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.
Bad wolves back then the singer who’s no longer with them is also a maga pos
Sultans of Swing (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli feat. Mary Spender)
Cover - check
Popular song - check
From 80s or 90s - check
Redone into metal - check
Female vocalist - check!Bonus song: Manhattan Skyline by Ihsahn feat. Einar Solberg
It’s not harder than the original, but Ihsahn and Einar are some of the most influential metal musicians out thereNirvana version of “where did you sleep last night”
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
Republica’s cover of Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric
Which also Dead Weather did I think
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.
I don’t know how to switch accounts and fucked up my wife’s entire persona she was building by commenting under her account. Instead of deleting the comments when I realised my mistake, I instead just switched accounts and left those comments there for her to find when she woke up. I claim to have planned to go back to delete them, but instead I was just gonna completely forget about them.
I am so smart 🤓
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
Hurt by Johnny Cash
Hurt - Johnny Cash
- Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control covered by Spoek Mathbo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKfwSFI8LhQ
- Talking Heads’ entire Remain in Light album covered by Angélique Kidjo: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mbIYOh0HJq4wi9oYI-SjACbkSJHC_u7Ng
Edit to add: Apparently bands like to cover This Must be the Place.My favorite is in the opposite direction - Porter Robinson covering Fontaines DC “favorite” in a 90s pop rock style. Such a good version of such a good song, and it’s worth reading the interview where he talks about recording it.
The A.V. Club used to do a series where bands would come on and choose from a list of songs to cover. As the season goes on, the list shrinks and the covers get more exotic. You can search “av undercover” on YouTube to watch through the back catalog of old seasons for some pretty great covers. I don’t think they do it anymore, but it ran for several years.
Puddle of Mud has a nice Nirvana cover
The good one, or the “good” (terrible) one?
The terrible one lol
Ooof, that is a terrible one. I think it was about a girl?
I was legitimately surprised that he could actually sing a good Nirvana cover.
Huh , I mean there is that one Puddle of Mud song i like kind of i suppose.
Maybe he his vocal chords were messed up that day
Yeah who knows. I think it was this cover I heard before that actually sounded like Kurt (kind of).
Wind Rose - Diggy Diggy Hole
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.






