I’m a sucker for three things:
- Female vocalists singing power ballads
- Music about superheroes
- Covers of good songs
I have a Pandora station called, “Epic Lady Rock.” I play it all the time. It was seeded with music from all over the world, from Nightwish to Alanis Morisette. But, there is one musician—nay, one song—that stands above them all:
Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero
I once made a mix CD with the original song and three different covers. Now, that CD also had two covers of Like a Prayer. There was a theme to it and it involved cover songs.
Still, I’ve never heard a bad version of this song. And it’s been everywhere—from Short Circuit 2 all the way through Glee.
My favorite is the Frou Frou cover from the Shrek 2 soundtrack:
I’m a sucker for a good soundtrack.
I think this one song just ticks all my boxes. I can’t be alone. Based on the number of official covers, this song is universally loved.
You can even get a German a Capella metal cover:
I didn’t even know a capella metal was a thing. Let alone a thing I desperately needed in my life. But, now I do. All thanks to a song that came out when I was a mere six months old.
The hole just gets deeper. I headed over to YouTube and searched for “Holding Out for A Hero Cover” and found some amazing versions.
Now, I’m thinking I need to create a new mix CD. I feel confident I could come up with 700 minutes of this one song and never tire of it.
There’s plenty of variation, including this hidden gem of pure emo:
And, of course, no list of covers is complete without a version of a song from the Punk Goes anthologies:
There you go. A little peek behind the curtain. This isn’t the only song I collect covers of, either. Far from it. I could fill a pretty good thumb drive with just the cover songs on my computer.
Are there any songs you’ve got squirreled away to listen to on repeat? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.