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[Baron Aloha]

Right off the bat I want to say that haters can die!!

Having said that, I'll continue by saying that I personally think the 80's was the best decade for music ever. Nowadays I listen to a many different kinds of music, but pop punk is one of my favorites as far as the new stuff is concerned.

So what happens when you combine 80's music with pop punk? Pure magic. Blending the faster tempos, energy, and instruments of modern day music with classic eighties tunes just works.

I guess the first semi-recent one that comes to mind is Alien Ant Farm's redition of MJ's "Smooth Criminal". I was never really that big on the original. I thought it was okay back in the day but it wasn't one of my favorite songs or anything. I love the version that AAF did. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 7 (which is a high score coming from me).

The next big one that comes to mind is The Ataris' rendition of the classic 1984 Don Henley song - "The Boys of Summer". I loved the original and the Ataris did a superb job with the remake. They nailed it imo. I'm tempted to call it a perfect remake. I give it a 9/10. It's a great song.

There have been several other 80's remakes lately but the pop punk ones always seem to turn out the best, IMO. For instance, Jessica Simpson's remake of the Top Gun theme, "Take My Breath Away" is freaking horrid. The girl just can't sing imo. I'd give that remake a negative 10/10. Of course, I'd still hit it with great fury if hell somehow froze over and the opportunity presented itself.

Someone needs to put out a CD with nothing but pop punk remakes of 80's music. Heck, I'd buy it.

So what are some other good 80's covers?

 

[Ryck]

Someone needs to cover "Rock You Like A Hurricane"......on topic .......I loved Will Farrell's version of Dust In The Wind

 

[ballhog]

Celtic Frost does a kickass cover of "Mexican Radio"

 

[ballhog]

If someone covered "Rock You Like a Hurricane", I would still confuse it with "No One Like You". Hell, everyone would.

 

[Doth Togo]

Best 80s cover band ever is The Breakfast Club.

 

[shoplifter]

Right off the bat I want to say that haters can die!!

Guess I'm on the hit list.

1. Tolerable. MJ's version is a thousand million (ie a billion) times better. The video does have a few nice nods to the original though.
2. Crap. Pop punk isn't 'punk'.
3. atrocious.

No doubt's cover of 'It's My Life' is up there on the shit list as well.

 

[explodet]

A while ago I made two CDs of 80s covers.

I tried to go with variety instead of concentrating on one genre.

01 - Frente! - Bizarre Love Triangle
02 - Blink 182 - 8675309 Jenny (Cover)
03 - PUSA - Video Killed The Radio Star
04 - Shades Apart - Tainted Love
05 - Dope - You Spin Me Round Like a Record
05 - Snake River Conspiracy - How Soon Is Now
06 - Disturbed - Shout 2000
07 - Liz Phair - Turning Japanese
09 - Pennywise - Down Under (Men at Work cover)
10 - Bif Naked - We're Not Gonna Take It
11 - Goldfinger - 99 Red Balloons
12 - Reel Big Fish - Take On Me
13 - Save Ferris - Come On Eileen
14 - Less Than Jake - The Reflex
15 - Offspring - I Wanna Be Sedated
16 - Fear Factory - Cars
17 - Bouncing Souls - Don't You Forget About Me
18 - B Witched - Hey Mickey

01 - Helloween - From Out of Nowhere
02 - Lunachicks-Heart of Glass
03 - Genitorturers - I Touch Myself (The Divinyls)
04 - Marvelous 3 - Always Something There To Remind Me
05 - Pretty In Pink - Automatic 7
06 - Ghoti Hook - I Love Rock and Roll
07 - Orgy - Blue Monday
08 - TRS-80 - Halloween (Ministry)
09 - Bigod 20 - Like A Prayer
10 - Electric Hellfire Club - Bela Lugosi's Dead
11 - A New Found Glory - The Glory Of Love
12 - Suicide Machines - What I Like About You
13 - Sugar Ray - Abracadabra
14 - MxPx - Summer '69
15 - Luna - Sweet Child o¹ Mine
16 - Shonen Knife - I Want To Be Sedated
17 - Face To Face - Whip It

 

[nitewulf]

i agree with you that 80s was arguably the best decade for music, though i love 60s and 70s era rock just as much. but the pop punk covers blow....give me a break. only some tracks by me first and the gimme gimmes are ok, but aside from that they suck. actually i liked "cruel to be kind" by letters to cleo as well.

 

[nitewulf]

frente's bizzare love triangle cover is awesome, i love the band...i have 2 frente cds, fantastic band.

 

[aku:jiki]

11 - A New Found Glory - The Glory Of Love

That whole EP is great. My favorite is probably Goonies R Good Enough.

Guess I'm on the hit list.

Lighten up, man. Music is allowed to be fun too!

 

[explodet]

I was going with variety, so only one song from A New Found Glory allowed!
(I made an exception with the two "Sedated" covers because of a special request from a friend of mine.)

And we need a decent cover of "Land of Confusion" like, two years ago.

 

[Idle Will Kill]

Personally I think the 80s was the absolute worst decade for music. Just some terrible, terrible stuff in there.

But yea, punk covers of old songs can be fun. And someone already mentioned them, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are basically a punk band that only plays covers of older songs (though they aren't all 80s songs).

 

[Error Macro]

Aside from the gods of covers, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, one of the best 80's covers I've ever heard is Thrice's cover of Send Me An Angel, originally by Zeromancer. Ever see the movie Rad? Then you know what song I'm talking about.

 

[StrikerObi]

Less Than Jake's cover of "Surrender" is pretty good.

Pretty much anything and everything Me First and the Gimmes Gimmes have done.

 

[spangler]

The "Before You Were Punk" series did this quite some time ago. I think this link will take you to volume one on amazon. If it doesn't work, just put Before you were punk into their search engine. Take a look at volume 2 of the series as well.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-2487005-5252825?v=glance&s=music&n=507846