The first tribute album I remember buying was The Bridge: A Tribute To Neil Young. It featured a bunch of what at the time were underground bands like Sonic Youth, The Pixies, The Flaming Lips, and Nick Cave doing Neil Young songs. It was before Young was known as "The Godfather of Grunge". The point was to get across the idea that Young was an inspiration to that scene at a time when people hadn't realized it yet. It worked just because Young is a great songwriter whose songs lend themselves well to reinterpretation and they were played by good bands who genuinely loved them.

Sid vicious covering my way,now there is a classic.

A vote for Easy Star All Stars' glorious "Dub Side Of The Moon". Genuinely well done reggaefication of the PF classic.

David Bowie - Sorrow is actually one of my favourites. I never knew the original until more recently.

Best cover I've ever heard is Aynsley Dunbar's "Warning" on Black Sabbath's debut album. It took me about 45 years to even realise it is a cover, even though it was always listed as 'Warning (Dunbar)' on the record!!

There are a countless number of great covers. There are also some very good tribute albums. Punk bands doing Carpenters covers is one that comes to mind.

One of the ones I enjoy is Under the Covers vol 1-3, by Matthew Sweet and Susanah Hoffs.

Vanilla Fudge did great covers...

I Want To Hold Your Hand-Al Green. Unbelievably great. I think it was unreleased until not long ago

I always loved Saturday Morning (Cartoons’ Greatest Hits). If for no other reason, it introduced me to bands I came to love.

Thanks Robert, you hit the nail on the head. I've been trying to organize my records & CDs and realized I have more cover & tribute albums than I care to admit. Some good, most are novelties at best.

I agree with almost everything you said here. The exception to this, in my opinion, is album of covers by The Langley Schools Music Project. There's something beautiful about the simple arrangements and of the songs they chose to cover.

Just found your channel this week and have really enjoyed it.

I'm having a beer watching this after work and you started TAKING LIKE THAT 😂😂😂😂😂😂 the beer did FLY 😂🍺🍺👍🏻

I mostly agree with you but I have a few exceptions. Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon did some cover albums - two that I know of, both great: What's Next to the Moon (AC/DC covers) and Tiny Cities (Modest Mouse covers). I also found a cool collection of Beatles covers recently called Then and Now: Australia Salutes the Beatles. Some clunkers but actually a lot of cool covers I'd never heard. The first thing I thought of when you started the video was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - they put out an album after the soundtrack called "The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions Featuring Seu Jorge." It's all David Bowie covers on acoustic guitar in Portuguese.

Great points. There are some cover albums that I enjoy. My favorite is Jimmy Barnes Soul Deep. Sensational recording and turned me on to many great artists. Thank you for this video Robert.

While I agree for the most part, Willie Nelson Stardust is one exception for me.

The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young. Computer Age, Winterlong, Helpless are all amazing

For the most part I'm in total agreement. I did like Lennon's tribute Rock and Roll album. The only tribute album that really caught my eye was the tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan. But that was a concert. So I don't know if that counts.

I get your point. I used to work in a record store in the early 90s and these cover/tribute albums seemed to be put out on a weekly basis (after the unplugged onslaught had died down). Most of them were really bad. One cover album I do like is Booker T. & the MG‘s „McLemore Avenue“, otherwise I can‘t really think of more off the top of my head. Greetings from Switzerland, Nick