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A Baker’s Dozen of The Best Cover Songs You’ll Ever Hear
These are a great way to close out the year
There has been a curious surge in articles about cover songs over the past few days. Just before Christmas, Kevin Alexander did an excellent one and I considered writing one in response, but I’d done something similar in 2021 and didn’t want to revisit the topic just yet. Then over three successive days (December 27–29) Steve Goldberg, Sarah Paris, and Pierce McIntyre all published cover song-themed pieces, each with a slightly different angle (all of theirs can be found at the end of this article).
Starting to feel a little left out, I decided I would revisit the topic now (who knows, I might get hit by a bus tomorrow anyway). I had the added challenge of not duplicating any songs from their articles as well as not duplicating any of my own previous ones (or at worst, only duplicating a couple). Fortunately, there are a surprising number of great cover songs out there to choose from.
All of the songs below are as good as the original they cover and in several cases far better than the original. It’s likely that you didn’t even know some of them were covers. I give you these to both close out 2022 and ring in 2023.
1. “Whiskey in the Jar” — Metallica
