It’s been awhile since we’ve had a new Palmetto Peaches’ playlist. I’ve had this running list of cover songs on a memo on my phone for forever so I though why not share some of my all-time favorite cover songs. To be fair, the originals are amazing, but I like what the artists did with their version.
Let me go ahead and put it out there that Queen Kelly Clarkson is the champion of cover songs. This entire list could be Kelly Clarkson covers because she is just that good. There’s a fantastic playlist of Kelly Clarkson covers I highly recommend. She kills every genre. I’m also quite partial to Ed Sheeran cover songs. My ringtone on my phone is his cover of “Trap Queen“. Yes, still. No apologies. I know YouTube is full of amazing singers covering songs (I’ll quickly mention that’s how many of us fell in love with Tori Kelly), but for this playlist I decided to stick with covers from established artists. I couldn’t find a few of my favorites on Spotify, so I’ve linked them in the list below.
P.S. Music lovers do not yell at me for including Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” on the list – I know there are dozens of amazing versions of this song. I just happen to like this one 🙂
#Reimagined: Best Cover Songs
- Maroon 5, “Sex & Candy” (Marcy Playground)
- Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights” (The Postal Service)
- The Fugees, “Killing Me Softly” (Roberta Flack)
- Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You” (Dolly Parton)
- Ike and Tina Turner, “Proud Mary” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
- Ray LaMontagne, “Crazy” (Gnarls Barkley)
- Aretha Franklin, “Respect” (Otis Redding)
- Jeff Buckley, “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen)
- Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse, “Valerie” (The Zutons)
- Ed Sheeran, “Dirrty” (Christina Aguilera)
- FKA twigs, “Elastic Heart” (Sia)
- UB40 “Red Red Wine” (Neil Diamond)
- Lennon & Maisy, “Boom Clap” (Charli XCX)
- Nelly, “Die A Happy Man” (Thomas Rhett)
- Otis Redding, “Try a Little Tenderness” (Ray Noble Orchestra)
- Johnny Cash, “Hurt” (Nine Inch Nails)
- Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya and Pink, “Lady Marmalade” (Patti Labelle)
- Lauryn Hill, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” (Frankie Valli)
- John Mayer, “Free Fallin'” (Tom Petty)
- Ellie Goulding, “Your Song” (Elton John)
What are some of your favorite cover songs? Which ones need to be added to this playlist? Leave a comment below.
I love cover songs. There is usually something soothing about them. It’s like the artists take an already great song and make it even better! Most of these are songs that I love already! Any version of Hallelujah is beautiful!
You’re right you really can’t go wrong with any version of Hallelujah. I usually love the original, but the creativity of the covers are so cool.
-Donni
Wow! What a nice playlist 🙂 Nothing better to work on my blog… Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy the playlist and are super productive working on your blog.
-Donni
I didn’t even know that some of these had been redone/covered! Thanks for the list – I’m gonna see if I can find some more!
Yes, if you find some other gems let me know and I’ll add it to the playlist. 🙂
-Donni
This is a great list. I really do not have any faves of my own to add
Thanks! Hope you enjoy!
-Donni
I didn’t realize some of these songs had been made into covers. Great list I have not heard of some of these before.
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Some are even more popular than the originals. Thanks for stopping by!
-Donni
That Ray Le Montague cover of Crazy is awesome! Thanks for introducing me to it. My favorite cover probably has to be Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt. This is a fantastic list!
I’m glad you like it! Ray LaMontagne’s voice is just amazing and you can never go wrong with a little Johnny Cash. 🙂
-Donni
I love so many of the cover songs by Pentatonix. “Daft Punk” is a cool cover mash-up.
Yes, I should definitely add some Pentatonix to this playlist. They are so good. Thanks for the suggestion!
-Donni
I love a good cover song! Sometimes I find cover songs being better than the original.
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I agree. Sometimes I really like the lyrics of a song, but I’m not fond of the artist. So a cover lets me enjoy. Thanks for stopping by.
-Donni
What a great music selection! Love it 🙂 tsk for sharing 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! I tried to give it a little variety 🙂
-Donni
I had no clue Maroon 5 did a cover song of Sex & candy?! Can’t wait to listen to it – although the original is just so good! Now it’s stuck in my head:)
The original is really good, but there’s something about Adam Levine’s voice on the cover version that will not be denied. 🙂
-Donni
Cover songs are really my thing. I mean, i am a glee fan so there! hahaha.. i love kelly clarkson and later I am going to listen to each of these songs. Thanks a lot for sharing.
I myself am a Gleek — do you remember when that was a thing? — so I’m sure that’s why I love a good cover. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the playlist!
-Donni
I didn’t realize some of these had been re-done! I would be really interested in maroon 5’s redition of sex and candy only because we sang that in HS all the time. 🙂
I feel like when Sex and Candy came out it was definitely a little age inappropriate, but I liked it (of course, I didn’t really know what the song was about). Anyway Adam’s voice is amazing on this track. Enjoy!
-Donni
Looks like you got a lot of variety in the different musical genres for your songs choices in your list, nice work!
It’s probably bad that I don’t know what a cover song is. I’m pathetic. I need to start listening to music more. Great list though!
Not pathetic at all 🙂 A cover song or cover version or cover, is a new performance or recording of a previously recorded, song by someone other than the original artist or composer.
-Donni
I love cover songs. You put together a great playlist!
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Aw thanks – glad you enjoyed! Cover songs are just so fun.
-Donni
Omg what a great playlist!!!! I just love it when a band/singer actually does a good job with a cover!! A lot of the times people butcher songs.
Ha, that’s so true. I’ve heard some horrible covers. I’m glad you liked the playlist.
-Donni
I didn’tknow that some of these “oldies” had covers! Thanks for the list.
Hi. As a huge fan of covers myself, I highly recommend this spotify playlist. Its got a lot of modern cover songs.
Eh, heres that spotify covers playlist link!! my bad.
https://open.spotify.com/user/1238963141/playlist/1TVJEBgJiSdiYUBX2y82Ya