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I love a good cover song. There are so many different avenues an artist can take when they decide to cover a song. They can try to keep it as similar to the original song as possible or they can go a completely different direction. Some of my favorite covers have been changed so much that you can clearly see the artist’s personality.
I have a friend who is able to cover Nirvana songs almost exactly to what they were originally like. That being said, when I cover songs I try to keep the instrumental parts the same and have fun with the vocals.
I made a playlist of a few songs with some cool covers. Some of these covers are well-known and others aren’t. All of them are well done and I think they’re worth adding to a playlist.
Some of the more challenging songs to cover, I have tried mostly to just hit the notes and hope for the best. “Rooster” by Alice In Chains in one of those examples. I played rhythm guitar and vocals for this song at my band’s first ever show and all I wanted was for us to get through the song successfully. Luckily, we all stayed in good time and I was able to hit all the notes properly.
One of my favorite songs to cover are ones like “Song 2” by Blur, because it’s so simple and easy to make your own. Another would be “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne. I like to ask our audience if there’s anyone with a hot mom and a two-syllable name. Then I use their name instead of Stacy for the whole song.
Another favorite is “Zombie” by The Cranberries. I love covering this song for a couple reasons. For one, it’s the only song on our setlist wherein I have a guitar solo. For another, I get to use my vocal fry. I’m able to do a vocal fry when I sing certain songs. I like to add it into songs like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges and such but I really love it for “Zombie” because I feel like it’s not unlike the unique style of Dolores O’Riordan’s singing.
— dj dragonfly
