The lowly cover version.

I was shuffling my winamp playlist tonight and came across Doctor? by Orbital. It got me thinking, I remember when I saw that on the track listing for 'The Altogether', I skipped impatiently over the other tracks to hear it. I guess I've always been a sucker for the idea of a cover version. Obviously quality varies significantly but the idea that some one could take a piece of music and make it their own is neat.
So as a tribute to the lowly cover version here's a list of some the most unexpected I've come across (also some of the best)


Tori Amos covers Nirvana- Smells Like Teen spirit.
Everyone paying attention? this is how you cover a song. Amazing.


Massive Attack cover The Doors -Light my fire
Fun cover by massive attack, I remember hearing them in an interview saying they got a lot of flak for covering this. Some people take things way too seriously.


Tricky covers Nirvana -Something in the way
Tricky is somewhat of a serial cover artist (as is Tori now that I think about it) , covering the Cure on a subsequent album and providing a version of Under the mango tree on this album. I actually heard this version of Something in the way before the original (is it wrong that I prefer it?).

The Prodigy cover L7 - Fuel my Fire
This is another cover I heard before the original. It may not be the best track in the world but I like it cause you don't expect the prodigy to do cover versions.


Primal Scream cover Nancy Sinatra
Yep you read that right, Primal Scream meet Nancy Sinatra. And its a really good cover too. Again I heard these in the 'wrong' order, bit of a theme that, didn't realise it till I started writing these down!


Nine Inch Nails cover Soft Cell -Memorabilia

heard this in reverse chronological order too. Another great cover and made it his own too, perhaps this is the least unusual cover of my list both being electronic artists of a sort.


Johnny Cash covers Nine Inch Nails - Hurt Nicely bookending this list a cover version that must rank right along side Tori's Teen Spirit cover. The video is quiet eerie too, like he knew he was about to die. pretty poignant stuff.


That's it for now, There are more covers for your perusal The Covers Project which is slowly but surely building up the definitive archive of covers that have music videos.