Foo Fighters did a version of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street". That song is just too smooth and the Foofies turned it into something rocking like they always do.

'Mad World' by Gary Jules. Very sad and touching version of the song. It was originally done by Tears for Fears I believe, and it was a tad lame.

Oh yeah, that Gary Jules version is brilliant. It has very tragic feel to it. It's in the Donny Darko movie and is a perfect example of a song that totally fits the movie. Don't know the Tears for Fears version though.

If a song can be made 'good' by covering it then surely that means the song was good in the first place and it's only the original performance of it that was bad.

Unless of course it means good as in the cover has a comical or satirical slant on the original in which it's still a bad song anyway regardless of how good you think it is, otherwise why parody it?

True, the song would have to have good aspects in the first place and perhaps let down by the execution or performance of the original artist.

Yeah, I first heard it while watching Donnie Darko and thought it was pretty touching. The Tears for Fears version is really... 80s synthpop-esque? Not my kind of thing.

Not sure about this. Depends on what you mean by "the song". You can make lame song lyrics sound good by coming up with a great arrangement and production. However when you take the original arrangement and make that sound good then you're right.

Maybe even a bigger accomplishment: some bands cover a brilliant song and can make it sound bad.

Hm, I may give it a listen just to hear what it's about. Never really liked Tears for Fears anyway.

They're still lame song lyrics regardless of how you dress them up, it won't make them any better. Just the same way you can use a generic riff & have 100 guitars playing it, it's still a generic riff.

Arrangement and production polish things off, they don't make the song.

But I think a song can still be good despite lame or meaningless lyrics. It's the whole package that counts. Of course that's just my 50 cents.

I never said you have to have good lyrics to make a good song.

See you again-Breathe Carolina