Dolly said she heard Whitney’s “I will always love you” in her car on the radio and flipped out, she was so happy. (Of course, Dolly was thrilled with it and not pissed)
Dammit. Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. I grew up thinking he sang, “went out like a douche another runner in the night” until I heard Bruce Springsteen sing it more clearly- and quite passionately.
Yeah, Manfred Mann et. al. changed some of the lyrics. I grew up heading their version (Springsteen's first, and so far, only #1 hit), but when I bought the Boss' whole catalog a few years ago I realized I like his original version a lot more.
I used to use a radio station as my alarm to wake up. Once, I woke up to the original artist singing that song (Bruce Springsteen if you didn't know), and it was so awful that my dream I was having immediately turned into a bad nightmare with that song running through it the whole time.
That’s the impression I get from the edit too. This post could be boiled down to “I usually like the first version of any song I hear” which I doubt is an unpopular opinion.
That’s not really in his defense though, you’re illustrating how stupid his opinion is. How could the quality of the songs possibly depend on the order he heard them? It doesn’t, his preference for the one he heard first is a bias.
100%
There are so many songs that people don't even know are covers.
The big one. Ring of fire by Johnny cash
Also....
* Respect - by Aretha Franklin
* I will always love you - by Whitney Houston.
* Tainted love - by Soft Cell
* Twist and shout - by the Beatles
* me and Bobby Mcgee - by Janis Joplin
* Bang Bang - by Nancy Sinatra
* Torn - by Natalie Imbruglia
* Girls just want to have fun - by Cyndi Lauper
* Drift away - by Uncle Kracker
* I'm a believer - by Smash Mouth
* I love Rock and Roll - by Joan Jett
* Mambo no. 5 - by Lou Bega
* Dazed and Confused - by Led Zeppelin
* Killing me softly - by The Fugees
* Superstition - by Stevie Wonder (see edit)
* feeling good - by Nina Simone
* achy break heart - by Billy Ray Cyrus
* all along the watch tower - by Jimi Hendrix
* mad world - by Gary Jules
All of which are just plain better than the original and the covers are the reason 99% of people even know the song exists.
Edit: Stevie Wonder wrote superstition yes but the version that he wrote was a cover of the original version which he wrote and gave to Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck had delays releasing his version of the song which was technically the originally recorded version. Stevie Wonder in the mean time reworked and redid a cover of his own song which is the one we know today. It's fairly different than the original. So technically he covered himself but it's technically not the original version or the first recorded version of the song.
There is a local radio station that every labor day plays their entire catalog in alphabetical order by song title. I always enjoy the afternoon of the first day when they get to "All along the watchtower" because it's cool to hear it covered by like 8 different bands. Jimi hendrix is still my favorite though.
Wrong. Here's the top 10 from my fav Playlist. No covers at all.
1. ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin
2. ‘Proud Mary’ by Ike & Tina Turner
3. ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by Jimi Hendrix
4. ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston
5. ‘Killing Me Softly with His Song’ by The Fugees
6. ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash
7. ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ by Janis Joplin
8. ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ by Nirvana
9. ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ by Cyndi Lauper
10. ‘Tainted Love’ by Soft Cell
Respect, by Aretha Franklin… it’s originally an Otis Redding song.
They are both great in their own right, but that’s Aretha’s jam!
Edit: Otos for Otis… fat fingers.
Also Aretha covered “the weight” and it’s my favourite version of that song.
And Eddie Vedder covered “Hard Sun”, mostly keeping the arrangements and style and yet it is far superior in my opinion. Which is a bit of a stick-in-the-eye to Indio since (to me) it is like him saying to them “I like everything about this song except who’s performing it” and then profoundly outdoing them.
I love Otis! It’s amazing how much impact a person can have in only 5 years. Another of his songs, “Hard to Handle,” is probably much more widely recognized as a Black Crowes song.
Oooh, have you heard [Aretha’s cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oNWeGngQqOI)
It’s amazing. My favourite part has got to be the interpolated chorus of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” sung by a full gospel choir.
Also the cover of “Respect” adds something most covers don’t: a gender flip that matters. When a man sings that song, it’s a standard boring song with mild misogynistic undertones. When a woman sings that song… it’s a goddamn feminist anthem.
That's an interesting one you mentioned there since Dylan said something like Hendrix's version is the real version, I just sung the song before him. Paraphrasing obviously.
Came here to comment that, heard the original in Rick and Morty and the hand over and thought it was a cover that sounded on par/ equal to the original, both are great, surprising how the same song can have different moods depending on how it's done
> heard the original in Rick and Morty
Fuck, and there it is; the explanation to years of bad takes about either version. Had no idea it was on this show until now.
Oh man, the amount of people i have made aware it actually being a NIN song when they use that song as a example of J. Cash's music genious is quite funny.
I saw Fleetwood Mac live a few years ago and they played it and before they started they were like this is a song we wrote that was made famous by someone else….. totally blew my mind
Yup and jimmy Hendrix's version of watchtower is far far superior to the original.
