american nerd survey

What's your favorite cover song?

Dave Indish: This is an easy one: "Painted Black" by Gob. Pretty sweet tune.

Joel Jensen: It's hard to pick a favorite, but it's also hard to deny the power of Shooby Taylor.  I'm going with Shooby's "Stout Hearted Man."  Shoooooooooobbbbbb!

Mark Kalar: Tie: Iron & Wine, "Such Great Heights", orig. Postal Service       Flaming Lips, "Can't Get You Out of My Head", orig. Kylie Minogue

All my favorite covers add something new to the original. Both of these take fluffy electro-pop dance songs and make them gorgeous and believable ballads. The simplicity of the lyrics allow both artists to stretch - Sam Beam is allowed to focus his incredible voice on a catchy melody without the constraints of story telling, and the Lips dig deep to infuse the following chorus with urgency and emotion: "La la la. La la la la la. La la la. La la la la la."

Stephen McClurg: The first one to come to mind is the Pixies version of "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)" from the Eraserhead soundtrack.

Keith Pille: It almost takes a violation of the laws of thermodynamics to improve on a Johnny Cash song, but Social Distortion's version of "Ring of Fire" is as good as the original. Or nearly. Almost. Within shouting distance, at least.

Don Pizarro: Cassandra Wilson's version of Bob Dylan's "Shelter From the Storm."  Like her other pop covers ("Last Train to Clarksville" being my second-favorite), the jazz vocalist and her court of virtuoso musicians completely reinvent the song into something that's not quite jazz and definitely not folk.  I find personal vindication in her music for all the times in college where the unwashed coffee-house masses preferred no-talent folkie bands to our no-talent jazz band.

No, I'm not still bitter after a decade.  Why do you ask?

Amethyst Vineyard: Revealing both my wild days and lack of taste: The Donnas, "Too Fast for Love," from their album Skintight, a high-school classic.

Clint Weathers: I'm way too geeky about cover songs to just pick one, so let me suggest  a few by category:

Most Effective (the band truly made the song their own): It's a tie between Motley Crue's version of "Helter Skelter" and George Thorogood's versions of both "Move It On Over" and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer."  In fact, given that Thorogood took a 2 min John Lee Hooker song and turned into a 20 minute showstopper, he edges out the Crue on this one.

Most Cliche: Billy Idol's version of "Mony Mony."

Cover Most Likely To Make Me Wear A Pirate Shirt: Nine Inch Nails and Marco Pironi covering Adam & The Ants' "Beat My Guest."

Best Cover That Everyone Thinks Phish Did: The Gourds' version of "Gin and Juice."

Best Cover of a Girly Song by a Leather Daddy: Judas Priest's cover of Joan Baez' "Diamonds and Rust" (quickly followed by Priest's cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Green Manalishi with a Two Pronged Crown").

Best Cover of a Disney Song: Gene Simmons' cover of "When You Wish Upon A Star."

Best Triptych of Covers: Manfred Mann Earth Band's covers of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded By the Light," "I Came For You," and "Spirit in the Night."

Best Cover Including The Original Artist: "Walk This Way" with Run DMC feat. Aerosmith

Best Cover That Gives Me A Full-On Robot Chubby: Jewel's cover of Fleetwood Mac's "You Make Loving Fun."

Most Authentic Cover (with no irony, in the spirit of the song): Stone Temple Pilots' cover of "Dancing Days."

Best Cover That Isn't Really A Cover But A Note For Note Runthrough of the Song: The Donnas' cover of "Strutter."

Most Predictable Covers of All Time: Anything by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes

Best Beatles Cover Songs That Were Never Sung by the Beatles: Anything by Oasis

Best All Covers CD: The Last Temptation of Elvis -- two CDs chock full of covers of Elvis tunes.

And lastly the worst cover of all time: That abortion rap version of "Kashmir" from that abortion big iguana version of Godzilla.

Grant Weeks: "Wake Up Little Susie," Grateful Dead.

I always thought the Grateful Dead were a heavy metal band.  That's not the case here though.