Love them or hate them, cover versions of old songs are a fact of life, and there are more of them around now than ever before, with everyone from Justin Beiber to Miley Cyrus getting in on the act. These efforts are often done as tributes to the original artists – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all – but they very seldom come close to matching the quality of the source material.

There are some exceptions that prove the rule, however, and most of them come from heavy metal bands. Maybe it’s because the unique style of the genre allows artists to change songs enough to make them stand out but not so much as to be indistinguishable from the original? Maybe it’s because these are the musicians most adept in combining instruments and vocals in interesting ways? Or maybe it’s just coincidence? The answer may not be clear, but the impressive quality of many heavy metal covers of classic songs certainly is. Here are ten of the best.

Top 10 Strange Original Versions of Famous Songs

10 Careless Whisper – Seether (Wham/George Michael, 1984)

With its instantly recognizable saxophone intro and somewhat clichéd lyrics, Careless Whisper is regarded as a typically cheesy 80s classic, but a classic all the same. One of George Michael’s first hits, he wrote the song when he was only 17 years old, proof of his natural musical ability. The tune has been the go-to heartbreak song for many ever since.

When Seether decided to cover the song for Valentine’s Day in 2009, they did so purely as a joke, but the plan backfired somewhat as their version, a distinct departure from their regular style, proved so popular that many of their younger fans were unaware that it was, in fact, a cover. When they officially released Careless Whisper as a single, it climbed to 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 in no time. Seether kept the essence of the original but ‘metalled’ it up with some crashing power chords and replaced the sax with an equally effective guitar riff. With Shaun Morgan’s gravelly voice in place of Michael’s silky tones, it could’ve gone either way, but the combined effect is perfect for the song that’s about infidelity and betrayal, making Seether’s cover a definite improvement on the original.

9 Carry On My Wayward Son – Anthrax (Kansas, 1976)

Anthrax was one of the original ‘Big 4’ thrash metal bands that rose to prominence in the early 80s and are known as early pioneers of the genre. With their fast, heavy-handed style, they would seem to be an unlikely band to cover a classic rock song, especially one like Kansas’ Carry On My Wayward Son that relies on melodic vocals and no small amount of keyboard work, neither of which are exactly Anthrax’s forte.

Surprisingly, then, they not only recorded a cover of the song in 2017 but did such a good job of it that it’s difficult to tell their version from the original. Moving away from their signature sound, the thrash legends nailed the cover, getting it note-perfect and even enlisting the services of the famed Fred Mandel on keyboard to round out the effect. Lead singer Joey Belladonna showcases his vocal dynamism on the track and his unexpectedly effective singing is perhaps the standout feature of the song. Anthrax’s version of Carry On My Wayward Son met with resounding approval and founding Kansas member, Phil Ehart, personally gave it the thumbs up.

8 Wish You Were Here – Avenged Sevenfold (Pink Floyd, 1975)

Wish You Were Here is a timeless Pink Floyd classic with powerful lyrics that change in meaning with each new listen and, indeed, with the state of the world as well. The song is unique in that it was one of the few collaborations between Roger Waters and David Gilmour, who otherwise preferred to operate independently despite being in the same band. Wish You Were Here is one of Pink Floyd’s most successful tracks, and it’s been covered several times, most recently by Avenged Sevenfold in 2017.

As a group constantly adapting its style and trying new things, Avenged Sevenfold seem to get it right more often than not, and their version of Wish You Were Here is a perfect example. The original was recorded in a way to create a sense of distance and separation for the listener. The cover emphasizes Gilmour’s previously muted interlude solo, keeping it the same but moving it from acoustic guitar to electric for a punchier feel. That, along with M. Shadows’ unique vocal style, gives the whole thing a new clarity and crisper feel. The band stated the lyrics of the song were apt, given what was going on in the world in 2017, and the same could be said of right now, proving that Pink Floyd’s masterpiece is, indeed, timeless and now, thanks to Avenged Sevenfold, it’s been introduced to a whole new generation.

7 Bad Company – Five Finger Death Punch (Bad Compnay, 1974)

Bad Company formed in the early 70s, borrowing the name from the classic western film starring Jeff Bridges. They also chose that as the title for their first, and most famous, song, which could be seen as a tribute to the movie after which it was named. Stephen King used some of the lyrics in his western sci-fi series, The Dark Tower, but beyond that, neither band nor song received the wide recognition they deserved for what is an exceptional piece of classic rock.

Acclaimed metal outfit Five Finger Death Punch gave Bad Company new life when they released an excellent cover of the song on their 2009 album War Is The Answer after fans demanded a recording of the track that had become a mainstay of the band’s live shows. As one would expect, their version is much heavier, with the piano replaced by guitars and some minor lyrical adjustments. The effect is a cover more powerful than the original, and after Five Finger Death Punch recorded the music video while playing for the troops in Iraq, their updated version of Bad Company has come to be regarded as a tribute to the men and women serving in the armed forces.

6 Wicked Game – HIM (Chris Isaak, 1989)

Chris Isaak’s sensual song about obsessive love has featured on several movie and TV series soundtracks as well as a line of Jaguar commercials, and the artful, black-and-white music video is considered one of the sexiest of all time. It’s not surprising, then, that Scandanavian ‘love metal’ band HIM decided to cover the song in their first official album release in 1997 in an effort to break into the lucrative mainstream western market.

The result is an excellent cover that speeds things up a touch and adds a lot of typically metal-style palm-muting and some effective, if not particularly intricate lead guitar work. While Scandanavian metal is notoriously heavy and is often associated with screaming rather than singing, the vocals on the cover are on a par with Isaak’s distinctive crooning, making HIM’s version a bit darker, a bit edgier, but just as sexy in its own right. And that, of course, was the intention all along. The music video for their version of Wicked Game isn’t half bad either.

5 Heroes – Motörhead – (David Bowie, 1981)

On December 28, 2015, the world lost a music icon when Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister passed away. David Bowie, another legend, died only two weeks later. Both men are known not just for the tremendous impact they had on music in general and their respective genres in particular, but also for their dare-to-be-different approach. They were rebels who defied convention and showed a whole generation that it was okay to be different. One of Bowie’s most famous songs was Heroes and, in a serendipitous development, Motörhead covered the track in what would turn out to be one of Lemmy’s last ever recordings.

The defining feature of the original is David Bowie’s passionate vocals. Lemmy didn’t even try to match that in the cover, sticking rather with the throaty growl that made tracks like Ace Of Spades world famous. With this unique singing style, some slightly altered lyrics, Motörhead’s heavy sound, and an exceptional guitar solo thrown in for good measure, the cover is both a tribute to the original and a notable improvement on what was already an excellent song, to begin with. The title is also fitting as both Lemmy and Bowie were, and always will be, true heroes.

4 The Sound Of Silence – Disturbed (Simon and Garfunkel, 1964)

Simon and Garfunkel’s popular song is about as far removed from metal as you could get, and yet it has the kind of darkly ominous feel that would make it perfect for the genre. Nu-metal band Disturbed seemingly agreed, and their 2015 cover version of the song has become wildly popular and has received endless accolades, with actor Russel Crowe recently calling lead singer David Dralman’s singing on The Sound Of Silence perhaps the greatest rock vocal ever.

Unlike other metal covers, Disturbed’s version slows the tempo down, adding to the heavy, ponderous feel of the song. Also notable here is the complete absence of the electric guitar, as the band instead goes with a symphonic sound and some minor acoustic inclusions. The focus is, of course, Dralman’s voice and it is something to behold as he sings with careful precision initially, building to a stunning crescendo later on. The effect is goose-bump-inducing, and the lyrics of The Sound Of Silence have become starkly relevant of late, as anyone who saw the Youtube video of the song playing over images of deserted cities before it was taken down will know.

3 When A Blind Man Cries – Metallica (Deep Purple, 1972)

Metallica is one of the most successful metal bands in history and they have among their vast store of exceptional original material some noteworthy cover songs as well. They paid tribute to their musical influences in their 1998 album Garage Inc, with covers of tracks by Black Sabbath, Queen, Blue Oyster Cult, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, to name but a few. Arguably their best effort, however, came years later, when they released a bonus recording of their version of Deep Purple’s When A Blind Man Cries on their 2016 album Hardwired…To Self Destruct. And what a fitting tribute to one of their biggest musical influences it is.

James Hetfield shows just how far he’s come as a vocalist on the track and the contrast between the gentle intro, verse, and solo parts and the crashing interlude with Kirk Hammet’s mesmerizing lead guitar work elevates the song, which original writer Ritchie Blackmore has never been particularly fond of, to another level of greatness. Worth mentioning as well is Lars Ulrich’s performance on drums because, even though he often comes in for heavy criticism, his percussive flourishes certainly add depth to a song, as is the case with When A Blind Man Cries. Metallica fans will know that covers are close to the band’s heart as their first album included an excellent take on a song by a then-unknown band that just happens to be up next.

2 Immigrant Song – Diamondhead (Led Zeppelin, 1970)

Diamondhead were key figures in the emergence of heavy metal in the early 80s and, along with the likes of Saxon, Iron Maiden, and Def Lepard, formed part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. But, unlike their contemporaries, Diamondhead, through a combination of bad luck and worse management, never quite reached international stardom and were known for years only as the band who inspired Metallica’s early thrash sound.

They’ve made good in recent years with some excellent albums, however, and finally seem to be getting the recognition they deserve. In 2020 they released a rerecorded version of their 1980 album Lightning To The Nations, which features a standout cover version of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song. Many will recognize the song from the soundtrack of Thor: Ragnarok, and Diamondhead’s heavier version is even better suited to the theme of a Viking invasion than was the original. Brian Tatler’s excellent vocals are just as good as Robert Plant’s, but his Viking warcry that opens the song is a decided improvement on Led Zeppelin’s version, and the solo before the final verse is so good that it’s hard to believe that it’s Diamondhead’s own and that Jimmy page, no slouch in the solo department himself, didn’t include something similar in the initial recording some 50 years ago.

1 In The Air Tonight – In This Moment (Phil Collins, 1981)

One of the shining lights of the emerging metal scene over the last 20 years, In This Moment have produced some excellent albums and if they continue to change and evolve as they have been doing, exciting things lie in store for them in future. For proof of their talent, one need only look as far as their exemplary cover of Phil Collins’ monster hit In The Air Tonight.

The song has been covered many times before, of course, but never quite like this. The original relies on Collins’ vocals and minimal instrumental backing as it builds to the famous drum explosion near the end. It has a subtly ominous, vaguely threatening feel, and In This Moment identified what made the song great and enhanced it magnificently. Maria Brink’s voice seems made for the song and the heavily distorted guitar feedback effect in the initial parts leave the listener with a sense of impending drama, like dark thunderclouds gathering on the horizon, soon to burst. When the inevitable percussive climax arrives, it is a thing of beauty and one can only listen in awe to the powerfully explosive conclusion. Everything is upped several notches here, making In This Moment’s version of In The Air Tonight one of the best metal covers in recent memory, if not ever.

Top 10 Greatest Songs To Never Hit Number One

About The Author: About the author: I’m 32 years old and I live in South Africa. I work full time in logistics and I’m a freelance writer in my (limited) spare time. I have various projects in the works, including a potential novel, and I regularly participate in the Reedsy Prompts short story contest, where a growing collection of my work is available for reading. I have been a shortlisted finalist there twice so far.

Gender-swapped cover songs generally go out of their way to avoid challenging gender norms. Pronouns get changed—”oh boy,” becomes “oh girl,” or vice-versa, to avoid anything too disruptive. But gender is such a powerful construct that frequently simply swapping the gender perspective gives a song an entirely new meaning.

This list looks at ten songs with gender-swapped lyrics or perspectives that created a different meaning—and maybe even a better version.

Related: 10 Celebrities And The (Mostly) Hilariously Bad Songs They Released

10 “Respect” by Aretha Franklin

Originally by Otis Redding

It might be impossible to overstate the cultural influence Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” has had. In 2003, it was number five on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time, and it had moved to number one on the 2021 version of the list. It was an era-defining anthem for both the civil rights and feminist movements. After Aretha’s version, all Otis Redding could do was brag that she was a friend of his.

“Respect” is a fine example of how just a gender switch can completely change a song’s perspective, even without the song’s content being changed that much. Otis Redding’s version lacks many of the elements that made Respect iconic, such as the word “respect” being spelled out and that iconic sax solo, but the demand the song makes is exactly the same. What is it for a man to demand respect from his partner? It’s certainly not a statement of wide societal significance.

The track is also a fine example of how some songs demand a response. Redding is singing about a cynically transactional relationship; he brings in the money, and all he asks for in return is “respect” (I think we all know what respect means here). But Aretha does not need any such arrangement. She has her own money (just as sweet as your kisses); to her, respect is a relationship that’s equal, not transactional. Where one song is about a woman knowing her place in a transaction, the other is about one who knows her worth as an equal.^[1]

9 “Tumbling Dice” by Linda Rondstadt

Originally by The Rolling Stones

The lyrics to “Tumbling Dice” were an afterthought for The Rolling Stones. Keith Richards said that the song was written without vocals. “A lot of times when ideas come that quick, we don’t put down lyrics—we do what we call ‘vowel movement.’ You just bellow over the top of it to get the right sounds for the track.”

“Vowel movement?”

Anyway, the lyrics, when they did come, were a product of Mick Jagger talking to his housekeeper about her love of playing dice. Thus “Tumbling Dice” is a story song about a womanizing gambler that has no personal connection to the legendary writing team behind it.

Linda Rondstadt’s band played the song during rehearsals, but none of them knew the words until Mick Jagger wrote them out for her (oh, the world before the Internet!). She changed the opening line from “Women think I’m tasty /but they’re always tryin’ to waste me” to “People try to rape me/always think I’m crazy.” The song’s alluring groovy rhythm makes that confrontational line all the more shocking.

Ronstadt explained in 2017 that it was a comment on fame: “When you’re exposed to a wide segment of the public, somebody’s trying to violate you in some way, but it was nothing like it is now with Internet trolls.” A song with little meaning beyond being a cool story was transformed into a feminist statement that has only grown more relevant.^[2]

8 “Fire” by The Pointer Sisters

Originally by Bruce Springsteen

“Fire” is one of a trio of Bruce Springsteen songs that were Top 20 hits for other artists before Springsteen ever scored his own Top 20 hit. (The other two are “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and “Because the Night” by Patti Smith). Springsteen was reportedly upset by the Pointer Sisters’ success with Fire. Though it’s hard to say why “Fire,” in particular, got his goat. Unlike other rockers of his generation, Springsteen would not have seen a disco cover of one of his songs as an insult. Springsteen was never on the “disco sucks” bandwagon, recording with Donna Summer and Chaka Khan to prove it.

Whatever the reason, the Pointer Sisters did Springsteen a huge favor—and not just for the royalty checks. They transformed “Fire” into something we don’t have to listen to with a cringe, probably saving the song from harsh reevaluation and cancellation. “I’m pulling you close/You just say no/You say you don’t like it/But girl, I know you’re a liar” becomes “You’re pullin’ me close/I just say no/I say I don’t like it/But you know I’m a liar.” One or two different words and the whole meaning is changed: predatory becomes coyness.

While plenty of the songs on this list are changed by the different perspective, the complete 180-degree change in direction here, from violent to innocent, is bracing. “Fire” needed the Pointer Sisters’ version.^[3]

7 “Tonight’s the Night” by Janet Jackson

Originally by Rod Stewart

If any member of the Jackson family was able to shake off the associations of their infamous family, it was Janet. And sexual liberation was the tool she used to forge that independent identity. Jackson’s musical explorations of identity came to a head on 1997’s The Velvet Rope, which also wove in explorations of her battles with depression and her affinity with the LGBTQIA+ community. The album is also exceptionally forward-looking, danceable, and hugely ambitious in scope.

Rod Stewart can’t really take any credit for Janet’s “Tonight’s the Night”; his original is painfully generic, a frame of a song that could be fleshed out to describe any variety of sexual encounters. And Janet could’ve selected any “getting it on” song to subvert. It speaks to the bare-bones versatility of the song that, with just a few pronoun changes, the song’s message becomes quite ambiguous. She alternates the verses between addressing a man and addressing a woman (“Cause I love you, boy” to “Cause I love you, girl”).

One interpretation could be a threesome, and another could be an ode to bisexuality. Either way, it’s an overt call out to the LGBTQIA+ community, as is another of the album’s statement songs, “Free Xone.” In 2001, Jackson told Ebony magazine that “I don’t mind people thinking that I’m gay or calling me gay. People are going to believe whatever they want. Yes, I hang out at gay clubs, but other clubs too. I go where the music is good. I love people regardless of sexual preference, regardless of race.”^[4]

6 “Gloria” by Patti Smith

Originally by Van Morrison

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” is the greatest opening line to any album ever. “My sins are my own; they belong to me,” the lyrics continue as the heavy, slow-burning piano swells to become the unmistakable bassline of “Gloria,” a song that is not so much a primordial classic rock song as it is primordial classic rock incarnate.

Patti Smith’s version is so lyrically different that the changed perspective, and the subversiveness that it implies, are absolutely overt. In fact, this track is so transformative that it pushes the definition of a cover. Where Van Morrison’s version was the essence of simplicity, Smith’s is an epic proto-punk manifesto.

Smith’s track treats the original as a skeleton, with her own poetry grafted on, mostly from a piece called “Oath,” written years before as a kiss-off to her Jehovah’s witness upbringing. This accounts for the wildly different lyrics. But when the original lyrics resurface, the lustiness directed toward the titular woman remains intact. For all the lyrical changes, the simplicity of “Gloria” means that its indelible identity shines through, regardless of what else may be laid over it.^[5]

5 “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse

Originally by The Zutons

Amy Winehouse made her version of “Valerie” iconic, turning it into one of the latest in a line of covers to completely eclipse the original. The original was by the Britpop band The Zutons, who never had much of a profile apart from this one song. Possibly the reason for the success of the cover is because it’s such a beguiling mystery why Amy Winehouse is singing what’s clearly a love song to a woman. The answer is, unfortunately, quite anticlimactic.

It’s because the song was recorded for a side-project by producer Mark Ronson, which involved self-consciously weird covers. This included a cover of Brittany Spears’s “Toxic” featuring Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard and a big band, funk-soul version of Coldplay’s cold and glassy ballad “God Put a Smile on Your Face.” The “Valerie” cover is actually credited to Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse, but come on! Amy Winehouse chose the song and proved Ronson wrong when he said he could not hear it in her voice.

As for those strangely specific lyrics, The Zutons’ frontman Dave McCabe was in a long-distance relationship with NYC-based celebrity makeup artist Valerie Star. She could not move to Liverpool to be with him due to an outstanding arrest warrant in the States for speeding, driving without a license, evading arrest, and assaulting a police officer. At least the answer to that question is a wild ride, worthy of the mystery that the song represents.^[6]

4 “Under My Thumb” by Tina Turner

Originally by The Rolling Stones

Tina Turner is a master of covers, from turning CCR’s sludge rock number “Proud Mary” into sultry raucous R&B to adding a touch of old school class to Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Sympathy” and right through to her solo debut by a country covers album called Tina Turns the Country On (think about it!). Of course, most of her covers were originally by male artists, so it’s hard to pick the one that makes the most of the gender switch. “Under My Thumb,” however, is a song so loaded with meaning that it’s hard to overlook.

“Under my Thumb” may very well be the song that ended the ’60s, beginning a darker era in pop culture. On December 6, 1969, the Rolling Stones played their infamous free concert at the Altamont Speedway in California. The show descended into chaos, resulting in five deaths, including the murder of concertgoer Meredith Hunter, who was stabbed as the Stones played “Under my Thumb.” Chillingly, in the live recording, when you hear Mick Jagger stop the song from telling the crowd to “be cool,” you hear his reaction to a man being murdered nearby. At that moment, the song’s Taming of the Shrew narrative curdled into something far less innocent.

And much less superficial… Let’s face it, it’s a song in which a man brags about subjugating a woman that’s only made less nauseating by the tongue-in-cheek tone. That redeeming cheekiness fades into insignificance when it becomes the song a guy has been murdered to, heralding the loss of innocence for an entire generation. In that context, Turner’s tale of female domination was a downright essential response to the original. Turner’s “Under My Thumb” is a statement that had to be made.^[7]

3 “Black Steel” by Tricky feat. Martina Topley-Bird

Originally by Public Enemy

“The most bizarre record I’ve ever worked on… Think of how to make a record, then forget everything you’ve learned and start completely backward and upside down” is how producer Mark Saunders described British rapper Tricky’s solo debut Maxinquaye. Tricky’s idiosyncratic style led to some strange decisions, including a cover of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” with vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, resulting in a track in which Topley-Bird repeatedly refers to herself as a black man, much to Beavis and Butthead’s confusion.

It soon becomes clear that the gender-bending is an intentional choice, as “Black Steel” ends on that statement of identity rather than covering the whole song (hence the title being shortened from “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”). In the original, the line “They could never understand that I am a black man, and could never be a veteran” is simply a line in the first verse, but Topley-Bird, with her looping, evocative delivery, lands it as a narrative crescendo, like a story with a twist ending. The feeling of disorientation created by that line is aided by industrial rock act FTV and a sample from Bollywood producer A.R. Rahman, making it a Bollywood/trip-hop/industrial rock mash-up.

Martina Topley-Bird features on the Maxinquaye album from which “Black Steel” originates more often than Tricky does. Tricky told The Guardian in 2012 that “it’s my mum speaking through me; a lot of my lyrics are written from a woman’s point of view.” It’s been a theme throughout his career, employing various female singers. His image also involves extreme gender-bending, appearing on the cover for the “Black Steel” single in full makeup. The video for Tricky’s “Christiansands” also features Martina Topley-Bird.^[8]

2 “He’s Funny That Way” by Bob Dylan

Originally by Margaret Whiting, but it’s most associated with Billie Holliday

Though 2018’s Universal Love is a whole compilation EP of classic love songs reimagined as queer anthems, I am singling out Bob Dylan’s take on Billie Holiday’s “He’s Funny That Way.” This is because it’s hard to state how wonderfully out of place Bob Dylan is among the five other artists, all millennials, who contributed, including Kesha, St. Vincent, and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke.

Bob Dylan’s name is synonymous with activism, but for whatever reason, he’s been cagey about his beliefs since the ’80s. I suspect that’s just a consequence of very rarely making public statements at all now. So it’s great to see him take a stand. Apparently, he did it enthusiastically too.

