45 Cover Versions

Live on national television on Saturday evening, Leona Lewis began a disgraceful butchering of Trent Reznor's song 'Hurt'. Eradicating all traces of poignancy and injecting it with several tonnes of mediocrity shipped in from Cowell's underground bunker ("Activate key changes! Turn on the blubbing!," you imagine him cackling through booming loudspeakers inside a control tower), its remains were then spat out, having been neutered and beige-popped, into a cavernous arena full of screaming wankers who now regard Harry Styles an icon. Simultaneously enraging and delighting Twitterers (but mostly enraging them), 'Hurt' was transformed into the sort of histrionic karaoke-friendly "ballid" that's presumably more palatable to the likes of Tulisa and her Lidl Mixers. Let's just say that she didn't remind us of a young Johnny Cash. So, as this year's nauseating Fix Factor splutters towards an anticlimax for another year, here are 45 cover versions which don't, y'know, completely suck. I've observed the following rules:

1. Only one song per artist.

2. No Live Lounge nonsense.

3. Obviously no Mark fucking Ronson either.

 

Here are six of the best...

Fall - Lost In Music


Bis - Shack Up



Katzenjammers - Cars



Melt-Banana - Monkey Man



Vermin Twins - I Want Yr Sex



Glass Candy and the Shattered Theatre - Johnny Are You Queer




And here are another 39...

Associates - Love Hangover
Bangles - Hazy Shade Of Winter
Birthday Party - Cat Man

Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone
Bowwowwow - I Want Candy
Johnny Cash - I See A Darkness
Chromatics - Running Up That Hill
Clash - I Fought The Law

Cramps - Domino
Creepers - Baby's On Fire

First Aid Kit - When I Grow Up

Friendly Fires - Your Love
Human League - Rock 'N' Roll / Nightclubbing

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)
Grace Jones - La Vie En Rose
Kingsmen - Louie Louie
Metronomy - Toxic

Elton Motello - Jet Boy, Jet Girl
Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World
Pale Saints - Kinky Love
Pixies - Head On
Residents - I Can't Get No Satisfaction
Schneider TM/KPT.michi.gan - The Light 3000
Silicon Teens - Memphis Tennessee

Slits - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Patti Smith - Gloria
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Sonic Youth - Superstar
Spiritualized - Anyway That You Want Me
St. Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Stranglers - Walk On By
This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren
Tiga - Sunglasses At Night
Trespassers William - Vapour Trail
Tricky - Black Steel
Urge Overkill - Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon
Vaselines - You Think You're A Man
Scott Walker - Jackie
Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding