Pet Shop Boys number 1!! GTF Feel free to nominate your own. Itâs nearly Christmas, the time of year where cover versions crawl out of every cultural orifice, whether it be the inevitable X Factor single, the all-star celebrity cast of the BBCâs God Only Knows, or the endless barrage of saccharine department store ads featuring cosy, quirky acoustic versions a la Lily Allenâs cover of Keane, Gabrielle Aplinâs cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Slow Moving Millieâs rework of the Smiths. Right now, as we speak, in an office somewhere in greater London, a man in a suit working for John Lewis is probably signing off a festive cover of Slipknotâs Wait and Bleed by Taylor Swift. Cynical attitudes aside, there are still many covers worthy of praise â one of which has topped a recent BBC poll: Always On My Mind by the Pet Shop Boys has been elected the top cover version of all time, as voted for by the public and whittled down by a crack team including Fearne Cotton, Trevor Nelson, Simon Mayo and Steve Lamacq, head of music for Radio 2 and 6 Music, Jeff Smith and George Ergatoudis, head of music for Radio 1 and 1Xtra. The Pet Shop Boysâ cover reached No 1 in the UK charts in 1987; the song was originally written by John Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, and first made famous by Brenda Lee and Elvis Presley in 1972, and Willie Nelson a decade after them. Fearne et al deemed it better than Johnny Cashâs cover of Hurt, the Stranglersâ cover of Walk on By, Jimi Hendrixâs All Along The Watchtower and Jeff Buckleyâs Hallelujah. See the full top 50 below. The top 50 cover versions: 1. Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind 2. Johnny Cash - Hurt 3. The Stranglers - Walk On By 4. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower 5. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah 6. Soft Cell - Tainted Love 7. Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends 8. Sinead OâConnor - Nothing Compares 2 U 9. Muse - Feeling Good 10. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You 11. Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine 12. Adele - Make You Feel My Love 13. This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren 14. The Clash - I Fought The Law 15. China Drum - Wuthering Heights 16. Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World 17. Aretha Franklin - Respect 18. Eva Cassidy - Songbird 19. Leona Lewis - Run 20. Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks 21. Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody 22. Florence + the Machine - Youâve Got The Love 23. Mark Ronson - Valerie (feat. Amy Winehouse) 24. Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe 25. The Fall - Lost In Music 26. Gary Jules - Mad World (feat. Michael Andrews) 27. Bryan Ferry - A Hard Rainâs A-Gonna Fall 28. The Specials - A Message To You Rudy 29. Birdy - Skinny Love 30. Fugees - Killing Me Softly With His Song 31. The Pogues - Dirty Old Town 32. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Good Year For The Roses 33. José González - Heartbeats 34. The Isley Brothers - Summer Breeze 35. Thin Lizzy - Rosalie 36. Talking Heads - Take Me To The River 37. David Bowie - China Girl 38. Urge Overkill - Girl, Youâll Be A Woman Soon 39. Ryan Adams - Wonderwall 40. Nina Simone - Mr. Bojangles 41. Hüsker Dü - Eight Miles High 42. José Feliciano - Light My Fire 43. Earth, Wind & Fire - Got To Get You Into My Life 44. Santana - Oye Como Va 45. James Blake - Limit To Your Love 46. Billy Paul - Your Song 47. Richie Havens - Going Back To My Roots 48. Labrinth - Express Yourself 49. Prince Fatty - Shimmy Shimmy Ya (feat. Horseman) 50. DâAngelo â Cruisin There are of course notable absences from the list, and many surprises, too (Labrinthâs Express Yourself, anyone?). Was the Slitsâ Heard it Throughout The Grapevine criminally missed? Where the hell was Limp Bizkitâs cover of Faith?
Who originally recorded Heard It Throughout The Grapevine, Chazz? These sorts of things are a bit pointless, aren't they? All early Elvis stuff were covers. Beatles and Stones did loads of covers. Where is Jumping at Shadows or Need Your Love So Bad by the original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green? Or any of many Janis Joplin's covers? Which shows how pointless it is as those are my opinions and I don't expect others to agree. Even if that does make them wrong.
Must admit i didnt know Grapevine was a cover. When Fearne Cottons on the panel not much hope i suppose.
There's tons of good covers, the ones that go away from the original are good or change them somewhat, the covers that people do nowadays are just basic copies of the originals, so what's the point, oh wait £££££££££££! Bringing a song back into the publics knowledge is the only way I'll accept an exact copy of a song. But some ****y band doing a cover of a song that was a few years old, even 20 that's exactly the same is pointless.
You didn't know it was a cover? Honestly? I was just being a bit sparky because you had put Throughout instead of Through. You haven't heard the Martin Gaye version? That was in itself a cover. In the USA Gladys Knight and the Pips had the first hit. But that was a cover as Smokey Robinson had recorded it first. It was written by Barrett Strong who wrote Money, covered by the Beatles and That's how Strong My Love Is. Learnt all this to my cost in a bet with Curtis Woodhouse' uncle. That taught me for thinking I knew more than a DJ and record collector who had once paid £3,000 for a rare Northern Soul record back in the 80s. This the original. Which as a fan of Smokey Robinson I have to say is not among his best and you can see why they didn't release it at first and went with the Gladys Knight one. [video=youtube;vOwcOI1vyQU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOwcOI1vyQU[/video]
Hey Joe by Jimi and Cause We Ended As Lovers by Jeff Beck for me. Covers was a way of band paying homage to song that influence them. Now it's easy cash in,
Didn't, it's, Chazz. So many to choose from. Virtually every record in the great boom time in the early 60s was a cover apart from the Beatles. I got in the habit of finding out what the original was and in about 99% of cases the original was better.
Wot no Dickies. The greatest covers band eva. [video=youtube;9FCT2SDacpU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLCE75726D58DA49A8&v=9FCT2SDacpU[/video]
And there's more. [video=youtube;_aLpwtaLDw8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aLpwtaLDw8&list=PLCE75726D58DA49A8[/video]
Christmas is coming. [video=youtube;pKcwjs4iZc8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcwjs4iZc8&list=PLCE75726D58DA49A8[/video]
[video=youtube;DnwGIk90rvs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLCE75726D58DA49A8&v=DnwGIk90rvs[/video]
Mike Flower's Pops: Wonderwall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy1ueZf1WMQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUhR6pisTM .... at Southcoates Club ...
Cripes. 3 dislikes in a minute. It's a good job musical taste is subjective otherwise I could take offence. I take it Poll, that you like Eve of Destruction?
Nice to see The Fall in at 25 but surely their covers of Mr Pharmacist and Victoria are better then Lost In Music?