Producer Robert Kaplan told The New York Times that he got a very quick yes. “And it wasn’t just ‘yes, I’ll do this,’” he said. “It was ‘hey, I have an idea for a song.’” Dylan’s modern-day hermit-like silence means that, in addition to not knowing much about his politics, we have very little sense of his personality either. So it’s refreshing to see him make such a clever, cheeky (and slightly lame) choice with this song since “funny that way” is a dad-joke euphemism for gay. As in…^[9]

“Georgie Porgy pudding and pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the boys came out to play
He kissed them too, because he’s funny that way.”

1 Tori Amos’s Strange Little Girls Album

Originally by various artists

Tori Amos is one of the most inventive cover artists we have because of the way she uses covers to explore identity. In her cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat,” she keeps the last line intact, “sincerely L. Cohen,” as if she’s embodying Leonard Cohen to play the song.

To that end, her covers’ album Strange Little Girls is a grand artistic statement. Each song was originally by a man. The perspective of the songs is transformed thoroughly and completely simply by being sung in a female voice, despite lyrically remaining exactly the same. For instance, the track that got the most attention was Eminem’s “’97 Bonnie and Clyde,” in which Em graphically fantasizes about murdering the mother of his daughter and disposing of her body with his young daughter in tow. A woman’s voice forces us to consider the victim; she’s no longer just a cipher in someone else’s violent fantasy.

Meanwhile, The Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun” becomes a 10-minute psychedelic meditation on gun violence. If you think that’s too literal or wonder what a woman’s perspective might bring to the song, say its title out loud while dropping the “H,” as someone with a Liverpudlian accent would. And Joe Jackson’s “Real Men” goes from being droll satire to searingly, righteously indignant.

Further exploring identity, Amos came up with an alter-ego for each song, but there’s no rhyme, reason, or explanation given for any of them. Are they the subjects of the songs or the people singing them? Why is The Velvet Underground’s “New Age” represented by a foxy librarian type with a sharp Mary Tyler Moore bob and cat’s-eye glasses? Why is Slayer’s “Raining Blood” represented by a glamorous French WW2 resistance fighter with a Gauloises cigarette and a beret?

Even Tori Amos doesn’t know, telling Rolling Stone in 2001, “As I began to deconstruct each male song, a different woman seemed to have access to me. There was a trade; there was an exchange. If I were going to take this on board and deconstruct it and get into these men and hang in their heads, then a woman had access to me, and that really surprised me.” Great art poses more questions than it answers.^[10]

+ “Nothing Compares 2U” by Sinead O’Connor

Originally by Prince

Sinead O’Connor’s version of “Nothing Compares 2U” is a fantastic song, possibly one of the greatest ever recorded. But despite it being gender-swapped, it doesn’t warrant a spot on the list proper, as it doesn’t really challenge gender norms in any way. But bear with me… Prince’s version was barely remembered, barely released filler for a failed side-project, and it never charted until O’Connor made it a hit in 1990. In 1993, Prince re-recorded “Nothing Compares 2U” as a duet with backing singer Rosie Gaines, retconning his own version to the female perspective, seemingly to match O’Connor’s. There are plenty of great covers out there; few are so great that they change the original.^[11]

++ “Where the Wild Roses Grow” by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds feat. Blixa Bargeld

Originally by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Kylie Minogue

It saddens me to know that the unlikely pairing of the prince of darkness, Nick Cave, and sunny pop princess Kylie Minogue was a whole generation ago, meaning there may well be full-grown adults walking among us who have never heard it. “Where the Wild Roses Grow” is a darkly intimate torch song from Cave’s 1995 album Murder Ballads.

However, Minogue and Cave have such disparate careers that they are, of course, not going to be in the same place at the same time very often. So when Cave is on tour, Blixa Bargeld, frontman for German noise rock outfit Einstürzende Neubauten, fills in. Cave and Bargeld play up the homoeroticism, accentuating the line “Her lips were the color of the roses/That grew down the river, all bloody and wild” with a tender embrace. You can also find the Blixa Bargeld version of “Where the Wild Roses Grow” on Cave’s 2005 B-Sides and Rarities compilation.^[12]

We told you before about some major disasters in human history that were swept under the rug by the powers that be in order to skirt responsibility or, in some cases, to “keep up morale.” But whatever the reason, there’s no shortage of instances where something terrible happened and those in power chose to pretend it didn’t. 

10. The Hillsborough Cover Up 

In 1989, 96 football (or soccer, for Americans) fans were killed in what came to be known as the Hillsborough Disaster. Fans of Liverpool were crushed to death in standing pens when crowds surged inside and there was simply no room for everyone in the space. In 2017, six police officers were charged for their roles in the deaths and subsequent coverup but were not convicted.

There was a crowd outside of the stadium just prior to the beginning of the game and police opened a gate to allow that crowd into the already full pen inside. Hundreds were injured in the crush of humanity in addition to the deaths and in 2021, a man who suffered severe brain damage at the time passed away and was added to the tally as the 97th victim. 

After the incident, police actively sought to change the story, taking the blame off of themselves. They destroyed notes taken on the day and shifted blame to fans. Altered documents accused fans of attacking and urinating on police and pick pocketing the dead. They called the fans drunk and said they forced their way in, none of which was true.

In 2021, the police agreed to come to a settlement with 600 of the victims, though no details have since been released.

9. The USS Indianapolis Sinking was Blamed on the Captain

The story of the USS Indianapolis is not one often told, (except in Jaws) despite the fact it was the “greatest loss of life involving a ship at sea in US Navy history.” This is, in part, thanks to the efforts of the Navy to cover up what happened. 

The Indianapolis had been carrying the parts of the bomb that was dropped at Hiroshima as part of a top secret mission. Obviously, that part succeeded. But on the way back, things went wrong. They were on route to the Philippines when a Japanese sub torpedoed the ship. Three hundred of the 1,197 crew died with the ship. Of those that remained, only 317 made it back home again. 

