Top ten best ever cover songs

trueblue

Junior Member
Hello everyone
If you were in a cover band, what would your top ten cover songs be to keep the house rocking? I think mine would be (in no particular order)

Nirvana - smells like teen spirit
Rage against the machine - killing in the name
Blur - song 2
Violent femmes - blister in the sun
Motorhead - ace of spades
Ac/dc - back in black
Ac/dc - rock and roll singer
Deep purple - highway star
system of a down - toxicity
Nirvana = breed

what do you think? to heavy?
regards Benny
 
Depends on the crowd, but in my ideal crowd it would be,

1) I'm a believer- Smash mouth version
2) Feeling alright- Joe Cocker/Dave Mason hybrid
3) Mustang Sally- Kind of a must for most cover bands
4) Proud mary-CCR
5) Long train running- Doobie Brothers
6) Santa Monica- Everclear
7) The Loco-Motion-GFR
8) Hot Legs- Rod Stewart
9) Rock and Roll- Zeppelin
10) Early in the Morning- The Gap band
 
Hello everyone
If you were in a cover band, what would your top ten cover songs be to keep the house rocking? I think mine would be (in no particular order)

Nirvana - smells like teen spirit
Rage against the machine - killing in the name
Blur - song 2
Violent femmes - blister in the sun
Motorhead - ace of spades
Ac/dc - back in black
Ac/dc - rock and roll singer
Deep purple - highway star
system of a down - toxicity
Nirvana = breed

what do you think? to heavy?
regards Benny

I love Highway Star, but don't know many (well, make that any) guitarists that can play that lead solo note for note with Lord Blackmore.
 
Ten covers from various bands I've been in that got the punters going back in the Paleozoic Era:

Rock and Roll - Zep
Fire - Jimi
Pump It Up - Elvis Costello
Birthday - Beatles
Boots - Nancy Sinatra (played fast and hard in one band, as a rockabilly in another)
All of the Day and All of the Night - The Kinks
Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
Suffragette City - Bowie
Dust My Broom - Elmore James
Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray (ok, I just really liked playing this one :)
 
I should add that if I was to play all of the ones I mentioned as a set I'd need to be carried off in a stretcher. I'd not heard of The Gap Band number. Very Prince-y keyboard sound.

Agree with Strangelove that Highway Star's a helluva tough cover. That's why every man and his dog covered Smoke on the Water and Space Truckin' in the 70s :)
 
I should add that if I was to play all of the ones I mentioned as a set I'd need to be carried off in a stretcher. I'd not heard of The Gap Band number. Very Prince-y keyboard sound.
:)



Yeah, it's not tough at all on drums but is fun to play and really gets people dancing. Works great if you have someone in the band who can make a good rooster sound at the beginning too : )
 
I would love to have a 90's rock cover band and play these tracks:

Alice In Chains - Rooster
Soundgarden - Burden In My Hands
Filter - Welcome To The Fold
Nirvana - Come As You Are
Living Colour - Cult of Personality
Primus - Over The Electric Grapevine
Jeff Buckley - Dream Brother
Deftones - Change (In the House of Flies)
Collective Soul - December
Live - Lakini's Juice
 
Yeah, it's not tough at all on drums but is fun to play and really gets people dancing. Works great if you have someone in the band who can make a good rooster sound at the beginning too : )

Yeah, every band should have a rooster sound :) It's a funny song to pick amongst all those others. There's a lot of rock and roll in your 10 songs and then suddenly at the end there's this 80s plastic funk number. I can imagine people jumping to it, though.

It used to kill me if we played Jimi's Fire and a high speed / heavy version of Boots together late in the last set when everyone was drunk. My hands would hurt, sweat would be running in my eyes, and I'd feel so not in control. It used to amaze me that people got off on it. I learned that beer goggles are a useful accessory for a tiring drummer.
 
Ten covers from various bands I've been in that got the punters going back in the Paleozoic Era:

Rock and Roll - Zep
Fire - Jimi
Pump It Up - Elvis Costello
Birthday - Beatles
Boots - Nancy Sinatra (played fast and hard in one band, as a rockabilly in another)
All of the Day and All of the Night - The Kinks
Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
Suffragette City - Bowie
Dust My Broom - Elmore James
Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray (ok, I just really liked playing this one :)

Right up my alley here Polly. There's a set list that I'd find a hell of a lot of fun to play...and even more fun standing at the bar getting hammered to.
I just wish I'd thought of Pump It Up whenever we sat around scratching our heads for a new up tempo number!
 
Right up my alley here Polly. There's a set list that I'd find a hell of a lot of fun to play...and even more fun standing at the bar getting hammered to.
I just wish I'd thought of Pump It Up whenever we sat around scratching our heads for a new up tempo number!

I've played Pump It Up in both a regular band and a scratch band. The energy is pretty awesome when you have a strong bassist pouring that line out. Another very physical song that used to leave me pretty screwed up by the end - lol. It really gets people up and rockin though. Do it :)
 
Another very physical song that used to leave me pretty screwed up by the end - lol.

Pearl Jam's Rearviewmirror used to leave me in a similar state (hey, it was the 90's...THAT was my heyday). I dunno, I'm sure I've played longer/faster songs, but that one always left me knackered!
 
Can't believe no one has mentioned...

Alien Ant Farm doing Smooth Criminal!
 
Pearl Jam's Rearviewmirror used to leave me in a similar state (hey, it was the 90's...THAT was my heyday). I dunno, I'm sure I've played longer/faster songs, but that one always left me knackered!

Oh yeah, that sounds like hard work. And the Alien Ant Farm number would be the end of me. I'm sooo glad my current band is slow and gentle :)
 
There's a lot of rock and roll in your 10 songs and then suddenly at the end there's this 80s plastic funk number.

The Gap Band seemed to me more of a fusion between Funk and Hard Rock, even moreso than Kool & the Gang. The distortion that bass player gets really distinguishes them.

Speaking of them, I remember closing down a number of night clubs back in the day, to "Party Train" by The Gap Band. That song is a huge line dance just waiting to happen. So long as the locomotive and the caboose are sober enough to stay on their feet, it works pretty well, too.
 
listening to the Gap on you tube as i type, it's pretty funky i can see how that would get the house jumping.
 
Tough one for me. My list is not based on technique but rather influence.

I Should Have Known Better The Beatles
Luck Man ELP
Roundabout YES
Whole Lotta Love Zeppelin
26 or 6 -2- 4 Chicago
Purple Haze Jimmi Hendrix
Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 2 King Crimson
Soul Sacrifice Santana
I'm Your Captain Grand Funk
I'll Be Around The Spinners

Only 10 huh! I could go on and on.
 
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