Hey, I'm Posting Music!

I love cover songs.  Ask my wife, she usually hates them.  Especially if they're covers of songs she knows and likes.  But I love them anyway, and I often listen to CD's filled with covers when I'm driving with my kid or by myself.  One thing I especially love is the rather difficult art of the cross-genre or off-genre cover.  This is, as you may have guessed, where an artist takes a song from one genre (often rap) and covers it in a completely different style (often folk or piano-pop).  And so, after the break, you will find fourteen off-genre covers I find entertaining.  Enjoy!

Here they are, in the order that I was able to find them.  Check below the player for my thoughts on the tracks. :)

1. Ben Folds Bitches Ain't Shit - I love Ben Folds and sadly, from what I hear, he retired this song at the last Bonnaroo.  He got tired of walking down the street with his kids and having people refer to him as "that bitch guy".  Originally by Dr. Dre, this is a classic rap track wrapped up nicely in a slow, rather melancholy piano package.
2. Imogen Heap Thriller - Holy crap, I can't believe I didn't hear this song until last week.  I love Imogen Heap, and this cover is a really cool take on one of MJ's biggest hits.
3. Nina Gordon Straight Out of Compton - Nina Gordon has such a beautiful voice, and rumor has it she debuted this song completely straight-faced in a coffee shop.  One of NWA's most well known pieces, I think it works perfectly well in a mellow setting like this one.
4. The Gourds Gin and Juice - The first off-genre cover I was ever exposed to, I originally heard it attributed to Barenaked Ladies, then to Phish.  Not sure how those two bands got mixed up in it, but the Gourds are the true visionaries behind this remarkable Snoop Dogg cover.
5. 30 Seconds to Mars Stronger - A rather long but well done cover of Kanye West (who is a total and complete dick, btw).  Also, the last cover of a rap song on my list! Yay!
6. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Sweet Caroline - Hard to choose just one song by MFatGG, as they've put out a lot of quality work, and they are a straight up punk cover band, but I made myself do it.  Therefore I went with Neil Diamond, because he is almost always the logical choise.
7. Social Distortion Ring of Fire - A cover of Johnny Cash is a dangerous thing to do, because chances are, you'll fuck it up.  I give Social D credit for not fucking it up too badly (and certainly not as badly as Adam Lambert).
8. Johnny Cash Hurt - How better to follow up a cover of a Cash song than with the best cover Cash ever did (and my personal favorite cover ever).  Cash didn't so much cover this song by Nine Inch Nails as take it away and make the Reznor version feel like the cover.
9. Gary Jules Mad World - If you don't love this Tears for Fears cover, I don't love you. One of those covers that is better and more recognized than the original, this song was introduced to a small portion of the world in the film Donnie Darko (#4 movie of all time for me), which nobody saw, and later in a commercial for the Xbox 360's Gears of War, which everyone saw.
10. Cake I Will Survive - The one song on this list that I would guess the most people have heard is still one of the best.  Taking a Gloria Gaynor classic and turning it into an alternative staple is probably one of the things Cake is best known for.
11. A Perfect Circle Imagine - This is another one I hadn't heard until today, and it's awesome.  I've always had a soft spot for John Lennon's masterpiece, and this cover just turns it on its head.
12. The Polyphonic Spree Lithium - Since you could never cover anything by Nirvana in their own genre without being flayed and impaled, the Polyphonic Spree took one of Cobain's best known songs and made it happy!  
13. Dynamite Hack Boyz N Tha Hood - Ok, so I lied earlier about no more rap.  But this is the last one, really.  This is, so far, my favorite off-genre rap cover of all time.  I particularly love the ending which differs on the album and radio versions, but in both cases is a play on the Beatles' Blackbird.
14. The Postal Service Against All Odds - Probably my most listened to cover ever, there was a good three month period when I would play this track every single time I got in my car.  The Postal Service took a mediocre Phil Collins song (though I generally find them all mediocre) and made it into an awesome almost creepy, slightly techno song to highlight the soundtrack to the mediocre film Wicker Park starring mediocre actor Josh Hartnett. And if Wikipedia is to be believed, we are calling The Postal Service's genre "indietronica".  Not sure how I feel about that, but about the song I feel pretty good.
15. ***BONUS***Jonathan Coulton Baby Got Back - OMG Awesomesauce!  Until five minutes ago I only knew Jonathon Coulton as the gentleman who wrote the song I'm Alive for the excellent PC game Portal.  Turns out, after visiting his site, that he is totally and completely rockstar.  Sir Mix-A-Lot has nothing on this version. :D

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