Covers That Should Never Have Been Made

Hi, welcome to a poor replica of a thread.

I'm sure we have all heard covers before that made us cringe and simply say... "Why?"

And while I by no means disparage all of the kids banging away on Bach, all of the young guitarists (including my own young guitarist self) clumsily fingering some Metallica or Floyd, some "artists" have just straight up disrespected greats with their shoddy covers.

---Funny aside- I took a Milton class with a brilliant and engaging prof back in my college days. It was a really small class and together we sweated through Milton's Areopagitica, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, poetry and prose, Paradise Lost, where we took our time.. it was a transformative experience...

One day one of my friends in the class (in his defense he was quite bright-- just young, idealistic and dumb, as was I) told the teacher he wanted to rewrite Paradise Lost in a modern day setting.

I'll never forget the look on my teacher's face.. wish I could have heard his inner thoughts, but he kindly chuckled and shook his head in response.

Masterpieces don't just come along every day. And when they do, we ought to look on them with a certian sense of awe, humility, and joy at the power of human creative expression, imo.

Now for the bad covers. Which cover have you heard that most offended your senses? Welcome to the bad cover thread.

My #1 Worst Cover Offense goes to Fred Durst.

How he thought he could make something out of poorly presenting a truly great song is beyond me.


What's funny to me is that the first two comments seem to mirror my sentiment. Glad I'm not the only one.

I respected John Rzeznik before i saw he was part of this disaster.

Wish You Were Here is one of the most beautiful songs ever made by mankind, so only a few people should be allowed to sing it in public.

Lol. What do you think?

Runner up for worst cover, which I refuse to even post here, is "Every Breath You Take" by Puffy. I was then, and even am more so in retrospect, disgusted at the way he profited off of Biggie's death.

Looking forward to hearing some terrible covers!

a reply to: zosimov

The cover of "Dream on" by basically everyone that did it who wasn't Aerosmith. That's a classic that shouldn't be touched IMO.

a reply to: kelbtalfenek

Agreed, absolutely

Great example of a song that should be appreciated, not imitated.

a reply to: zosimov


Jose Feliciano singing Light my Fire. I'd like to light him on fire for this:

a reply to: zosimov

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Oh this was exactly the kind of terrible I was looking for.

a reply to: underpass61

No kidding, when I saw Augustus's contribution I went scurrying for Shatner
He created quite a few monsrosities

a reply to: zosimov

So true, I literally could have picked any of them.

I like this cover(it's the drummer) but everyone else says it sucks big time:

originally posted by: underpass61
a reply to: zosimov

Next you're going to say he shouldn't have done Rocket Man either!!

Grand Funk Railroad covering Locomotion.
dudes, give it up.

Frankie Valli covering 'Will You Love me Tomorrow'. no, no, no.

a reply to: intrepid

Lol, well Metallica looked like they were into it!

I honestly like all of it, minus the refrain "Gimme fuel gimme fire give me that which I desire." She doesn't bring it. And that song really need that to be done right.

Thanks for posting!

Listening to Big Mama Thornton makes me wonder if Elvis should have been the one on the national stage

(No offense to Elvis- he did have some kind of star power.)

With Lucy in the Sky and Rocket Man...... life is complete. I am Happy....

a reply to: Plotus

I must say I did share a very hearty laugh with my mom over these

Here's another repeat offender -

Has anybody done this one yet?


The original for comparison;


(Timmy Mallett also did a "7 litlle girls sitting in the back seat", but I could only find an audio version of that.

a reply to: underpass61

Oh your comment alone had me laughing.. oh yes I can see exactly what you mean at the first tepid notes. Horrid.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Oh very cringe inducing.

Well done!

ETA: Yes, even worse after hearing the original, so full of life and fun song reduced to absurdity.

originally posted by: underpass61
Here's another repeat offender -

I never minded David Lee Roth California girls. Mind you I’m not a beach boys fan