I f you're here looking for guitar gig bags... I'm not talking about that kind of guitar covers...
I have a special fascination with covers. Most people know what I mean by the term 'cover', but just in case you are unfamiliar with the term; a 'cover' is a song that was originally recorded by another artist. Many musicians will re-record this music as a tribute, or sometimes, simply because it's one of their favorite tunes, or because the band needs one more tune for their latest album and they just don't have the time or energy to write something new.
I look at covers as a way of taking a peek inside someone's head to understand a little more about what makes them tick - what motivates or inspires them...
This is not an extensive list of covers. If that's what you're interested in I recommend The Covers Project (which is also a far cry from extensive, but much more generally extensive than mine). My list is constrained to the covers that I particularly like, most often from guitarists that I particularly like. Interestingly, I have covers in my list that don't appear in The Covers Project.
Tune |
Covering artist |
Original artist |
Notes |
| All Along The Watchtower | Jimi Hendrix | Bob Dylan | Naturally, I like Jimi's version better than Dylan's. |
| All Along The Watchtower | Robin Trower | Bob Dylan | I think I prefer Trower's version over the one from Hendrix. It's debatable, but one might argue that Trower was covering Hendrix's version... |
| All Day, And All Of The Night | Steve Vai, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert | Ray Davies (The Kinks) | This guitar trio teams up on the Kinks classic. Guitars: great - Vocals: ummm... well... great guitars! |
| Always With Me, Always With You | Tamas Szekeres | Joe Satriani | Tamas does a good job on this Satriani classic. |
|
Always With Me, Always With You (Always With You, Always With Me) |
Ron Thal | Joe Satriani | Ron Thal (AKA Bumblefoot) swaps the name a bit, but the biggest difference is the new age feel he gives the tune. Very different, but excellent riffage! |
| Amazing Grace | Jeff Scheetz | Various | Jeff gets a sort of rockin' boogie thing going and the song is rendered almost unrecognizable. Not really my thing, but noteworthy. |
| Amazing Grace | Steve Vai | Various | I'm not sure you would technically call this a cover, but when Steve Vai plays this universal favorite, words like 'Amazing' and 'Grace' just seem to fall short. Available on Steve's album: The Elusive Light And Sound Vol. 1. |
| Angel | Stanley Jordan | Jimi Hendrix | Jazz version - quite nice, actually. |
| Angel | Andy Timmons | Jimi Hendrix | Nothing but acoustic guitar and Timmons' vocals. Very nice. |
| Anytime At All | Dweezil Zappa | The Beatles | From the album Confessions. |
| Baby One More Time | Dweezil Zappa | Britney Spears | Dweezil and Ahmet crank up the heat on this pop neo-classic. |
| Ballerina 12/24 | Denny Mishler | Steve Vai | Decent cover, but it's really difficult to equal the Master! |
| Be My Lover | Joan Jett | Alice Cooper | Joan is obviously a big Alice Cooper fan. On an almost totally unrelated tangent, Joan collaborated both in song writing and performance of House Of Fire from Alice's Trash album. |
| Black Star | Tamas Szekeres | Yngwie Malmsteen | True to form. Almost identical to Malmsteen's, but somehow with more emotion than Yngwie ever mustered... |
| Bouree | Blues Saraceno | Jethro Tull | Interesting choice of tunes to cover... |
| 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers | Thomas Blug | Jeff Beck | This is one of my favorite songs and Blug really does it justice. This is an excellent cover... possibly as good as the original, but slightly different. |
| Celluloid Heroes | Steve Vai | Ray Davies (The Kinks) | A mostly faithful reproduction of the original with a little more emphasis on the guitar, of course. This is a truly great song! Available on Steve's album: The Elusive Light And Sound Vol. 1. |
| Cliffs Of Dover | Tamas Szekeres | Eric Johnson | Szekeres doesn't quite get Eric's tone right, but not many people can. This is still a very good cover. |
| Day Of The Eagle | Barry Richman | Robin Trower | Higher intensity version of a Robin Trower classic. |
| Dazed & Confused | Led Zeppelin | Yardbirds | Few people realize that The Yardbirds did this song first and of those few, many argue that it's not a cover, since Jimmy Page wrote it while he was in The Yardbirds. I think, technically, since it was performed by the band named "The Yardbirds" before it was performed by the band named "Led Zeppelin", it is a cover. However, I agree it's a debatable point. |
