*In choosing to cover a song already identified with another artist, the cover artist risks professional humiliation. Just DARING to cover certain songs is an act of boldness.
*Taking the original version of the song and performing it in a unique way is one of the boldest moves an artist can make. When done well, the cover version takes on a life of its own and almost sends the original into obscurity.
Part II can be found here.
In part III we venture into a new area of cover tune boldness. Specifically, we examine cover tunes performed by standout guitar greats. As we will see (hear?), in each case the guitar hero(ine) brought some new life to tunes that were not even in particular need of it. That's bold.
Instead of a drum roll, let's have a Bo Diddley Beat:
#10: Leo Morachioli's and Mary Spender's Cover of Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing" : If guitar god Mark Knopfler had never recorded another song after 1978's "Sultans of Swing," that tune by itself would have been enough to cement his status as a rock legend. Instead he and his band Dire Straits went on to become one of the powerhouse rock bands of the 1980s.
Norway's Leo Morachioli, a zany multi-instrumentalist, performs heavy metal versions of classic songs on his popular YouTube channel. He recruited guitar goddess and YouTuber Mary Spender for a rockin' duet cover of "Sultans of Swing." At around the 3:40 mark the two of them just start to wail on lead guitar.
#9: Brian Setzer's cover of Santo and Johnny Farina's "Sleep Walk": Santo and Johnny's 1959 classic emerged at a popular time for instrumental music. The great rockabilly revivalist Brian Setzer, who coincidentally was born in 1959, actually won a Grammy Award for his performance of "Sleep Walk." I personally like the version of it he did at Woodstock '99, a guitar and big band tour de force that unfortunately got overshadowed when dumbassification and dickheadism--in the audience and on stage--ultimately took over that concert weekend.
#8: Les Paul's and Chet Atkins' cover of Duke Ellington's "Caravan": Juan Tizol composed the jazz standard "Caravan," and it was first performed in 1936 by Duke Ellington and his orchestra.
Les Paul and Chet Atkins, two of the most innovative and groundbreaking guitar players of all time, recorded two albums together in the 1970s. By that time period numerous guitar gods--from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton, had received votes for guitar GOAT (greatest of all time.). My belief has always been that Les and Chet, already in advanced years by the mid-1970s, recorded together at least in part to show the world who were the REAL monsters of guitar.
#7: Steve Vai's Cover of Frank Zappa's "Sofa": The late musical genius and activist Frank Zappa passed away in 1992. A wonderful tribute album featuring many of his former band mates, "Zappa's Universe," was released the following year. One of the most stunning pieces on the recording was Steve Vai's rendition of Zappa's "Sofa."
Steve Vai ended up winning the Grammy that year for best rock instrumental performance. Much deserved for such a bold performance.
#6: The Samantha Fish Band's cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You": Hawkins' 1956 original of "I Put A Spell On You" is widely considered to be one of the foundational songs in the history of rock-and-roll. And considering the spectacular covers of it by Nina Simone and Creedence Clearwater Revival, it's amazing that anyone else would even DARE approach the tune.
Kansas City born Samantha Fish, an award winning blues guitarist, does a blistering live version of the tune that has become a staple of her performances. She's even got all the right guitar heroine facial expressions. It's too bad that modern FM commercial radio is so awful, because Samantha Fish ought to be on it every day.
#5: Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart's cover of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions' "People Get Ready": Released at a time when the twin evils of racism and white supremacy seemed determined to defeat even modest strides toward equality, Curtis Mayfield's 1965 soul classic "People Get Ready" became an anthem of the civil rights movement.
Twenty years later Ronald Reagan provided a lifeline to those still yearning to "make America great again." Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck's version of "People Get Ready" did not become an anthem of a resurgent civil rights movement, but it did honor the spirit of the original and exposed Beck's guitar theatrics to a whole new generation of listeners.
#4: Johnny Winter's cover of Bob Dylan's Highway 61
Revisited: Speaking of great recordings from 1965, Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" album that year represented the folk singer's most overt move into blues inspired rock. The title song, filled with biblical imagery and colorful characters, became an archetype of the kind of song Dylan would write for the rest of the 1960s, and remained a staple of his live performances for many years.
Blues/rock giant Johnny Winter's 1976 version of the song from his "Captured Live" LP is quite simply ten minutes of pure, unadulterated guitar anarchy. The tune became a staple of HIS live performances more than Dylan's.
#3: Carlos Santana's cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman": Few other than wonky rock-and-roll nerds realize that before they became the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham led pop sensations, Fleetwood Mac was actually a kick-ass blues-rock band. Founder and lead guitarist Peter Green is a rock and roll Hall of Famer and recognized as one of the greats. Green's "Black Magic Woman" charted in the UK in 1968.
Two years later Carlos Santana tackled the tune, and the results helped define FM rock radio for the next decade. I would argue that the last 90 seconds or so of Santana's version, with its frenetic guitar wailing over a Latin rhythm, might be the most spectacular ending to a rock song in history.
#2: The Art of Noise Featuring Duane Eddy cover of Henry Mancini's "Theme From Peter Gunn": Renowned conductor and jazz giant Henry Mancini claimed that the 1958 "Theme From Peter Gunn" was actually a rock and roll song. However we define the theme, it surely set the standard for what a TV spy drama intro tune should sound like.
In 1986 the English synthesizer-pop band The Art of Noise recruited Duane Eddy, the legendary king of "twang" guitar, to join them for a rendition of the "Theme From Peter Gunn." They ended up winning a Grammy that year for best rock instrumental performance. Watching that 1980s collaboration between an old-school guitar legend and an MTV dance band is still highly endearing.
#1: Orianthi Panagaris' cover of Jimi Hendrix "Voodoo Child": Jimi Hendrix's 1968 album "Electric Ladyland" and especially the song "Voodoo Child" were so far ahead of their time in terms of rock music innovation that they still put most of what's today called rock-and-roll to shame. Ladyland is one of those albums that gets more "HOW THE FUCK IS HE DOING THAT?" responses than any other piece of recorded music in history.
Imagine then the shock when Orianthi, the Australian female guitar wiz brought into the public sphere when Michael Jackson recruited her for his band, performed a blistering version of "Voodoo Child" that almost outdid Hendrix's own live performances of it. I'd place Orianthi's version slightly ahead of Stevie Ray Vaughn's, which is amazing because his was pretty great too.
There you have it: ten bold cover tunes by guitar heroes and heroines. Music appreciation is of course subjective, so I completely get that you might place different guitar centered covers on your list. These are simply ten of many that I find myself coming back to frequently.
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