History TheCoverChangesTheMeaning / SongsAToF

* "Day Tripper" by Music/TheBeatles: Music/TypeONegative's cover transformed a lighthearted ode to LSD into a mournful lament on being driven to suicide by an apathetic lover.

* "Everybody Wants To Rule The World": The song was originally by Music/TearsForFears, who wrote about the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. [[note]]The original title was "Everybody Wants to Go to War", but their producer nixed the idea because it wasn't catchy enough.[[/note]] Music/{{Lorde}}'s cover makes it into a dramatic VillainSong about wanting to literally rule the world.

* "[[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera All I Ask of You]]": [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crs5A0Qu8wk This cover]] by Raf Scrap and Lacey, (also being a case of TheCoverChangesTheGender) removes the [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe implied threat]] of the original. Not only is this Christine ''choosing'' her Phantom, she is choosing someone who ''wanted'' her to have the choice.

* "All That She Wants": Nathan Oliver's cover of Music/AceOfBase's original sounds like a Music/NickCave murder ballad crossed with a SpaghettiWestern soundtrack and makes the woman in question sound more sociopathic than shallow.

** Music/WillieNelson's version, which was an [[CoveredUp even larger hit that's more frequently remembered]] is about a man who feels regret for a lost love, saying that she was "always on [his] mind".

** The Blind Boys of Alabama set the lyrics to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun."

* "Music/AmericanPie": Music/{{Madonna}}'s cover turns the fairly downbeat and abstract song about Music/DonMcLean's life starting from the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper ("the day the music died") into a patriotic American pop-dance song.

* "Amor de Conuco": In a strange example of self-cover, Juan Luis Guerra recorded two versions of this song about ten years apart. The original was a happy song of a humble man declaring himself and his love interest accepting him anyway, sung in a duet with a female singer. The second version was more slow and downbeat...and he [[TheCoverChangesTheGender sang the parts that were originally from the girl's perspective]], making the song the man's own full declaration and turning it into a declaration of hopeless love.
* "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," from ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'', is usually performed as someone boldly and confidently declaring their love for someone else. In the original musical, it's a SanitySlippageSong that main character Effie sings after being kicked out of the titular singing trio and abandoned by her lover Curtis, the group's manager (to make matters worse, she's [[spoiler: pregnant with his child, though he does not know that]]). By the end of the number, Effie is practically ''screaming'' and seems to be hallucinating, as Curtis leaves the stage right before the bridge, but she's still singing as if he's there. The more positive interpretation is helped by most covers cutting a verse where the singer abandons all pretense and starts begging their lover to stay ("Please don't go away from me...").

* "Arlekino", the song that put Music/AllaPugacheva on the map as a singer, was written by Bulgarian singer Emil Dimitrov about 10 years before Pugacheva's version. In Dimitrov's song, the titular Arlekino is a wooden puppet who wished to fall in love with a princess puppet and asked the puppetmaster for a living heart - and burned to ash from the flaming love. In Alla Pugacheva's Russian version, Arlekino is a circus clown who contemplates his role as an entertainer.
* "Army Ants," from Music/TomWaits' ''Music/OrphansBrawlersBawlersAndBastards'' is made entirely out of quotes from nature encyclopedias, but sounds like a psychotic conspiracy theory.

* "Baby Got Back": Music/JonathanCoulton's version is a marginal example, making one of Music/{{Sir Mix A Lot}}'s most well-remembered songs less a song about liking fat ass, and more a love song about... fat ass.

** At least two versions - the She & Him (Creator/ZooeyDeschanel's band with M. Ward) cover and the Meaghan Smith cover - end up flipping the genders of the speakers, thus adding another interpretation of the woman trying to seduce the man.

* "25 Minutes To Go" by Shel Silverstein became a signature song for the Danish singer Poul Dissing in the Sixties. The Danish lyrics are also about the last minutes of a condemned man, however while he was an unrepentant murderer in the original version, a change of two-three verses turned him into a political singer who had run afoul of a Dictator.

** The Music/ButtholeSurfers' version...God knows what it does to it, exactly. Safe to say they don't exactly approach it with the most reverential tone.

