10 Songs That Should Have Stayed the Hell Away from a Cover

 

Let's face it—some songs are untouchable. When you fuck with the originals, it's like spitting in the face of music history. But these artists went ahead and did it anyway. Here are 10 songs that should have NEVER been covered.

1. "Dancing in the Street" – David Bowie and Mick Jagger Why? Just why? Two rock legends, and this is what they do? The energy of this cover screams “we just needed a paycheck.” Stick to what you're good at, guys.

2. "Sweet Child O' Mine" – Sheryl Crow Look, Sheryl Crow had no business going anywhere near this track. The grit of Guns N' Roses? Replaced with whatever soft-ass nonsense this was. Don’t ever strip the soul out of a rock anthem.

3. "Anarchy in the UK" – Mötley Crüe Who thought this was a good idea? The Sex Pistols were all about rebellion, raw aggression, and chaos. Mötley Crüe turned it into a hair metal sideshow. Stop trying to glam up punk, it's an insult to the genre.

4. "Then He Kissed Me" – Kiss This is where things just go off the rails. Kiss, a band that built its reputation on face paint, fire, and fuck you energy, decided to cover a 1960s pop song. Why? Did we really need a hard rock version of this? No. We did not.

5. "Three Little Birds" – Maroon 5 Maroon 5 covering Bob Marley is like asking a pop band to cover a god. The pure audacity of it is mind-boggling. The result? An uninspired, lifeless version of a reggae classic. Get real, Adam Levine.

6. "Zombie" – 93 Punx (or Bad Wolves) No. Just no. The Cranberries poured raw emotion into this song. It was Dolores O’Riordan’s anthem of sorrow, loss, and war. Then these bands come along, trying to make it their own? GTFO. Don’t touch it.

7. "Another Brick in the Wall" – Korn You want to mix nu-metal and Pink Floyd? Absolutely not. This cover feels like a Frankenstein experiment gone wrong. Just because you can cover something doesn’t mean you should.

8. "American Idiot" – 5 Seconds of Summer Who? Exactly. Green Day made this song an anti-establishment anthem. 5 Seconds of Summer? A boy band? Covering this? It’s embarrassing. They had no business even thinking about it.

9. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" – Take That Take That doing Nirvana? We have entered the Twilight Zone. Kurt Cobain must be rolling in his grave. Pop and grunge do not mix, and this cover is an abomination that should be wiped from history.

10. "The Sound of Silence" – Disturbed Look, the original wasn’t great to begin with, but Disturbed just made it worse. Turning this soft-spoken, melancholic tune into an angry, melodramatic rant? Nope. It’s over the top, and no one asked for it.

At the end of the day, these covers are just bad decisions personified. Respect the originals or don’t bother trying. You can’t capture lightning in a bottle twice, and these disasters prove it.