NationStates Jolt Archive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7468837.stm

Dion sang 'worst ever cover song'

Celine Dion is responsible for the world's worst cover version, a poll of music experts has decided.

The Canadian star's rendition of the AC/DC track You Shook Me All Night Long was given the dubious honour in the Total Guitar magazine survey.

Editor Stephen Lawson said Dion's cover was "sacrilege".

The experts also judged the best cover versions, with Jimi Hendrix's performance of the Bob Dylan song All Along the Watchtower top of the list.

"Cover versions have never been bigger," said Mr Lawson.

"Producer Mark Ronson became a household name on the back of his quirky covers album, with Amy Winehouse's version of Valerie outselling The Zutons' original."

Pop flops

Dion, 40, who performed You Shook Me All Night Long at a Las Vegas concert six years ago, never released the track as a single.

A Sugababes and Girls Aloud version of Walk This Way, a huge hit for Aerosmith and Run DMC, came second in the list of worst covers.

Westlife's 1999 version of the ballad More Than Words by rock band Extreme was third in the list.

Will Young was fourth with his cover of The Doors' Light My Fire, which reached number one in the UK top 40 charts in 2002, and The Mike Flowers Pops rounded off the top five with their cover of Oasis' Wonderwall.

In the list of best covers, The Beatles' rendition of Twist and Shout, first recorded by the Top Notes, was in second place, followed by the Guns N' Roses version of the Wings' song Live and Let Die.

Nirvana's cover of The Man Who Sold the World by David Bowie, and Muse's Feeling Good, made famous by Nina Simone, also appeared in the top five.


I listened to it and almost threw up. Not lying. But the question must be asked: is this really news? Isn't anything that Celine Dion does, essentially terrible? Also, in this thread you try to pick the worst cover songs of all time.

You never heard Pat Boone singing, "Enter Sandman"

As the mothers of Southpark said:
When Canada is gone - there will be no more Celine Dion !

One of the best reasons for war I ever heard.

You never heard Pat Boone singing, "Enter Sandman"

I think it's time:

http://www.last.fm/music/Pat+Boone/_/Enter+Sandman?autostart

I'll check back in a few minutes to see if there are any salvagable organs.

:p

The Ataris win. Sorry, but I've never heard anything quite so turgid and vacuous as their cover of "Boys of the Summer". I feel the pre-pubescent screams of adulation in the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3-kfZEgZ8) complement the shite-factor well.

Have they never heard Madonna's cover of American Pie?

I think it's time:

http://www.last.fm/music/Pat+Boone/_/Enter+Sandman?autostart

I'll check back in a few minutes to see if there are any salvagable organs.

:p

what the hell? This is far worse than Celine Dion singing that other song.

If there was a way to make Enter Sandman tame this isn't the way to do it.
lol

Have they never heard Madonna's cover of American Pie?

^that.

In a world where the Scissor's Sisters' cover of Comfortably Numb exist, I don't know how this result can be.

A pretentious rock magazine doesn't like it when pop singers cover rock songs? I never would have guessed it . . .

I'll have to agree with the person who said the Atari's cover of Boys of Summer. It just lacked something that was in the original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jg5pjvwjw

After the first four lines of the song it's not even funny anymore.

A pretentious rock magazine doesn't like it when pop singers cover rock songs? I never would have guessed it . . .

I'll have to agree with the person who said the Atari's cover of Boys of Summer. It just lacked something that was in the original.

Don Henley?

I haven't heard the song in question. The worst cover versions I can think of hearing are:
- Can't Get No Satisfaction by Britney Spears
- That's Entertainment by Busted (truly dreadful, and I love the original so much)

I also remember George Clooney on Desert Island Discs saying he would take Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by William Shatner, because it was so bad it would inspire him to hollow out his own leg into a primitive canoe and escape to safety.

As for good cover songs, I guess aside from the obvious ones (Hendrix's AATW, which Dylan himself was better than the original; Aretha Franklin's Respect; Johnny Cash's One; Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah) I quite like:
- Nirvana doing David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World at MTV Unplugged
- Aimee Mann's cover of Harry Nilsson's One
- Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros doing Bob Marley's Redemption Song
- Rachid Taha's excellent cover of The Clash's Rock The Casbah
- Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble doing Superstition
- everything off Hymns of the 49th Parallel

I also quite like Nickel Creek's covers of Exit Music and Toxic, despite disliking both of the originals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jg5pjvwjw

After the first four lines of the song it's not even funny anymore.
At least it was just as hard to understand her...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jg5pjvwjw

After the first four lines of the song it's not even funny anymore.