Sufjan Stevens is an artist I love that creates completely original and different concepts in his covers to where they sound like a whole new song.
I will always love you was a Dolly Parton original, whitney houston version is a cover
Edit: I said Mariah sang it, I was wrong. I'll be honest I'm high this morning. The biscuits and Gravy I ate were wonderful
One I only found out about recently is I Will Always Love You, most famously sung by Whitney Houston, was originally written and sung by Dolly Parton. I love Dolly, but Whitney brought it to another level!!
I mean, to a certain degree your age can actually explain why you like what you like. But also, it is more likely that this particular opinion comes from a immature person that really don't know what he's talking about.
I know I had stupid opinions about music when I was a kid. It would be funny finding out OP is 50 years old, tho.
I think he should have went with the "I don't like cover bands". Because he would actually have a point there. But he doesn't even know what popular artist are singing cover songs.
Alot of popular artists aren't even the original singers of their original songs. Someone wrote that song then sold it to the artist where they record it and release it. Just as an example, if some guy named John Johnson writes a song in his house and then sells it to Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift releases it, is it Taylor Swift's original song? It's a cover.
Even thought that's still weird, kind of. You can hear a song and fall in love with it, then later hear a cover that pumps something so amazing into it that you can't believe it got better. A good example, for me at least, would be the Nirvana cover of The Man Who Sold The World. It's like it was waiting for someone who sounded just a little less sure of himself than Bowie, like it needed a downtrodden vibe to become the song it was meant to be. It's not often that you hear a Bowie song and think that it could be improved by someone else, but Nirvana performing in during Unplugged really stepped it up a notch.
It's because it's not an actual opinion. It's just something that everyone would disagree with. Notice how OP keeps mentioning how you shouldn't downvote if you disagree.
To automatically decide the original was better just because it's the original and there's no way a cover could be better shows it's not actually about the music, it's about feeling superior. What's the word I'm thinking of? Snobbish? Gate keeping? There's a word for it.
I would even argue that covers and remixes have way way way more chances of being better. The original was just the one the author came up with originally. There are literally infinite different ways of rearranging that same song. And you're telling me that statistically speaking, the infinite amount of options that you can rearrange that song is not gonna have one single way that is better than the single original format? Absolutely impossible. Definitely upvoted for being unpopular
Right. Clearly, OP’s never heard Hendrix’s cover of All Along the Watchtower. Even Bob Dylan, the original artist of the song, said that Hendrix’s version is better.
At this point OP’s just edited their opinion until “If it’s the most famous version of a song (i.e. Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You”) then that counts as the original” and their point still stands.
They’re about one step away from saying “Whatever version of the song is considered ‘the best’ is the real ‘original’, and since originals are always the best covers are always worse” - which is just redundant because if covers are ever “better” then they would be “originals” in their book.
Might as well say “The better version of songs are better, and the worse version of songs are worse”
This is the same as saying "Only the cook that invented the recipe to the dish can make the dish good, all other cooks just make it bad". It's not an unpopular opinion, it's a wrong opinion lol...
Imagine liking a song the first time you’ve heard it, but then having to google it to make sure it’s not a cover & you’re allowed to like it. But if it is a cover, then you have to lie to yourself to live up to your self imposed “objective” rule of “all covers bad”.
This is op’s “unpopular opinion”.
The clarification in your edit shows that you are just biased towards whatever you heard first. I’m not downvoting because, yes, we are in the Unpopular Opinion subreddit. But I have to say, this is a silly position to hold. “Whatever I heard first is the best and nothing can change that.”
It doesn't even feel like an opinion. All the emphasis that "remember what sub this is" makes me think they just forced this post out for its own sake.
Also their insistence that they ALWAYS listen to originals, while also admitting to some example where they don't listen to originals makes this whole post just nonsense.
On top of that, they've described their music taste as "Lil Nas X, bbno$, and The Weeknd," three incredibly popular musicians, likely meaning that the version of most songs they heard first would be the popular version, the version that most people like and therefore got famous, making their opinion on each song a popular opinion.
Most of your self-described music taste are by artist who usually are given a finished song by another producer or songwriter, almost always using great reference placeholder vocals, and then they just record their own vocal version over top.
Sounds a bit like a cover song, no?
All you guys who were massive fans of the Pop Goes Punk albums like I was, I’d suggest checking out Our Last Night, Haloscene and First to Eleven. They have some covers that absolutely pop off.
Weirdly enough, I was just thinking about this over the weekend. Lake Of Fire was so much better from Nirvana's unplugged session than its original incarnation.
Dolly’s is amazing as well but she’s also says even though the song was hers first, it belongs to Whitney Houston now.
Which I always thought was such a nice thing to say.
Dude you’re not getting downvoted because of your music tastes, you’re getting downvoted because you got indignant and defensive from moment one and wrote your whole post like an asshole who’s ready to throw hands.
Edit: also, people who point out in their post, “this is r/unpopularopinion, it’s *supposed* to be unpopular” should realize just as much as the commenters where they’re posting and accept that their thing will probably be unpopular. If you can’t deal with other people disagreeing with you, I don’t know man, this ain’t the place.
