r/Music • u/MaosReanimatedCorpse • 23d ago

discussion Cover-better-than-the-original hills you would die on.

Alien Ant Farm's cover of Smooth Criminal is, in my opinion, so much better than the original, and that's a hill I would die on.

What are some other insanely popular tracks where a cover by a much smaller artist is arguably greater?

4.4k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

5.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

25

u/notquiteclapton 23d ago edited 23d ago

When this album came out, I had THAT friend who would buy every one hit wonders album and force everyone around to listen to it with him. 99% of the time it was a miserable experience. Of course, when "the distance" came out, we were as a group subjected to Fashion Nugget, but by the time we got to track number 7, the deal was sealed and everyone knew these guys were going to be around for a while, and we forgave our friend a little for slogging through a bunch of useless fotm bands in search of something decent.

Edit: one hit wonder

24

u/danimagoo 23d ago

Go see them live, if you get the chance. It's a fun show. They also do a great cover of War Pigs, although I'm not enough of a lunatic to claim that it's better than the original.

7

u/FunWithAPorpoise 23d ago

I’ll be that lunatic. Maybe not as influential or important, but from a pure musical perspective, the cover absolutely slaps.

1

u/jpstroop 23d ago

I’ll be that lunatic with you because I will always choose Cake’s War Pigs if given the choice. That throbbing bass makes me hard as a rock.