| Dirty Love | Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai | Frank Zappa | Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai?!!! Well come on! How can this be anything other than superb?!!!. |
| Eleanor Rigby | Stanley Jordan | The Beatles | Quiet, jazzy version of this Beatles classic. |
| Elected | Def Leppard | Alice Cooper | Pretty good cover. I like Alice and I like Def Leppard. I'm not sure what the guitar connection is here, but... |
| Europa | Barry Richman | Carlos Santana | Good cover with an authentic sounding Santana tone. |
| Fire | Alice Cooper | Jimi Hendrix | Alice does a fantastic cover of this tune! This was a warm-up tune during the Hey Stoopid sessions, they just left the tape running and ended up with one of my favorite cover tunes of all time. Of course, Alice doesn't play the guitar on this tune; that honor most likely goes to Stef Burns, but I'm not 100% sure. |
| Fire | Steve Vai | Jimi Hendrix | Steve turns what could have been a Britney Spears fiasco into a great cover of this Hendrix tune. |
| Freedom | Andy Timmons | Jimi Hendrix | Timmons performs a faithful rendition of this song, though the guitar is more intense. Great cover. |
| Funk 49 | Blues Saraceno | Joe Walsh | Blues does a great rendition of this tune. Originally on the hard-to-find album Never Look Back, but it also appears on The Best Of Blues Saraceno, which is not so difficult to get a copy of. |
| Goin' Down | Barry Richman | Don Nix | A good cover of this classic. |
| Goin' Down | G3 (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson) | Don Nix | Other than taking some poetic license with the lyrics, this is far and away the best cover of this tune that I've ever heard. |
| Going To California | Frank Solari | Led Zeppelin | Excellent cover of this classic Zep tune... Nice slide work. |
| Habanera | Dweezil Zappa | Georges Bizet | This is one of two songs that Dweezil covers from the musical Carmen. I'm not sure what his fascination is, but it's a great cover. From the album Automatic. |
| Hawaii Five-O | Gary Hoey | Morton Stevens | Gary puts a little shred-edge on this 70's TV theme. |
| Hawaii Five-O | Dweezil Zappa | Morton Stevens | A cover of the 70's TV program theme song. Nostalgic, a bit campy, but fun and totally cool. From the album Automatic. |
| Hey You | Dream Theater | Pink Floyd | One of many great covers from Dream Theater. |
| I Feel The Earth Move | Paul Gilbert | Carole King | Great cover. Great guitar work from Gilbert. |
| I've Done Everything For You | Sammy Hagar | Rick Springfield | Sammy adds a rock hard edge and nice guitars to transform this pop classic into something listen-able. |
| I've Got A Line On You | Alice Cooper | Spirit | Great, great cover. This tune was in the soundtrack for the movie Iron Eagle II. |
| I Would Love To | Tamas Szekeres | Steve Vai | Flawless cover of this Vai tune. |
| Immigrant Song | Rick Brannon | Led Zeppelin | Intense cover of a Zeppelin classic. |
| Knockin' On Heaven's Door | Guns N' Roses | Bob Dylan | More intensity than the original... |
| Les Toreadors | Dweezil Zappa | Georges Bizet | This is the second of two songs that Dweezil covers from the musical Carmen. From the album Automatic. |
| Light Up The Sky | Yngwie Malmsteen | Van Halen | I'm not a big fan of Yngwie, especially since he has been known to make fun of Eddie Van Halen... However, he does a pretty good job on this tribute from the album Little Guitars. |
| Little Wing | Eric Johnson | Jimi Hendrix | Nice version of this tune with the signature Eric Johnson sound. |
| Little Wing | G3 (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen) | Jimi Hendrix | All three masters honor Hendrix, who was obviously an inspiration to them all. |
| Little Wing | Robin Trower | Jimi Hendrix | Trower performs a really good version of this tune. |
| Little Wing | Steve Vai | Jimi Hendrix | By far, my favorite version of this tune. Vai is a master! |
| Little Wing | Stevie Ray Vaughan | Jimi Hendrix | One of Stevie's better covers. |
| Live And Let Die | Guns N' Roses | Paul McCartney and Wings | Great cover. Slash's guitars and Axl Rose's vocals breathe new life into this tune. |
| Love Is All Around | Joan Jett | Sonny Curtis | This is the Mary Tyler Moore theme music. Joan rocks it up a notch and is obviously having some fun! |
| Manic Depression | Yngwie Malmsteen | Jimi Hendrix | Good cover. |
| Manic Depression | Robin Trower | Jimi Hendrix | A very faithful cover. |
| Meet Me In The Morning | Jason Becker | Bob Dylan | I have never heard the original, but I can bet that it pales in comparison to the Jason Becker cover. Jason was in serious pain and struggling with ALS when he recorded this cover. He complained that he had to play it too slow... Frankly, I think it's great the way it is! This is from Jason's Perspective album. |