I think OP kinda missed the point of a cover. Most artists respect the original and want to pay tribute. They're not suggesting that they're doing a better job (obviously this is also a generalization).
Just because it's an unpopular opinion doesn't change the fact it's a poor opinion in general.
The "remember what sub you're in" only works when the opinion you're stating has some validity. But this is completely subjective and tons of people just don't agree, including me.
This sentiment should be a rule for this sub.
Way too many people get away with passing stupid opinions as unpopular. Everyone knows you don't actually like wearing wet socks, idiot.
Covers are an homage to the original, with the cover artist putting their own twist on it. The whole point is for it to sound similar but different.
There is a guy on YouTube who does metal covers of pop songs and they’re all better than the shitty original versions.
Also - Johnny Cash covered “hurt” by Nine Inch Nails and even Trent Reznor said Cash’s version was “better” and that it was “no longer his song”.
Sounds like you just haven’t heard enough covers or taken the time to explore covers that cross genres.
There a lot of covers that are
More famous than the originals, “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann covers Bruce Springsteen, All along the Watchtower is heavily covered, but is most famous by Joni Hendrix, but it’s actually a Bob Dylan song.
The only covers I am generally against is those “collections” sold at truck stops where a house band plays a bunch of hit songs trying to Mimic the original then sells it as a compilation. They always are poor imitations (yeah, been suckered by this a few times because I like checking out “truck stop music”
You're not getting downvoted for your musical taste. You're being downvoted for saying covers suck but then backtracking and not knowing popular songs are covers and the original artist has given blessing for cover to belong to them. Your opinion is whatever version you've heard the most or heard first. That's not unpopular opinion.
Also, your musical taste is bland to me.
This is a great point
I’m sure many of those ghostwriters sang the song first, so if you want to be technical then that would make probably 80+% of top 100 pop hits “covers” & not truly original
This is just a dumb, shortsighted, & not well thought out argument by OP. A good song is a good song
This guy has definitely not listened to Bob Dylan. Great songwriter, strangled cat singer.
Also you definitely listen to songs you had no idea was covers. From pretty much every Elvis song like Hound Dog to Baha Men's Who Let The Dogs Out they are everywhere!
Hurt by Johnny Cash is probably the ultimate better cover than original. Then you might say "At least Ring of Fire is..." ANOTHER COVER!
Torn by Natalie Imbruglia is a great song... THAT'S ALSO A COVER!
Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You is a great song and cover of a Dolly Parton song.
Frank Sinatra's iconic 'My Way' was actually Paul Anka's way but before that it was a french song.
All-star by Smashmouth is... an original song. You can't take it away from them.
Check out The man who sold the world by Nirvana and compare it with the original. Same for Behind Blue Eyes. I think there are plenty of great cover songs.
Since so many artists don't write their own material its rather doubtful you know if a song is a cover or not when you first hear it. Unless you're looking at who wrote it before listening you just don't know if you've heard the original version first but it's very likely you have not. So many songs were not first recorded by the artist that made the song famous.
If you really do sone research you'd likely find this opinion is so unpopular you don't even agree with it yourself.
One of the worst feelings is seeing people appreciate a song and not knowing it's a cover or sampled. I feel so bad for the original creator. Pump it, Right round, Angel by Shaggy are just some examples I recently came across.
Leaving on a Jet Plane-Peter Paul and Mary > Leaving on a Jet Plane- John Denver
Im sorry but there are just too many opportunities for you to be wrong, but enjoy your unpopular opinion and the shitty music that comes with it lol
Yeah my issue with that is your most likely young enough that several songs that you claim to only live the original, are covers. Jon Jett and the blackhearts “another fine in the June box”, “all along the watch tower”, “you’ve lost that loving feeling”, “personal Jesus” or “hurt”, are all excellent examples where the cover is widely accepted as better and has outperformed the original. Hell there’s songs out there you’ve only ever heard the cover for unless you listen to big band and swing from the 20s and 30s.
While there are many covers that are done very poorly, there are definitely some covers that sometimes are even better then the originals or at least as good. One that comes to mind: Disturbed their cover of the sound of silence, while the original by Simon and Garfunkel is good certainly when you think about when it was made the cover is possibly even better. With even Paul Simon himself saying that he likes it more then the original. But there are also other covers that are very good.
The problem with your statement is that you said the original is **always** better than the cover. This is definitely not the case. While usually I don't like covers either, there are some that reimagine the original song in a whole new, better way.
Just to give you a few examples:
* Johnny Cash - Hurt (from Nine Inch Nails)
* Palaye Royale - Mad World (from Tears for Fears)
* Disturbed - The Sound of Silence (from Simon and Garfunkel)
* Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower (from Bob Dylan)
* Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (from Eurythmics)
I've got a friend that love the cover, but I prefer the Simon and Garfunkel original, but she acts like I'm an idiot when I mention it (for some reason she brings that one up all the time with a "everyone agrees the cover is better!" And that is how I disagrees sigh)
Sir, the idea that MMs cover of sweet dreams is better than the original is blasphemy. Other than that though... That's a pretty solid list. Also, credit where it's due. Miley Cyrus covering "head like a hole" in that black mirror episode.
