Awesome Covers

Australia’s Triple J produces this series of cover versions of popular tunes remade by various musicians. It’s a great place to kill some time and discover new artists. Our favorite so far – Abbe May’s sultry cover of Ginuwine’s Pony.

An impressive and rousing a capella rendition of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Can’t Hold Us by The Sing-Off season three winners Pentatonix. Dare we say it, we might actually like it better than the original, and that’s a tall order.

We’ve heard numerous cool and unusual cover versions of Adele’s hit theme to Skyfall. But we’re going out on a limb and guess you’ve never heard it sung by a Russian military choir. Bonus points: Salute when the chorus kicks in.

Mustered Courage breathes new life into Seal’s hit track from… ehm… Batman Forever, and puts their own unique spin on it with a country twang, two acoustic guitars and a little banjo and mandolin on the side.

Musician Andrew Huang plays Dave Porter’s ethereal and haunting theme song from Breaking Bad on the most appropriate instruments he could find – a bunch of meth lab equipment.

The latest guitar track from Acoustic Labs’ Greg Johnson is a brilliantly intense fingerstyle rendition of the familiar theme from Halo. Crank it up, close your eyes, and imagine waves of grunts, elites and jackals coming your way.

It seems as if everybody and their brother is doing a Daft Punk Get Lucky cover these days, so it was only a matter of time before President Obama would get in on the action. Though we can’t say he carries a tune very well.

Vocalist Karen Marie and musicians Scott Bradlee, Adam Kubota, and Allan Mednard perform the Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell classic popularized by Peggy Lee in the style of a dozen favorite (and not so favorite) artists.

A live performance of Daft Punk’s Doin’ It Right, recorded with original sounds and projections, done in a single take by musician Jack Conte. Though he does have the help of a robot to play his QuNeo MIDI controller. Go BTS here.

PV Nova takes Daft Punk and Pharrell’s hit tune, and provides their interpretations of what the track might have sounded like if it had been recorded in different decades. Though we think the 1970s version should just be the original.

Rocker Julien Brasart cranks out another head-banging rendition of a classic theme song – the opening credits from The Simpsons. To be honest, we wouldn’t mind if FOX went with Julien’s version to freshen things up.

An unusual, down home cover of Daft Punk’s hit track, performed on banjo by musician Charles Butler. No he didn’t call it Get Plucky – we made that up all on our own. That’s why they pay us the big bucks.

YouTuber gundersonmunderson uploaded this video to share his SEGA Genesis-style intro for Drive. But the real star here is the chiptune version of A Real Hero, which he made using an emulator of the SEGA Genesis’ sound chip.

Erock returns with another rockin’ arrangement, this time shredding The King of Pop’s classics Smooth Criminal and Beat It on his electric guitar. We’re betting he couldn’t play as fast wearing a sequined glove though.

Musician Clara C lays down a jazzy live remake of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ mega-hit Thrift Shop. This version is officially safe for work too. Better quality audio here. Now let’s go pop some tags.

A jazzy arrangement of Radiohead’s Creep, performed by vocalist Karen Souza, ironically turning the tables on the song’s original protagonist. Hear more of her sultry covers here. Her Tainted Love is pretty great too.

As part of Justin Timberlake week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Fallon brought out his barbershop quartet The Ragtime Gals, who have branched out from reggae and into R&B.

Crooner/beatboxer Mike Tompkins covers Justin Timberlake, Timbo’s beats and JT’s backing band using just his and rapper George Watsky’s voices. They should’ve called it Denim & Plaid though.

One-man-band Anders Flanderz knocks out an awesome rendition of Europe’s cheesetastic classic The Final Countdown, on accordion, Casio, xylophone, body drums… and bicycle horn.

Ok, so the produce in this video is used more for show than for sound but we still have to hand it to j.viewz for making such good use of a maKey maKey and his edible circuit triggers.

You know the drill. An overly talented musician uses a looper to perform an astounding rendition of a classic tune. In this case it’s Elija Haaron taking on Paul Simon’s Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.

The trombone quartet known as the Maniacal 4 cover the quintessential prog track Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas. The trombone on a guitar effects processor was a neat surprise.

If you haven’t heard Animals as Leaders, you’re missing out on some seriously face-melting shreds. The ridiculous technicality of a song like Cafo is what makes Chino M’s cello cover so awesome.