There should totally be an x cover of y!!!

This is just a conversation I decided to create because, I do love this concept very much. The idea of hearing a song be performed in a different genre is very interesting to me. I don't mean a remix, where they take the song and then throw in some edits and other stuff, I mean a full on cover of the song in a different genre. So, just list some possible covers you would like to see. Basically In the Style of for music.

Personally, there's two I would like to see.

A disturbed-esque cover of Somebody's Watching Me. I'm not entirely sure why, but I could definitely see a metal band such as disturbed doing a cover of this song.

The other? A jazz/lounge cover of Through the Fire and the Flames. And I don't mean the song being played with jazz instruments, because...well, it would just be the song with Jazz instruments. I mean more in the realm of the song being slightly arranged in a different fashion so it SOUNDS like a jazz song. With the song being slower than it actually is, with the whole "ba-duum-duum-duum-duum" cello/bass in the background and the guitar being played with a piano and trumpet, with some saxaphone and a sexy baritone jazz singer voice performing the lyrics and the whole thing with a bit more swing in it's step, ending with a big band flurish like "duh-duh-DUH-DUH-DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!" and the Saxaphone free styling, then some wild applause and the singer saying "Thank you! Thank you!" underlayerd over it. Admit it, you want to see that.

But enough about me, what songs could you see performed in a different genre?

edited 2nd Jun '17 3:07:16 AM by n3rd_d4sh

Fairly recently I've imagined Drake covering "Tippy Toe".

A thrash/speed metal cover of "Flight of The Bumblebee" would be an easy fit.

Slipknot covering "My Sharona"...there's something about the idea of that that amuses me to no end.

Personally, it would be interesting to hear Tom Waits' cover of Rolling in the Deep. Considering the source material's subject matter, and judging by what he did to Heigh-Ho, it would be a full-blown Murder Ballad.

On the Tom Waits topic, I would like to hear him do "Dr. Bernice" by Cracker or "I Just Want To See His Face" by The Rolling Stones. I heard somewhere the latter is his favorite Stones song, and I can see why if it's true - it's pretty much a (very slightly) smoother template for Bone Machine to begin with.

A stoner metal/stoner rock version of "Wicked Annabella" by The Kinks. Definitely the odd song out on Village Green Preservation Society, but it's got a weird, slow riff that I think could benefit from that approach. Queens of the Stone Age could do a good version. Edit: Turns out Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats come closest to what I was imagining.

For some reason, I want to hear someone make a slow, bittersweet ballad out of "The Boys Are Back In Town". At some point I started reading too much into the fact that the narrator identifies with "the boys" and somehow knows about all their exploits, but he isn't really one of them, since it's not called "We're Back In Town" : I started picturing some older man who goes out to the local bar every week, and the highlight of his year is when summer comes around because he can at least watch this younger group of guys cause mischief and remember the good times he had with the rowdy crowd he used to hang out with.

edited 3rd Jun '17 10:53:07 PM by MikeK

There's this cover of ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid" by Steve Albini's band Rapeman that got me thinking about a whole bunch of noise rockers doing an album of grimy, loud covers of classic rock. Hüsker Dü also did a cover of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman", so the idea itself isn't that original or new, but I'd like to hear something really iconic reimagined by monsters of sloppy feedback, particularly "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin, with yelled vocals, one note plucking and pick scrapes in the place of the solo, the whole works.

@OP

There isn't "Somebody's Watching Me" by Disturbed, but there is one by Raunchy, if that's close enough for you.

EDIT: Oh, and it would be absolutely fantastic and hilarious if there was a latin music cover of Fleshgod Apocalypse's "Elegy". I'm sure that could actually work.

edited 5th Jun '17 12:50:58 PM by NEO

Ever since I realized that Talking Heads' "Mommy Daddy You and I" is about a Mexican immigrant family (at least I'm pretty sure it is), I've wanted to hear Calexico reinterpret it.

I've been thinking "Going To A Go-Go" by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles should get a The Fall cover, because 1) the rhythm feels like something they would use in one of their poppier tracks, and 2) it already has Mark E. Smith's Lyrical Tic written into the lyrics ("Well there's a brand new place I found-uh / where people goin' from miles around-uh", etc).

