Cover songs versus the original track, which ones are better?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_(song) (1981)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen

Van Halen - Unchained in 4K - 6/12/1981 - Oakland Coliseum Stadium (Official)

- Eddie Van Halen - Unchained - Isolated Guitar Track INCREDIBLE (reposted from #612 )
- How NOT to Play Unchained - Old Habits Die Hard (Leon Todd)

stories
- Van Halen “Unchained” Session was a blowout!
- Ted Templeman Explains How Van Halen's "One Break, Coming up!" in Van Halen's "Unchained" Happen

(2021) Van Halen - Unchained (Guitar Cover) - Michelle

[ see also #1005 Band-Maid's Thrill ]

(2020) “Unchained” by Van Halen Cover by Moriah Formica (reposted from #640 )

[ see also #1752 Call Me , #641 Barracuda ]

(2011) (Cover)Van Halen Unchained - Soichiro Isobe [has some more Van Halen covers]


(2022) Unchained (cover) - NERD HALEN


(2019) Van Halen Unchained Live at La Reserve 2019 by Jacob Deraps

[ see also other posts referencing Deraps ]
 
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Two covers of Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are



 
pinball1970 said:

Talented person. Why not more widely known? Just not that ambitious and self-promoting, I guess.
 
Hornbein said:
Devo's R U Experienced


I loved the Jimi Resurrection.
 
pinball1970 said:
I loved the Jimi Resurrection.
One of the most imaginative vids ever, say I.
 
Hornbein said:
The original had Tina Turner on backup vocals. Ike forbade her to do that again.

This was on Saturday Night Live. Notice that wouldn't let him say "TV set".



Cover
Among other things, some guy does a faithful imitation of Frank's idiosyncratic guitar style.


Zappa was nuts
 
Hornbein said:
Talented person. Why not more widely known? Just not that ambitious and self-promoting, I guess.
Not self obsessed, does not care about image only content, zero "attitude," just technique, style and creativity.
No overdubs, samples, certainly no pitch correction or auto tune or silly dumb ass videos.
Talent, lots of playing. Lots of practice, the joy of music and the heart and soul of what it is to be a sincere musician.

She'll go nowhere.
 
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Hear About it Later (1981) and
Mean Street (1981) from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Warning_(Van_Halen_album)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen

#773 Mean Street featured Satriani's on-the-spot attempt at the intro and Deraps ;​
three bands below covered both Hear About It Later and Mean Street​

(1981) Van Halen - Hear About It Later - 6/12/1981 - Oakland Coliseum Stadium (Official)
(solo &t=2m40s )


https://www.vhnd.com/fair-warning/hear-about-it-later/


(2021) Van Halen - Hear About It Later (Guitar Cover) - Michelle
(solo &t=2m40s)

[ see also #1005 Band-Maid's Thrill and #1173 Unchained]

  • acoustic folk
    (2013) Van Halen - "Hear About It Later" Acoustic Folk Cover - Faye Davis (RyeGrass/State Room)


    (2015) VAN HALEN "Mean Street" Acoustic Folk Cover by State Room - Faye Davis (RyeGrass/State Room)


  • rock
    (2020) Brown M&Ms ( Toshi Yanagi ) Video front shot. Hear About it Later at whiskey a go go
    (solo &t=2m30s )


    (2020) Brown M&Ms ( Toshi Yanagi ) Video front shot. Mean st at the whiskey a go go


    [see also #770 Girl Gone Bad]


Honorable Mention:
 
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Orig

Bob Seger is from my home town of Ann Arbor. This is one of his early hits, with not-yet-famous Glenn Frey on backup vocals. Bob's career hit the skids after that. Rolling Stone declared one of his albums "a dog returns to his vomit." When I saw him on stage then he couldn't even afford a band. I don't recall how he worked around that.



I had an idea: a mellow quiet slow version with lots of vocal harmony. It appears that no one's ever done this. This one is as close as they come.



I don't know whether Ann Arbor was the music per capita champ of the 1960's but it certainly was a contender. MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, Brownsville Station, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Bob Seger. Rolling Stone inaccurately calls it the Detroit scene. I say it's the birthplace of punk rock.
 
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Orig by Shocking Blue



Cover by Nirvana

 
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Hornbein said:
Orig by Shocking Blue



Cover by Nirvana


People who are musicians: In the solo from Nirvana at 2:16, can this solo be written with notes, or is this just improv, getting something different each time?
 
I didn't know who Shocking Blue were and, after a search, I learned that they made the original version of Venus from Bananarama:

​


And then I learned that even that song was inspired by another one, The Banjo Song:

​
 
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This track has a groove likely inspired by the percussive intro of Van Halen's Mean Street (#773 and #1783).

