Awesome Covers

During a recent appearance at BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, the talented Rory Charles Graham aka “Rag’N’Bone Man” and his band turned in an extraordinary, soulful cover of the 1969 Rolling Stones’ classic, Gimme Shelter. Damn, that man can sing.

Ten Second Songs’ Anthony Vincent is joined by singer Joel “Roomie” Berghult to perform a medley of popular songs, joined together by a single unifying beat. It’s amazing how well they all work despite their original tempos.

We suppose it’s not officially a Rickroll unless it catches you off guard, but whatever you call it, Gud Nuse’s emotionally-charged piano and electric guitar arrangement of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up is a legitimately awesome cover version.

Musician Amine Ayadi performs the strangest cover version of a Michael Jackson song ever – They Don’t Care About Us played on the mizwad – a middle eastern bagpipe. His performance will pull you in regardless if the instrument sounds like a goat being strangled.

Continuing his series of overly literal musical interpretations, Davie504 played a surprisingly entertaining cover of Blink 182’s 1999 pop hit All the Small Things, entirely on instruments that are way too small for him.

Coldplay lead vocalist Chris Martin dropped by BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge and turned in a wonderful cover version of Paul Simon’s award winning 1986 track Graceland, complete with the African backing vocals and rhythms that made it work so well, and a bonus horn section.

This video was posted way back in 2009, but we never saw it before, so we figured some of you guys missed it too. So sit back and enjoy as musician Peter Pringle plays an oddly soothing rendition of Somewhere over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.

Alt-pop hitmakers Portugal. The Man turn in a fantastic acoustic cover version of the Oasis classic Don’t Look Back in Anger that’s every bit as good as the original, in no small part thanks to John Gourley’s voice. We’re going to be humming this chorus for the rest of the day.

12-year-old guitarist Lanvy is the very personification of the song she’s performing, as she deftly makes her way through Stevie Wonder’s 1976 classic Isn’t She Lovely on her beautifully embellished Luna guitar.

There are already a gazillion cover versions of the Luis Fonsi megahit Despacito, but we can honestly say this is the first time we’ve heard it played on a couple of musical calculators. Is it wrong that we like this version better?

Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas’ hit Smooth already had a great lead guitar track, but musician Leo Moracchioli went and built on that with his hard rockin’ interpretation of the tune, which isn’t necessarily better than the original, but is still pretty darned awesome.

Jack Black posted this wonderfully wacky improv of Nirvana’s Polly Wants a Cracker – complete with mouth-sound rhythm section – which he sang Carpool Karaoke style while he was stuck sitting in traffic, . All we can say is… “Shikaflaow!”

It’s far from a comprehensive collection, but ThePandaTooth’s arrangement of the Rick and Morty theme song, Goodbye Moonmen, Chaos Chaos- Do You Feel It? and Hurt is jampacked with emotion, and just might bring a tear to your eye. Here’s a little bonus from Evil Morty.

Leo Moracchioli continues to rock it out of the park with his heavy metal covers – this time taking on R. Kelly’s 1996 hit ballad, turning it into a legitimate alt-rock track which could stand entirely on its own. Show your support for Leo by buying his tracks here.

Just in time for the big Game of Thrones season finale, musician Luna Lee is here to perform a wonderful Korean-style cover version of composer Ramin Djawadi’s theme song from the hit HBO fantasy. We can imagine dragons flying overhead as this track plays.

Musician Leo Moracchioli of Frog Leap Studios turns in another fantastic heavy metal cover version – this time putting a razor-sharpened edge on the 1982 Toto pop hit Africa. This time, he’s joined by vocalist Hannah Boulton and guitarist Rabea Massaad.

George C Music has been creating alternative versions of the Doctor Who theme music, to approximate what it might have sounded like if created by other musicians. We can’t decide if we like the Kraftwerk or the John Carpenter version best. The swing jazz is cool too.

Lou Reed’s 1972 track Perfect Day is one of our all-time favorite songs, so the idea of covering it makes us a little twitchy. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Puddles Pity Party – and he did it with his usual vocal and emotional aplomb.

Vocalist Tara Louise leads off one of our favorite Postmodern Jukebox covers yet, with a vibrant 1920’s jazz style version of Japanese Kawaii metal group Babymetal’s cult hit Gimme Chocolate. If you’re unfamiliar with the original, here ya go. You’re welcome.

Paweł Zadrożniak’s retro-mechanical orchestra The Floppotron is back with another great cover. Listen up as it performs a Bee Gees’ disco classic. If you prefer something a bit more modern, he also dropped a cover of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger this week.

Musician Douglas Borsatti cranks out a wonderful and unique cover version of the King of Pop’s 1982 uber-hit on his squeezebox. If Michael Jackson performed while strolling the streets of Paris wearing a beret, we imagine this is what his music might have sounded like.

It dates back to 2011, but we couldn’t help but share this fantastic medley of some of the classic theme music from the Star Trek universe, performed impeccably on the pipe organ by Cantor Ralph Leinen at St Donatus church in Aachen Brand, Germany.

Pianist Amik Lanfranco cranks out a truly impassioned performance of the 1979 Joy Division classic Love Will Tear Us Apart, with a piano arrangement so good it deserves a place on the soundtrack for Westworld.