Five amazing interpretations of famous songs

Personally, I love listening to song covers, both professional and amateur. Since each and every developed artist is bound to have different styles of performance and and sound, it’s always interesting to see my favorite songs interpreted by different musicians. However, even better than a straightup cover is a song interpretation. It’s really amazing how something as simple as changing the instrumentation to a song can dramatically affect the song’s mood and meaning. Today, I’ll be sharing five of my favorite intrepretations of a few quite famous songs.

5. Smells Like Teen Spirit covered by Paul Anka (originally Nirvana)

Paul Anka has actaully covered a lot of famous rock songs in a swing style, including Wonderwall and Eye of the Tiger, but this one is definitely one of my favorite. The reason why I love this cover so much is less because Anka’s skill in interpreting the song (Smells like Teen Spirit’s subject matter doesn’t exactly seem to fit a jazz style) but because this cover is such a solid song in it’s own right. The instrumentation here is immensly rich and colorful and the song’s familiar melody sounds surprisingly catchy played in this style.  This cover also gets points for convincingly altering one of the most notable symbols of teen angst into an essentially cheerfully sounding work.

4. Heigh Ho covered by Tom Waits (originally from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Now this is a cover that takes the atmosphere of the original song and does a complete 180 turn on it. This is definitely a interesting song to listen to. The instrumentation is pretty desolate and nightmarish, but also really stylish. I especially adore the percussion line, which is both very diverse in sound and perfectly reminiscent of the horrors of working in a coal mine. What’s especially impressive is that the lyrics are completely unchanged from the original, and yet work perfectly with the new instrumentation. This is really a great example of just how much a song can altered while still retaining that inherent familiarity.

3. Creep covered by Amanda Palmer (originally Radiohead)

To be honest, I have a soft spot for the sound of ukeleles and this is a song cover that perfectly portrays exactly why I love the instrument so much. This song is probably more similar to its original, especially when compared with the two examples above. Thom Yorke and Amanda Palmer definitely both have very distinctive voices that work in their favour for both versions of the song. Largely because of Yorke’s vocal work, the original gives off a  very depressing and suble feel whereas this cover is a lot more emotional and dramatic. However, the bright and warm tone of the ukelele adds a completely new layer of meaning to this song. Does it add a layer of irony to an otherwise saddening song? Does it add shades of “life goes on” to the song’s meaning? Does it do something else entirely? Who really knows? (Also, make sure to check out Palmer’s other covers from her ukelele album. I never knew Radiohead sounded so good against a ukelele backdrop)

2. Imagine covered by a Perfect Circle (originally John Lennon)

If you’re wondering about this cover, it’s actually Imagine interpreted in a minor key. As a song, it’s not incredibly noteworthy. The instrumentation used here is pretty standard and there’s nothing here that’s an incredible departure from the original. What is awesome is the way in which changing a few notes changes the entire mood of the song. Suddenly, the song transfers to a peaceful, idealistic song into something much more menancing and cautionary. I like thinking that this song is a far more cynical response, if you will, to the ideas posed in Lennon’s original song. The accompanying video is also very well-made and suits the song perfectly.

1. My Humps covered by Alanis Morisette (originally Black Eyed Peas)

(warning: the above video contains provocative dancing and inappriopriate language)

There is a reason why this cover takes up the top spot and that is because I absolutely love it. Not only is Alanis’ piano cover gorgeous in itself (that moment when she starts moving into the higher vocal range is simply breathtaking), but by covering this song in a soulful ballad style, she actually manages to succesfully poke fun at the vapid and meaningless lyrics contained in a surprisingly large proportion of modern music. Thus, this cover is actually pretty funny in hindsight as well. “Ironic” covers of pop songs are always fun and this is definitely one of my favorite covers in such a style.

So do you guys have any great song covers to share?