TOP TEN Requests - Covers & Remakes

On the heels of the release by Panic! At the Disco's live cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, shown here on our blog, this week's top ten request list is devoted to those songs so nice, they recorded 'em twice (or thrice...)

The remakes, the covers, the reinterpretations. Call them what you will, but sometimes things are better the second time around. Or just more notorious.

In some cases, the original was barely noticed (I LOVE ROCK N ROLL - originally by The Arrows...made famous by Joan Jett...or TAINTED LOVE...who remembers the original Gloria Jones version???) so we had to ignore those...These are the songs whose cover versions get requested at the piano bar, even more than the original (and this one was really hard to narrow down to just ten!)

#10 - HALLELUJAH - Leonard Cohen/Rufus Wainwright/Jeff Buckley

Whichever version of this classic is your fave, the updated recordings and the exposure they garnered thrust this song onto every hipster's must own list. It's the perfect 2am song, when the joint is slowing down and the martinis are taking their toll.

#9 - BECAUSE THE NIGHT/BLINDED BY THE LIGHT - Bruce Springsteen/Patti Smith/10,000 Maniacs, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band

The Boss gets credit for launching both of these songs as a songwriter, but even though Patti Smith recorded BECAUSE THE NIGHT, and he took his own shot at both tunes, it was the 10,000 Maniacs version of BECAUSE THE NIGHT, and the very groovy remake of BLINDED BY THE LIGHT by Manfred Mann's Earth Band that put these two tunes on the piano bar radar.

#8 - I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU - Dolly Parton/Whitney Houston

Would any piano bar be playing this song, even as punishment, if not for the Whitney touch on this ballad? And let me be the first to thank her on behalf of all the baritones who have to warble their way through that key change at the end.

#7 - MONY MONY - Tommy James/Billy Idol

Poor Tommy James. He originated I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW only to be usurped by that ginger 80's vixen, Tiffany, and her mall conquest of America. Then, along came the snarling British punkster, Billy Idol, and his re-branding of MONY MONY to keep Tommy banished from the millenials memories for good.

#6 - HURT - Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash

How do you improve upon the saddest darn rock song ever recorded? Give it to Johnny Cash, the Man in Black. The only vocalist who could wring an extra level of pain and angst from the black soul of Trent Reznor's gut wrenching song. A sure fire way to kill any buzz of any bar anywhere.

#5 - JUST A GIGOLO - Louis Prima/David Lee Roth

If ever there was a 'room divider' of a song, this is it. One group only knows the Louis Prima version, and thinks of Roth as a childish screamer, and the other wouldn't even recognize Prima if he fell on their head-banging heads.

#4 - KILLING ME SOFTLY - Roberta Flack/The Fugees

If this song gets requested, there's gonna be that one person during the chorus shouting "one time, one time". The legacy of Lauryn Hill.

#3 - PROUD MARY - CCR/Tina Turner

The boys in CCR had success with their own cover of I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE, but when it comes to the piano bar, if you're gonna sing PROUD MARY, then you gotta do it like Tina - nice. Then nasty.

#2 - ME & BOBBY MCGEE - Kris Kristofferson/Janis Joplin

Is there any doubt who owns this song, when all the gals in the room chime in on that opening line, "Busted flat in Baton Rouge...". A longtime karaoke favorite for the whiskey drinking ladies with the voices of gravel and soul, this selection is all Janis. La da da, la da da.

#1 - TWIST & SHOUT - The Isley Brothers/The Beatles

With the dance moves that anyone's parents can do, this song is still a perennial favorite on the keys. The Isley Bros. may have started it, but The Beatles certainly finished it. And it's only fair, considering the volumes of Beatles covers out there (A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS from Joe Cocker as just one example) that the Liverpool lads get to own this one. And once you get that aahhh...aahhhh...ahhhh...AHHH...SCREAM, can you imagine anyone but Paul McCartney serenading the bar?

Honorable Mentions: ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER, HARD TO HANDLE, RED RED WINE, SWEET DREAMS

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