The sinking was fast, so few lifeboats were deployed. Many in the water were burned and injured and couldn’t stay afloat. Swells reached 12 feet. Hypothermia claimed men at night. Dehydration during the day. And the blood attracted sharks. Hundreds of them. 

The men stayed in the water for four days because the Navy didn’t acknowledge the boat was missing. Three SOS calls were made, and received, but the Navy ignored them, in one case because the officer was drunk. A random plane ended up spotting them.

The captain was put on trial for the sinking and court-martialed. For years he lived with the guilt, ultimately taking his own life, but was later exonerated after a sixth grader’s history project brought the truth that the captain wasn’t at fault to light.

8. The Ryongchon Disaster 

Getting information out of North Korea is like getting blood from a stone, so it’s no wonder that the truth of the Ryongchon disaster is all a blur. One report says 150 people died and 10,000 homes were damaged. The Red Cross initially said 54 died while South Korean sources said 3,000. And the exact reason for all of it was just as sketchy.

Two fuel trains may have collided. But the Red Cross reported the trains were carrying explosives, not fuel. And one source said power lines were to blame when they fell on a train carrying munitions, not as a result of a collision. A former US ambassador to South Korea suggested it could have been an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-il, who had been in the area. 

The country cut off the phone lines shortly after the incident, preventing any more info from getting out and the incident remains as clear as we’ve presented it. 

7. The Battle of Orgreave 

Call this Hillsborough 2.0, even though it happened first, as many of the same police were involved. This time it wasn’t football fans but miners. In 1984, 6,000 police clashed violently with striking miners. Ninety-five miners were arrested, but the legal cases fell apart due to lack of evidence. Police would later come forward claiming the police either manipulated or concealed evidence of the miners’ actions.

As far back as 1991, it was known police had used excessive force and prosecuted miners maliciously for doing essentially nothing wrong but picketing. Police accused them of rioting and £425,000 was paid to 39 of the miners for the malicious prosecution and assault, among other charges. Police never admitted wrongdoing, however. 

Subsequent statements from police during the Hillsborough investigation indicated they were told not to write their own statements, instead just to sign pre-written accounts of events. Many of the officers lied at trial as well, doing the same thing they’d do 5 years later during the Hillsborough case.

6. The Windscale Meltdown 

Nuclear disasters seem like the kinds of things no one could cover up but, as we saw with Chernobyl, people do try. The Windscale disaster in the UK was no different.  In 1957, a fire broke out in the core of a reactor where plutonium was being manufactured. Everything was sealed and put under guard. The fire burned for 16 hours, releasing toxic smoke into the atmosphere. The government covered up the full extent of what happened, not even for the public’s supposed benefit, but because they feared it would jeopardize relations with the United States. 

No cleanup was mounted because the technology to do it didn’t exist, so they waited 40 years. Robots were then sent under the water, which had flooded the area to retrieve and move the plutonium.

5. The Bethnal Green Disaster 

The largest civilian loss of life in the UK during WWII happened in 1943. Residents heard an air raid siren and rushed for the Bethnal Green tube station as they had many times before. This was part of a routine now, and most people knew what to do. But this time was different. New anti-aircraft guns were being fired and people thought they were bombs falling. Only one door to the station was open and people panicked, pushing their way in and trampling others underfoot. In total, 173 people were crushed in the fray. Nearly all were women and children, and most died of asphyxiation.  

Early reports suggested the tube station had taken enemy fire. Officials had thought the raid would go as all others but the new guns being tested caused panic. The truth remained hidden for 34 years. 

4. The Battle of May Island 

You’d think an incident in which over 100 sailors died in the First World War would be well known, but that’s not the case of the Battle of May Island, an event which wasn’t a battle at all but a series of accidents, and which was erased from history for many years.

Australian and Royal Navy vessels were doing exercises near the Isle of May. Mist reduced visibility and communications breakdowns resulted in numerous ships losing track of each other. No one knew minesweepers were in the area and the minesweepers didn’t know the exercise was taking place. By the time it was all over, eight ships were involved in five collisions. Some sank, leaving no survivors, others lost large portions of the crew. In total, 105 men died. 

All records were sealed during the war but afterward they remained sealed until 1994, when surveyors found the wrecks of two vessels and the incident had to be addressed. 

3. The NFL Tried to Cover Up Brain Injuries

It’s fairly well known now that there’s a link between football players and head injuries. Upwards of 40% of retired players were found to have brain injuries in one study. There are 140 concussions per season. This seems like a big deal, and it is, but for years the NFL went out of its way to make sure no one knew about it. 

The doctor who first linked football to chronic traumatic encephalopathy after performing an autopsy on a player was attacked by the league, his work accused of being bad science. They published their own studies with flawed data, downplaying the severity of injuries, knowingly ignoring the risk to their own players. The New York Times found that the league had omitted data from 100 concussions from its reports. 

When the league couldn’t make the information go away, they donated millions to the National Institutes of Health brain research to save face but then were promptly accused of trying to influence the research. The NIH rejected a $16 million donation as a result. They then invested millions more into medical and equipment research. That said, in 2017, a study on the autopsies of 111 dead NFL players revealed 110 of them had chronic traumatic encephalopathy. 

2. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

It’s rare that history is covered up so thoroughly that we only learn about it through comic books, but that’s the sad legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre. If not for HBO’s adaptation of the Watchmen, most people never would have realized it was an actual event. The show depicted the events which caused a number of articles to be published after the fact, pointing out that yes, this really happened.

In 1921, a massive riot in Tulsa was spurned on by the presence of the Ku Klux Klan and the trial of a 19-year-old Black man accused of trying to sexually assault a 17-year-old white girl. Soon, crowds of white men were burning down Black owned businesses and shooting Black citizens indiscriminately. An estimated 300 Black citizens were killed.