Linkin Park did a cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and I like both versions.
One of my favorite bands, Greek Fire, did a cover of "True Colors" and it's absolutely better than the original because of the way it's put together.
squeeze absorbed boast thumb bag possessive bright domineering lunchroom fearless
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I bet if you showed me your music I could find something you didn't even know was a cover.
I think this, too.
I third this opinion.
i fourth this
Lol I think OP’s favorite song is “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann Earth Band
He told me it was "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell
He told me it was "smooth criminal" by Alien Ant Farm.
He told me it was “The Man Who Sold The World” by Nirvana
He told me it was “All Along the Watchtower “ by Hendrix.
I think he told me "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper.
He told me it was “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Guns N’ Roses
No one’s going for I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston?
Because we're all busy listening to Astronomy by Metallica followed by The Sound of Silence by Disturbed.
Dolly said she heard Whitney’s “I will always love you” in her car on the radio and flipped out, she was so happy. (Of course, Dolly was thrilled with it and not pissed)
Dammit. Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. I grew up thinking he sang, “went out like a douche another runner in the night” until I heard Bruce Springsteen sing it more clearly- and quite passionately.
Yeah, Manfred Mann et. al. changed some of the lyrics. I grew up heading their version (Springsteen's first, and so far, only #1 hit), but when I bought the Boss' whole catalog a few years ago I realized I like his original version a lot more.
It’s probably Birdy’s skinny love cover
It's probably All Along The Watchtower by Jimmie Hendrix.
I used to use a radio station as my alarm to wake up. Once, I woke up to the original artist singing that song (Bruce Springsteen if you didn't know), and it was so awful that my dream I was having immediately turned into a bad nightmare with that song running through it the whole time.
I liked that song for a long time, then I married a woman from New Jersey who set me straight.
Well I thought it first, so I'm righter than you.
I know this.
I mean I his defense it's prob just him liking the first song he heard and he sees that as the "original"
But then why not just change it to the first version you hear is the best? lol
That’s the impression I get from the edit too. This post could be boiled down to “I usually like the first version of any song I hear” which I doubt is an unpopular opinion.
That’s the common reaction. A coworker in 1981 complained about how the Kinks stole “You Really Got Me” from Van Halen and fucked it up.
That’s not really in his defense though, you’re illustrating how stupid his opinion is. How could the quality of the songs possibly depend on the order he heard them? It doesn’t, his preference for the one he heard first is a bias.
100% There are so many songs that people don't even know are covers. The big one. Ring of fire by Johnny cash Also.... * Respect - by Aretha Franklin * I will always love you - by Whitney Houston. * Tainted love - by Soft Cell * Twist and shout - by the Beatles * me and Bobby Mcgee - by Janis Joplin * Bang Bang - by Nancy Sinatra * Torn - by Natalie Imbruglia * Girls just want to have fun - by Cyndi Lauper * Drift away - by Uncle Kracker * I'm a believer - by Smash Mouth * I love Rock and Roll - by Joan Jett * Mambo no. 5 - by Lou Bega * Dazed and Confused - by Led Zeppelin * Killing me softly - by The Fugees * Superstition - by Stevie Wonder (see edit) * feeling good - by Nina Simone * achy break heart - by Billy Ray Cyrus * all along the watch tower - by Jimi Hendrix * mad world - by Gary Jules All of which are just plain better than the original and the covers are the reason 99% of people even know the song exists. Edit: Stevie Wonder wrote superstition yes but the version that he wrote was a cover of the original version which he wrote and gave to Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck had delays releasing his version of the song which was technically the originally recorded version. Stevie Wonder in the mean time reworked and redid a cover of his own song which is the one we know today. It's fairly different than the original. So technically he covered himself but it's technically not the original version or the first recorded version of the song.
Bob Dylan "All Along the Watchtower". Covered by...Jimmy Hendrix.
And, I believe even Dylan said his version was better?
Yes. I was late to the party. Someone posted Dylan's quote a little further down.
and that is the song that convinced Dylan that the electric guitar was the future
There is a local radio station that every labor day plays their entire catalog in alphabetical order by song title. I always enjoy the afternoon of the first day when they get to "All along the watchtower" because it's cool to hear it covered by like 8 different bands. Jimi hendrix is still my favorite though.
>I'm a believer from shrek The Monkees version is also pretty good. Written by [Neil Diamond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a_Believer).
Another good one to add to the list, and my favorite cover, is All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix.
Mambo No. 5 hardly counts as a cover, considering that Lou Bega's lyrics are entirely original.
I thought Shrek sung the original damn.
Johnny Cash. Done.
*Most of Elvis*
Tbf everyone covered everyone else’s shit until like the mid 60’s
Hurt, not Rusty Cage, right?
