Quoting:
My latest nomination for "Lamest cover" has to be Kid Rock's cover of "Feel Like Makin' Love" by Bad Company.
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:-(  I was listening to the Bad Co version on the way in to work this morning... Maybe a "Feel like making cash" parody is called for?

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I really am starting to believe that no one has anymore songs to invent!  :(
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Some do - but it boils down to what the major record companies think is a safe moneyspinner.  The current songwriting talent is a handful of composers churning out the same old clichéd tripe for a load of manufactured clones: 80s remakes are often the best of the charts.

But I reckon the lamest remake OF ALL TIME still has to be BS's "I love Rock 'n' Roll"

Phil

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Uncle Kracker did "Drift Away", and it sucked.  Not like the original was any good anyway.
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I liked the original Drift Away when it first came out way-back-when.  And I think the original was MUCH better than Kracker's.

But I at least gotta give Kracker some credit for having the original singer do vocals on the remake.  It showed respect.  :)

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I liked the original Drift Away when it first came out way-back-when.  And I think the original was MUCH better than Kracker's.

But I at least gotta give Kracker some credit for having the original singer do vocals on the remake.  It showed respect.  :)
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And Dobie Gray was singing with him in the video.


Howard

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1.  Mandy Moore "Coverage" album
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I disagree.

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I was forced to listen to a pop station yesterday and I swear every third or fourth song was an 80's remake.  I really am starting to believe that no one has anymore songs to invent!  :(
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I think remaking 80's stuff all started with rappers sampling 80's melody's. Then I guess Rock groups and solo pop singers thought it was a good idea to remake 80's songs. I noticed the big 80's sampling/remaking stuff when Puff Daddy did his take some 80's songs back on 1997. Since then remaking 80's stuff I guess has turned into a profitable business. The original artist gets paid royalties for another artist to sample or remake their song. In conclusion its very profitable for the original artist. Sometimes I wish rappers weren't allowed to sample. Recording Companies should have put a stranglehold in the early 90's on how many songs you can sample a year or something like that.

Back in early 1999 some of the songs that were on the Billboard chart were from the 80's like Limp Bizkit's "Faith", 2 Pac's Changes(I do like the song despite the sample), R&B Group "Divine's" remake of George Micheal's hit "One More Try" and Will Smith's song "Miami" used sampling of the Whisper's "The Beat Goes On". Also throw in 1999's Mariah Carey's remake of Brenda K. Starr's 1988 hit "I Still Believe". I heard Faith Evans and Eric Benet's hit back in 1999 with "Georgie Porge" was a remake of a Toto song(you know the group from the 80's that did that song "Rosanna".) I remember singing that in 1999 "georgie Porgie pudding pop kiss the girls and make them hot".

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Top 15 Worst Remakes  :P

15. Alvin & The Chipmunks' punk album
14. Usher "When Doves Cry"
13. Marilyn Manson "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
12. All the great songs butchered on "American Idol"
11. Tiffany "I Think We're Alone Now"
10. Metallica "Turn The Page"
9.  Sugar Ray "Is She Really Going Out With Him"
8.  Madonna "American Pie"
7.  Winger "Purple Haze"
6.  Taco "Puttin' On The Ritz"
5.  Twisted Sister "Leader Of The Pack"
4   Limp Bizkit "Faith"
3.  Britney Spears "I Love Rock N' Roll"
2.  Pat Boone's 1996 album of metal covers
1.  Mandy Moore "Coverage" album
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I agree.

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I just heard Disturbed did a cover of Tears for Fears "Shout". Now that's a shame!
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I actually have heard that cover by Disturbed and its ok, they gave it a different sound and beat which i didnt care, thats one thing that i like about Marilyn Mansons covers he does because the songs still have the same sound just heavier

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No Doubt's cover of Talk Talk's "It My Life" is painful to listen to..
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I disagree, I love the original much much more, but I think No Doubt did the cover fairly well.

There are too many artists today who make lame covers of good 80s songs though, I'm not sure I can name many cuz, truthfully, there are too many to mention!!!

I think what it is mainly is that these artist were probably told by the higher ups in the company that once upon a time, these songs were huge, so then the artist decided that maybe it can happen for him/her.(Britney Spears being a goodcase in point, I don't think she knows how to think for herself.)

It usually doesn't cuz the cover artist ends up butchering a good song.

But all we can do is grin and bear it I guess. Wait for a halfway decent one to come on the radio, I think there are some decent covers in existence, right?

A couple of covers that I can say I don't like are BNL's version of Duran Duran's Rio, I got kinda peeved that they took that song and made it almost into a polka sounding song.Maybe that was just me though.