** David Cook's cover of "Always Be My Baby" by Mariah Carey on American Idol removes the uptempo nature of the original, further emphasizing the StalkerWithACrush nature of the song.

* The Music/BeastieBoys' "Fight For Your Right" is typically performed as a parody of a fiery teenage rebellion song and mocks teenagers who complain about their parents not letting them do what they wwant. The Music/{{Coldplay}} tribute cover to MCA, however, portrays it as having the same teenage frustration, but the different instrumentation and slower tempo make it come off as a more introspective look into the mind of the singer, and the clear feeling of powerlessness he has dealing with his parents and school in his attempts to have something for himself.

* Music/TheBeastieBoys' "Fight For Your Right" is typically performed as a parody of a fiery teenage rebellion song and mocks teenagers who complain about their parents not letting them do what they wwant. The Music/{{Coldplay}} tribute cover to MCA, however, portrays it as having the same teenage frustration, but the different instrumentation and slower tempo make it come off as a more introspective look into the mind of the singer, and the clear feeling of powerlessness he has dealing with his parents and school in his attempts to have something for himself.

* "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Music/ElvisPresley: UB40's cover was done for the soundtrack of ''Film/{{Sliver}}'' and makes very effective use of synth to turn a mushy love song into an ice water-creepy, StepfordSmiler stalker song.

* "Danny Boy": Brian Setzer plays an extremely upbeat rock version as "Irish" Terry Conklin's boxing ring entry music in ''TheGreatWhiteHype''. [[note]]This version was never released on CD and fans have been clamoring for it for years.[[/note]]

* Music/TheBeastieBoys' "Fight For Your Right" is typically performed as a parody of a fiery teenage rebellion song and mocks teenagers who complain about their parents. The Music/{{Coldplay}} tribute cover to MCA, however, portrays it as having the same teenage frustration, but the different instrumentation and slower tempo make it come off as a more introspective look into the mind of the singer, and the clear feeling of powerlessness he has dealing with his parents and school in his attempts to have something for himself.

* "Amor de Conuco": In a strange example of self-cover, Juan Luis Guerra recorded two versions of this song about ten years apart. The original was a happy song of a humble man declaring himself and his love interest accepting him anyway, sung in a duet with a female singer. The second version was more slow and downbeat...and he [[TheCoverChangesTheGender sang the parts that were originally from the girl's perspective]], making the song the man's own full declaration and turning it in a declaration of hopeless love.

* "Arlekino", the song that put Music/AllaPugacheva on the map as a singer, was written by Bulgarian singer Emil Dimitrov about 10 years before Pugacheva's version. In Dimitrov's song, the titular Arlekino is a wooden puppet who wished to fall in love with a princess puppet and asked the puppetmaster for a living heart - and burned to ash from the flaming love. In Alla Pugacheva's Russian version, Arlekino is a circus clown who contemplates about his role as an entertainer.

* "...Baby One More Time" by Music/BritneySpears: Dweezil Zappa's cover is... well, it's odd. And decidedly creepy. Gone from a song which seems to be about break-up sex to something straight out of [[TheMasochismTango masochistic stalker love]].

* "Breaking The Law" by Music/JudasPriest is about a guy who is down on his luck, bored and has nothing to lose. So he decides to have some fun and get some excitement by breaking the law doing things you'd expect from a young rebel. It's all done in a "rebel without a cause" sort of way.

** Ugly Kid Joe turned it from a song of regret into something far more... wrathful. There are just as many who see this cover as being Joe's PetTheDog moment, and tellingly, it's been played on soft rock stations nearly as often as the original, as well as derided by more metal-oriented fans as the song they can't believe the band did. The only thing that really feels "wrathful" about the cover is the heavily distorted guitars during the chorus, and that still makes it feel pretty tame from a band who wrote a song about a serial killer in Disneyland.

** [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in Jaci Velasquez's [[https://youtu.be/vrxqFnguSt4 version]], with the Chipmunks themselves providing guest vocals. Here, Alvin is smitten with Jaci to the extent of the line about wanting a hula hoop being changed to "Me, I want a date with you" and attempting (with help from Theodore) to woo her by trying to speak [[ElSpanishO some Spanish]], only to be reminded that [[EpicFail Theodore failed Spanish]].