| Miss You | Brett Garsed | The Rolling Stones | Very jazz-iliscious! |
| Mistreated | Yngwie Malmsteen | Rainbow (Ritchie Blackmore) | One of the best things I've ever heard Malmsteen play! |
| My Generation | Blues Saraceno | The Who | Pretty good cover; too bad Blues didn't have access to the infamous Danelectro bass guitar... |
| My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama | G3 (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson) | Frank Zappa | I imagine, Steve, being a guitarist in Frank's band played this tune a few times previously. The guys really put an edge on this great tune. |
| My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama | The Persuasions | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa gave these guys their start and they performed this as a tribute. The tune is mostly a cappella with a little bit of guitar thrown in by Mike Keneally. This is really cool. |
| My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama | Dweezil Zappa | Frank Zappa | Dweezil covers his dad's tune... What a great cover, too! The video is a must see for guitarists. Dweezil combines right hand and left hand hammer-ons... simultaneously... seemingly effortlessly. |
| No More Mr. Nice Guy | Megadeth (Dave Mustaine) | Alice Cooper | Kind of an odd addition to a Megadeth album, but a faithful cover with a little extra riffage thrown in for good measure. |
| No More Mr. Nice Guy | Andy Timmons | Alice Cooper | Timmons toured with Alice Cooper for a while, so it's no wonder he picked up a few things. This is a great cover... but then, I like anything by Alice. |
| Only Women Bleed | Guns N' Roses | Alice Cooper | Slash is a big Alice Cooper fan. Tangental trivia, Alice performs a great cameo on the Guns N' Roses tune The Garden. |
| Panama | George Lynch | Van Halen | Pretty good cover from the Van Halen tribute album, Little Guitars. |
| Paperback Writer | Eric Johnson | Beatles | Great cover of an old Beatles favorite. Eric includes this on his Souvenirs album. I particularly like the vocoder intro... |
| Perfect Strangers | Dream Theater | Deep Purple | So faithful is this cover that you almost forget it's not Deep Purple playing... |
| Pretty Woman, (Oh) | Van Halen | Roy Orbison | From the Diver Down album, which actually featured four other cover tunes... The instrumental intro, which is typically assumed to be a part of the Van Halen version, actually has it's own name, Intruder. |
| Pretty Woman, (Oh) | Albert Lee | Roy Orbison via Van Halen | On the Little Guitars, Van Halen tribute album, Albert Lee covers Eddie Van Halen covering Roy Orbison (without the Intruder intro). It's a great cover in it's own right. |
| Purple Haze | Tangerine Dream | Jimi Hendrix | Nice, Tangerine Dream-ish instrumental version of this tune... |
| Purple Haze | Dweezil Zappa & Reb Beach | Jimi Hendrix | Dweezil and Reb team up on this Hendrix classic on the first, self-titled Winger album. |
| Purple Rain | Neil Zaza | Prince | Prince put a lot of emotion into his version of Purple Rain. Somehow, Zaza seems to squeeze in even more. |
| Racing with the Devil on a Spanish Highway (revisited) | Mark Reale (Riot) | Al DiMeola | Shred/jazz fusion instrumental, remarkably true to DiMeola's version. |
| Red House | G3 (Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai) | Jimi Hendrix | The guitar trio teams up on another Hendrix classic. |
| Red House | G3 (Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai) | Jimi Hendrix | The guitar trio teams up on another Hendrix classic. |
| Rock And Roll Hoochi Koo | Suzi Quatro | Rick Derringer | Good cover, but Suzi Quatro holds a special place in my heart... when I was about 15 years old, I had a crush on her... |
| Rock And Roll Hoochi Koo | Johnny Winter | Rick Derringer | Excellent cover, very faithful, but with some fine guitar work. |
| Satch Boogie | Kelly Jones | Joe Satriani | Sometimes jazzy... sometimes twangy... Definitely an interesting interpretation. |
| Saturday Night's Alright | Nickleback | Elton John | Pretty good cover; a little edgier than the original. |
| Sisters | Philippe Thaibaut | Steve Vai | A very faithful cover of this Steve Vai tune. |
| Smoke On The Water | Yngwie Malmsteen | Deep Purple | Another good cover by Malmsteen. |
| Sleep Walk | Joe Satriani & Robert Fripp | Johnny Farina | I always loved this song as a kid. It was a real treat to hear Satriani and Fripp revive it on Satch's album, Strange Beautiful Music. |
| So This Is Love | Blues Saraceno | Van Halen | Another cover from the Little Guitars Van Halen tribute album. Blues Saraceno can do no wrong with a guitar... |
