A cover versions chart show, the Cover Lovers Top 40 was aired this Saturday morning on DAB station, BBC 6 Music. Even presenter Liz Kershaw’s ‘supermarket announcement’ delivery couldn’t spoil a cracking line up of cover songs voted for by 6 Music listeners. The chart featured three Beatles songs (Stevie Wonder’s We can Work it Out, Souixie’s Dear Prudence & Helter Skelter by U2), two Otis tunes (Hard to Handle and Respect) and two songs written by Bob Dylan (Tambourine Man and the Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower). Veteran songwriter Burt Bacharrach scored high with White Stripes cover of the Dusty song ‘I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself’ at number 9 and Dionne Warwick’s ‘Walk On By’ covered here by The Stranglers at number 6. Whether any of these covers live up to the original versions is down to personal taste, but surely no one can argue with Jose Gonzalez’s cover of Kylie Minogue’s Hand On Your Heart, This Mortal Coil’s Song to The Siren or Futurehead’s Hound’s of Love? And of course, the number one on the chart which was the wonderfully poignant NIN cover, ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash.
The full rundown is as follows with the original artist in brackets.
BBC 6 Music's Cover Lovers Top 40
Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out (The Beatles)
Clash - I Fought The Law (Bobby Fuller)
Patti Smith - Gloria (Them)
Michael Andrews / Gary Jules - Mad World (Tears for Fears)
Aretha Franklin - Respect (Otis Redding)
Slits - I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
Bjork - It's Oh So Quiet (from Annie Get Your Gun)
U2 - Helter Skelter (The Beatles)
Ryan Adams - Wonderwall (Oasis)
Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
Black Crowes - Hard To Handle (Otis Redding)
Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello)
Mark Ronson / Alex Greenwald - Just (Radiohead)
Manic Street Preachers - Suicide Is Painless (from MASH)
Elbow - Independent Women (Destiny’s Child)
Dinosaur Jr - Just Like Heaven (The Cure)
Jose Gonzalez - Hand On Your Heart (Kylie Minogue)
Foo Fighters - Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty)
Devo - Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)
Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Neil Young)
China Drum - Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush)
Cake - I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel)
Damned - Eloise (Barry Ryan)
Muse - Feeling Good (Nina Simone)
Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind (Elvis)
Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)
Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)
Kirsty Maccoll - A New England (Billy Bragg)
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence (The Beatles)
Fall - Lost In Music (Sister Sledge)
White Stripes - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself (Dusty Springfield)
Clash - Police And Thieves (Junior Murvin)
Soft Cell - Tainted Love (Gloria Jones)
Stranglers - Walk On By (Dionne Warwick)
This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley)
Futureheads - Hounds Of Love (Kate Bush)
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
Johnny Cash – Hurt (Nine Inch Nails)
The worst cover of all time were also featured on the show and included Tragedy by Steps, Stairway to Heaven by Rolf Harris, Duran Duran’s Grandmaster Flash cover of White Lines, Scissor Sister’s Comfortably Numb and Atomic Kitten’s Tide is High. The number one WORST EVER cover version according to 6 Music listeners is Madonna’s American Pie (should’ve left it to Don McLaine!). The whole Cover Lover's show can be heard using BBC's Listen Again service here:

• www.http://bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/liz_kershaw/
  
  
  

  < More News: Like This
  • The History of Drum Machines 26-Apr-24
  • Neutone Morpho V1 Released 26-Apr-24
  • The MiniMoog Book Gets Funded 25-Apr-24
  • Avid's Sibelius & Bad Interface Design 25-Apr-24
  • Why Do Bells Sound Out of Tune? 25-Apr-24
  
  Even more news...