That ~Reggae thread got me thinking about my love of odd cover versions of songs. reggae singers have a poor track record of this – too many folk wanting to sing a reggae song but not enough folk writing them. Have we done this before?

anyway – a couple of my faves but please post up some. the odder the better. I need more for my collection

to kick off

Is that bagpipes?

A couple from Taggy matcher, Can’t compete with that Autobahn for weird tho 🙂

The whole of Has Been is brilliant. What an album! No joke.

I’m thinking the whole catalogue of Nouvelle Vague

Stereolab’s ‘Iron Man’ is pretty far off too.

Teenage Fanclub – Like A Virgin

(recorded on the album The King)

Too many to mention – look for NME Ruby Trax on youtube and get lost in wonderment.

But as a well regarded band on here, for starters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSy2Rc3KPJ4

Nouvelle Vague are brilliant

Nina Gordon does a NSFA NWA

Peat and diesele

Not really a cover i suppose tho

A few gems in here

A thread for brilliantly bonkers covers

Fiddlesticks. I thought it had been done but I couldn’t find the thread.

That arctic monkeys one is brilliant

You wanted odd

Beatle barkers

Not too weird but my favourite.

Sweedish metal – I’d hate to know what you think is weird! thats properly odd.

Came here to post China Drum, beaten to it. Amazing track.

They did this as well

Ah, fond memories of the Tunbridge Wells Forum, circa 1998.

Also, anything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, basically.

Magma’s ‘De Futura’ by The Flying Luttenbachers

Also Ex-Girl’s sublime cover ‘Pop Muzik. I love the original but those divinely weird cats somehow scratched it all up into poperatic perfection!

Ali Spagnola on YouTube does all sorts of covers in the style of different bands and singers. Her doing Mumford and Sons covering Truth Hurts by Lizzo is especially good, but it’s all worth a watch.

Not strictly cover versions, but The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican (Barnsley’s answer to Weird Al Yankovich) have plenty to choose from….The Place of Spades is a good starting point…

The Place of Spades

The Real Tuesday Weld, Stand By Your Man

That acoustic version of Loveless?

There are 3 covers on this old album, and they all just err on the side of rubbish. Keyboard playing just about saves this

Jah Division’s stuff maybe isn’t quite covers, but they come up with some nice dubs based on JD songs

,

There was a time when Elvis sang reggae in a Led Zep style

Also a supremely polyester-rug-cutting version of ‘Wonderwall’. I bought this on cassette! Could never stand that Britpop Beatles Mantomime Bros whiny and pale version, whereas this cover-version built enough static in my lounge-carpet that an emerging ‘Maglev Slide’ dance craze was summarily squashed by local Authorities/irate neighbour.

I actually prefer this to the original…

Oops I did it again – Richard Thompson

Just by nature of the guy’s voice, the Placebo Covers album is both brilliant and a bit odd…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEEXyRL0qE&list=PLdugtpf4nXUtIMN11S1Fpx4Yl3wuuRt6t&index=1

Anything by Richard Cheese makes me giggle, Killing in the Name of is the winner though…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLAbAp5tbU0

As for weird covers you prefer to the original? Smoke on the water – the great Senor Coconut again. Is that a glockenspiel instead of a guitar I hear? the key is actually being a good musicians I think. This is why Nouvelle Vague and Richard Cheese both work so well

WTF was Shatner thinking? I guess because his old version of Rocket Man was received so well he thought – why not? I have just found loads of odd covers by Shatner but this performance is well worth watching. “And I’m gonna be hiiiiiiiiiiiiigh as a kite by then” ” its a rocket, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan”