What is one of your favorite cover performances? Share it with the Musicheads!

"I get by with a little help from my friends" Joe Cocker taking on the Beatles. I guess "She came in through the bathroom window" would be right there also. But just personally, I always thought Jeff Buckely's "Hellejuha" was a great great tribute to Leonard Cohen's original (via John Cale).

Hi Joe, I agree with you. Nobody covered the Beatles like Joe Cocker. I also dig Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah but kinda like John Cale's version a bit more.

Frick, nearly everything DeVotchka does gets me jumping up and down!

One cover that to me will always be amazing is Elvis Costello covering his friend Nick Lowe on the song, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?"

Mr. Costello certainly took that one to a whole new level!

Like Bill, Mac and Mel were talking about on this week's Musicheads, covers can either be an incredible hommage or a huge slap in the face. This was never more apparent than when Scarlett Johansen did the album of Tom Waits covers. Oi! Maybe its because I'm a Tom Waits aficianado and it too sacred, but I just couldn't get behind that one - especially "I don't Want to Grow Up". But wouldn't it be cool if Tom went out and recorded some of other people's tracks? I mean can you just hear Tom wailing on Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", or maybe "Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting"? Something like that?

Anyway, back to the question...as the snow and ice melt away the temps start to rise and stay above freezing for awhile, something that matches the mood of cabin fever's departure. I've found Me First and the Gimme Gimme's album "Have a Ball" works nice, in particular their cover of Danny's Song.

When it comes to covers, I'm always impressed when a band really transforms a song. Though it might seem counterintuitive, I think there's more flattery in a move like that than in straight-up imitation. It's almost as if the cover artist is saying, "this song is so great, I'm not even going to TRY to impersonate its originator." Here's one that comes to mind: St. Etienne's cover of Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart." SO many miles away from the original, but still a cool tribute.

I love Devo's Satisfaction and Secret Agent Man as well as the B-52's cover of Petula Clark's Downtown...

Hmmm - Elvis Costello's (What's So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding is a cover? I did NOT know that! Another I recently discovered was the REM song Strange off document - had never realized it was a Wire cover.

Some great suggestions, Avery mentioning Elton John reminded me of one of my faves that I just played, Bonnie Prince Billy & Tortoise covering "Daniel"!! Also played Cloud Cult's "Mr.Tambourine Man" a stellar re-working that sets up a completely different atmosphere to the original. Have you heard that new version of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" by Hot CHip & Peter Gabriel? PG is name checked in the original Vampire Weekend version and he changes the lyric to refer to how weird it is to sing his own name!

The Black Keys covering the Sonics "Have Love Will Travel"

hendrix covering "like a rolling stone" at monterey in '67 stands out

I dig covers... when they are done right.... done right, making it your own, or breathing life into something that had more to offer. I think the oldest podcast subscription I have is for the covers podcast Coverville. There are so many great covers, but the ones that I have to mention are;
Rouge Wave covering Everyday by Buddy Holly
The Damned covering Looking at You by The MC5
Waylon Jennings covering Don't Think Twice, it's Alright by Dylan

I also want to throw out there a little knowing band called Falconhawk covering I Can't Fix the Damn Thing blues by Stompin' Tom Conners from the B.Y.O.P. Calgary Does Connors album, and The Outlaw Family Band covering I'm Just Dreaming by Fred Eaglesmith... both are amazing.

Ian & Sylvia's version of Joni Mitchell's Circle Game is one of my favorites.

My fave recent cover has to be Justin Townes Earle's cover of the Replacements, "Can't Hardly Wait"...it's wonderful!

I love the Huskers' "Eight Miles High." They blew that song wide apart.

There's one song I've loved for years that's a cover, but I'd never investigated enough to know that. Then a friend gave me the original in a mix a couple of years ago, and I realized the song I've loved for so long ... is sort of a (delicious) hack-job cover. The original is absolutely stunning, gorgeous. The song is Roy Harper's "Another Day," and covered by This Mortal Coil/Elizabeth Fraser.

I am a 52 year old tough guy and when Don Imus played Aretha Franklin's cover of I Say A Little Prayer on the national day of prayer after September 11th 2001. I cried like a little baby. Still brings tears to my eyes as I write this. Whats So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding may be the second greatest rock song ever written after Another Girl Another Planet. Eight Miles High never sounded so good as when Leo Kottke plays it.

When Solid Gold recently played the Nomad Bar, they closed with a very intense (and very good) version of Chris Isaak's "I Don't Want to Fall In Love." They really surprised me! I hope they do it again.

This might sound kinda dumb, but...The Ataris did a really cool cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer." Similar to Jeff Lebowski, I also hate the Eagles (and everything after that). But I've ALWAYS liked that song a lot, and I've always thought it could easily be made into a cool punk song. Well, The Ataris did it and did it great - which is funny because I also hate The Ataris! I like how they changed the line from "Dead Head sticker" to "Black Flag sticker."

But here's my REAL answer for this week: I'll applaud the day I hear 89.3 the Current get some guts and play the J. Geils Band's nine-minute cover of John Lee Hooker's "Serves You Right To Suffer," recorded live in Detroit in 1972. It appears on their live album "Full House."

