The Five Greatest Covers of All Time!

Since completing the undertaking of choosing the Five Greatest Songs of All Time, I decided to pick out the Five Greatest Covers of All Time.  The original songs were good, but the covers are great.  Here they are:

5.  "Heartless" by The Fray, originally by Kanye West.  I think that The Fray convey the emotion of the song better than Kanye because the vocals don't sound like they've been passed through auto-tune a couple times. Also, the music video is quite a bit cooler.

4.  "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm, originally by Michael Jackson.  Alien Ant Farm takes Michael Jackson's song and makes it awesome with heavy guitars playing the main riff while still paying homage to his dance moves from a number of music videos:

3.  "I'll Follow You Into the Dark" by Cadillac Sky, originally by Death Cab for Cutie.  I really like the lyrics and the imagery associated with this song and I think that it translates equally well into the bluegrass style played by Cadillac Sky.  I won't say that the cover is better than the original, but it is as good:

2.  "Land of Confusion" by Disturbed, originally by Genesis.  Although I like the song by Genesis, it was intended to be a criticism of Ronald Reagan and I think that Genesis accidentally created a song much more meaningful than the silly criticism of a single politician.  Disturbed takes this song and runs with it:

1.  "Hurt" by Johnny Cash, originally by Nine Inch Nails.  Johnny Cash essentially says good-bye with this song sung just before his death.  It gets extremely intense at the end and the whole song is a powerful expression of emotion:

So there they are.  The Five Greatest Covers Of All Time.  I really enjoy songs that I like being re-framed, allowing me to see them in a new way.  This also fuels my love of mash-ups which will probably fuel another post likely showcasing The Five Greatest Mash-Ups Of All Time.

-Lane

P.S. Another great cover is Gary Allen's version of Vertical Horizon's Best I Ever Had

The Five Greatest Songs Of All Time!

I have taken it upon myself to choose the five greatest songs of all time (since the 80's).  After years of intense musical immersion, I have chosen these five:

5. "Mr. Roboto", by Styx (1983).  Originally on their Kilroy was Here album, this song tells the story of Kilroy, the last rock star in a society which has banned rock music.  I don't know how good the story is, but the urge to do the robot is good enough for me.

4. "The Downeaster 'Alexa'", by Billy Joel (1989).  This song tells the story of a fisherman struggling to make ends meet.

3. "The Night", by Disturbed (2009).  Although the tone of the song is very dark (no pun intended), this song pretty much contains everything that I like about this genre, including an extremely masterful guitar solo.

2. "Melody of You", by Sixpence None The Richer (2002).  Just a fantastic song about a calling to become a musician.

1. "The Safety Dance", by Men without Hats (1982).  After hearing it once, it becomes clear why this song is the greatest song of all time since the 1980's.  The video completes the total package.

I noticed after compiling this list that there isn't a whole lot from the 90's.  While unfortunate, my memories of the 90's involve a lot of boy bands and Brittany Spears and neither really inspired me.  There were a few bright spots, such as "If I Had 1000000 Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies, but as they're from Canada and this song came out in 1993, it would be more appropriately titled, "If I Had 782167 Dollars" (exchange rate from June 7th, 1993) which isn't nearly as catchy.

-Lane