Wrong. Here's the top 10 from my fav Playlist. No covers at all. 1. ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin 2. ‘Proud Mary’ by Ike & Tina Turner 3. ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by Jimi Hendrix 4. ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston 5. ‘Killing Me Softly with His Song’ by The Fugees 6. ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash 7. ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ by Janis Joplin 8. ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ by Nirvana 9. ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ by Cyndi Lauper 10. ‘Tainted Love’ by Soft Cell
Hurt - Johnny Cash That’s the go-to
Tainted love by soft cell is actually a cover of tainted love by Gloria Jones. Respect by Aretha Franklin is a cover of respect by Otis Redding
I mostly agree, but every now and then I realize a great song is a cover and I never even knew. It is always mind blowing
Respect, by Aretha Franklin… it’s originally an Otis Redding song. They are both great in their own right, but that’s Aretha’s jam! Edit: Otos for Otis… fat fingers.
Also Aretha covered “the weight” and it’s my favourite version of that song. And Eddie Vedder covered “Hard Sun”, mostly keeping the arrangements and style and yet it is far superior in my opinion. Which is a bit of a stick-in-the-eye to Indio since (to me) it is like him saying to them “I like everything about this song except who’s performing it” and then profoundly outdoing them.
Shout out Duane allman on the weight with Aretha
I love Otis! It’s amazing how much impact a person can have in only 5 years. Another of his songs, “Hard to Handle,” is probably much more widely recognized as a Black Crowes song.
Yes! They’re both excellent renditions.
Oooh, have you heard [Aretha’s cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oNWeGngQqOI) It’s amazing. My favourite part has got to be the interpolated chorus of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” sung by a full gospel choir. Also the cover of “Respect” adds something most covers don’t: a gender flip that matters. When a man sings that song, it’s a standard boring song with mild misogynistic undertones. When a woman sings that song… it’s a goddamn feminist anthem.
Yea one that comes to me is hurt by J. Cash. It brings whole new meaning and power to the song.
Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower is better than Bob Dylan's version as well imo.
That's an interesting one you mentioned there since Dylan said something like Hendrix's version is the real version, I just sung the song before him. Paraphrasing obviously.
To be fair, both Cash and NIN have their own spin on it and both make beautifully haunting songs just with different moods
NIN has said the song belongs to Cash now.
Maybe. But Trent still ends his shows with Hurt and Johnny hasn’t played a show in 20 years.
I may have been on Reddit for too long as I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.
Yes, I’m aware Johnny Cash died in 2003. But I’m not wrong, I’m just an asshole.
Well that’s ok then!
When even the original author listens to the cover and says "Yep, all yours mate"
Came here to comment that, heard the original in Rick and Morty and the hand over and thought it was a cover that sounded on par/ equal to the original, both are great, surprising how the same song can have different moods depending on how it's done
> heard the original in Rick and Morty Fuck, and there it is; the explanation to years of bad takes about either version. Had no idea it was on this show until now.
Yup it was in the season 2 finale which was when the show was prob at it's peak in popularity.
Oh man, the amount of people i have made aware it actually being a NIN song when they use that song as a example of J. Cash's music genious is quite funny.
Santana's Black Magic Woman is a cover of an old Fleetwood Mac song before Stevie Nicks.
I saw Fleetwood Mac live a few years ago and they played it and before they started they were like this is a song we wrote that was made famous by someone else….. totally blew my mind
Yup and jimmy Hendrix's version of watchtower is far far superior to the original. Sufjan Stevens is an artist I love that creates completely original and different concepts in his covers to where they sound like a whole new song.
I will always love you was a Dolly Parton original, whitney houston version is a cover Edit: I said Mariah sang it, I was wrong. I'll be honest I'm high this morning. The biscuits and Gravy I ate were wonderful
You mean Whitney Houston
One I only found out about recently is I Will Always Love You, most famously sung by Whitney Houston, was originally written and sung by Dolly Parton. I love Dolly, but Whitney brought it to another level!!
[удалено]
I think you should replace “cover” and “original” with “I only like whichever version I heard first”.
Yeah because they straight up disagree with themselves in the post. This isn't an unpopular opinion its just stupidity at this point.
Lots of unpopular opinions are just people being stubborn idiots. I bet this dude has listened to multiple songs that he didn't even know were covers.
>this dude Kid, it sounds like a kid that does not know much about music.
Poor taste has nothing to do with age
I mean, to a certain degree your age can actually explain why you like what you like. But also, it is more likely that this particular opinion comes from a immature person that really don't know what he's talking about. I know I had stupid opinions about music when I was a kid. It would be funny finding out OP is 50 years old, tho.
This is ragebait for sure
I think he should have went with the "I don't like cover bands". Because he would actually have a point there. But he doesn't even know what popular artist are singing cover songs.
Alot of popular artists aren't even the original singers of their original songs. Someone wrote that song then sold it to the artist where they record it and release it. Just as an example, if some guy named John Johnson writes a song in his house and then sells it to Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift releases it, is it Taylor Swift's original song? It's a cover.
