Some of the most famous songs in music history are cover versions – whether it’s The Beatles doing Motown hits, Elvis tackling R&B tunes or just about everyone covering Bob Dylan songs. In honor of the artists who didn’t write the songs, but recorded legendary versions of them, Gibson.com is counting down the Top 50 Cover Songs of All Time.
Gibson.com recently enlisted its editors, writers and you, the readers, to vote for the greatest cover songs ever released. Today, we’re revealing the first 10 on the list – with the original artist, or, in some cases, the most famous previous artist in parentheses. Check back each day this week, as we unveil 10 more classic covers – with the Top 10 arriving on Friday.
50. “A Day in the Life,” Jeff Beck (The Beatles)
Jeff Beck’s instrumental rendition of this classic Beatles tune for Sir George Martin’s album In My Life pulled off the rarest of musical feats: it made the song sound like it was always meant to be played that way. Beck’s trademark use of whammy bar tricks and vocal-like phrasing brought out the song’s pensive melancholy in similar fashion to Beck’s own track “Where Were You,” but if anything, his performance of “A Day in the Life” took this technique even further. – Peter Hodgson
49. “Suzie Q,” Creedence Clearwater Revival (Dale Hawkins)
Written and originally recorded by Louisiana-born Dale Hawkins (and covered by a phalanx of artists over the years, most notably The Rolling Stones, the Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Lonnie Mack), it was Creedence Clearwater Revival who really made “Suzie Q” their own. Clocking in at over 8 minutes on their 1968 debut album (a shorter version was released as the single), “Suzie Q” was one of Creedence’s first big hits, and it remains the only Top 40 hit the band ever had that was not penned by John Fogerty. – Sean Patrick Dooley
48. “Money (That’s What I Want)” The Beatles (Barrett Strong)
The Beatles loved Motown, of course, and this cover of Barrett Strong’s 1959 classic was rife with affection. Although the arrangement is relatively faithful to the Motown original, Lennon, in typical early Beatles fashion, injected jubilant rock and roll fervor into Strong’s more R&B-style rave-up. Just as “Twist and Shout” had done for The Beatles’ full-length debut, “Money” capped the Fab Four’s second album with an exultant exclamation mark. – Russell Hall
47. “Monkey Man,” The Specials (Toots & The Maytals)
In the late ’70s, the U.K. pop charts were ignited by a ska revival, the leading lights being Madness, The Selector, The Beat and The Specials. The Specials fused ska with punk-esque energy, no better than on this 1979 cover of the 1970 Toots & The Maytals hit. It’s an odd cover version, lyrically; The Maytals’ song was originally a playful jibe at their producer Leslie Kong, who died in 1971 at just 38. The Specials’ nevertheless turned the track into a celebratory floor-filler. “This one’s for the bouncers,” was their introduction. And bounce, it did. – Michael Leonard
46. “Sorrow,” David Bowie (The McCoys, The Merseys)
This track from Bowie’s 1973 Pinups covers album foreshadowed the crooner style Bowie would often adopt on the albums that followed. Sporting a less sprite arrangement than The Merseys’ 1966 hit upon which it was based (The McCoys, of “Hang on Sloopy” fame, had actually first recorded the song), Bowie’s version was power by watery keyboards and a sax-fueled bridge. His performance of “Sorrow” on the legendary 1980 Floor Show was a highlight of that TV spectacle. – Russell Hall
45. “Sabbra Cadabra,” Metallica (Black Sabbath)
When Metallica put out Garage Inc., the eclectic variety of covers on the compilation – from Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” to Blue Oyster Cult’s “Astronomy” – was a pleasant twist for die-hard fans. The heavy metal behemoth’s crowning triumph on the album was Black Sabbath’s “Sabbra Cadabra,” the bulk of which showcases boogie-woogie riffing and near-danceable rhythms. The interpretation surely shows Metallica can bring their style to the vanguard, even through other people’s songs. –Anne Erickson
44. “Blueberry Hill,” Fats Domino (Sammy Kaye Orchestra, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra)
Written in 1940 by Vincent Rose, Larry Stock and John L. Rooney, “Blueberry Hill” was a sedate jazz tune covered six times in its first year. But it took until 1956 for Antoine “Fats” Domino to eclipse the biggest hit version of 1940 by Glenn Miller. Now a rock ’n’ roll standard, Fat’s funky, up-tempo piano version became his signature and later versions by Elvis Presley, Little Richard and even Led Zeppelin didn’t deliver similar thrills. – Michael Leonard
43. “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” Jason and the Scorchers (Bob Dylan)
More than a couple Bob Dylan covers will appear on this list, but none were injected with such fervor as this one from ’80s country-rock heroes Jason and the Scorchers. The Nashville band gave this Blonde on Blonde ditty a swift kick with their cowboy boots, turning a folksy tune into a barn-burning explosion of energy. Ringenberg’s howled delivery – equal parts Iggy Pop and Jimmie Rodgers – was mesmerizing enough to help his cow-punk group land an MTV hit in 1983. – Bryan Wawzenek
42. “Blue Bayou,” Linda Ronstadt (Roy Orbison)
Linda Ronstadt, the most successful female singer of the ’70s, played a major role in reviving Roy Orbison’s stagnating career when she recorded his “Blue Bayou.” Orbison recorded it originally on his In Dreams album in 1963. Orbison’s version was a minor hit, but in Ronstadt’s hands it became a mega-seller around the world and played a significant role in giving Linda superstar status. A gifted interpreter of songs, Ronstadt blew a country breeze through Orbison’s forlorn epic, unaware that her name would become a baseball term – the “Linda Ronstadt,” for a fastball that “blew by you.” – Andrew Vaughan
41. “Rusty Cage,” Johnny Cash (Soundgarden)
A few years before it happened, who could have pictured Johnny Cash playing a Soundgarden song? The other way around, maybe, but Cash’s American Recordings series found The Man in Black exploring tracks from all sorts of unlikely sources. On his 1996 album, Unchained, Cash made the song his own, stripping away its electric grunge but maintaining its propulsive groove with some mean acoustic picking, before melting down into a lowdown bluesy groove in the middle (courtesy of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). – Peter Hodgson
Votes for the Top 50 Covers of All Time were included from Michael Wright, Bryan Wawzenek, Andrew Vaughan, Sean Patrick Dooley, Cesar Acevedo, Paul Burch, Arlen Roth, Ted Drozdowski, Russell Hall, Peter Hodgson, Anne Erickson, Michael Leonard, Paolo Bassotti and the Gibson.com Readers Poll.
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