The New Kid: If you check the links on the right side of the page you’ll see a new one for The Cover Story. This guy presents YouTube videos of covers as done by amateurs. He’s got some good stuff there, you should check it out.

And speaking of YouTube, you should also check out Thru You. This guy called Kuitman takes YouTube videos of original songs performed by amateurs and remixes them into new songs. The results are simply amazing. It’s one of the best things I’ve seen on YT in a long time.

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I don’t usually post Disney covers because Kurtis over at Covering The Mouse does such a good job of it. No need for me to reinvent the wheel. He’s probably posted all of this week’s songs at one point or another. In fact, I posted Heigh Ho on CTM as a guest blogger awhile back. But I just picked up a couple of albums of Disney covers and I enjoyed them so much that I felt inspired.

Tom Waits “Heigh Ho” (from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs)
Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. People don’t work as miners by choice. They do it because they have to, because they don’t have other options.

So even as a child I thought the dwarves seemed weirdly chipper about going to work in the mine. Especially when they had a hot chick with a dwarf fetish living with them. Tom Waits gets this. His song makes those little guys sound like they hate the mine and would rather be anywhere else. It’s one of the most harrowing Disney covers you’ll ever hear.

Gene Simmons “When You Wish Upon A Star” (from Pinocchio)
I always thought KISS was pretty lame, and that’s why I had to buy Gene Simmons’ solo album when I found it in the cutout bin. I had to find out how bad it was. It was worse than I thought possible. Just listen to him try to hit the high notes.

Bowling For Soup “The Bare Necessities” (from Jungle Book)
This song takes the joy of the original and puts it nicely in a more modern context. It’s not deep or particularly artsy, but it’s a whole lot of fun.

Asparagus “Winnie The Pooh” (from Winnie The Pooh)
The original version is pretty wistful, and so is this cover at first. Then the band finds another gear and turns it into quite the rockin’ ditty.

Smash Mouth “I Wanna Be Like You” (Louis Prima, from Jungle Book)
Smash Mouth is my guilty pleasure, my secret shame. There’s just something about them that I love. That troubles me because they really are the ultimate frat-party band. And I hate frats.