This thread is for your favourite covers of 80s songs!  There have been threads like these before, but I figured it's time for a new perspective.  No posting of ones you hate, or just randomly posting one because it's there.  They don't necessarily have to be better than the original, but tell us why you like it as a cover song! :)

Also try to post just 2 videos per post.  More than that can cause the page to lag and make it painfully slow for others to view.

The music in today's Top 40 is hit or miss and you really have to dig to find ones you like (if you can even find one), but every now and then, one comes along that you just love.  In 2011, this was a radio favourite in Canada and Australia and what I really enjoyed about it was how good it worked as a rock song.  It's not the original, but it's not terrible.  You may not know the artist, but the song is legendary ...

These Kids Wear Crowns - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2011)
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And just to compare, here is the original ... Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987)
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Okay, I'll contribute one.

"You Got It" by Bonnie Raitt (1994). (Original recorded by Roy Orbison in 1988.)

I liked this one at the time it came out; it seemed really upbeat and lively. And I like Bonnie's music in general.

Here's one in the 80s where though I like the original, I prefer the cover song.  It's hard to top a legendary act, especially ex-members of The Isley Brothers, but British act The Housemartins tried and succeeded.  This cover was not a hit in North America, but I remember the video getting regular airplay.  It just worked so well as an a cappella song

The Housemartins - Caravan of Love (1986)
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The fantastic R&B original ... Isley Jasper Isley - Caravan of Love (1985)
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The music in today's Top 40 is hit or miss and you really have to dig to find ones you like (if you can even find one), but every now and then, one comes along that you just love.  In 2011, this was a radio favourite in Canada and Australia and what I really enjoyed about it was how good it worked as a rock song.  It's not the original, but it's not terrible.  You may not know the artist, but the song is legendary ...

These Kids Wear Crowns - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2011)



And just to compare, here is the original ... Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987)



definitely Whitney Houston.

Here's one in the 80s where though I like the original, I prefer the cover song.  It's hard to top a legendary act, especially ex-members of The Isley Brothers, but British act The Housemartins tried and succeeded.  This cover was not a hit in North America, but I remember the video getting regular airplay.  It just worked so well as an a cappella song

The Housemartins - Caravan of Love (1986)



The fantastic R&B original ... Isley Jasper Isley - Caravan of Love (1985)



definitely Isley Jasper Isley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrUB0g8Vjgg&feature=kp

Simply Red- Money's Too Tight To Mention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_Zv4sSk6A

The Valentine Brothers (original)

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This one is catchy.  :)  Mark Holmes sent Crystal Castles a copy of the song because they couldn't get it on I-Tunes.  Which proved just how out of touch with the times Sony was.  :)

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The original band and original video.  Sergio Galli the guitar player = Sex on a stick!  I never expected that some 30 years later I would have such a crush on this guy.  :-*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRh35vTXtDQ

Flaming Lips-Borderline

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSaC-YbSDpo

Madonna-Borderline

Here's one from 2011 that I thought was very well done, mostly because it was more than just a cover song.  Before this version gained International fame (UK #2 / NL #33) in 2012, it was a hit in Canada only the previous year ...

Alyssa Reid - Alone Again (2011)
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And now for something completely original ... The original!  Heart - Alone (1987)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OulGxjXa6kQ#t=56

Captain Jack-Give It Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psFQMKcsIF8&feature=kp


KC And The Sunshine Band-Give It Up

I remember when Captain Jack was popular.  Their version of Give it Up came out after the Eurodance craze had died down, so it was not as popular as it should have been.


Here's another Eurodance cover of an 80s classic.  I love 80s music, but this is one instance where I liked the cover version a little bit more ...

Unique II - Break My Stride (1997)
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Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride (1983)
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I remember when Captain Jack was popular.  Their version of Give it Up came out after the Eurodance craze had died down, so it was not as popular as it should have been.


Here's another Eurodance cover of an 80s classic.  I love 80s music, but this is one instance where I liked the cover version a little bit more ...

Unique II - Break My Stride (1997)


Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride (1983)



I would have to disagree with you, I liked the 80's Matthew Wilder version original better. Sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n18tZjzOJI&feature=kp

Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E

Billy Joel

I would have to disagree with you, I liked the 80's Matthew Wilder version original better. Sorry.