Afterwards, the records of what happened vanished. The National Guard had been called in, but there were no records of it. Police confiscated photo evidence. Local papers ignored it for decades and as late as the 1970s, anyone trying to research it was threatened. Even the language was sanitized, as it was referred to as a “riot” for years, rather than the massacre it was. 

It wasn’t until the 1990s, when the Oklahoma City Bombing brought reporters to the area and the oral history of the people started to be recorded, that word began to spread again about what happened.

1. Santa Susana Had Several Nuclear Accidents and Leaks

Most people can name only a handful of nuclear accidents off the top of their head. It’s not like there have been hundreds of them, but the well known ones include Fukushima, Three Mile Island and, of course, Chernobyl. But would you include Santa Susana on your list? Most people wouldn’t, but they should since the Santa Susana Field Lab was a massive experimental research facility located awfully close to Los Angeles that experienced its own nuclear disaster all the way back in 1959. 

Word of the accident didn’t even become public until 1979 and even then, most people paid no attention because the coverage was very minimal. A reactor core had overheated and began venting radioactive gasses. It did this for 10 days before anyone shut it down. Temperatures reached 1,465 degrees Fahrenheit. Three other reactors also had accidents at different times. And none of them had containment structures.

A physicist who worked at the site witnessed the release of nuclear materials. Worse, he watched people dump nuclear waste into open air pits to burn it. But for years, officials lied about what had happened even as developments were built on nearby land that could have been contaminated. Numerous people who live nearby have health problems that may have been caused by the contamination.

The site has still not been cleaned up, even though an agreement was reached back in 2010 to have it done by 2017. The Department of Energy, NASA and Boeing, who all conducted research there, have contended the site isn’t that dangerous and it’s too complex to clean up.

There’s a famous episode of The Simpsons in which Bart gets a job as Krusty’s assistant on his TV show and proceeds to destroy the entire set. His immediate response is “I didn’t do it.” Everyone laughs, and it becomes a bit. It’s also a solid example of how not just people often react to major disasters. Deny it happened, and if possible, make sure no one ever knows it happened. These are ten of the biggest disasters that people tried to sweep under the rug.

10. Chernobyl

Arguably, no disaster in the last century has been as notable as the one at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It became something of a poster child for all of our nuclear fears and a terrifying example of what can go wrong with this incredible power. And it’s possible we might have never heard about it if things had gone differently.

Chernobyl was located in the USSR and in what is today part of Ukraine. But it was not the Soviet government that let the cat out of the bag when the disaster occurred. It was Sweden. Radiation was detected 1000 km away at a Swedish nuclear plant and that was how word of the disaster got out. This was two days after the disaster occurred.

The Soviet government wasn’t just flying by the seat of their pants with Chernobyl, either. In 2021, on the 35th anniversary of the disaster, the Ukrainian government released documents showing that disasters on a smaller scale had already happened at the plant that had previously been covered up.  

So how bad was the coverup? When Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, was informed they were already lying. He was told there was a fire, but the reactor was fine. He didn’t even bother calling anyone else when he was informed because of the late hour, assuming there was no big deal. It would take 18 hours after the event occurred for anyone to even declare that the reactor had suffered a meltdown.

The people of the nearby town of Prypiat were not evacuated for far too long. Workers were not allowed to discuss what they were seeing or doing. The entire situation was bungled from the top down. 

9. The Kyshtym Disaster

Staying in the Soviet Union, the Kyshtym Disaster was another event that the government tried to keep under wraps, only this one was much more successfully hidden than Chernobyl. The outside world wouldn’t learn of this one for decades.

In 1957, some Soviet citizens had the option of living in a secured, closed, nuclear town. People needed to qualify for these towns but, like any gated community, they had perks. Better wages, better healthcare, and better food and education for families. They were also built over nuclear sites. Cheliabinsk-40 was built on top of a dump for plutonium waste. 

When the subterranean storage facility exploded, it launched a 160-ton cement lid into the air. Then it vented a massive cloud of radioactive gas that would go on to contaminate 9,000 square miles. 

Nearby villages and farms had to be liquidated. Crops were buried and people were relocated. People within the secure community tried to leave but many returned when they realized life outside, with less money and less food, was much harder.

Upwards of 10,000 people were evacuated and hundreds died. Residents have tried for years to sue the Russian government for damages and health problems that were caused, but with no success. The entire event didn’t become public knowledge until 1979, when a book was published. It was called the Kyshtym Disaster because the nearby village of Kyshtym was the only place that existed on Soviet maps. The entire town of Cheliabinsk-40 was covered up until 1989.

8. The Xichang Rocket Disaster

In 1996, an American company called Space Systems/Loral was working in Xichang,China. They were planning to launch a communications satellite, but on February 15, things went disastrously wrong. The rocket, meant to get the satellite to space, the largest launch vehicle ever constructed in China, failed shortly after launch, crashing into the nearby village. 

On the day of the launch, the state news agency only reported that the launch had failed, not that the rocket had crashed and exploded. Two weeks later, a more thorough report identified a cause and said 49 of 57 wounded were already out of the hospital and that six people had died. Six remained the official number of casualties.

Because the endeavor involved an international crew of workers, the news was not entirely restricted to what Chinese sources provided. An Israeli engineer is said to have smuggled out footage of the nearby town in which numerous houses and even a hotel have been utterly destroyed. 

Americans who had been on site for the launch investigated the destruction the next day. Much of the town was destroyed, and there were numerous trucks and ambulances. No bodies were seen, but what looked like covered bodies were being trucked away. 

It’s purely speculation that more people died, of course. But the Americans were in the village the day of the launch and it was full of people. The government said they evacuated the town ahead of time and that was why only six people died. 