I need to be saved from this! *puts on the original Nirvana 'Smells Like Teen Spirit*

Seriously I died a little

Did no one hear Avril Lavigne's Chop Suey!?

Did no one hear Avril Lavigne's Chop Suey!?

Or Britney Spears's cover of "I Love Rock 'n Roll".

Rotten Canadians...crossing our border, taking our songs, singing them really, really badly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jg5pjvwjw

After the first four lines of the song it's not even funny anymore.
Are you kidding? Her desperate attempt at the chorus is the spoiled whipped cream on top of delicious shit-pie of horrible.
The people I really feel sorry for are the audience. The way they were cheering, either it's some sort of special school for the criminally insane or the other acts must have really, REALLY, REALLY sucked.
(I'm assuming that something that wretched could only be produced as part of a high school talent show, and that it wasn't a "real" singer wearing phat pants and having minor seizures on the floor).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jg5pjvwjw

After the first four lines of the song it's not even funny anymore.

It does, however, have the best YouTube comment I have ever seen (not that that's saying much):
Why is Kurt Cobain's part being covered by a girl? Or to be more precise, a girl that can't sing?

Did no one hear Avril Lavigne's Chop Suey!?

Pain! Lots of pain!

Anyway, I liked Nightwish's cover of Over the Hills and Far Away (though I still prefer Gary Moore's version).

Have they never heard Madonna's cover of American Pie?

This

I was surprised but after seeing the clip of her singing the song I think she did kill the song and should have been locked up for it. Madonna comes a close second she should have been shot for her heresy.

Dion sang 'worst ever song'

Celine Dion is responsible for the world's worst music, a poll of experts has decided.

The Canadian star's endless renditions of vapid tat were awarded the dubious honour in a Total Guitar magazine survey.

Editor Stephen Lawson said Dion's life was "sacrilegous".



Fixed! :D

Without listening to any of the others, I still say Avril Lavigne's cover of Chop Suey! is the worst because it's one thing to ruin a "classic" song with a cover and another to just completely ruin a fairly random song.

Though, for disclosure purposes, I think Aerosmith should be arrested for trying to do Walk This Way without Run-DMC.

I'm literally shocked that nobody mentioned one of the worst cover "artists" in the history of music, William Shatner.

Without listening to any of the others, I still say Avril Lavigne's cover of Chop Suey! is the worst because it's one thing to ruin a "classic" song with a cover and another to just completely ruin a fairly random song.

Though, for disclosure purposes, I think Aerosmith should be arrested for trying to do Walk This Way without Run-DMC.

Because it's not like it was originally recorded by Aerosmith over a decade before Run-DMC got involved... *shakes head*

I'm literally shocked that nobody mentioned one of the worst cover "artists" in the history of music, William Shatner.
We want pictures of your hair on end and the smoking skin where the charge entered and exited your body.

Rotten Canadians...crossing our border, taking our songs, singing them really, really badly.

Let's get her to cover "Blame Canada!"

We want pictures of your hair on end and the smoking skin where the charge entered and exited your body.

Sorry, my camera was fried when I was shocked. It no longer works. :p

We want pictures of your hair on end and the smoking skin where the charge entered and exited your body.

*photo provided by the CIA(Clown Intelligence Agency)*

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/alancumming3/king_don.jpg

:)

A pretentious rock magazine doesn't like it when pop singers cover rock songs? I never would have guessed it . . .

I'll have to agree with the person who said the Atari's cover of Boys of Summer. It just lacked something that was in the original.

Cover songs are abysmal anyway. Inevitably either filler on an album, or an oppurtunity for a band to appeal to a wider, less musically sophisticated audiance. But yes, of the whole dire group of covers, "Boys of the Summer" was particularly wank.

Because it's not like it was originally recorded by Aerosmith over a decade before Run-DMC got involved... *shakes head*

Also, I don't like Aerosmith. Or really alot of the old school rock bands.

Rotten Canadians...crossing our border, taking our songs, singing them really, really badly.

They're taking our Jobs! Erm...I mean...songs!

Cover songs are abysmal anyway.Patently untrue. Cover songs provide the means to allow a song to be presented in a different form.

