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Strange Cover Songs (Songs Covered by Artists You Wouldn't Expect)


JackKieser
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I was listening to a torrent of Ozzy Osbourne's fully discography with a friend the other day, and we came across a strange song simply titled "Stayin' Alive"; it had no album or anything other than Ozzy as the artist. We played it...

And it ended up being a bootleg recording of Ozzy Osbourne singing a cover of the Beegee's "Stayin' Alive", featuring Dweezil Zappa! No joke: the Prince of Darkness covered a classic disco hit. Apparently, Dweezil Zappa asked Ozzy to do the vocals, but it was never released on an album because Ozzy's label at the time didn't think it'd be good publicity for Ozzy... so the released version has the vocals done by Donny Osmond. :P

Has anyone else on OCRemix come across songs that have been covered by artists you would have never expected?

Here's a link to a page where you can download the Ozzy version of "Stayin' Alive", in case anyone's curious. If you don't want to download it, you can find it on Youtube: "Stayin' Alive" by Ozzy Osbourne, feat. Dweezil Zappa

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There's a bootleg of Angra (Brazilian power/progressive metal band) of doing a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". Then again, this band also covered the Kate Bush song "Wuthering Heights" on their debut album, so strange is the norm for these guys sometimes.

I also remember HammerFall (Swedish power metal band) breaking into ska at one point randomly when I saw them live back in 2005.

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There are a lot of these. Some of my favorites:

Queen - Under Pressure (covered by the Blood Brothers):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAubMoy2MNU

Probably my favorite from a pure listenability standpoint. The move to 3/4 is incredibly impressive and the song works way more than it probably should (Then again I'm heavily biased towards the Blood Brothers).

The Knacks - My Sharona (covered by The Number Twelve Looks Like You)

Kinda boring after a little while but the solo kicks ass so there's that.

Kelly Clarkson - Since You've Been Gone (covered by Bomb the Music Industry!)

A pretty straight cover but the fact that it gets some punk love is worth mentioning.

Radiohead - A bunch of songs (covered by Arrogant Sons of Bitches)

http://www.quoteunquoterecords.com/qur008.htm

I kind of love this album for the fact that Radiohead's music doesn't sound that out of place in ska format and a couple of songs work a little better imo.

New Order - Blue Monday (covered by M.I.A.?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iG4b9GKX9Q

Not really a cover, but the melody is jacked directly from New Order and is kinda weird in that sense.

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There are a lot of these. Some of my favorites:

Queen - Under Pressure (covered by the Blood Brothers):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAubMoy2MNU

Probably my favorite from a pure listenability standpoint. The move to 3/4 is incredibly impressive and the song works way more than it probably should (Then again I'm heavily biased towards the Blood Brothers).

New Order - Blue Monday (covered by M.I.A.?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iG4b9GKX9Q

Not really a cover, but the melody is jacked directly from New Order and is kinda weird in that sense.

Another two takes on these songs:

My Chemical Romance and The Used covering Under Pressure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TjYvn2AQhM

Orgy covering Blue Monday

Those two are more well known though, so how about an obscure one? Let's get a hard rock cover of NIN's Head Like a Hole by Showbread

(Ignore the AMV, it's poor quality but you can hear it)

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I was listening to a torrent of Ozzy Osbourne's fully discography with a friend the other day, and we came across a strange song simply titled "Stayin' Alive"; it had no album or anything other than Ozzy as the artist. We played it...

Has anyone else on OCRemix come across songs that have been covered by artists you would have never expected?

BLIND GUARDIAN has some awesome covers that are a bit unexpected.

Barbara Ann - I tried to find the live version from their Tokyo Tales album, but there are no youtubes of it. I think it is even better than this one.

- Like you have never heard it before!

Mr. Sandman - If clowns freak you out, then switch pages so you can just listen. Mwhahaha

Those are the Three most unexpected ones I think. I'll post some other covers too.

- Deep Purples song spiced up a bit

And for you thrash/speed/solo enthusiasts...

- Though not very unexpected, This cover gets caps and italics because not only is it an amazing cover, but it was this song, and this exact AMV actually, that started me madly hunting for anything Blind Guardian I could find. I watched this video in 11th grade, and they quickly became my favorite band for years. I always thought it was funny that a cover song would be the one to hook me.

This link is sufficiently interesting, and something I probably would not have expected. I really like this version.

Orgy covering Blue Monday

I don't know if this is unexpected. I think that all the people who first heard the song on Big Shiny Tunes 4 back in the day would have found it unexpected that Orgy was just covering it.

I heard a remix of Eleanor Rigby that I thought was by Orgy for years, until I tried to find it today. Apparently Godhead does a version, but it sounds like a remixed version of the one I was searching for.

, and it sounds a lot like Orgy's vocalist Jay Gordon to me. I could only find it in a DBZ music Video, sorry.
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Another two takes on these songs:

Orgy covering Blue Monday

That one I wouldn't call unexpected. New industrial band covering an old industrial-ish band.

What is unexpected...?

Gene Simmons covering "When You Wish Upon a Star"

Edit: also, Northern Rose is a symphonic metal band that has several unexpected covers, like "Broken Wings," "Kiss from a Rose," "In the Air Tonight," and, my personal favorite, this ;-)

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