The other cover I don't really care for is Sugar Ray's "Stand and Deliver". They didn't change it much But Mak McGrath sounded like he was making a joke out of the song.

A couple more would be:
Britney Spears- Satisfaction
Britney Spears- I Love Rock n Roll
Marylin Manson- Sweet Dreams
Anything American Idol singers do

I know those songs were also mentioned but they deserve to be whooped again for being awful.

If I ever hear Ushers version of "When Doves Cry" I'll probably cry cuz not only do I love that song, but I can't stand Usher.


Rio

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If I ever hear Ushers version of "When Doves Cry" I'll probably cry cuz not only do I love that song, but I can't stand Usher.

Rio
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I thought Ginuwine covered "When Doves Cry" not Usher. I could be wrong though.

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No Doubt's cover of Talk Talk's "It My Life" is painful to listen to..
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Bon Jovi's version was the best IMHO.

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Bon Jovi's version was the best IMHO.
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Yeah those 2 songs have same title but they are different.

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I thought Ginuwine covered "When Doves Cry" not Usher. I could be wrong though.
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It was Ginuwine. It's an honest mistake I wrote a few weeks ago on this thread.  (The 15 worst covers with Mandy Moore's "Coverage" album as #1)

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I disagree with those who thought the "Sweet Dreams" remake by Marilyn Manson was terrible. I see the reverse:  The original by The Eurythmics was totally lame, and just laid there. Manson's version was absolutely killer.  
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I realize everyone is entitled to their opinion, but your opinion is wrong and bad.  The Eurythmics original slinked around with a sort of slick creepiness.  Marilyn Manson just made it louder, screamed the lyrics, and, indefensibly, made it SLOWER, turning it into this noisy plodding elephant of an excuse of a song.  Which is also what he did to Tainted Love and Highway to Hell.  Anyone could make these songs sound good.  I could.  You could.  And somehow, he spun them into crap.  Marilyn Manson can't cover songs, period.  Tori Amos is still the worst coverer of songs, but Marilyn is a close second.

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Here's the way I look at the Manson remake:  He turned an extremely boring, ho-hum song, which originally did not incorporate much thought, and turned it into something new and exciting. Additionally, I'm sure Annie Lennox and what's-his-name enjoyed whatever royalties they received from it, unless they blindly signed those rights away.

The problem is, people focus too much on Manson's theatrics, and disregard the underlying genius.  Even so,  you'd get a better bang for your buck at a Marilyn Manson concert.
 
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The way I look at it is the remake is not an improvement over the original. The remake is just average: its neither good or bad.

Mansun's remake of "Tainted Love" is the same result as Sweet Dreams: just average nothing good or bad.

Oh yeah and whats his name with Annie Lennox is Dave Stewart I think.

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I just heard Disturbed did a cover of Tears for Fears "Shout". Now that's a shame!
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I thought this cover was fantastic ! I love Tears for Fears,well their early stuff anyway and I thought this was a fantastic way to redo the song.
I vote for Mariah Carey - Bringing on the Heartache the horrors she  commited to that song defy descrption !?!

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Oh yeah and whats his name with Annie Lennox is Dave Stewart I think.

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I knew it was Dave something-or-other.  The last thing I heard about him was in the early '90s, where he was involved in behind-the-scenes type of things, like engineering and production.

The point I'm trying to make about the Manson remake is, there is a lot more going on with that song than most people seem to be taking the time to review, such as the song arrangement and the selection of the song itself.  To say it's just loud or average or whatever, is not giving it a fair assessment.  The original version was performed with a cheap casio keyboard, using a minimal amount of notes,  and contained 7 lines of lyrics. If you listened to the first 50 seconds, you basically had heard the whole song. It probably took them less than 5 minutes to pen it.  The voice of Annie Lennox was the only redeeming feature, in my opinion.

Part of what Manson does brilliantly is grab the mental associations of what most people consider good or moral, and attach a negative image to it.  You can verify this in the band member names alone .  The result challenges the majority of our core beliefs.  This creates controversy, which boosts record sales. Smart marketing strategy, actually.

However, I do not find this near as damaging as say, George Michael, who takes the immoral and corrupt, then glamorizes it.  In fact, you could apply the George Michael analysis to just about any song released nowdays.

In contrast, Marilyn Manson transforms the same into something more immoral, more corrupt, more evil.  In other words, it's not meant to beautiful.  Instead, it is intended to drive home a point.  In the "Sweet Dreams" case, it dwarfs the original.

Because some refuse to look at the matter other than at face value, does not make it average, or a crappy cover.  That's their shortcomings.