THAT SONG IS SOOO COOL!! Talk about intensity! That guitar solo just kills, and you can hear the whole theatre going nuts (I may have mentioned this song before).

It's also worth noting that as I'm writing this, I'm listening to (as Johnny Carson would have put it) "another station," *cough*Radio K*cough* and they just put on Cat Power's cover of "Fortunate Son" by CCR.

Gotta hand it to Cat Power...she's very creative!

I guess I have a thing for The Cure covers: Sense Field did a rockin version of "A Letter to Elise" that I can listen to over and over again. And The Get Up Kids did "Close to Me." Both are incredible and perennial favorites of mine.

Andrea, Husker Du is a great call.

How about J. Cash doing "Rusty Cage," Uncle Tupelo's "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and T. Waits covering the Ramones' "The Return of Jackie and Judy."

All capture the spirit of the original recording and the personality of the cover artist.

The Wedding Present's cover of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" It's got a great edge from Mr. Gedge.

Apoptygma Berzerk's cover of 'Shine On' by House of Love. They also covered Kim Wilde's 'Cambodia' and Metallica's 'Fade to Black'.

Brian Setzer on 'Secret Agent Man' is awesome, too.

Johnny Cash doing Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus' and NIN's 'Hurt'.

Speaking of Husker Du...I still love their cover of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. I remember they played it live on the Today Show on location at the Nicollet Mall in 1987...I don't think Bryant Gumble & Williard Scott knew what to make of it!

I have a few favorite covers, and they all kind of lead back to one another. I love John Prine doing Clay Pigeons, Written by Blaze Foley. Then the Dead Ringer Band, with Kasey Chambers of course, doing the Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, written by John Prine. And then Kasey Chambers also did two great covers solo, both by Fred Eaglesmith. Water in the Fuel, and Freight Train.

Two of my favorite covers are both simple reworkings of the originals without a lot of adornments: "Dark End of the Street" by the Flying Burrito Brothers and "Song to the Siren" by This Mortal Coil.

Why is it that some of our favorite bands are so criminally ignored. I currently turn to Rolling Stone, The Onion and Musicheads for most of my music news. The latest Firewater disc didn't make it onto any of my sources radars. Good thing I do the regular walk thru at the record store. But anyways, Firewaters albums of covers from a couple of years back "Songs we should have written" is pretty good. Their cover of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison is awesome.

Great Big Sea's cover of R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as we Know It" is awesome.

Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright's cover of "Careless Whisper" by Wham is the perfect marriage of amazing singers and piano playing.

My favourite all time cover is Radiohead's cover of "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. Yorke's haunting voice mixed with the electronic sounds adds an entire layer of sheer loneliness and unsettling depression that isn't found with Water's voice.

Wow, Melissa....I don't think I've heard Radiohead cover of Wish You Were Here...you've peaked my curiosity!

Another cover that needs to be mentioned...Yo La Tengo and their fabulous cover of Daniel Johnston's song about his trusty moped, "Speeding Motorcycle"...Yo La Tengo takes the song to a whole new level!

So many covers so little time. The summer of the first B.A.D. album, was also the summer the first Fine Young Cannibals album. With Roland Gift singing Elvis's Suspicious minds. A great album. to bad they soon went to super radio friendly overplayed hell on their next disc. The former rhythm section of the English Beat laughed all the way to the bank and Roland Gift never really was heard from much after that. Camper Van Beethoven covering Pink Floyds interstellar Overdrive was pretty ambitious for a scruffy bunch of cowpunks from California. And certain Metal bands also kill me, like Prong. I loved Prong, they kicked ass and their cover of the Stranglers Get a grip on yourself was so cool. Or how about that 8 inch vinyl Black Market Clash platter, with a cover of Time is Tight. Get Lyres on Fyre if you want your garage rock world rocked. They banged out a few kinks covers on that one most notably, You just have to love me till the sun shines. And i've heard several versions of Peggy Lee's Is that all there is, but I think Giant Sands takes the cake with an awesome clip from the Honey Mooners in the background. and more currently, i'm not totally living in the past, Todd Snider covers Creedence's Fortunate son, its all good.

I heard local band Roma di Luna (plus a guest fiddler) cover Neutral Milk Hotel's "In An Aeroplane Over The Sea" in February of last year. I had to find a recording for myself and discovered that it's the closing track on their 2007 release "Find Your Way Home". Go to iTunes now and listen to the clip. It hauntingly beautiful and manages to preserve the emotional tenor of the original while changing everything about the style. Awesome.

I love covers... I've never loved Beatle's covers... probably because (rightly or wrongly) in my little brain, they're kinda untouchable... With that said, I've always loved Fionna Apple's version of Jai Guru Deva (wincing and ducking).... Other surprising ones have been "Hit Me Baby" covered by Travis--the cover evidences a song's true potential and the crap heap it sometimes winds up in.... Also, via a friend I discovered Kristin Hirsch covering "Trouble" by Cat Stevens--LOVELY.... Buckley's version of Hallelujah goes without saying....

Kevin Gilbert's "Kashmir" is one of my favorites, certainly. He totally reinvented that song. The idiots who put out "Encomium" were, well, pretty much idiots for leaving it off that compilation.