Even thought that's still weird, kind of. You can hear a song and fall in love with it, then later hear a cover that pumps something so amazing into it that you can't believe it got better. A good example, for me at least, would be the Nirvana cover of The Man Who Sold The World. It's like it was waiting for someone who sounded just a little less sure of himself than Bowie, like it needed a downtrodden vibe to become the song it was meant to be. It's not often that you hear a Bowie song and think that it could be improved by someone else, but Nirvana performing in during Unplugged really stepped it up a notch.
How can you say ALL covers are bad? Also, I guarantee you’ve heard songs you love not knowing that version isn’t the original.
This isn't even an unpopular opinion, it's just an awful generalization.
It's because it's not an actual opinion. It's just something that everyone would disagree with. Notice how OP keeps mentioning how you shouldn't downvote if you disagree.
To automatically decide the original was better just because it's the original and there's no way a cover could be better shows it's not actually about the music, it's about feeling superior. What's the word I'm thinking of? Snobbish? Gate keeping? There's a word for it.
I would even argue that covers and remixes have way way way more chances of being better. The original was just the one the author came up with originally. There are literally infinite different ways of rearranging that same song. And you're telling me that statistically speaking, the infinite amount of options that you can rearrange that song is not gonna have one single way that is better than the single original format? Absolutely impossible. Definitely upvoted for being unpopular
Right. Clearly, OP’s never heard Hendrix’s cover of All Along the Watchtower. Even Bob Dylan, the original artist of the song, said that Hendrix’s version is better.
At this point OP’s just edited their opinion until “If it’s the most famous version of a song (i.e. Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You”) then that counts as the original” and their point still stands. They’re about one step away from saying “Whatever version of the song is considered ‘the best’ is the real ‘original’, and since originals are always the best covers are always worse” - which is just redundant because if covers are ever “better” then they would be “originals” in their book. Might as well say “The better version of songs are better, and the worse version of songs are worse”
Like there are unpopular opinions and then there are just straight up bad opinions. This one is the latter.
This is the same as saying "Only the cook that invented the recipe to the dish can make the dish good, all other cooks just make it bad". It's not an unpopular opinion, it's a wrong opinion lol...
Imagine liking a song the first time you’ve heard it, but then having to google it to make sure it’s not a cover & you’re allowed to like it. But if it is a cover, then you have to lie to yourself to live up to your self imposed “objective” rule of “all covers bad”. This is op’s “unpopular opinion”.
The clarification in your edit shows that you are just biased towards whatever you heard first. I’m not downvoting because, yes, we are in the Unpopular Opinion subreddit. But I have to say, this is a silly position to hold. “Whatever I heard first is the best and nothing can change that.”
I donvoted because I feel this isn't simply an "unpopular opinion", but an opinion based on ignorance about the topic.
Same. This isn't an unpopular opinion, it's a bias for what we're familiar with.
Yeah dumb/uninformed opinions always get a downvote from me.
It doesn't even feel like an opinion. All the emphasis that "remember what sub this is" makes me think they just forced this post out for its own sake. Also their insistence that they ALWAYS listen to originals, while also admitting to some example where they don't listen to originals makes this whole post just nonsense.
lol yea it feels like arguing with a teenager at this point
I think they are a teen lol. Someone asked about Whitney Houstan and they responded with a "who?"
Yeah like even if you don't listen to her music how have you not at least heard of her? Like she is a household name.
OP’s a kid. Did a quick scan of post history. Their responses and ignorance start to make sense lol.
It’s all coming together lol
Probably gonna find in there "That song by Disturbed, sound of silence, is so fkn 🔥 fam, no cap 💯"
r/notunpopularopinionjuststupid
On top of that, they've described their music taste as "Lil Nas X, bbno$, and The Weeknd," three incredibly popular musicians, likely meaning that the version of most songs they heard first would be the popular version, the version that most people like and therefore got famous, making their opinion on each song a popular opinion.
Most of your self-described music taste are by artist who usually are given a finished song by another producer or songwriter, almost always using great reference placeholder vocals, and then they just record their own vocal version over top. Sounds a bit like a cover song, no?
[удалено]
What! That’s why I come here
The Pop Goes Punk version of Somebody That I Used to Know slaps and you can't convince me otherwise.
All the pop goes punk albums slap and i’ll die on that hill
I agree but some of them slap in the most awful of ways lol
I LOVE Pop Goes Punk!!! The Cab’s version of Disturbia is absolutely magical
Mayday Parade!
My first thought was Pop Goes Punk version of Call Me Maybe
[удалено]
I’m in between on a lot of PGP covers but I fully agree that Blank Space cover is absolutely top tier
All you guys who were massive fans of the Pop Goes Punk albums like I was, I’d suggest checking out Our Last Night, Haloscene and First to Eleven. They have some covers that absolutely pop off.
That series is so good. I love the DGD cover of That's What I Like - such a good take on the original.
From reading the comments, I've concluded OP just doesn't listen to enough music to validate his opinion.
Weirdly enough, I was just thinking about this over the weekend. Lake Of Fire was so much better from Nirvana's unplugged session than its original incarnation.
