Looking for some covers of popular songs especially anything from the 80s or 90s that’s been redone today into a hard rock or metal version. Bonus if it’s a female vocalist
But I’m open to anything if the covers good or better than the original
The track I’m recommending is the Postmodern Jukebox cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” featuring Ariana Savalas on vocals.
For your requirements
popular song
Yes - the original got a ton of airplay on MTV and radio in the early 90s
from the 80s or 90s
Yes
hard rock or metal version
Nope
female vocalist
Yes
Link:
If Savalas sounds familiar, her dad is the actor Telly Savalas.
Wait…the actor from like the 70s? He would be over 100 if he were still alive. How is she herself not 70 or something? Or did you mean granddaughter?
(Nevermind, looked it up and did the math… I guess he was 65 when he had her and she’s 40 or close to it.)
Sleep Theory - Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC.
Bad Wolves - Zombie by The Cranberries.
Daughtry - Separate Ways by Journey.
5 Finger Death Punch - Bad Company by Bad Company.
All that Remains - The Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks.
Disturbed - The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.
Disturbed - Land of Confusion by Genesis.
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson.
A Day To Remember - Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson.
Electric Callboy - Everytime We Touch by Cascada.
Framing Handly - Lollipop by Lil Wayne.
Our Last Night - Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush.There’s definitely more, but those are some that I’ve enjoyed, sorry no I females in the list though, except a collab on Separate Ways.
Man the first time I heard all that remains cover of the thunder rolls I fucking hated it. Thought it sounded so autotuned.
It eventually grew on me but now that the lead singer is a maga piece of shit I can’t stand listening to them again
There were a couple I thought about not listing for that reason, like Disturbed.
Nirvana version of “where did you sleep last night”
Their cover of “Lake of Fire” is also good (though the original is great on its own)
All 3 Meatpuppets covers are so good. I like how they had one or both? Of them on stage.
Unplugged in New York is my favorite album of theirs.
Hailstorm doing Daft Punk’s Get Lucky is one of my favorite songs of all time.
That’s a good one
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Placebo’s version of Running up that Hill is the definitive version. Fight me.
Agreed. I also like their cover of Where’s My Mind.
I used to agree. But I heard so little of the Kate Bush version, that when stranger things used it. I like her version better now
I like the Wombats version too.
Toto - Africa (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli feat. Rabea & Hannah)
This cover should meet just about all of your criteria, but it’s already a few years old.
Dammit I was gonna suggest this. I love Frog Leap Studios, although my personal faves are hi us versions of Dance Monkey and Feelgood Inc.
Bring out the small drums!
His final countdown is awesome, but I really like most of what he does so I’m not exactly unbiased
Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt https://open.spotify.com/track/28cnXtME493VX9NOw9cIUh
It’s officially the original now as per Trent Reznor.
AWOL nations got a cover album a couple years ago. There is at least one Abba song on it.
Chris Cornell did a couple of covers I cant get enough of. Acoustic Nothing Compares to you.
And a cover/mashup of Metallica’s Ones lyrics to U2s One Lyrics which is amazing.
I follow a guy called Leo Morachioli who does metal covers of popular songs. I really enjoy Leo’s version of toss a coin to your witcher and also his cover over final countdown. His videos are rad.
Lourdes all along the watchtower is good
Alien Ant Farm did a fun cover of Smooth Criminal is good too
I also love Chris Cornell’s NCTY and damn near anything by Leo Morachioli…
I liked AWOL Nations’ cover of Beds are Burning.
Me too
Boys of Summer - The Ataris
Don Henley’s 1984 version is nice, but this early 00s power pop version hits so good.
That’s actually sort of why I made this thread is because of that cover
Wow! Same wavelength!
It is such a good song.
Honestly, most anything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a pop punk band I used to listen to a lot in the oughts that strictly performs covers. Favs include “My Boyfriends Back” “Stand By Your Man” and “Sloop John B”
Was coming here to say this haha
Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics is a personal favorite
I never found a metal rendition of a ‘softer’ song that’s better than the original so I got nothing on that.
But here’s few of some artis I follow.
Eleanor Rigby - Josh Turner I think most of the song he cover is old (idk I don’t really listen to classic song). But good lord, he’s talented af.
Jack Conte (CEO of Patreon) are on both of these. Pomplamoose is his band with his wife Nataly Dawn.
Scary pockets brings different singer (and other instrument) each song, mostly funk forward.
Just the 2 of us - Scary Pockets
If you like those two, you probably also like Lawrence
This is just straight up jazz but they’re super good. Young Original - Its a lovely day today
Not metal, punk, but here ya go: Send Me an Angel
OH! And some metal: Everytime We Touch
Solid choices. Love pomplamoose.
I know it’s probably not what you’re asking for but there’s an album where a bunch of Japanese anime voice actresses did covers for popular songs from the 80s and 90s. It called Voice Actresses Legendary Punk Songs Collection and here’s a playlist that has most of the songs (one of them is unavailable for some reason).
Outside of that, I mostly only know bands who have covers of video game music (and some movies) from the 80s and 90s. If you are counting those, here are some examples of them:
Lighting Strikes Again and Metal Squad from Thunder Force IV by SSH. SSH is known for metal covers of old video game music, so this is just one example of his music.
Cranial Syphon by Armcannon, which is a cover of some song from Metroid but I’m not familiar with that game so I don’t know what it is exactly. On top of covers for other video game music, they also have stuff like the Ghostbuster’s theme.
Kraid by Metroid Metal, which is obviously another metroid song (possibly the same one). There music was a bit hard to find on YouTube, I’ve forgotten where I first heard their music before but Youtube might not be the best platform to find the rest of their music.
Battle Scene from Final fantasy by The Black Mages. While they are currently disbanded, they were known for rock/metal covers of music from the Final Fantasy games (which makes sense given that the band was created by Nobuo Uematsu himself). They did briefly rebrand as “Earthbound Papas” for one album because not only did they want to cover more than just the Final Fantasy games but they also wanted to branch out to more genres.
I know for sure that there are some that I’m forgetting and there’s also some that I don’t feel like looking for examples for (mainly artists who’ve covered the music from the 90s era Touhou games). If asked, I may do through and provide them but I think I’ve provided more than enough already.