This more of a should have been that a should be due to his passing, but a Johnny Cash cover of The Beatles Elenor Rigby. That would have been either been disappointing or the saddest song put to record.

He covered 'In My Life', which is also poignant on its own.

A cover of Linkin Park's "Numb" with female vocals and prominent electronica. Not sure who I can see doing it, maybe Halsey?

That sounds like it would hurt. We don't need more Halsey x Linkin Park.

shudder

That's like your opinion, man.

Please don't crap on others, that's not what this topic is for.

Despite having not heard it in years, "Voodoo" by Godsmack got into my head the other day. Somehow or other, I ended up singing it to myself in a Fake Brit accent, and that's how I decided someone should cover it In the Style of "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode. Alternate idea: a Dark Wave version.

Also, some Mike Patton project or other covering "Pony" by Ginuwine. Subject matter-wise Lovage would be a good fit, but musically I was thinking more of Peeping Tom.

Heard "Hungry Heart" today and I remembered hearing Bruce originally wanted to give it to the Ramones: I sort of want to hear someone do it In the Style of a Ramones song.

Been a bit since I came back to this post, but I did have an idea.

Another jazz cover like I said above, but this time for Livin' La Vida Loca. Postmodern Jukebox style. Bonus points if they use a female singer instead and partially rewrite the lyrics to make is seem like she's talking about herself.

I've been thinking about a faster, electric-guitar-based version of "The Riddle" by Nik Kershaw lately - at first I was thinking of a "melodic hardcore punk" take (e.g. Bad Religion, Agent Orange or Pennywise), but something power-metalish or even In the Style of Thin Lizzy would also be cool - I just really think the chorus melody would sound cool being played by two distorted guitars.

I read an interview with John Flansburgh where the topic was songs that he took a while to warm up to, and one was "Get In Or Get Out" by Hot Hot Heat. I now think that song would kind of suit TMBG's style - for some reason in my mind their version would be pretty similar to the original, but with a cleaner guitar tone, Flansburgh singing lead, and a horn section.

A while ago I was at an open jam ^note (like an open mic, but there's no signup, just a bunch of instruments and mics set up for people to jump in on), and we had settled on "Wild Horses" by The Rolling Stones, only the guitarist had started messing around with playing it at a punk tempo with distortion, and it actually sounded cool, so we ran with that. To me it sounded like Dinosaur Jr., which sorta makes sense because they have punk and "country rock" influences. So yeah, Dinosaur Jr. doing a fast version of "Wild Horses", the noisier the better.

edited 15th Apr '18 7:55:53 PM by MikeK

There should be an emo cover of "Yes, We Have No Bananas". It makes perfect sense.

edited 15th Apr '18 4:34:32 PM by TropesForever

A Ska Punk version of "Hooked On A Feeling". I don't even know that this is something I necessarily want to exist, just something I'd think would have happened already - the rhythm of the song would sound ska-ish if you sped it up, there's already a horn section, and there's kind of an association in my mind between ska punk and "ironic" covers of cheesy pop songs (Goldfinger doing "99 Luftballons", Suicide Machines doing "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden", Less Than Jake doing "I Think I Love You", etc)

edited 10th Jun '18 10:28:13 AM by MikeK

I think a country cover of "Video Killed the Radio Star" could actually be pretty effective, as long as it was done by a traditional or outlaw county performer, and was stripped of all the new wave elements. In that way it could be more of a lament about technology taking over music.

For some reason I now have this idea of Faith No More doing "No Tears Left To Cry" by Ariana Grande - specifically, The Real Thing era Faith No More, with all the nasal Mike Patton and super-80's-ish production that entails. Also, maybe ska punk for the sake of a stupid pun - see, the song has a lot of repetition of "pickin' it up, pickin' it up", and a common Lyrical Tic in that style of music is "pick it up, pick it up, pick it up!".

Never mind.

Edited by ReikoKazama on Jul 13th 2018 at 4:52:47 AM

Have any female singers done a version of "Only The Good Die Young" that averts The Cover Changes the Gender? I heard that song today and for some reason thought about other meanings of "come out" (as in "come out Virginia / don't let me wait") and suddenly thought about it being reinterpreted as being directed towards a closeted lesbian (who is also a catholic school girl I guess).

Edited by MikeK on Aug 8th 2018 at 8:30:27 AM