10 Worst Cover Songs

There are a lot of bad ones out there, but below are the 10 worst cover songs we could think of. They slaughter the original song, warping it and turning it into something twisted and unrecognizable. Sometimes the originals were great, sometimes they weren’t so hot to start with. Either way, we loathe these cover versions.

1. “Faith” by Limp Bizkit. Remember when people thought Limp Bizkit’s act was novel? Maybe not, if you’re college age or below. But for those of us who lived through Limp Bizkit’s ominous rise to power, we remember their cover version of George Michael’s “Faith” as the song that catapulted them to stardom. That was a dark time in our country’s history.
2. “Walk This Way” by Macy Gray. Before crappy bands like Limp Bizkit made “rap rock” about as palatable as someone eating a bag of pork rinds and then regurgitating it into your mouth, Run DMC and Aerosmith broke through the genre barrier with “Walk This Way.” Then, years later, Macy Gray came along and took all of the fun out of it, creating one of the worst cover songs ever.
3. “Must Be Santa” by Bob Dylan. “Must Be Santa” is a Christmas classic dating back to the early 1960s. Bob Dylan’s career is roughly as old. When he covered this song for his 2009 Christmas album, his age really showed. Over the years, he has developed a trademark incomprehensible mumble, and it’s in full force here.
4. “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” by Britney Spears. Joan Jett would be rolling in her grave if she were dead, because Britney Spears’s cover of her widely-loved classic “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” is an absolute atrocity. But wait! Plot twist! Joan Jett was covering this song, too. It was originally written and recorded by The Arrows back in the ‘70s.
5. “You Shook Me All Night Long” by Celine Dion. Yes, Celine Dion covered an AC/DC song. That pretty much speaks for itself, doesn’t it? There was no way this would end up being anything besides one of the worst cover songs to ever befoul our ears.
6. “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Michael Bolton. The original by Percy Sledge was beautiful and soulful. The cover version by Michael Bolton was calculated and soulless. What did people ever see in Bolton? We’ll never know.
7. “My Generation” by Hilary Duff. We pity the children of Hilary Duff’s generation, especially the ones who were first exposed to The Who’s classic tune through her butchered rendition of it. She neutered the song, changing the lyrics to remove their former edge and filtering it all through her bland, auto-tuned voice.
8. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Tori Amos. One of the most energetic, powerful songs of the 1990s is turned into a piano ballad sung in a hushed whisper.  We’ve got mad respect for Tori Amos, but she really ought not to have done that.
9. “Beat It” by Fall Out Boy. Hey look, a pop punk band doing an ironic cover song. How novel! That’s almost surprising as the fact that it sucks balls. What makes it even worse: John Mayer on guitar. His racist penis would not have gotten along with Michael Jackson.
10. “Feel Like Making Love” by Kid Rock. We find it hard to believe that anyone would feel like making love to Kid Rock. He kind of looks like he always has bad B.O. That’s part of what makes his cover of this smooth song about lovemaking one of the worst cover songs ever. The other part is that he is a talentless hack.