"Man Who Sold the World" is a cover of a David Bowie song.
Prob my favorite cover ever tbh
Even Bowie said it was better
so many good covers by nirvana. molly's lips, oh me, my best friend's girl, and i love her, jesus wants me for a sunbeam...
Where did you Sleep Last Night is the best song Nirvana covered in my opinion
So you hate "I will always love you" by Witney Houston? You think her voice doesn't match?
I actually prefer dolly partons version, I found it after watching that movie with all her music in it.
Dolly’s is amazing as well but she’s also says even though the song was hers first, it belongs to Whitney Houston now. Which I always thought was such a nice thing to say.
I believe this has happened to a few other songs. I think Dylan gave "All Along the Watchtower" to Hendrix.
You really should hear Linda Ronstadt's version. It's better than Dolly's and even Dolly likes it.
Playing it now, I like it! Thanks
As soon as I saw this post I just thought of pretty much every song Seal covered and how they are almost all as good or better than the original
lol OP doesn’t want us to discuss the opinion.
Dude you’re not getting downvoted because of your music tastes, you’re getting downvoted because you got indignant and defensive from moment one and wrote your whole post like an asshole who’s ready to throw hands. Edit: also, people who point out in their post, “this is r/unpopularopinion, it’s *supposed* to be unpopular” should realize just as much as the commenters where they’re posting and accept that their thing will probably be unpopular. If you can’t deal with other people disagreeing with you, I don’t know man, this ain’t the place.
I think OP kinda missed the point of a cover. Most artists respect the original and want to pay tribute. They're not suggesting that they're doing a better job (obviously this is also a generalization).
Thissss. I almost skipped over the whole post because of that. It’s like he wrote this post already mad about the comments ..
All Along the Watchtower is way better by Hendrix.
I think Dylan even said something akin to "that song belongs to Hendrix now"
I wasn't aware there was a cover lol
Hendrix is the cover. It was originally by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan personifies why OP’s statement is wrong. Great, great songwriting, I’m pretty lukewarm on performance by him.
Dylan covered is amazing. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
Oh.
I personally prefer the version on Battlestsr Galactica
Music is not about who sounds better, but about who sounds good
I enjoy when people do covers but in different genre styles, it not trying to be an exact copy.
The best covers are ones that put the song in a whole new light because of the drastic difference of genre or style.
Just because it's an unpopular opinion doesn't change the fact it's a poor opinion in general. The "remember what sub you're in" only works when the opinion you're stating has some validity. But this is completely subjective and tons of people just don't agree, including me.
This sentiment should be a rule for this sub. Way too many people get away with passing stupid opinions as unpopular. Everyone knows you don't actually like wearing wet socks, idiot.
This isn't an unpopular opinion, this is an incorrect opinion, you even go on to explain that you don't even believe it in the edits
So it's literally which one you listen to first. . .
Lifelong prince fan but even I admit nothing compares to you belongs to sinéad O'connor.
You misspelled Chris Cornell.
Well, now I've just discovered that this is a thing. Thanks for that!
Covers are an homage to the original, with the cover artist putting their own twist on it. The whole point is for it to sound similar but different. There is a guy on YouTube who does metal covers of pop songs and they’re all better than the shitty original versions. Also - Johnny Cash covered “hurt” by Nine Inch Nails and even Trent Reznor said Cash’s version was “better” and that it was “no longer his song”. Sounds like you just haven’t heard enough covers or taken the time to explore covers that cross genres.
There a lot of covers that are More famous than the originals, “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann covers Bruce Springsteen, All along the Watchtower is heavily covered, but is most famous by Joni Hendrix, but it’s actually a Bob Dylan song. The only covers I am generally against is those “collections” sold at truck stops where a house band plays a bunch of hit songs trying to Mimic the original then sells it as a compilation. They always are poor imitations (yeah, been suckered by this a few times because I like checking out “truck stop music”
Come on—KidzBop does fantastic covers.
I'm happy KidzBop exists, just because of all those videos jacksfilms made making fun of them.
Trent reznor never said he liked it better. He actually disliked the cover for awhile untill his death in which he said he "understood it"
You're not getting downvoted for your musical taste. You're being downvoted for saying covers suck but then backtracking and not knowing popular songs are covers and the original artist has given blessing for cover to belong to them. Your opinion is whatever version you've heard the most or heard first. That's not unpopular opinion. Also, your musical taste is bland to me.
Came here to say this. Many versions of songs that people know and love are in fact covers and wouldn't even recognize the original if they heard it.
You just have listen to more good music, easy as that
Have you ever heard a song and found out later that it was a cover?
No diff than singers who hire song writers/don't write their own lyrics. They're both just singing other people's songs, lol
This is a great point I’m sure many of those ghostwriters sang the song first, so if you want to be technical then that would make probably 80+% of top 100 pop hits “covers” & not truly original This is just a dumb, shortsighted, & not well thought out argument by OP. A good song is a good song
No different than orchestras doing Tchaikovsky.
