Big Red's 10 WORST Cover Songs

1. American Pie - Madonna
I’ll accept Madonna as a cultural Icon. It wouldn’t make sense to deny. But this song is one also and she pissed all over it. Not to mention she made a video seemingly shot to stroke her own ego and put it on the same level as this song. She should of left this one alone.

2. Sweet Child O’Mine - Sheryl Crow
Okay, Sheryl Crow can sing a lot better than Axel Rose. But this song doesn’t require a good singer. It requires a good rocker. Which Crow isn’t far off. Unfortunately she tried to harmonize on this one and turn it into a bubble-gum pop song. It didn’t work.

3. Behind Blue Eyes - Limp Bizkit
As much as Fred Durst’s cover of Faith put his band on the map, the cover of this Who song ushered him right out of the limelight. He didn’t know what to do with a song this complex. But I’ll give this to him, I’d sing Barney’s theme song to have Halle Barre crawl all over me in a video.

4. Big Yellow Taxi - Counting Crows (with Michele Branch)
Okay, this cover was essentially the musical version of taking paradise and putting up a parking lot. This reeked of selling out. It was a couple managers looking to capitalize on two acts that had somewhat different followings. Only problem was that Counting Crow’s lead man Adam Duritz didn’t know what to do with a song that essentially has two or three lines over and over and Michele Branch did absolutely nothing but some La-La’s in the background.

5. I Think We’re Alone Now - Tiffany
Okay, this sparked a movement to have acts start performing in malls. Tommy James is vastly overlooked song writer and his name has been tarnished by goons like Tiffany butchering his songs.

6. Proud Mary - Ike and Tina Turner
I like this soft and turned down to mute. I’ve never seen the fascination with Tina Turner. Actually Ike’s bass voice is kind of good in this one, but the rest leaves me with nothing to be desired. I’ve mellowed my opinion on this one some, there was a time this would have been No. 1 with a bullet.

7. Mony, Mony - Billy Idol
I am not sure Billy Idol is quite the goon that Tiffany is, but he essentially did nothing to change or improve this Tommy James hit. It also was a weird choice considering his persona and the steady number of hits he was writing and performing in the 80s.

8. I Shot the Sheriff - Eric Clapton
There was a time I may have put this up top on the best list, but did any one stop to think why Clapton was doing a Reggae song. He doesn’t add anything to this with his guitar, which makes it even more pointless. Maybe he should have shot the Sheriff, then they would have put him in jail.

9. American Woman - Lenny Kravitz
I’ve often wondered where Lenny Kravitz would have landed if he were born in 50s and came of age in the 70s. But in the 90s, he seemed like the guy trying real hard to be cool. I don’t think it worked in this song, which he did only to make money. I also don’t think he did anything to further the song.

10. Dancing in the Streets - David Bowie and Mick Jagger
There’s not much good to say about this one. It does nothing but further the homosexual innuendo between Rock gods Bowie and Jagger. It’s also just an overdone and overplayed song. The Van Halen version is slightly better, but still sort of a bizarre choice of song for them.

Dis-Honorable Mention
Hazy Shade of Winter - The Bangles
Califorinia Girls - David Lee Roth
Fly Like an Eagle - Seal
Feel Like Making Love - Kid Rock

Snakester's 10 WORST Cover Songs Of All Time

Song Title - Cover Artist (Original)

10. Louie Louie - Robert Plant (The Kingsmen): Most people probably haven't heard this and their lives are better for it. Even being 1/4 of the greatest rock band ever can't save you from embarrassing yourself 20 years lately covering a very stylized song for a movie. Words cannot describe.

9. Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Johnny Cash (Simon & Garfunkel): OK, I kind of feel bad about this one but you know with all the good songs comes a few bad ones. My only explanation is that Johnny thought the lyrics were the reason to do this song, but really listening to it the words sound more like someone should be singing them to him at that stage in his life. Plus he just cannot pull off the vocals. Thus is usually makes me cringe and skip to the next song.

8. American Woman - Lenny Kravitz (The Guess Who): Lenny doesn't do bad with the song, but for me it fails because he left out my favorite part of this classic. The true version of the song needs to have the soft acoustic intro that explodes into the rage of keeping American women away!

7. Come Together - Aerosmith (The Beatles): Crap I am already developing a theme that I hate cover songs for movies. Oh well they still deserve it. I just never quite got this one and why everyone thought it was so great. I mean they put it on their Greatest Hits for crying out loud. Very creepy looking performance of the song in the Sgt Pepper movie too.

6. Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting - The Who (Elton John): This actually inspired me to suggest making this list. The Who can usually make anything sound cool but this song missed the mark. Later on in their career without Keith Moon and way too much synth. That is a recipe for BAD.

5. Jumping Jack Flash - Peter Frampton (The Rolling Stones): Second disk of Frampton Comes Alive right in the middle is this steaming pile of 7 minute torture. Peter can play guitar pretty well but the riff is off and he is definitely not Mick. He was just trying to hard to be them it seemed. Do as I do, just skip ahead to Do You Feel Like We Do and wonder where the next 17 minutes of your life will go.

4. Sweet Child O' Mine - Cheryl Crow (Guns N Roses): Sure the lyrics are nice and there is a good message there. But last time I checked this song was a big hit cause Slash is a monster on guitar, the electric guitar!

3. Behind Blue Eyes - Limp Bizkit (The Who): Damn it, still another cover for a movie. First off Limp Bizkit isn't that good of a band. Second, they didn't do the best part of the song for me which is the transition to the rock ending and the rage the explodes through the song. Third, Limp Bizkit just isn't good.

2. Dancing in the Streets - Van Halen (Martha & The Vandellas): You hear Van Halen is coming out with an album of all covers. You think alright I really likes what they did with You Really Got Me, I'll give it a shot. Then out comes the synth crap and this just plain odd sounding song. They play it on the radio all the freaking time. What is wrong with these people? This is just bad, and it isn't Van Halen.

1. American Pie - Madonna (Don McLean): I don't care if you are like the crown jewel of the pop industry and want to push the envelope at every turn, you cannot touch this song. It has a deeper meaning than any of us, we sing it together in our cars and in the bars. I cried the day Madonna made the music die. What?! this was for a movie too!?