Best covers:
Motorhead and Wendy O. Williams' cover of (Tammy Wynette's) "Stand By Your Man"
Jack Off Jill's cover of (the Cure's) "Love Song"
Marilyn Manson's cover of (the Eurythmics') "Sweet Dreams"
Tori Amos' cover of (Eminem's) "'97 Bonnie and Clyde"
Orgy's cover of (New Order's) "Blue Monday"

Worst covers:
311's cover of (the Cure's) "Love Song"
Marilyn Manson's cover of (Gloria Jones's) "Tainted Love"
The Dixie Chicks' cover of (Fleetwood Mac's) "Go Your Own Way"
Limp Bizkit's cover of (George Michael's) "Faith"
Dynamite Hack's cover of (Eazy E's) "Boyz-n-the-Hood"

Rotten Canadians...crossing our border, taking our songs, singing them really, really badly.They crossed the Australian border?

Though, for disclosure purposes, I think Aerosmith should be arrested for trying to do Walk This Way without Run-DMC.

Also, I don't like Aerosmith. Or really alot of the old school rock bands.

http://austinswingsyndicate.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/backpedal.gif

Still doesn't change the fact that Run-D.M.C. was the cover about 11 years later.

Here's an example of a cover improving the original (though mainly because the original was so bad):

Children of Bodom covering Britney Spears' Oops I Did It Again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGmTYBiKGdY)

Sorry to tell you, but that song sucks, no matter who is singing it.

http://austinswingsyndicate.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/backpedal.gif

Still doesn't change the fact that Run-D.M.C. was the cover about 11 years later.

Some covers are better than the original.

Some covers are better than the original.

While that's true, Run D.M.C.'s cover of "Walk This Way" is not one of them.

While that's true, Run D.M.C.'s cover of "Walk This Way" is not one of them.

You're a liar and a communist.

You're a liar and a communist.

By definition, an opinion cannot be a lie or the truth, and there is a very big difference between Communism and Social Democracy. ;)

Sorry to tell you, but that song sucks, no matter who is singing it.But the Children of Bodom version is clearly better, which was the point I was making ;)

There are too many strong contenders for "worst," but I think Britney Spears doing "Satisfaction" may win the prize for Most Unintentionally Ironic and Stupid.

Are you kidding? Her desperate attempt at the chorus is the spoiled whipped cream on top of delicious shit-pie of horrible.
The people I really feel sorry for are the audience. The way they were cheering, either it's some sort of special school for the criminally insane or the other acts must have really, REALLY, REALLY sucked.
(I'm assuming that something that wretched could only be produced as part of a high school talent show, and that it wasn't a "real" singer wearing phat pants and having minor seizures on the floor).

I like when she threw her jacket on the floor. Such a rebel xD
Even without the obvious title, the intro itself killed it.
The drummer couldn't count in properly, and the guitarist was "ONOES IM ON STAGE IN FONT OF LOADS OF PARENTS" and then rushed and failed the guitar bit.

Related: Search "Smells like Sloop John B" on youtube, i think it's the only mash-up that sounds like a real song, Surf+Grunge go together really well.

Did no one hear Avril Lavigne's Chop Suey!?

No. My ears welded shut as soon as she opened her mouth

Incidentally: has anyone listened to RATM's Renegades album?
EVERY track on there is a cover, and EVERY track is better than the original version.

I hate you all. Now I have to go look up Avril's cover just so I know how god-awful it is.

Thanks for encouraging my morbid curiosity.

You all suck.

I hate you all. Now I have to go look up Avril's cover just so I know how god-awful it is.

Thanks for encouraging my morbid curiosity.

You all suck.
It is god awful, but it's fucking hilarious.

In a world where the Scissor's Sisters' cover of Comfortably Numb exist, I don't know how this result can be.

Thank you. It saddens me that nobody else I know (except a few of my friends' parents) can summon up the same disgust that I feel about that.

One of the worst (utterly fucking killed it) - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8eGvmB8Phk8

One of the best (it's pretty spiff) - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jcQwB_-PTNs

I hate you all. Now I have to go look up Avril's cover just so I know how god-awful it is.

Thanks for encouraging my morbid curiosity.

You all suck.
Enjoy!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PfM1U74tMJw

So I guess no one wants to hear Celine Dion cover "Blame Canada!" ?

Enjoy!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PfM1U74tMJw

I want to kill it with fire.


http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/3876/sick3qx.gif

Enjoy!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PfM1U74tMJw

HOLY SHIT! :eek:

I've had farts that sounded better than that. I lasted about 4 seconds, then I had to hit the mute button.