Those top 100 lists were weighted on a curve and used to generate the list that you see below. We created a huge list (800+ songs) of nominees, and each of the authors that participated selected their own top 100. The process for generating our list was fairly simple. You can hear and recognize the glory of the original version in every note of the cover, but the listening experience is taken to another level through the talents of the covering artist. But the finest of these, the ones we love the best, are simply great songs by great artists where the addition of a new twist and a new voice creates something that is greater than the sum of its parts. And some of them, whether by generational ignorance or through the general obscurity of the original artist, simply didn’t receive the exposure they needed for their greatness to be recognized until they were delivered by a more familiar voice.

For others, the genius of the original song was always present but the presentation was lacking, and when the talents of a different performer are added, the song gains a gravity that it didn’t have in its original form. Some of the songs below are great because they completely deconstruct the original, stripping it down to its most basic components of chords and lyrics, and build it back up again in a completely different style. But what exactly are the ingredients for a great cover? Ironically, Bowie’s next move was to rev up Tin Machine, a back to basics rock quartet which was clearly his attempt at doing an Iggy & The Stooges in designer suits.It’s generally agreed upon that if you don’t have any new flavor to add to the original, you shouldn’t bother doing a cover. Along with the dispatching of Mick Ronson and the soon-to-come excommunication of Carlos Alomar, it’s one of the saddest moments in Bowie’s career, the sudden close of a brotherly era. Pop and Bowie would never make another record together, would never again collaborate on songs. I didn’t even hear The Idiot or Lust For Life until Virgin reissued them on CD in 1990. In fact, that reminds me that I was seventeen at the time of Blah, and although I was certainly aware of the name Iggy Pop, really it was this album that served as my main introduction to the man. After the nadir of Never Let Me Down - Bowie’s hammy overlong sequel of sorts to the album he’d just made with Iggy - there were no more James Osterberg writing credits on a Bowie album, yet before that the Ig’s legal name was on four albums in a row if you count Blah-Blah-Blah.īlah marked a turn in Iggy Pop’s career, going from cult figure to telly regular and everybody’s favourite godfather of punk, but it’s also the end of a partnership that had begun in 1971, when Bowie first met Pop at Max’s Kansas City in New York, and which had created Iggy’s Raw Power, The Idiot, and Lust For Life, the later two Bowie-helmed masterpieces from 1977 finally set to receive long overdue super deluxe treatments later this year. His sobriety had given him a clearer head, and he now had a taste, at last, of commercial success, which bred in him a desire to succeed “on his own” and not as David Bowie’s occasional reclamation project. Part of it was related to a film project they didn’t see eye to eye on, but also The Ig must have intimated to The Dame to quit trying to help. Not only did the miscreant from Michigan still have that Lust For Life but he was set up for life.īut around 1987 the relationship cooled. Unfortunately, I think Jim took it personally, and that’s a shame because I would have liked to remain closer to him.”ĭavid Bowie interview with, 1999īowie’s success with his own version of China Girl six years after Iggy’s ostensibly provided the older man with his Pop pension fund. I completely understand-I really, really do. I’ve never talked to him about this and I probably shouldn’t talk to you about it… I think there was a moment where Jim decided that he couldn’t do a fucking article without my name being mentioned, and I don’t think that’s a very comfortable feeling. “We have drifted away from each other, and in a way I understand why.

Wild ones iggy pop