Awesome Covers

Bluegrass musicians Iron Horse performa a decidedly more upbeat version of Nirvana’s classic All Apologies than we’re used to hearing, applying their jangly country sounds to the 1993 grunge rock track. One of 11 great covers from their album Pickin’ on Nirvana.

During their 2017 world tour, Rivers Cuomo and the gang shook it like a Polaroid picture, performing one of the more unlikely cover versions we’ve heard – a garage surfpunk rendition of Outkast’s 2003 hit Hey Ya! His haircut can’t keep up with André 3000’s though.

Davie504 continues to fill out his overly literal music series, this time taking on the ABBA tune Dancing Queen with his acoustic bass guitar strings tuned to ABBA. The end result is quite a wonderful arrangement of the Swedes’ 1974 disco classic.

The Melodicka Bros turn in a sweet cover version of System of a Down’s classic B.Y.O.B., performed entirely on a pair of ukuleles. Just because they’re playing tiny musical instruments doesn’t mean they can’t shred with the best of ’em.

We’ve heard a few interesting cover versions of Toto’s Africa, but we’re particularly enamored of the jangly and twangy country sounds of Doug and Cletus as their band turns in a catchy bluegrass arrangement of the 1982 pop hit.

NHK Blends presents a wonderfully mellowed-out version of AC/DC’s 1980 rock classic Back in Black, performed on traditional Japanese instruments, including the shime-daiko, shakuhachi, and koto with a few owl calls thrown in for good measure.

Musician Seth Everman decided to test out a bunch of different sounds and beats that his Yamaha PSR-S670 synthesizer can make, all while only performing Oasis’ hit track Wonderwall. We enjoyed the bassed-up Russian techno version best. How about you?

If you have the patience to sit through the carving of the instrument itself, you’ll be treated to one of the most unusual cover versions of Darude’s 2000 hit Sandstorm ever, as performed on an almost certainly unbaked potato by a quite possibly baked musician.

Guitarist Alexandr Misko turns in another incredible cover – this time performing a fingerstyle rendition of George Michael’s 1984 classic Careless Whisper, working his magic on the guitar’s strings, frets, body, and changing tunings on the fly.

Redditor rrizing’s girlfriend stumbled onto some video of her old middle school teacher, Steve Messenger, who turned in what might be the greatest performance of Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice ever made. His YouTube channel is packed with more perfect covers.

Watch piano virtuoso Peter Bence as his fingers fly across the keys of his Steinway in this amazing arrangement of Queen’s 1978 classic Don’t Stop Me Now, with a tiny bit of Bohemian Rhapsody thrown in for good measure. Sheet music available here if you can keep up.

Multitalented musician and vocalist Gunhild Carling teamed up with Postmodern Jukebox, to bring her unique performance style to a cover version of Pharrell William’s megahit Happy, as she proves she can play way more musical instruments most people on the planet.

YouTuber It’s a Small World is back, but her musical calculators have multiplied for her latest performance – a fun cover version of John Williams’ Star Wars opening theme, complete with the iconic 20th Century Fox music.

Now that musician Ron Minis has perfected his grand piano guitar technique, he decided to take on another classic solo – none other than Joe Walsh and Don Felder’s memorable guitar duel from The Eagles’ Hotel California.

You will get a sentimental feeling… when you hear… Frog Leap singing ‘let’s be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly.’ Enjoy a holiday treat from Leo Moracchioli, as he turns in a tough-as-nails rendition of the 1960 Brenda Lee classic Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

Cellists Nicholas Yee, Adam Caulfield, and Katherine Pernal perform a medley of tunes from the Stranger Things soundtrack, created by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein. While the main theme is the most recognizable, the entire performance is compelling.

Queen’s performance of Bohemian Rhapsody was one the the greatest musical moments of all time. But YouTuber Franco Muñoz just made it that much better by adding a new vocalist to the track – none other than Mr. Chicken.

We were looking for some tunes to add to our holiday playlist, when we came across this little gem that dates back to 2009. Sit back and enjoy an extraordinarily baritone cover of Dr. Seuss’ You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, as performed by the man behind Chocolate Rain.

Saxophone 4tet The Side Project and vocalist Akie Bermiss teamed up for a truly special arrangement of Shania Twain’s 1997 hit You’re Still the One that transforms the pop ballad into beautifully soulful R&B track with a twist. Enjoy more wonderful sax + vocal covers here.

For his latest arrangement, musician Leo Moracchioli takes on Queen’s 1980 rock anthem Another One Bites the Dust, covering it in a delicious metal coating, and tossing in a couple of unconventional instruments for bonus fun.

“Weird Al” Yankovic performs a perfect, accordion-laced cover version of The Ramones’ tune Beat on the Brat – one of the various punk tracks on the upcoming novelty album Dr. Demento Covered in Punk, due out 1/12/2018.

13 year-old Owen Davey is a master of not just one instrument, but can rock lead guitar, bass, and drums with the best of them. Here, he performs all of the parts from Metallica’s classic Master of Puppets like a badass. His cover of YYZ by Rush is solid too.

8 Bit Universe presents an amazing chiptune cover version of the Muse classic Knights of Cydonia that sounds like it could have come straight out of a late ’80s side-scrolling shooter. We’re thinking something like R-TYPE could have easily used this as its soundtrack.