Gothic rock outfit The Cure isn’t exactly known for their covers, and that’s honestly a good thing. The famed English outfit is best known for their original, beautifully written, authentic tunes… But that being said, they aren’t complete strangers to cover songs. Let’s look at just four covers by The Cure that are actually quite incredible!
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1. “Love” by John Lennon
Back in 2007, The Cure were asked to provide a John Lennon cover song to the Make Some Noise campaign. For reference, Make Some Noise is a UK-based non-profit organization that uses music, particularly involving John Lennon, to promote human rights initiatives.
The band provided their cover of the John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band song “Love”. It’s really a solid cover, too. It couldn’t sound more different from the source material, but the performance in itself is quite powerful.
2. “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks
There are quite a few covers that The Cure performed that didn’t make it to official album releases, one of which is their cover of “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks.
The Cure were prepping to perform in Birmingham back in 1996, and they decided to playfully cover the song during the soundcheck ahead of the performance. Luckily, it was recorded… and it’s a great little bootleg from the band.
3. “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix
The Cure’s cover of “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix is probably their most famous cover… and for good reason. This song comes from the 1979 album Three Imaginary Boys, and it’s an excellent take on a classic rock tune.
Where many bands of similar ilk would refuse to look further back than punk rock (if they would even look back at all, it was the new wave era, after all) for some inspiration, The Cure didn’t mind looking all the way back to the greats of psychedelia.
4. “Young Americans” by David Bowie
Another one of The Cure’s best covers of their English contemporaries, this David Bowie cover song made it to the band’s compilation box set Join The Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978–2001. Not only did Robert Smith apparently enjoy Bowie’s talents enough to cover “Young Americans”, but he also spoke about how Bowie influenced The Cure and how much he respected the late rock star.
“I look back at some the things we’ve done and I can see echoes of some of Bowie’s stuff in it,” said Smith in an older interview. “I got my dream come true when he invited me to sing with him at his birthday in New York. That was a fantastic night, unreal actually for something like that to happen.”
Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images
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