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The OMM Top 50 Covers













Check the full list and let us know if you agree, or if you think we've made any glaring omissions...

1 Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence (1983) (orig. The Beatles, 1968)

Dreamy White Album psychedelia made into dark, androgynous sex-goth. Prudence was Mia Farrow's sister, who freaked out on the Beatles' infamous trip to see the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India.

2 John Coltrane - My Favorite Things (1960) (orig. Rodgers and Hammerstein/The Sound of Music, 1959)
The legendary sax God takes the waltzing original on a cosmic trip to the spiritual beyond. A free jazz landmark... recorded five years before the movie made nuns'n'Nazis into timeless camp.

3 Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane (1988) (orig. The Velvet Underground, 1971)

Lou Reed's ultimate three-chord rock'n'roll anthem given an ethereal, campfire makeover, care of the Canadian indie-folksters' restrained acoustics and the blank, haunting voice of Margo Timmins.

4 Robert Wyatt - I'm a Believer (1974) (orig. the Monkees, 1966)

This unlikely, jazz-flecked version of the Neil Diamond-penned Monkees hit saw the recently paralysed Wyatt performing in his unique cockney tones from a wheelchair on Top of the Pops.

5 Elvis Presley - Hound Dog (1956) (orig. Big Mama Thornton, 1952)

Elvis's high-energy, hard-rocking cut of this dirty Leiber and Stoller ditty stomped all over Thornton's downhome original... just like rock stomped all over the blues.

6 Bryan Ferry - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (1973) (orig. Bob Dylan, 1963)

A glam-derived nail in the coffin of '60s sincerity, as Ferry converts Dylan's anti-nuclear folk masterpiece into delirious faux-gospel pop deluxe.

7 The Slits - I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1979) (orig. Marvin Gaye, 1968, after Gladys Knight & the Pips, 1967)

The Gaye classic is a study in self-lacerating paranoia. The Notting Hill femme-punks delivered it as an eccentric, feminist, dub-disco jump for joy.

8 Richard Thompson - Oops!... I Did It Again (2003) (orig. Britney Spears, 2000)

The singer-songwriter and founding member of Fairport Convention covered Britney's 'Oops I Did It Again' as part of his show 1000 Years of Popular Music.

9 Devo - Satisfaction (I Can't Get Me No) (1978) (orig. The Rolling Stones, 1965)

Akron, Ohio's art-punk satirists turn Jagger's cocky machismo inside-out, revealing a black, creepy comedy of geeky male sexual frustration.

10 Al Green - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? (1972) (orig. Bee Gees, 1971)

The soul master's most surreal, spooked and androgynous vocal performance proves that the Brothers Gibb were always blue-eyed soul boys at heart.

11 Oasis - I Am The Walrus (1994) (orig. The Beatles, 1967)

Less a tribute to their idols than an arrogantly thumbed nose, this live B-side replaces Lennon's queasy orchestras with Liam Gallagher's top-of-the-world, rock god disdain.


12 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower (1968) (orig. Bob Dylan, 1967)

The ultimate instant cover, as Hendrix made this small, spooky song from the John Wesley Harding album into the raging, epic soundtrack to the turmoil of 1968.

13 The Specials - A Message To You Rudy (1979) (orig. Dandy Livingstone, 1967)

The 2-Toners revived this beautiful rocksteady plea for an end to 'rudeboy' violence, and, like the original, it was most loved by the skinheads who did the damage.

14 Soft Cell - Tainted Love (1981) (orig. Gloria Jones, 1964)

A northern soul classic, originally performed by Gloria Jones (later, mother of Marc Bolan's son, Rolan) turned into a deviant pop smash by Marc Almond and Dave Ball.

15 Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind (1987) (orig. Elvis Presley, 1972, after Brenda Lee, 1972)

The peak of Tennant & Lowe's dance-pop alchemy, as they charmed the planet with a sincere disco re-tooling of the maudlin Elvis ballad.

16 Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (1994) (orig. Leonard Cohen, 1984)

If you had to prove that the tragic Buckley Jr was the voice of his generation, then this virtuoso choirboy take on Cohen's elegantly grim hymn would be Exhibit One.

17 The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man (1965) (orig. Bob Dylan, 1965)

Jangling 12-string Rickenbacker and beatific Californian harmonies; Roger McGuinn poppifies Dylan and casually invents folk-rock, alt-country and indie. Bonus.

18 Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb (2004) (orig. Pink Floyd, 1979)

How do you remove the pomp from the Floyd and become huge overnight? Easy. Do The Wall's most miserable moment in the style of Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees.

19 Johnny Cash - Hurt (2002) (orig. Nine Inch Nails, 1994)

The Man in Black's rumbling yet fragile baritone - and Mark Romanek's extraordinary video - turned Trent Reznor's numb nihilism into a dying rebel's final, defiant stand on Judgment Day.

20 Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart (1990) (orig. Neil Young, 1970)

Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and early Saint Etienne singer Moira Lambert remix Young's fragile lament into a Balearic mash-up of piano-led, dubwise, dancefloor melancholy.

Find the full 50 here

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

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