, we thought it was gonna segue into Get Lucky.

Elton John and Bernie Taupin are widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriting duos of all time. 13 pop, rock, and alt artists come together in this new album to bring their own flavors to everything from Your Song to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to Tiny Dancer.

Musician John Tracey presents a medley of some theme songs from classic kids TV shows from the 1980s and 1990s, performed with a smooth fingerstyle vibe on his acoustic guitar. We can still never get enough of those DuckTales and Inspector Gadget themes.

Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli presents another fantastic fingerstyle cover arrangement – taking on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2002 hit Can’t Stop on his triple-necked acoustic guitbass. The endlessly spinning camera made us a little queasy, but the music is worth a little dizziness.

A cool take on the 1964 Gloria Jones track Tainted Love – later made famous by Soft Cell, with a smooth and jazzy vibe from vocalist Nataly Dawn, and the production chops of Jack Conte, who expanded the duo of Pomplamoose to a full band for this live performance.

The appropriately-named Ska Tune Network presents a wonderfully upbeat cover version of the background music found in the Mii Channel on the Nintendo Wii. We’re pretty sure its impossible not to move and groove while listening to this.

A very different arrangement of Daft Punk’s hit Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, performed by the women of Four Play, a four-part clarinet ensemble, who we think could also do a mean cover of Cantina Band from Star Wars.

The sad clown with the golden voice turns in another soulful performance, with his take on the 1967 classic, made famous by Louis Armstrong. Puddles imbues it with a decidedly bittersweet undertone given some of the awful things going on in the world these days.

We recently came across this amazing arrangement of Radiohead’s hit Paranoid Android, performed as a series of layered cello tracks by musician George Durham, with the string instrument taking on duties of both the melodic and rhythmic parts of the 1996 classic.

The vintage electronics orchestra known as Floppotron turns in a perfectly pleasing performance of Lalo Schifrin’s classic theme music from Mission Impossible. “This floppy disk will self-destruct in five seconds.”

Postmodern Jukebox teamed up with multitalented musician Gunhild Carling to transform hair band Europe’s 1986 hit The Final Countdown into a swinging dixieland jazz tune with vintage cabaret vocals. Bonus fact: most of Europe’s members and Gunhild are all Swedish.

GnuS Cello presents an excellent cover version of Bastille’s 2013 hit Pompeii performed with his cello taking on lead duties, and his piano providing rich and warm color. Grab the sheet music here or download the track here.

With the passing of astrophysicist and big thinker Stephen Hawking, we decided to bump this back to our home page. So sit back and enjoy his charming performance of Monty Python’s Galaxy Song via his vocal synthesizer. Always look on the bright side of death.

Guitarist Alexandr Misko presents another impressive fingerstyle arrangement, with a fantastic interpretation of a-ha’s 1985 hit Take on Me, which seems to be having more than a little bit of a resurgence in popularity these days.

Who knew that the ideal musical instrument to perform the theme from Star Wars on was a melodica? Listen up and enjoy as Tristan Clarke and Joe Buono aka Melodica Men turn in a wonderful medley of tracks using the hybrid wind and keyboard instruments.

Awesomer fave Leo Moracchioli takes on The Doors classic People Are Strange, giving the track less of his typical heavy metal treatment, and more of a creepy Addams Family vibe. If you’re left craving more of a hard edge, stick around until the end.

Ten Second Songs‘ Anthony Vincent teamed up with synth sensation Seth Everman to perform the A-ha classic in a variety of styles, from the hip-gyrating Elvis Presley to the drunken bar sounds of Dropkick Murphys. They also gave Smashmouth’s All Star a little love too.

A fantastic cover version of Radiohead’s 1997 classic No Surprises, showcasing the enthralling vocals and musical minimalism of Italy’s Cristina And The Other One. Check out their YouTube channel for a few other great covers, including Yazoo’s Only You.

The musicians of Apartment Sessions turn in an energetic rendition of Queen’s 1976 classic Somebody to Love, as performed in the cozy confines of a New York City subway car. While nobody will ever sing like Freddie Mercury, they make up for it with sheer enthusiasm.

We love the way that Lake Street Dive incorporates the trumpet and swinging rhythms into their cover version of the 1985 A-ha classic, which we’re so used to hearing played on synthesizers. We’re also impressed with vocalist Rachael Price’s ability to hit that high note.

The men of steel, the men of power are losing control by the hour… The mighty Floppotron takes on one the ’80s biggest hits, Genesis’ sociopolitical commentary wrapped in a pop song, Land of Confusion. It’s perhaps even more relevant today than it was 30 years ago.