* "Cod Liver Oil" (a 19th Century advertising jingle): Great Big Sea changed the key, and transformed it from another happy, mindless bit of fluff into a dark, suspicious diatribe.

* "Crazy In Love" by Music/{{Beyonce}} is a strange example, since ''Beyonce herself'' did the cover in question. The original is a SillyLoveSong about how great it is to be in love, and the "crazy" refers to being punch-drunk with happiness. When the film adaptation of ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' came out, Beyonce re-recorded the song at a much slower tempo and using deeper vocals, making it HotterAndSexier. The "crazy" in this case sounds more like someone dangerously obsessed with their lover. Sofia Karlberg would later cover this cover in the same vein, albeit with a few edits that make it sound slightly less creepy, but just as sexy.

* "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" is a classic cheesy '90s boy band song about partying and having a good time. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R05w0Kh5u3Y Andrew Huang]]'s cover is ''much'' different, slowing down the tempo a fair amount, putting it in a lower key and giving the instrumental a more techno feel to it. The result makes it sound more like a VillainSong, as a young super villain reveals themselves to the world, ready to destroy the city...and anyone who lays in his path.
* "Enola Gay" by OMD: The cover by Nouvelle Vague completely changes the tone of this poppy, bouncy Hiroshima bombing themed song into something yet more creepy and intense.
* "Everybody Knows" by Music/LeonardCohen: Music/RufusWainwright's cover changes...well, suddenly it sounds like its set amidst a casino underworld that's about to crumble and is having one last revel in its own shallowness and debauchery. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J26UlYXPi7o Worth a listen]]

* "Everything Counts" by Music/DepecheMode: The Music/InFlames cover completely altered its meaning. The original was a [[LyricalDissonance simplistic synth-driven pop song about the greed, competitiveness, and materialism of '80s Wall Street capitalism.]] However in the In Flames version the song describes the [[HumansAreBastards failure of humanity as the greedy and selfish nature of people]] destroys their Utopian society. And how only [[AfterTheEnd after the world ends the people realize their failure.]]

* Music/TheBeastieBoys' "Fight For Your Right" is typically performed as parody of a firery teenage rebellion song and mocks teenagers who complain about their parents. The Music/{{Coldplay}} tribute cover to MCA, however, portrays it as having the same teenage frustration, but the different instumentation and slower tempo makes it come off as a more introspective look into the mind of the singer, and the clear feeling of powerlessneess he has dealing with his parents and school in his attempts to have something for himself.

* "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen is a song about wanting to remember a lost relationship ("Sending you forget-me-nots to help me to remember"). Creator/WillSmith would [[SampledUp sample up]] the song as the title theme to ''Film/MenInBlack'', a top secret government agency whose mission involves ''[[LaserGuidedAmnesia erasing]]'' [[LaserGuidedAmnesia peoples' memories]], namely those about the presence of alien life ("Here come the Men in Black / They won't let you remember").

** The Revolting Cocks' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZCdK6x1hks cover]] is also an example, especially if you listen to the original after you hear the cover.

* 19th century popular song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" is usually a lighthearted song about a love triangle between a man, his young girlfriend, and the title circus performer, from the man's point of view. On his album ''Music/TheBigProblem'', CrispinGlover deconstructs the song into something creepier: the narrator ''is'' the man on the flying trapeze, and the snarling way he performs the song makes it sound like it's a VillainSong where he's boasting about breaking the man's heart and using his fame to manipulate the girl. There's even an added verse where the trapeze artist admits that he regularly tries to flirt with female audience members and describes himself as "a louse", but claims it doesn't matter because [[VillainWithGoodPublicity his performances are so popular]].

** At one point during the [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Troubles in Northern Ireland]], "Cats in the Cradle" was used in a TV anti-terrorism ad, with the lyrics kept the same but the video showing that the reason the singer wasn't around for his son was that he was in prison - by the time he gets out and tries to reconnect with his grown-up son, it's too late, his son's followed in his footsteps (gunning down an unarmed man in front of the man's child).