7. The 1927 Mississippi Flood

In what was one of the worst natural disasters of the century, over 23,000 square miles of land ended up under water when the Mississippi flooded in 1927. Upwards of 637,000 people were displaced from their homes and many died. But the Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, and the Red Cross worked together to raise funds for the victims while simultaneously covering up egregious abuse of the Black victims of the disaster.

Relief efforts were mostly left in the hands of Black laborers. They shored up the levees to prevent further damage. They did so with a lack of food and medical care and when the situation grew worse, only the white people were evacuated. The Black laborers were left behind with nothing to eat and no clean water.

Those who lost their homes went to relief camps, supposedly shelters where food and water could be obtained. But Black citizens who found themselves there were forced into work shoring up levees. It was reported that one man who refused to do the work was shot. 

In order to secure donations and continue to provide relief, Herbert Hoover had these abuses covered up. He would go on to be called “The Great Humanitarian” and become President, arguably off the back of how he was perceived to have handled the flooding.

6. Exercise Tiger

On April 28, 1944, hundreds of US soldiers died in advance of a training exercise meant to prepare them for the D-Day landing. Dubbed Exercise Tiger, they were supposed to land near Devon and play out how the Utah Beach landing would go. Instead, four German E-boats were waiting and attacked. 

Two landing ships were sunk right away, and a third was damaged. Those that didn’t die in the attacks faced burning oil or freezing waters. Many would die of hypothermia before rescuers arrived. 

Military brass had not expected any kind of attack and kept the story under wraps, convinced that word getting out would be bad for morale. Fewer soldiers ended up dying on Utah Beach than died during Exercise Tiger. 

5. The Nedelin Disaster

Russia’s R-16 ballistic missile was scheduled to launch in July, 1961. Mitrofan Nedelin, the commander of the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces, didn’t like that. He pushed the launch date forward to November 7, 1960. It was the anniversary of the Soviet Revolution. 

Shaving nearly a year off of prep time proved disastrous. Corners were cut and work was being done on the rocket up to launch day, even after it was fully fueled. An error saw the second stage rocket fire before the first stage, meaning it fired directly onto the first stage booster, which was full of fuel.People were still working and burned up immediately.

Over 100 people died, and no one was officially blamed after it was deemed anyone who had been there was punished enough. Families were made to keep quiet for years and word didn’t come out until the 1980s. 

4. The Burnden Park Disaster

We’ve all heard tales of soccer hooligans, and the reputation is sometimes well deserved. One of the worst incidents in soccer history was the Burnden Park Disaster of 1946. Thirty-three fans died in the stadium that day before the game started. But the game did start, and they played on, while bodies allegedly were covered on the sidelines.

The game was the first competitive match since WWII. People were excited. The stadium capacity was 70,000. It’s estimated 85,000 showed up. The crowds pushed through and hundreds were injured while 33 were crushed to death. Most of the crowd had no idea and the players were told to simply go ahead. So while dozens of their countrymen lay dead or badly injured, thousands of others were left in the dark, cheering on a game with no idea of what happened.

3. The Benton Fireworks Disaster

The Benton Fireworks Disaster holds a unique place in the world of coverups since the whole thing was a cover up before it happened. Back in 1983, a factory explosion in Benton, Tennessee, killed 11 people. The factory was making illegal fireworks and the entire operation was running under the guise of being a worm farm. People were paid in cash and everything was very hush-hush for reasons that became obvious when the place blew sky high.

None of the workers were properly trained in handling explosives, and it’s almost cartoonish to hear how things operated. One of the survivors later testified that people filled the fireworks with “chemical stuff” and her job was to add some liquid glass and a fuse. 

The explosive ingredients were mixed by hand “like a salad” and another employer stated that, on the day of the explosion, they were trying something new. They may have tried mixing it with an electrical appliance. Of course, investigators found packs of cigarettes and a lighter in the debris, so someone may have actually been smoking in the building. The explosion was felt twenty miles away and emergency crews had to sift through bodies as well as body parts. 

2. The Sverdlovsk Air Disaster

This story has a couple of layers to it that both offer a glimpse into Soviet cover-ups, but one seems to have more evidence that it actually happened than the other. In 1950, a flight carrying most of the Soviet Air Force hockey team crashed near the town of Sverdlovsk. Eleven players, as well as the team doctor and masseuse, died. 

It’s been alleged that Vasiliy Stalin, the son of Josef Stalin, was in charge of the team and didn’t want to upset his father. So he never even told him. Rumor has it that the younger Stalin simply recruited a new hockey team and his father, who was never a big fan of the game anyway, was none the wiser. 

It’s hard to confirm if that part of the tale, though widely reported, is true. But the state media never made mention of the crash and the team was replaced. Whether or not this was done without Stalin’s knowledge is debatable. 

1. The Banqiao Dam Disaster

Hiding the deaths of 230,000 people is no small task, but the Chinese government did just that. When Typhoon Nina hit in 1975, the dam was one of several that couldn’t withstand the onslaught and suffered a massive failure. A year’s worth of rain flooded the region in a single day. 

Within three days, 65 different dams had collapsed. Like dominoes in a chain, everything was heading towards Banqiao. Despite all the other failures, and the fact the sluice gates were clogged, it was believed the dam would hold. 

Hydrologist Chen Xing tried to warn the government that the dam was not being built properly and was primed for failure. They fired him for being an agitator. 

When the dam burst, 600 billion liters washed through the nearest village. That’s about 240,000 Olympic swimming pools.Over a week later, 1.1 million people were still trapped and dead bodies floated along the flood waters.

It wasn’t until 1989 when the government released a report on the incident suggesting that 85,000 people likely died instantly. After famine and disease, a total of 230,000 died.