Gunter Smiley: 8 Greatest Hits Cover Songs That Surprisingly Do Not Suck

Have you ever noticed that cover songs often suck?

It takes both creativity and confidence to cover another musician's song and do so in a way that doesn't repel listeners. When performing a cover version of an existing song, the artists are faced with two major challenges: One, they must tweak the song stylistically to fit in with their own identity as a singer or band, and two, they must do this so expertly that those who have actually heard the original version will appreciate the changes the covering musician has brought to the piece.

Performing greatest hits cover songs is an excellent way for bands to attract new listeners; if done skillfully, you can earn the appreciation of fans across multiple music genres.

Successfully remaking an old classic, though, is not an easy feat, which would easily explain why so many musicians fail. The musician(s) must sing and play with the same emotional intensity that can be heard in the original version of the song, yet still pull off a maneuver to create a cover version unique to their own sound. This creates a fine line for artists, as they want to create a remake that their current fan base will be attracted to, but they obviously don’t want to make the song too different, so as to subconsciously offend the fans who worship the original.

While I tend to be harshly critical of greatest hits cover songs (hey, I’m picky, so what?), and simply cannot stand to listen to most of the ones I ever have the unfortunate occasion to hear, I have been lucky enough to stumble across a few really great exceptions.

Below is a list of some cover songs with covering artists that I like so much I listen to several times a day.

These cover versions are so well done and have so powerfully, carefully, adeptly been altered to fit in with the covering artists' styles that I must admit I now prefer the newer versions over the originals. I realize that is quite a bold thing to say and I give all due respect to the original writers and performers but something about these renditions of other artists' songs seem to really intensely touch my emotions and soul.

Here are 8 of my favorite cover song versions, in no hierarchical order:

Tegan and Sara "Dancing in the Dark"

Originally by: Bruce Springsteen