How to Cover a Song, (Aloe Blacc is THAT Good, huh?)

I like cover songs, so long as the covering artist puts a personal flair on the original. If I wanted to listen to someone do the same thing as the original artist, I’d listen to the original artist. That’s why I was pretty happy to stumble across Aloe Blacc’s version of “Billie Jean.”

This all reaffirms my belief that the sign of a really well written song is if you can take it and sing it in any style and it still sounds good.

While arguably not as drastic, Metallica’s cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” fits this description. The same goes for The Fray’s cover of Kanye West’s “Heartless” (as well as all the other country singers I heard do covers of it).

What are some of your favorite covers?