* [[ChristmasSongs "Christmas Wrapping"]] by The Waitresses': Save Ferris did a cover with entirely original lyrics. The original is about a woman wanting to spend a quiet Christmas alone while reflecting on a guy she met and, thus far, had not been able to connect with. The Save Ferris version is about a Jewish woman dealing with the holiday season.

* "Cotton-Eyed Joe": The folk song has a large number of traditional verses. Depending on which ones the singer chooses to include, it might not be saying anything at all, it might be a song about dancing and having fun - or it might be a murder ballad.

* Music/BlackSabbath's "Changes" is a BreakupSong. When Music/OzzyOsbourne recorded a version with daughter Kelly, they changed some lyrics to make it a ParentalLoveSong where the daughter is leaving home.

* "Cold, Cold Heart" by Music/HankWilliams: ComicBook/TheJoker's version (performed by Creator/TroyBaker) in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' turns a brokenhearted love ballad into a crazy ObsessionSong about Franchise/{{Batman}}. Many of the words are changed slightly: "Another ''love'' before my time made your heart sad and blue / And so ''my heart is paying now'' for things I didn't do" in the original becomes "Another ''crime'' before my time made your heart sad and blue / And so ''now you make me pay'' for things I didn't do"; and "The more I learn to care for you the more we drift apart" becomes "You won't admit that [[NotSoDifferentRemark we're the same]], and [[Film/TheRoom it's tearing me apart]]!" The entire third verse is changed from the original so it now reads like this:

* Music/TheBeastieBoys' "Fight For Your Right" is typically performed as a firery teenage rebellion song. The Music/{{Coldplay}} tribute cover to MCA, however, portrays it as having the same teenage frustration, but the different instumentation and slower tempo makes it come off as a more introspective look into the mind of the singer, and the clear feeling of powerlessneess he has dealing with his parents and school in his attempts to have something for himself.

* "Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers: RebaMcEntire's cover changed it from first mocking of a young man who is too stupid to realize he's being mocked and used by his girlfriend, to a sympathetic, third-party observation in a mournful arrangement.

* "Friends in Low Places" by Music/GarthBrooks: Early in 1990, the song was recorded by a fellow country music artist named Music/MarkChesnutt for his first album, to be released later in the year[[note]]Brooks' version (on his second album ''No Fences'') was actually released before Chesnutt's version (on his self-titled debut album).[[/note]]. Chesnutt's reading is that of a man depressed over the breakup (from sometime earlier) with his girlfriend and intends to wallow in his misery on the night of her wedding. Brooks (who had earlier recorded a demo version) decided to completely change the meaning...while still reeling from his breakup, he turns it into a kiss-off version and decides that his ex's wedding night is one to party with his real friends at a nightclub and that she can screw herself. Gee, which one succeeded? (Whistles a happy tune while he waits for the answer.)

** It doesn't help that each cover tries to put their own spin on it, in some cases adding their own lyrics that sometimes make the implications interpreted in the original more overt. The Music/MichaelBuble and Creator/IdinaMenzel cover, for instance, has "Ugh, you're very pushy, you know?" (said by Menzel) and "I like to think of it as ''opportunistic''," (said by Buble) in between verses. Which is just all kinds of '''yikes''' considering this cover was released in ''2014.'' Yet the official music video version on [=YouTube=] {{Bowdlerise}}s some lyrics because it has kids lipsyncing.

** Additionally, the original appearance of the song in the film ''[[Film/NeptunesDaughter Neptune's Daughter]]'' has it sung alternately between two couples, one with the man pursuing the woman and the other with the woman pursuing the man. Unfortunately, the cover most often played on the radio omits the GenderFlip, thereby eliminating the comedic juxtaposition and creating the UnfortunateImplications the song is most famous for nowadays. [[MindScrew Also, cold weather isn't involved in this context at all, seeing as they're in California in the summer.]]

** It doesn't help that each cover tries to put their own spin on it, in some cases adding their own lyrics that sometimes make the UnfortunateImplications interpreted in the original more overt. The Music/MichaelBuble and Creator/IdinaMenzel cover, for instance, has "Ugh, you're very pushy, you know?" (said by Menzel) and "I like to think of it as ''opportunistic''," (said by Buble) in between verses. Which is just all kinds of '''yikes''' considering this cover was released in ''2014.''