What song(s) would you cover?

No need, the narrator of a song is a character not the singer.
I play 'Bunch of Thyme' and the narrator's a woman. I play 'Patriot Game' and the narrator's a dying teen-age boy.

 

I would turn Mambo No. 5 into a metal ballad.

 

I didn't know your favorite band was X. Or maybe red X, I guess.

Covers I could pull off:

UFO, "Too Hot to Handle"
Cult, "She Sells Sanctuary"
Who, "Sea and Sand"

Cover I'd like to pull off, but would likely turn out to be an abortion of the original:

Stones, "Shattered"

Covers I'd like to do, but can't decide if I steer true toward the original or give them a completely new kick

Looking Glass, "Brandy"
Association, "Windy"
Association, "Never My Love"
Herman's Hermits, "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good"

 

i'm actually in the process of recording a disc of random 80s covers, but making them all acoustic. so far i've got: Billie Jean, Never Gonna Give You Up, Crazy for You, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and the Golden Girls theme song.

AS you can tell, cheesiness of original song is not a factor. Any other suggestions.

 

I'm surprised Me First and the Gimme Gimmes haven't done that.

http://www.plyrics.com/m/mefirstthegimmegimmes.html

 

I'd cover the following:

The Offspring - Self-Esteem
Green Day - Sassafras Roots
NOFX - The Longest Line
311 - 8:16 a.m.
Harvey Danger - Private Helicopter

 

An industrial-flavored cover of Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play."

 

Right now, "Beautiful Child" by Fleetwood Mac.

 

Grateful Dead -- "The Wheel" ... always wanted to slightly rearrange it to start out with the chorus a capella, and then a sudden kick-in with the instruments after the first time through. Dunno how cool it would sound, but I'd like it. One of the more underrated Dead songs, too.

In the 1980s, my first pick on this would've been "Feel A Whole Lot Better" by the Byrds. Then, Tom Petty beat me to the punch on Full Moon Fever. That was a generation ago ... it could probably go again.

I much dig a couple of early CSN tunes -- Pre-Road Downs & You Don't Have To Cry. I'd love to do them.

Not a cover, but it would be cool to jam with Bruce Hornsby when he does his accordion-driven high-energy live bluegrass version of "Jacob's Ladder," (even though Huey Lewis recorded it first, Bruce did write it).

Of course, none of this matters, because my singing sounds worse than my cat's wailingwhen she's getting her @$$ kicked by the neighbor kitty.

 

It is not strictly the same but we used to do this at an annual Halloween party.

A good friend played in a bunch of punk pands in his teens/20s. Eventually him and most of his band friends mellowed out, got married, etc. One year 3 of them decided to play a Halloween party and the invite went out to a bunch of people that they would play almost anything with the caveat that you had to sing it at the party.

They set up in an old rehearsal space and you went down a few times to rehearse your song in September. It was almost like a rock band fantasy camp (not a bad idea actually).

The band was pretty good about changing arrangements and ended up with some tremendous performances.

Big Yellow Taxi sped up turned out to be a pretty rocking song, Ring of Fire, and a truly weird version of Turning Japanese were hi-lites. I brought the house down with my version of Ricky Martin's Living La Vida Loca.

The funner the song was to sing, the better the performance was.

 

I'd do a Peter Tosh-ified reggae version of Into The Mystic. Hell, Caravan too for that matter.

I'd also do a gangsta rap version of Guns Of Brixton.

 

I'd love to do a nice, soft cover of Neil Young's "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World."

I should probably learn guitar first.