I get it. Maybe you do, too.  Some people don't.  But, unless you are looking at the whole picture, the logic is flawed.  The points that people have raised so far to support their disapproval of the remake, indicate to me that such is the case.

Other than that, I'll rest my case.  The debate is not shoving any money in my pocket, or putting any food on my table.  I hate cliches, but I guess we may have to "agree to disagree".

Quoting:

I vote for Mariah Carey - Bringing on the Heartache the horrors she  commited to that song defy descrption !?!
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Gotta agree with this one.  I also heard a dance remake of "Pour Some Sugar On Me" at a club one night.  I have no idea who did it, it was a female group, but it was horrible.

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If you listened to the first 50 seconds, you basically had heard the whole song. End Quote

Not true, but I see the point you're trying to make.

Quoting:Part of what Manson does brilliantly is grab the mental associations of what most people consider good or moral, and attach a negative image to it.  You can verify this in the band member names alone .  The result challenges the majority of our core beliefs.  This creates controversy, which boosts record sales. Smart marketing strategy, actually. End Quote

Yes, but this has nothing at all to do with the quality of the music.  You have your own opinion, and I respect it, but I completely disagree.  I judge it on a purely musical level, and on that level, I find it lacking.  His cover sucked the energy out a good song, made it louder and angrier while adding nothing.  I don't see how making a song sound more "evil" somehow makes it a better song (and I even disagree with the supposed evilness; the cold and emotionless Lennox sounds infinitely more demonic and makes Manson just look like he's trying too hard.)  By your analysis, I am missing the "big picture," but I fail to see what this has to do with anything.  The juxtaposition of good and evil makes him interesting; it doesn't make him good.

Moreover, I disagree with the "genius" of Manson, though I do agree that he is certainly a very smart man, an excellent showman, and occasionally a good artist.  He does what he does well, but a lot of what he does seems like something anyone could have done, had they the guts to do it.  


And I like Casios.

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Lately it seems that there have been TOO DARNED MANY poor remakes or "covers" of previous recordings.  Now on occasion there have been some covers that have come off very well, but most of the time it is just useless.

My latest nomination for "Lamest cover" has to be Kid Rock's cover of "Feel Like Makin' Love" by Bad Company.

I just saw the video on VH-1, and I would not blame original Bad Company vocalist Paul Rogers if he walked up to Kid Rock and punched him out.

The vocals and the instrumentals in the "cover version" are terrible and are not up to the original.  When Kid Rock sings loud, he just screams.  When Paul sings loud, he SINGS loud.  The only thing Kid Rock did was bring the obligatory bikini models into the video.


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Kid Rock just sucks..have you seen the VH1 Christmas promo where he sits on a chimney taking a crap and farts down it...what a loser :P

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I realize everyone is entitled to their opinion, but your opinion is wrong and bad.
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Ok then...

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Ok then...
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It was a joke.

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Madonna mulched "American Pie".  The day the music died indeed!!
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I totally agree. I love Madonna but what was she thinking?

But, I would have to say that one of the WORSE was William Shatner butchering "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" Talk about Jukebox from Hell!




Cat

Quoting:
That New song Something Happened On The Way To Heaven from Phil Collins 20 years ago. :P


Howard
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That would be R&B singer Deborah Cox who remade that song. The original was 14-15 years(1990)ago not 20 years ago.

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That would be R&B singer Deborah Cox who remade that song. The original was 14-15 years(1990)ago not 20 years ago.
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Ok,TV Thanks. :)


Howard

Quoting:
Uncle Kracker did "Drift Away", and it sucked.  Not like the original was any good anyway.
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I know, but Dobie Gray actually collaborated with him on it. So I'd call it a "semi-remake" (for lack of a better name). Even though Kracker sings about 99% of it, you can actually hear Dobie a bit.

Quoting:
Dolly Parton...Stairway To Heaven makes me hate country even MORE than I already do :P

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Oh, Dude, I just gotta hear this one!  Dolly's "Stairway To Heaven," how did I miss it?  
The late, great Tiny Tim did an awesome lounge cover of "Stairway" with Brave Combo!

I thought The Pet Shop Boys cover of "You Were Always On my Mind" bit the big one.  The tempo was way too fast, and the delivery was stiff and lifeless.
I liked Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me" when it was a hit.  However, I had second thoughts a decade later.  I liked Naked Eyes' other hits, but that song has problem.  I've heard other versions, and in spite of it being Bacharach/David, it's just not a very good song, in my opinion.
Dinosaur, Jr.'s cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" was insulting.