| Somewhere Over The Rainbow | Chris Impellitteri | Harold Arlen | Neo-classical shred version of this tune from the Wizard Of Oz. |
| Spanish Castle Magic | Yngwie Malmsteen | Jimi Hendrix | A pretty good rendition of this tune. Yngwie obviously has a lot of respect for Jimi Hendrix. |
| Star Spangled Banner | Jimi Hendrix | Francis Scott Key | Some people associate this song with Hendrix almost as much as Purple Haze. Jimi obviously had a lot of fun playing it! |
| Star Spangled Banner | Joe Satriani | Francis Scott Key | If Jimi can do it, why not Joe. Actually, many guitarists have imitated Jimi playing the Star Spangled Banner, but Joe played it pretty straight at a San Francisco Giants game, with just a little bit of flair at the end. Of course, Joe's Ibanez Chrome Boy tended to give the whole thing a surreal feel... |
| Stayin' Alive | Dweezil Zappa | The Bee Gees | Kind of silly; kind of cool. From Dweezil's Confessions album. Featuring vocals from "a little bit rock and roll" Donny Osmond. This seems to be a Dweezil favorite because I've heard Dweezil do a similar version with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. Nuno Bettencourt played with Dweezil on the Confessions album. Nuno may have guested on the version with Ozzy. |
| Texas Flood | Stevie Ray Vaughan | Larry Davis | I used to say that Texas Flood was the only Stevie Ray original that I liked... Then I happened to hear the Larry Davis version... Oh well, thankfully, Stevie played a lot of covers! |
| The Crystal Ships | Joe Perry | The Doors | Yes, this is the same Joe Perry from Aerosmith. This is a well done cover from Joe's solo project. |
| Third Stone From The Sun | Stevie Ray Vaughan | Jimi Hendrix | One of many Hendrix covers Stevie Ray performed. |
| Unchained | Dweezil Zappa | Van Halen | One of Dweezil's early guitar teachers was Eddie Van Halen. Eddie also did some ghost guitar work on a couple of early albums for Dweezil. So, is it any wonder that Dweezil can put together a fantastic Van Halen cover!? |
| Voodoo Child (Slight Return) | G3 (Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai) | Jimi Hendrix | Yngwie leads off the trio on this Hendrix classic... It's almost unrecognizable at first, but finally Yngwie calms down and the tune takes shape. Most notable, in the DVD video, Yngwie plays a funny looking Stratocaster. I suppose it is intended to remind guitar fans of Jimi's favored axe. Yngwie plays a righty Strat with a lefty neck (strung normally). I can't figure out if it's pretentious, or merely goofy... |
| Voodoo Child | Kenny Wayne Sheppard | Jimi Hendrix | This is an instrumental version of the tune. I have to say that this is my favorite version. Sheppard really kicks butt on this tune! |
| Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) | Stevie Ray Vaughan | Jimi Hendrix | Yet another Hendrix cover from Stevie... I'm not complaining though; about the only Stevie Ray Vaughan tunes I can stand are his covers... I'm not sure why Stevie changed the 'd' in child to 'e'... |
| While My Guitar Gently Weeps | Avant Strangel | George Harrison (The Beatles) | This cover appears on the album who's name asks the question: Too Out There?. The answer is a resounding YES!!! Very strange... or is it "Strangel"? |
| While My Guitar Gently Weeps | Peter Frampton | George Harrison (The Beatles) | Frampton starts out with some great improvisation, but lapses into an overall conventional rendition. I would have liked to hear Frampton improvise over the whole tune. |
| While My Guitar Gently Weeps | Vinnie Moore | George Harrison (The Beatles) | Instrumental version of this classic. Very, very well done! |
| Wild Thing | Jimi Hendrix | Chip Taylor / The Wild Ones | A really cool cover of this classic tune. Most people believe that this was an original when The Troggs recorded it. However it was originally written by Chip Taylor (John Voight's brother) and recorded by an unknown band called The Wild Ones. The Troggs made it famous, though... |
| Wild Thing | Stevie Ray Vaughan | Chip Taylor / The Wild Ones | Possibly, Stevie was covering Jimi's version??? I don't know for sure... |
| Wipe Out | Steve Vai | Beach Boys | Steve has a lot of fun with this classic tune. The vocals are funky, but the guitar is excellent (of course). There's even a little "Flight Of The Bumblebee" thrown in for good measure... |
| You Really Got Me | Van Halen | The Kinks | One of Van Halen's best covers. Personally, I think this is the song that made it cool for big name bands to play covers on their albums... |
| You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch | Dweezil Zappa | Seuss, Hague, & Ravenscroft | This is a great (and funny) cover of a Christmas favorite. Dweezil's brother, Ahmet, sings the vocals. |