(2023) Igor Paspalj - "Dirty Fingers" Improvisation (Elevated Jam Tracks)


It seems Evlee (below) is trying to play many of Igor Paspalj's songs.
I like the extra edge that Evlee puts in.

(2025) “Dirty Fingers” Improvisation - Igor Paspalj - Guitar by Evlee. (She is 16 now.)

- from the above recent post, I now know the origin of the piece below from
(2024) part of her perfomance in Music China 2024 （Evlee Live in Shanghai）
 
jack action said:
People who are musicians: In the solo from Nirvana at 2:16, can this solo be written with notes, or is this just improv, getting something different each time?

It's called "noise guitar." Well beyond written notes. Musical notation is limited.

Improv or not, you can't tell. The other great exponent of noise guitar was jimi hendrix. I used to think it was an uncontrollable improvisation, but saw that Albert Hall movie and his solo on I Don't Live Today is the same as the recording. He had it all worked out. Mr. Cobain has taken it a few steps farther into even wilder noise, it would be hard to duplicate that, but who knows? Some people don't like to leave things up to chance. Fall flat onstage and it hurts your career.
 
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robphy said:
This track has a groove likely inspired by the percussive intro of Van Halen's Mean Street (#773 and #1783).

(2023) Igor Paspalj - "Dirty Fingers" Improvisation (Elevated Jam Tracks)


It seems Evlee (below) is trying to play many of Igor Paspalj's songs.
I like the extra edge that Evlee puts in.

(2025) “Dirty Fingers” Improvisation - Igor Paspalj - Guitar by Evlee. (She is 16 now.)

- from the above recent post, I now know the origin of the piece below from
(2024) part of her perfomance in Music China 2024 （Evlee Live in Shanghai）

Wow that's really impressive. Evlee has more technical command -- Igor can't quite make the tempo -- but Igor rocks so in my book he rools.

Those fake amplifiers now sound about as good as the real thing. It had to happen. What next?

Those guitars with ultralight strings sound bad without an amp, the amplifier is the real instrument and the guitar just a controller. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
 
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jack action said:
I didn't know who Shocking Blue were and, after a search, I learned that they made the original version of Venus from Bananarama:

​


And then I learned that even that song was inspired by another one, The Banjo Song:

​

The chords of Venus with lyrics from Oh Susannah, with Cass Eliot singing backup. Truly an oddity.
 
jack action said:
I didn't know who Shocking Blue were and, after a search, I learned that they made the original version of Venus from Bananarama:

​


And then I learned that even that song was inspired by another one, The Banjo Song:

​

Is that Mamma Cass?
 
pinball1970 said:
Is that Mamma Cass?
Apparently, it is!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Elliot#1962%E2%80%931964:_Early_career said:
America's folk music scene was on the rise when Elliot met banjoist and singer Tim Rose and singer John Brown, and the three began performing as the Triumvirate. In 1963, James Hendricks replaced Brown, and the trio was renamed the Big 3. Elliot's first recording with the Big 3 was "Winken, Blinken, and Nod", released by FM Records in 1963. In 1964, the group appeared on an "open mic" night at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, billed as Cass Elliot and the Big 3, followed onstage by folk singer Jim Fosso and bluegrass banjoist Eric Weissberg.
 
jack action said:
Apparently, it is!
One of my favourite female vocalists.
 
jack action said:
Apparently, it is!
Such a tragedy with some of the great female vocalists.

Billy Holiday
Janis Joplin
Cas Eliot
Sandy Denny
Minnie Riperton
Karen Carpenter
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_(Pharrell_Williams_song) (2013)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharrell_Williams

Pharrell Williams - Happy (Video) [1.4 billion views]


[see also #1438 Get Lucky ]

Pharrell Williams - Happy (Telfaz11 Cover) - Alaa Wardi
(start at &t=25s)


HAPPY - Walk off the Earth Ft. Parachute


Pentatonix - Happy


Happy - Pharrell Williams (on 10 Different Musical Instruments Cover) (ft. Gunhild Carling) - Postmodern Jukebox


Pharrell Mashup (Happy Get Lucky) - Pomplamoose - very creative visual production "shot in one take" from 2014

[ see also #1752 Call Me ]

Honorable Mention:
 
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robphy said:
Aaron Sterling (sterloid) "Back in Black Played Correctly"


  • as featured in a discussion of "rhythmic displacement"
    Is This Musical Heresy? - Rick Beato

Instagram wants me to log in, which I won't do. Please tell me what the point is. Is he playing it very stiffly?
 
Cass Eliot wanted to join The Mamas & The Poppas but the answer was nix. The M&Ps had a regular gig at a restaurant. Miss Eliot got hired there as a waitress and sang along with the band. After a while they gave in.

My sister Judy had a gig like that on Cape Cod. As I recall they both sang and did the waiting. I guess they must have sung just a few songs at a time. One of them later became a professor of mathematics.