Bands Who Rerecorded Or Covered Their Own Songs

[aeroplane]

The subject line says it all. I was surprised to not see this thread, or if it is on the forums, it wasn't under the expected key words when I searched.

Several artists have rerecorded their own songs for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is meant to improve the song(s). On other occasions, an artist simply wants to get new versions of their music onto an album without having to deal with their original record company.

This has been done by everybody from Little Richard & Jerry Lee Lewis to Dokken and Journey. Sometimes bands rerecord a song or two for a later day release. Other times an artist will rerecord a full "greatest hits" album.

Let's talk this over, shall we? Feel free to toss in anecdotes of artists in ANY genre that you know who have done it and what you thoughts were on it.

I'll include my own when I feel this thread needs a cheap bump.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Cool thread idea! I've never seen that sort of thread topic before! Here's mine:

Anberlin-The Feel Good Drag (Originally on Never Take Friendship Personal 2005)


Anberlin-The Feel Good Drag (New Surrender 2008)


I like the original better myself but obviously the band thought it needed to be enhanced! I understood why they did it! The Feel Good Drag was a solid album and between the two aforementioned albums the group had picked up steam fanwise as well as critically with Cities! The Feel Good Drag was a good song to reintroduce to the masses as a single on the that album plus they likely had a bigger studio budget to add what they wanted to it!

 

[Magic]

Classic re-recordings of not only songs, but the entire albums back in 2002....

Ozzy ~ Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman

The whole philosophy behind these re-recordings were to eliminate 2 key band members....Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake.

 

[METALPRIEST]

KISS ~ STRUTTER '78

 

[That 70s Guy]

 

[ladyislingering]

I wasn't really partial to it, but Sparks re-recorded a bunch of selections from their catalogue back in the mid-90s and called the album "Plagiarism".

They collaborated with Erasure and Faith No More for a couple of those songs. Then again I'm not exactly properly educated about the album, as it's the only one I haven't heard in full.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Female artist Lennon may have the record with her song My Beautiful which actually even had a name change to Where Do I Fit In?! I think a lot of this had to do with having issues with her record label and cthe direction they wanted to go in! She ended up on an independent label and that's where three versions of the song ended up! I like the transitions the song has taken and my personal favorite is the Travis Meeks collaboration!

My Beautiful (original on "5:30 Saturday Morning" 2001)
Grooveshark - Listen to Free Music Online - Internet Radio - Free MP3 Streaming

My Beautiful ft. Travis Meeks of Days of the New
(Album "I Am" 2003)
I Am album by Lennon on MySpace Music - stream full MP3 songs and albums

"My Beautiful" changed to "Where Do I Fit In?" (Album "Damaged Goods")

 

[Zombeels]

Beatles - Across The Universe
Kinks - Massive Reductions
Eels - My Beloved Monster (there must be about 8 different versions)

 

[Magic]

I dont mind a band re-recording their own songs, especially if they are trying out a new sound or engineering tecnique. They can toss these in as bonus tracks

 

[taha]

XYZ has a great CD where some of their stuff was recorded 3 different ways, they are all good, but I have to admit the ones used in their official releases were the best. It is cool to see how they vary some of the songs......