10 Best and 10 Worst Covers performed by Bowie

I post a “cover of the week” (usually) every Monday featuring a newly posted video of someone covering a Bowie song. Older covers also frequently appear on this blog. But Bowie himself recorded or performed plenty of covers. At his best, Bowie would take possession of the song and make it his own. But there are plenty of misfires. The 1984 album, Tonight, is mostly a cover album and is mostly disliked by fans (I like it). Similarly, 1973’s Pin Ups is entirely a cover album, and although it doesn’t generate the same animus as Tonight, it usually appears in the bottom quarter of Bowie album rankings because he didn’t write any of the songs at all.

Below is my own top and bottom 10, but 20 covers only scratch the surface:

10 Best Covers

1. “America” (2001) Original by Simon and Garfunkel. Bowie sang this and “Heroes” as part of the Concert for New York City following the 2001 terrorist attacks and never recorded it as a single. He would have had a difficult time capturing in the studio the beauty and made-for-the moment significance of this live performance. My favorite of his covers.
2. “Kingdom Come” (1980) Original by Tom Verlaine. Part of my favorite album, Scary Monsters, this is the quintessential cover that’s hard to think of as being someone else’s song.
3. “Cactus” (2002) Original by The Pixies. This is another song that sounds like a Bowie original— it’s about isolation and hints at sexual perversion.
4. “See Emily Play” (1973). Original by Pink Floyd. My favorite track from Pin Ups.
5. “Love Missile F1-11” (2003) Original by Sigue Sigue Sputnik. An obscure b-side, Bowie showed he could still deliver a Glam-style rocker. No idea why this didn’t get more attention.
6. “White Light/White Heat” (performed at concerts) Original by The Velvet Underground. Bowie would perform this song throughout his career at concerts but never recorded it in the studio.
7. “China Girl” (1983) Originally recorded by Iggy Pop. Bowie actually co-wrote the song that first appeared on Iggy’s great album, The Idiot. Bowie’s version is more famous, but I actually like Iggy’s version better.
8. “I’ve Been Waiting for You” (2002) Original by Neil Young. I heard this on Heathen well before I ever heard Neil Young’s version. As much as I like Neil Young, I think Bowie appropriated his song.
9. “Gloria” (performed at concerts). Original by Van Morrison. I’m not sure why Bowie added this to the playlist on his greatest hits Sound and Vision tour in 1990, but I’m glad he did. It was a highlight when I saw him that year in Hartford, and there’s a great performance he does with Bono available on YouTube. Sadly this song has never been officially released even on a live album.
10. “Wild is the Wind” (1975) Original written by Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin. Made famous by Nina Simone, this was recorded even earlier by Johnny Mathis, but Bowie declared ownership on Station to Station. One of his most beautiful recordings.

10 Worst Covers

1. “Buzz the Fuzz” (performed in concert). Original by Biff Rose. A contender for Bowie’s very worst song. A supposedly comedic drug song. Thankfully, Bowie skipped over recording this one for Biff Rose’s “Fill Your Heart,” which appears on Hunky Dory. Sadly, live versions of “Buzz the Fuzz” pop up on compilation discs.
2. “Working Class Hero” (1989). Original by John Lennon. A harsh and unpleasant song on its own, Tin Machine did nothing to improve it. Simultaneously both one of Bowie’s and John Lennon’s low points.
3. “Across the Universe” (1975). Original by the Beatles. Great song. Terrible cover.
4. “Amsterdam” (1973). Original by Jacques Brel. Bowie seemed to be a fan of both Brel and Scott Walker, who recorded this in 1967. My question is— why? Amazingly, this recording almost made it onto The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, but ultimately was released as a b-side.
5. “Alabama Song” (performed in concert). Original by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. This song should have stayed in the 1920s, from which it originated, but it was resurrected by the Doors in the 60s and kept alive by Bowie in concert throughout the 70s, before he released it as a b-side in 1980. I’d much rather listen to “Sweet Home Alabama.”
6. “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (1973). Original by The Rolling Stones. Bowie takes this infamously suggestive Stones song and decided it was too subtle, so he ads a spoken word part that ends in his amplified demand, “let’s make looooove.” Some fans like Bowie’s version. For me it nearly sends Aladdin Sane off track.
7. “I Know Its Gonna Happen Someday” (1993) Original by Morrissey. Its one thing for Bowie to record a tongue-in-cheek version of a song that he thought ripped him off in the first place, its another thing to stick it on an album (Black Tie White Noise) and make us listen to it.
8. “If There Is Something” (1990). Original by Roxy Music. I’m not sure that this song is inherently pretty good, but I like Roxy Music’s version. Not so much Tin Machine’s.
9. “Mother” (1998/2021). Original by John Lennon. Bowie recorded this for a Lennon tribute album that was never released, but someone finally came around to posthumously releasing it as a single five years after Bowie’s death. Ugh. Bowie is 0-3 covering Lennon-penned songs. This is the nearest Bowie ever sounded like he was strangling a cat. There is video footage on YouTube of Bowie doing a lovely cover of “Imagine” during as Serious Moonlight tour concert. Why hasn’t that been released as a single?
10. “I’m A Hog For You, Baby” (Performed at a benefit concert in 1996) Original by the Coasters. Bowie decided to perform an unpleasantly lewd version of this song at a charity fundraiser for a school. Sadly, the moment was recorded and released on an obscure live album, misleadingly named, