Awesome Covers

The theme music from Tetris is a big part of what made the video game so popular. Musician JER of the Skatune Network and We Are the Union transformed the classic Russian chiptune into an energetic piece of ska, with its trademark quick beats, layered brass, and organ sounds.

The Foo Fighters’ track Everlong is already a pretty emotive song. But vocalist Anthony Vincent has taken things to a whole other level, turning the tune into a smooth and soulful jazz ballad with the help of producer and pianist Joey Izzo.

Franzoli Electronics rode down the highway, broke the limit, and hit the town with another electrifying performance by his Tesla coil band. This time, the high-voltage musicians added some lightning to the AC/DC classic Thunderstruck. The improved expressiveness and stereo capabilities represent a big upgrade from past Tesla coil concerts.

Musician Will Wilde is an incredibly talented harmonica player. He’s especially adept at interpreting vocal and guitar solos from rock songs, including this jam from Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky. His harmonica solos from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child o’ Mine are equally compelling.

Jonathan Wolff’s improvised bass riffs from Seinfeld are some of the most memorable in TV history. Bassist Paul Thompson says growing up on that and other TV theme songs inspired his music career. He performed his ten favorite bass lines from classic TV shows, including Northern Exposure, The White Shadow, The Wire, Barney Miller, and Night Court.

Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral is a dark industrial masterpiece. MawinSwag took the entire album and performed it using the sounds from Nintendo’s Mario 64. The Mushroom Kingdom descends into madness with tracks like Mr. Self Destruct, Closer, Reptile, and Hurt. Piggy got a copyright strike, so skip over that part and find it here.

The electromechanical band known as Device Orchestra returns with another fun cover song. They used just three instruments to replicate the AC/DC track Thunderstruck. This time, the electric toothbrushes and credit card terminal are running on battery power, so they really should just be called DC.

Algal the Bard presents a bardcore cover version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ track Under the Bridge. Anthony Kiedis’ vocals have been replaced with a penny whistle, with a lute-guitar, Irish bouzouki, and traditional drums taking on the instrumentation.

Pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox specializes in unique cover versions of popular songs. This time, Scott and drummer Roger Ross teamed up with vocalist and upright bass player Wild Bill for a wild interpretation of The Bee Gees’ disco classic Stayin’ Alive. They call it “Ragtime Rockabilly,” but we also get a Wild West saloon vibe.

We always loved the lyrics of INXS 1987 song Never Tear Us Apart. Here’s a wonderful new acoustic interpretation of the passion-filled track, performed on a Timberline harp guitar by musician Jamie Dupuis, accompanied by vocalist Emma McDaniel.

The Radiohead track Creep has been covered countless times. But we bet you’ve never heard it quite like this. Scary Pockets shared this awesomely ’80s version of the alternative classic performed by Promises and vocalist Therese Curatolo. The cyberpunk music video aesthetic is the icing on the cake.

Martin Miller and his bandmates take us on a journey back in time with a mini-concert of classic rock, disco, prog rock, and adult contemporary songs from the 1970s. The medley includes memorable tracks from Kiss, The Bee Gees, Gerry Rafferty, Toto, Earth, Wind & Fire, Pink Floyd, and John Miles. We’ve always been suckers for the sax in Baker Street.

We always thought the line “shave his belly with a rusty razor” was pretty metal. Now, thanks to musician Leo Moracchioli, the traditional sea shanty Drunken Sailor has the proper soundtrack to go with its lyrics. Also, Leo is the only guy we know who can make a banjo sound this badass.

Guitarist Luca Stricagnoli performs one of our favorite Muse tracks, applying his extraordinary fingerstyle technique to Knights of Cydonia. His acoustic version plays right into the spaghetti western theme of the original’s music video. Want more? Luca previously covered Supermassive Black Hole and Starlight.

Amy Turk is an incredibly talented harpist and performs everything from classical to pop to video game music. She knocked it out of the park with the solo from Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing, played on the Harp-E, an electroacoustic harp great at producing bends and microtones. Dave Stanton accompanies on guitar and bass.

Musician João Fuss arranged and performed this fantastic classical guitar version of the Marilyn Manson track The Beautiful People. It’s still got the great staccato sound of the original but with a stripped-down fingerstyle approach. His acoustic covers of Black Hole Sun and Otherside are similarly wonderful.

The Adele track Set Fire to the Rain is an awesome song all on its own. But we bet you’ve never heard it like this. Musician YAD Oud takes popular tracks and gives them a Middle Eastern flair with unique arrangements and the lead parts performed on the oud – a fretless string instrument that dates back to 3000 BCE.

The Johnny Cash version of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt will go down in history as one of the greatest covers of all time. That version served as the inspiration for Hildegard von Blingin’s medieval take on the track. It’s every bit as much of a gut-punch as the previous versions, only with more harp.

If there’s one genre of music we never thought we’d hear on a pipe organ, it’s disco. But it’s the internet, and here we are. So put on your boogie shoes, click play, and listen as organist Vincent Thévenaz plays the 1977 Bee Gees hit Stayin’ Alive on the Great Organ at Geneva, Switzerland’s Cathédrale Saint-Pierre.

Musician Luca Stricagnoli trades his guitar for a banjo for this wonderfully unexpected cover version of Eminem and Dr. Dre’s track Forgot About Dre. Even without the acerbic lyrics, Luca’s pizzicato plucking cuts sharp as a knife.

We’re not sure why, but the Eiffel 65 song Blue (Da Ba Dee) seems to be having a bit of a renaissance. Now, musician Charles Berthoud has given the track his “the hardest song in the world” treatment, ramping up the complexity of this relatively simple Europop track to Level 9999 – and turning himself into a member of Blue Man Group along the way.

In 2016, Paweł Zadrożniak turned his Floppotron electromechanical orchestra loose on Europe’s 1986 hit The Final Countdown. He’s revisited the tune with his much more powerful Floppotron 3.0, a system that’s powerful enough to load all the diskettes from Microsoft Office 97 Standard simultaneously with plenty of room to spare.

Musician Leo Moracchioli is back with another pop song converted into heavy metal. We always thought The Proclaimers’ 1988 song I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) was a little cheesy, but we have to say we’re warming up to Leo’s significantly edgier take on the track.