Not all new music is really new, as many artists cover songs. Sometimes these are songs by their favorite artists, e.g. as a tribute to such a musical hero for a special reason, or they simply feel that a song deserves to be dusted and polished to reacquaint fans with great songs from the past. Other times, bands cover songs as a parody. Regardless of intent, some of those cover versions are so good or so much fun, we’d like to put a spotlight on them. Chosen from a wide range, here are—in a kind of random order—a bunch of successful covers from last month—links to pages where you can add them to your wantlist included.
Happy new year!
We start 2026 with a final look back at 2025. December saw quite a few Christmas-themed covers, but there’s little point in sharing them now (we’ll close below with just the nicest ones)—please remind me in 11 months to put together a Xmas edition of this feature. Nevertheless, there was much more to enjoy.
Ace of Spades (Motörhead) by West Texas Exiles — digital track (Floating Mesa Records)
Lean On Sheena (The Bouncing Souls) by The Kilograms — from Strike A Match EP (Rad Girlfriend Records)
Just Like Honey (The Jesus and Mary Chain) by Spare Snare — from American Psychocandy compilation (Almost Halloween Time Records)
Shiny Happy People (R.E.M.) by Ryan Adams — from Self Portrait LP (Pax Americana Record Company)
Batman Theme (Neal Hefti) by Wild Billy Childish & CTMF — from Searching From The Losing Place / Batman 7″ (Spinout Nuggets)
See Emily Play (Pink Floyd) by The Damned — from upcoming Not Like Everybody Else LP (earMUSIC)
Sail On, Sailor (The Beach Boys) by Michael Simmons — from Fun Where You Can Find It LP (Big Stir Records)
Bye Bye Love (The Everly Brothers) by Speedtwinn — from Speedtwinn LP (Rum Bar Records)
Go All The Way (Raspberries) by Rick Springfield — from Play On: A Raspberries Tribute (Think Like A Key Music); released in September, but now also available on Bandcamp
Love Potion Number Nine (The Clovers) by Jay Millar — from Peppermint Shake LP (Goblin Records)
The Ballad Of El Goodo (Big Star) by Black Country, New Road — free download for BCNR mailing list subscribers
Cccan’t You See (Vicious Pink) by The Photocopies — from Cccan’t You See / Thorn (free single)
Suspicious Minds (Mark James; popularized by Elvis Presley) by Robber Robber — digital track (Fire Talk)
Children of the Revolution (T. Rex) by Behind The Sun Collective — from vinyl 7″ (Fruits de Mer Records)
Woke Up This Morning (Alabama 3) by Jacob James — from Photographs From Hell compilation
The Fan (Little Feat) by DeWolff feat. Joe Bonamassa — from Fuego! LP (Electrosaurus Records)
Downtown (Still Corners) by The Afghan Whigs — from Fake Like / Downtown 7″ (Shake It)
Stranger Blues (Elmore James) by GA-20 — from Orphans LP (Colemine Records)
Do I Need You (Ann Peebles) by Emma Donovan — digital track (Civilians)
Jennifer (The Cat’s Miaow) by Sleepyhead feat. Intan — from Indiepop, Whatever Happens! compilation (shiny happy records)
It’s My Life (Talk Talk) by The Bird And The Bee — from Oh. What. Fun. soundtrack (Amazon)
Last Christmas (Wham!) by Bad Mary — digital track
All I Want For Christmas (Mariah Carey) by Waste\Dawn — digital track
Check out our Dusted playlist on Spotify for more worthy cover songs.