Rock coverage

Virtually every musician who has ever strummed a guitar or banged on some drums started out playing other people's music. The biggest names of every type of American popular music -- blues, jazz, country, R&B, rock 'n' roll, soul, funk, metal, hip-hop -- formed their own sound by covering the music which inspired them.\nThe cover has thus always been a crucial part of the rock tradition, literally from the very start -- rock 'n' roll began when Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore and Bill Black ripped into Big Boy Crudup's "That's All Right" in 1954.\nThe Beatles cut their teeth playing Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins in seedy Hamburg nightclubs in 1962, and George Clinton burned through countless James Brown cuts as he slowly formed what would become Parliament-Funkadelic.\nHence, an accounting of the best covers of all time:\nThe Beatles, "Dizzie Miss Lizzie" -- The Beatles were the greatest cover band in history, and some of their more popular covers -- "Twist & Shout," "Rock & Roll Music," "You Really Got a Hold on Me" -- have, for better or for worse, matched the popularity of the originals. But their version of this Larry Williams hit is their best, closing out 1965's Help! with a bang.\nWilson Pickett, "Hey Jude" -- While we're on a Beatles riff … The Wicked Pickett showed a lot of chutzpah covering the Fab Four's beloved 1968 hit just a year after it was released. Well, guess what? Pickett's version actually tops the original (blasphemy!), thanks in large part to a fiery guitar solo from Duane Allman.\nRay Charles, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music -- This 1962 album shattered the wall between black R&B and white country music. Hugely influential, unquestionably brilliant.\nThe Pretenders, "Stop Your Sobbing" -- This cover of the Kinks' classic appeared on the Pretenders' self-titled debut album in 1980 and helped establish Chrissie Hynde as one of the leaders of the post-punk movement.\nNirvana, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" -- In what turned out to be Kurt Cobain's final artistic flourish, he pours his soul into the aching lyrics of Leadbelly's haunting blues. Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York would have been a good CD without this. With the song, the 1994 disc is one of the best live albums in rock history.\nFugees, "Killing Me Softly" and "No Woman, No Cry" -- Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras anchored 1996's brilliant The Score with these covers of Roberta Flack and Bob Marley, respectively.\nNew York Dolls, "Pills" -- These glam/pre-punk kings released their explosive debut album in 1973, and this cover of a Bo Diddley classic was certainly a highlight. The Dolls de-emphasized the Bo Diddley beat and injected it with a weird type of sexual paranoia.\nAlejandro Escovedo, "Pale Blue Eyes" -- This Texas roots rocker recorded a moving, elegiac version of the Velvet Underground standard for his 1999 CD, Bourbonitis Blues.\nGeorge Thorogood and the Destroyers, "I'm a Steady Rollin' Man" -- Many have tried to cover Robert Johnson. Most have failed miserably. Found on a 1992 best-of compilation, this is the best of the better attempts -- it's got the standard Thorogood sneer and pulsing beat.\nThe Who, "Summertime Blues" -- The most famous version of this cover appears on 1970s' combustible Live at Leeds. With this song, the Who reveals exactly how much it was inspired by Eddie Cochran's power chords.\nThe Kingsmen, "Louie, Louie" -- One of the touchstones of garage rock, the Kingsmen took Richard Berry's regional Northwest hit and turned it into a rock 'n' roll anthem in 1963.\nJimi Hendrix, "All Along the Watchtower" -- This Dylan cover, found on 1968's Electric Ladyland, was simply Hendrix's finest moment.\nStevie Ray Vaughan, "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" -- On that note, the late Stevie Ray paid passionate tribute to one of his heroes with this Hendrix cover on 1984's Couldn't Stand the Weather.\nTalking Heads, "Take Me to the River" -- How can a geeky white post-punk band cover Al Green, one of the masters of soul? As it turns out, pretty well. This is on 1978's More Songs about Buildings and Food.\nEmmylou Harris, "Wrecking Ball" -- A gorgeous rendering of the lovely Neil Young song, it's found on Harris' 1995 CD of the same name.\nMarvin Gaye, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" -- In 1968 the incomparable Gaye took the Gladys Knight and the Pips original, slowed it down and made it his own.\nBefore this column wraps up, let's just touch on the subject of bad covers. Rock history is unfortunately rife with them, starting with Pat Boone's whitewashes of Little Richard and Fats Domino and running through, say, country bimbo Terri Clark's destruction of Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and crap-metal Limp Bizkit's sacrilegious cover of the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes."\nBut without a doubt, the single worst cover ever is Whitney Houston's destruction of Dolly Parton's beautiful "I Will Always Love You." The original had a lilting softness to it that was wiped away by Houston, who mistakes volume for power and throttles the lyrics to death with schmaltzy sap.\nOn that thoroughly depressing note, this column will end. Next time: Gary Glitter's favorite prison workout songs.