No need to be sorry.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how wrong it is :P lol :D

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Not an 80s song but it's still a great song no matter who sings it.  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lCUWySOptg

T-Funk feat. Inaya Day-Glamorous Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou61oDkeKPM

Sheila E.

No posting of ones you hate, or just randomly posting one because it's there. 


No idea what you are talking about  :P

Mad World by Tears For Fears, covered by Adam Lambert. I actually like this version better than the original, because it actually captures the emotion of the lyrics. Also, his voice isn't annoyingly nasal like Gary Jules.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBVnF0sr8Xc

How Soon Is Now by The Smiths, covered by t.A.T.u. I actually prefer the original, but there's something I just love about this cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJ_hGOVebs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqvvQQgaMKo&feature=kp

EASY STAR ALL-STARS - THRILLER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

Michael Jackson

Here's an 80s star covering an 80s hit in 2014! Five Star's Denise sings "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood. I'm a little biased but it is rather good.

https://soundcloud.com/denisepearsonmusic/higher-love

http://img2.lsistatic.com/artists/dk55b/dpancovanhal_nl_6.jpg

Here's an 80s star covering an 80s hit in 2014! Five Star's Denise sings "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood. I'm a little biased but it is rather good.

https://soundcloud.com/denisepearsonmusic/higher-love

http://img2.lsistatic.com/artists/dk55b/dpancovanhal_nl_6.jpg


I like her version.  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqeQ_PfKMAo

The System-You Are In My System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6H9Y1H_RRg

Robert Palmer

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I love the Platinum Blonde cover of this song.  I only just discovered this cover version a few days ago.  Now Mark Holmes isn't Sting but wow! I know that they started out as a Police cover band and then they incorporated their own songs into their live shows.  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nqAvFx3NxUM#t=28

Lionel Richie-All Night Long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ub6aTxoMd6o#t=24

Jason Mraz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18SztTlxpQ

- Laibach, Geburt Einer Nation, from Opus Dei, 1987.

Wait a minute.  I know just enough German to know... BIRTH OF A NATION?!?!  Ein mensch, ein... oh God this can't be!  This is horrifying!

No, wait, I also know these guys aren't Nazis.  And I also know enough about pop music from a couple of years before I heard this to recognize something familiar about the track...  Oh God, it can't be, but it is!  Yes, this is a 1987 cover of Queen's 1985 hit One Vision from the soundtrack to the over-the-top pro-American Iron Eagle, and it's even more over-the-top in its own twisted way.  JA!  JA!  JA!  JA!  GET ME EIN LIGHT BIER!  (That was one of the lines where I may have lost something in translation...)



Laibach’s Geburt einer Nation (cover)
Ein Mensch, ein Ziel, und eine Weisung.
Ein Herz, ein Geist, nur eine Lösung.
Ein Brennen der Glut.
Ein Gott, Ein Leitbild.
Ein Fleisch, ein Blut,
Ein wahrer Glaube.
Ein Ruf, ein Traum,
Ein starker Wille.
Gibt mir ein Leitbild.

Queen’s One Vision (original)
One man one goal one mission,
One heart one soul just one solution,
One flash of light.
One god, one vision.
One flesh, one bone,
One true religion,
One voice, one hope,
One real decision.
Gimme one vision.

As you can see, the texts are nearly identical, be it that Queen’s original is in English and Laibach’s cover is in German. Of course there are differences in music and music video. Where Queen’s music is their typical pop and rock sound, Laibach’s music is a repetitive, almost military drumbeat, accompanied by triumphant melodies played through trumpets and other instruments. Queen’s music video shows us their recording process and shots from fans chanting the lyrics along with Freddy Mercury in a massive and packed stadium. Laibach’s video however shows the band in their military outfits, almost mechanically hitting the drums and playing the trumpets as in a victorious battle concert. The video shows, as is claimed by some criticism, similarities to Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi-propaganda film Triumph Des Willens from 1935. The question of course is, why Laibach got so much accusations for sympathizing with Nazi-ideology, while their song was a literal translation of Queen’s top 10-hit, which did not fall prey to criticism

  - Some 27 years later, I found this article, The Destabilizing Irony of Laibach 1: Geburt Einer Nation, with a correct word for word translation and a complete explanation of the joke.

