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Cover Songs Quiz

We give you the song, plus one cover version. Name the musical act that recorded the original.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: March 27, 2015
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First submittedMarch 29, 2011
Times taken19,629
Average score40.0%
Rating4.24
4:00
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Song
Cover
Original
Smooth Criminal
Alien Ant Farm
Michael Jackson
Walk This Way
Run D.M.C.
Aerosmith
I Shot the Sheriff
Eric Clapton
Bob Marley
With a Little Help from
My Friends
Joe Cocker
The Beatles
I Will Always Love You
Whitney Houston
Dolly Parton
I Will Survive
Cake
Gloria Gaynor
You Really Got Me
Van Halen
The Kinks
Respect
Aretha Franklin
Otis Redding
All Along
the Watchtower
Jimi Hendrix
Bob Dylan
The Man Who Sold
the World
Nirvana
David Bowie
Song
Cover
Original
American Woman
Lenny Kravitz
The Guess Who
A Hazy Shade of
Winter
The Bangles
Simon & Garfunkel
Blue Suede Shoes
Elvis Presley
Carl Perkins
Hurt
Johnny Cash
Nine Inch Nails
Higher Ground
Red Hot Chili
Peppers
Stevie Wonder
Proud Mary
Ike and
Tina Turner
Creedence
Clearwater Revival
I Fought The Law
The Clash
The Crickets
Red Red Wine
UB40
Neil Diamond
Black Magic Woman
Santana
Fleetwood Mac
She Bangs
William Hung
Ricky Martin
+1
Level 55
Mar 29, 2011
Please accept Buddy Holly for The Crickets.
+1
Level ∞
Mar 29, 2011
Okay.
+4
Level 28
Feb 18, 2015
Buddy was dead, he had no part in the recording - no reason for him to be accepted.
+4
Level 40
Aug 17, 2015
Agreed, the song was written by Sonny Curtis who replaced Buddy after his untimely death. If anything the Bobby Fuller Four should be accepted over Buddy Holly since they are the band that made the song popular and is the most widely known version.
+1
Level 82
Aug 15, 2015
I made a similar quiz about movies. Film Remakes
+3
Level 57
Mar 29, 2011
I'm 95% sure that Buddy Holly was already dead when this song was recorded- ie the Crickets had a different lead singer at this point and therefore "Buddy Holly" shouldn't be accepted. I might be wrong though...
+3
Level 73
Mar 4, 2014
It was just released as the Crickets. Was very surprised when Bobby Fuller Four did not work (though now I see theirs was also a cover...)
+3
Level 40
Aug 17, 2015
You are correct. Buddy Holly died in early 1959 (february). He was replaced by Sonny Curtis, who is who wrote the song.
+1
Level 65
May 5, 2011
Johnny Cash did a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song?! Really?!
+1
Level 47
Sep 27, 2012
Agreed here
+1
Level 54
Nov 8, 2012
He also did an amazing cover of Soundgarden's Rusty Cage. His version sounds completely evil.
+1
Level 77
Apr 8, 2015
It...is...fantastic
+1
Level 74
May 11, 2015
He also covered Nick Cave's Mercy Seat really well. Johnny Cash's output towards the end of his life was brilliant.
+1
Level 84
Aug 17, 2015
He also won a number of awards for the late stage of his career, including at least one Grammy, CMA, et al.
+1
Level 40
Aug 17, 2015
OMG yes and it is absolutely fantastic. One of the very few covers that I absolutely adore and feel that it is better than the original. And yes, I believe Trent Reznor even said that it is better than the original. Cash's voice was so gritty and raw towards the end of his life that it makes the song unbelievably amazing. Go download it, you'll be glad you did.
+1
Level 25
Aug 29, 2011
Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt is absolutely amazing, makes me cry it's so beautiful. I think Trent Reznor said he loved it too (who wouldn't?!).
+2
Level 82
Aug 15, 2015
Shortly after Cash's cover was released I was in attendance at one of the early shows on the With Teeth Club tour. I think it was in Reno. Before starting "Hurt" Trent said "I'm going to play a song that isn't mine anymore."

