You can't find a band that spans more genres, sounds and generations than Queen. Not only did they have the greatest male vocalist of all time, they had two other lead singers playing instruments in Brian May and Roger Taylor. Each member brought something different to the table in terms of song writing as well. Almost every artist will cite Queen as a great influence somewhere down the line.
Without further adieu, here is my top 10 list of the best Queen covers:
10: Valensia covering My Fairy King: This song is obscure. What would make Valensia want to cover it? The original recording is crisp and beautiful. Valensia made it driving, powerful and overdubbed it to hell and back. He gets bonus points for picking a song off of Queen's eponymous album.
9: Stevie Ann covering One Year of Love: Who the hell is Stevie Ann? Good question. I never heard of her until I compiled this list. Her cover is simple, sweet and laid back. Dare I say it has a charming country feel to it?
8: Nine Inch Nails covering Get Down Make Love: A YouTube user put it the best: "Queen made it sensual and hot. Nine Inch Nails makes it smoldering and sexy. So cool." NIN also succeeded in completely molesting and perverting the song en route to making it beautiful.
7: Lynch Mob covering Tie Your Mother Down: Queen was an inspiration to many hair-metal bands. Lynch Mob, a lesser known hair band did perhaps the best cover of Tie Your Mother Down (most of the headbangers did the same song anyway.)
6: Breaking Benjamin covering Who Wants to Live Forever: Lose the suits and cut out the orchestra, the kettle drum and all the pretentious candles, and you get this wonderful, stripped-down cover. I wish it had more Breaking Benjamin-esque harmonies.
5: Dwight Yoakum covering Crazy Little Thing Called Love: He's so ugly, but this cover is creative. Yoakam puts a 50's rockabilly swing to this Queen song and it works. Freddie wasn't too pretty either.
4: Montserrat Cabelle and Bruce Dickinson covering Bohemian Rhapsody: "How the hell did those two get together?" This is the same Bruce Dickinson from British metal giant Iron Maiden. His soaring, tremulous voice is a beautiful complement to Montserrat Cabelle's operatic range.
3: Metallica covering Stone Cold Crazy: Why can't all of Metallica's songs be under two minutes? Stone Cold Crazy was a unique Queen song for its length (or lack-thereof) and its heaviness. This song was such perfect fit for James Hetfield and co. that they won a Grammy for it.
2: My Chemical Romance and The Used covering Under Pressure: Though I remember this cover being played to death on the radio, it's the undisputed best studio cover of any Queen (and David Bowie) song. MCR and the Used dedicated the live version of this song to the victims of the 2004 tsunami.
1: George Michael covering Somebody to Love (live): The ultimate tribute to the late Freddie Mercury. George Michael's cover is passionate, he hit the high note, (though not the run) and the choir of swaying, "praise-thuh-lawd" women to his back make for the best Queen cover.
As I said in class, this is just a terrific post. (Plus I'm going to spend the rest of the night listening to all of these covers. I love Queen and didn't know many of these even existed.) Your blog has evolved beautifully, Kramer. I hope you'll keep going with this long after the class is finished. It seems a natural fit for you.
ReplyDelete