Sometimes you have to adopt the forms of totalitarianism to properly criticize totalitarianism, and that's what makes this one of my favorite covers of an 80s song.

Nikki French "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" (1995). (Original by Bonnie Tyler, 1984.)

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Okay, I'll contribute one.

"You Got It" by Bonnie Raitt (1994). (Original recorded by Roy Orbison in 1988.)

I liked this one at the time it came out; it seemed really upbeat and lively. And I like Bonnie's music in general.


It's not a bad version actually, Jeff, though I don't like what Raitt did to the crescendo about two thirds into the song.

This thread is for your favourite covers of 80s songs!  There have been threads like these before, but I figured it's time for a new perspective.  No posting of ones you hate, or just randomly posting one because it's there.  They don't necessarily have to be better than the original, but tell us why you like it as a cover song! :)

Also try to post just 2 videos per post.  More than that can cause the page to lag and make it painfully slow for others to view.


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  - Rachel Stevens, Knock on Wood, 2004

Technically Eddie Floyd's 1967 original precedes Amii's by more than a decade, and I'm stretching it to call Amii Stewart's 1978 disco track 80sish, but this 2004 cover updates the same things that made Amii's disco version work:  Heavy bass in the backbeat, a sprinkling of sound effects for the thunder/lightning, lots of square waves in the synthesizers, and yet it manages to sound totally-not-disco, in precisely the way in which Amii's sounded totally-not-classic rock.  Three covers, three music genres, each of which stands on their own.

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  - Rachel Stevens, Knock on Wood, 2004

Technically Eddie Floyd's 1967 original precedes Amii's by more than a decade, and I'm stretching it to call Amii Stewart's 1978 disco track 80sish, but this 2004 cover updates the same things that made Amii's disco version work:  Heavy bass in the backbeat, a sprinkling of sound effects for the thunder/lightning, lots of square waves in the synthesizers, and yet it manages to sound totally-not-disco, in precisely the way in which Amii's sounded totally-not-classic rock.  Three covers, three music genres, each of which stands on their own.


For me it definitely sounds like a very flat version of Amii Stewart's disco attempt.

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  - Rachel Stevens, Knock on Wood, 2004

Technically Eddie Floyd's 1967 original precedes Amii's by more than a decade, and I'm stretching it to call Amii Stewart's 1978 disco track 80sish, but this 2004 cover updates the same things that made Amii's disco version work:  Heavy bass in the backbeat, a sprinkling of sound effects for the thunder/lightning, lots of square waves in the synthesizers, and yet it manages to sound totally-not-disco, in precisely the way in which Amii's sounded totally-not-classic rock.  Three covers, three music genres, each of which stands on their own.


I'm not fond of it.

For me it definitely sounds like a very flat version of Amii Stewart's disco attempt.


I'm not fond of it.


Aight, scratch the disco, we're going ska/two-tone:

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  - The Ordinary Boys, doing a 2004 cover of the Specials classic Little Bitch

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  - Perfecto Allstarz, Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag (1995)

Tiga and Zyntherius - Sunglasses at Night (2001)
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Corey Hart - Sunglasses at Night (1984)
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Like Corey Hart, Tiga is also from Montreal.  They both perform danceable versions of the song, but there is one major difference between the two:  Despite Corey's BIG success in North America, he never charted in the UK.  Tiga's version made it to #25 in the UK chart.
Is the cover version better than the original?  No.  Is it still good?  Yes!



Perfecto Allstarz - Reach Up (Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag)


I've been a fan of this version for along time.  Paul Oakenfold is great!

Here's an 80s cover of an 80s song ...

Ottawan - Hands Up! (Give Me Your Heart) (1981)
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Sway - Hands Up! (Give Me Your Heart) (1987)
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The Sway version was (to my knowledge) not a hit outside of Canada, so it might not be familiar to most.  I am a little biased (because it is the one I grew up listening to) but I prefer it to the original. 

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I generally have a serious dislike for cover songs simply because I don't think that covers will ever be as good as original recordings but the Crystal Castles version of Not In Love isn't too bad aside from being loud and obnoxious to me.

A few years back, an LA duo called The Bird and The Bee made a Hall and Oates tribute album, which I really liked. Here's a couple tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfP7hjjId3E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUl8DC_yQ6g