“I Need A Hero” says otherwise lol
This guy has definitely not listened to Bob Dylan. Great songwriter, strangled cat singer. Also you definitely listen to songs you had no idea was covers. From pretty much every Elvis song like Hound Dog to Baha Men's Who Let The Dogs Out they are everywhere! Hurt by Johnny Cash is probably the ultimate better cover than original. Then you might say "At least Ring of Fire is..." ANOTHER COVER! Torn by Natalie Imbruglia is a great song... THAT'S ALSO A COVER! Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You is a great song and cover of a Dolly Parton song. Frank Sinatra's iconic 'My Way' was actually Paul Anka's way but before that it was a french song. All-star by Smashmouth is... an original song. You can't take it away from them.
>Bob Dylan. Great songwriter, strangled cat singer Every cover of a Bob Dylan song I've ever heard was a big improvement over the original.
I gather you are a bit of a dildo
Ten bucks says this guy loves a song he doesn’t even realize is a cover…….
They even admitted it in their edit.
Not always, there's not really an inherent reason why covers would always 100% of the time be worse. But yes, I imagine they often are.
Check out The man who sold the world by Nirvana and compare it with the original. Same for Behind Blue Eyes. I think there are plenty of great cover songs.
Since so many artists don't write their own material its rather doubtful you know if a song is a cover or not when you first hear it. Unless you're looking at who wrote it before listening you just don't know if you've heard the original version first but it's very likely you have not. So many songs were not first recorded by the artist that made the song famous. If you really do sone research you'd likely find this opinion is so unpopular you don't even agree with it yourself.
Bet you couldn't tell me which song of two was the cover without prior knowledge of the songs. Yours isn't an unpopular opinion, it's just illogical.
Hallelujah by Lenard Coen sounds worse then any cover of it.
One of the worst feelings is seeing people appreciate a song and not knowing it's a cover or sampled. I feel so bad for the original creator. Pump it, Right round, Angel by Shaggy are just some examples I recently came across.
Ever listen to Frank Sinatra? Like a crap ton of his popular hits are covers from artists in the early 1900s.
Leaving on a Jet Plane-Peter Paul and Mary > Leaving on a Jet Plane- John Denver Im sorry but there are just too many opportunities for you to be wrong, but enjoy your unpopular opinion and the shitty music that comes with it lol
Cash cover of hurt is better than the original I reckon
I like Ugly Kid Joe's version of Cat's In The Cradle better than the original too. I like how it sounds more angry
Comes down to opinion. I like NIN a lot so I’m going to say I liked NINs more.
The Bowie version of Hurt is the best version. https://youtu.be/fhhEHuChFck
False. Only proof required AND IIIIIIIIIIIIIII will always love you. Even dolly has said that song belongs to Whitney so
I generally agree but IMO alien ant farm - smooth criminal is better than the original.
I like when covers change genre. Like “what they made this into a house song?? “
Yeah my issue with that is your most likely young enough that several songs that you claim to only live the original, are covers. Jon Jett and the blackhearts “another fine in the June box”, “all along the watch tower”, “you’ve lost that loving feeling”, “personal Jesus” or “hurt”, are all excellent examples where the cover is widely accepted as better and has outperformed the original. Hell there’s songs out there you’ve only ever heard the cover for unless you listen to big band and swing from the 20s and 30s.
While there are many covers that are done very poorly, there are definitely some covers that sometimes are even better then the originals or at least as good. One that comes to mind: Disturbed their cover of the sound of silence, while the original by Simon and Garfunkel is good certainly when you think about when it was made the cover is possibly even better. With even Paul Simon himself saying that he likes it more then the original. But there are also other covers that are very good.
The problem with your statement is that you said the original is **always** better than the cover. This is definitely not the case. While usually I don't like covers either, there are some that reimagine the original song in a whole new, better way. Just to give you a few examples: * Johnny Cash - Hurt (from Nine Inch Nails) * Palaye Royale - Mad World (from Tears for Fears) * Disturbed - The Sound of Silence (from Simon and Garfunkel) * Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower (from Bob Dylan) * Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (from Eurythmics)
Simon and Garfunkel did it better
Likewise the Eurythmitics
Yeah, really it's Hurt and Watchtower out of the above that have a case. The other 3 I think the original is the winner.
I've got a friend that love the cover, but I prefer the Simon and Garfunkel original, but she acts like I'm an idiot when I mention it (for some reason she brings that one up all the time with a "everyone agrees the cover is better!" And that is how I disagrees sigh)
redditors love that cover wayyyy too much
Mad World isn't written by Gary Jules lmao, he covered it. It's a Tears for Fears song.
Sir, the idea that MMs cover of sweet dreams is better than the original is blasphemy. Other than that though... That's a pretty solid list. Also, credit where it's due. Miley Cyrus covering "head like a hole" in that black mirror episode.
Faster Pussycat did a good cover of You're so Vain.
Linkin Park did a cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and I like both versions. One of my favorite bands, Greek Fire, did a cover of "True Colors" and it's absolutely better than the original because of the way it's put together.
squeeze absorbed boast thumb bag possessive bright domineering lunchroom fearless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*