In interviews he has said very positive things about what Cash did with the song though I can't recall now verbatim what he said.

+2
Level 63
Aug 12, 2016
Reznor said he was honored that such a legend covered his song and that it meant a lot to him. I understand him being hurt (how fitting) though. Some songwriters put their innermost feelings into their songs. Though the Cash cover is fantastic (Cash fan speaking here) but I believe a cover of such a deep song can never be as good as the original if it was written by the person who sang it. I feel the same about In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins e.g.
+1
Level 37
Jan 14, 2012
I love Cash's hurt - in Australia they used it for an anti-smoking ad, which is kinda unfair on the greatness of the song, I think. I had no idea Black Magic Woman was a Fleetwood Mac song! Those guys are so good, and Santana of course. Fun quiz
+1
Level 16
May 8, 2012
According to the DJ on my local rock station, the guy from NIN said that after he heard the Johnny Cash version he felt like his girlfriend had just broken up with him 'cause it wasn't his song anymore. Also, Whitey Ford/the guy from House of Pain does an awsome cover of Fulsom Prison Blues if you're going to make a sequel quiz.
+1
Level 77
Aug 23, 2013
Of these songs, here are the ones that I had NO CLUE were covers...Respect, All Along the Watchtower, Red Red Wine, Black Magic Woman,Tainted Love, and Blue Suede Shoes. I find it kind of annoying that Soft Cell's "one hit" as a one hit wonder was actually not even their song.
+2
Level 27
May 2, 2014
Bobby fuller did I fought the law
+2
Level 44
May 11, 2014
Bobby Fuller is the most famous version, but it was also a cover.
+1
Level 75
Aug 17, 2015
In those days we called them remakes.
+2
Level 28
Feb 18, 2015
Missed American Woman, Black Magic Woman and I Fought The Law (I thought it was a mistake when Bobby Fuller wasn't accepted - totally forgot the Crickets did it!)
+2
Level 82
Aug 15, 2015
I did awful on this one. Thanks for throwing me a bone with Hurt. Fantastic song.
+2
Level 82
Aug 15, 2015
both versions
+1
Level 78
Aug 15, 2015
The Offspring also did a cover of Smooth Criminal I believe
+2
Level 31
Aug 15, 2015
Red Red Wine has an interesting history. I was going to correct the quizmaster but it would seem he is right. I though that Neil Diamond and UB40 versions were both covers, but it would seem that while UB40 thought they were covering a song by a singer called Tony Tribe (who I confess I couldn't have named without looking it up).. not realising that Tribe's version was a cover of a Neil Diamond song.... Now, if only Wikipedia had existed in 1983 Ali Campbell and Co could have been as well infirmed as me.. and the question master here... sorry for doubting you!...

UB40's version means something to me because it was No1 when I first went to University so reminds me of happy times

+1
Level 40
Aug 17, 2015
Yep, it was Neil all day long......he also was the writer of "i'm a believer" which is one of the Monkee's most popular songs.
+1
Level 75
Aug 17, 2015
You already have two of the answers to my quiz, Neil Diamond Classics: The Early Years.
+1
Level 62
Aug 15, 2015
I see what you did there
+1
Level 46
Sep 15, 2018
If this is the same song "Hurt", Timi Yuro had the original in 1961. If it's a different one, I never heard of it.
+1
Level 76
Sep 25, 2018
+1
Level 73
Feb 10, 2022
Elvis actually did a version of Timi Yuro's Hurt in 1976
+1
Level 83
Sep 15, 2020
Van halen covering the kinks ugh. I've never heard it and I don't want to . On the Johnny Cash / NIN hurt cover it was great , he took an already great song and made it his own which I think a good cover song should do but sadly it rarely happens,on this list only Hendrix and Franklin deserve to be in the same company .

.

+1
Level 38
Jan 27, 2022
not a question in this quiz (though i think it should have been!) listen to both The Who and Limp Bizkit versions of Behind Blue Eyes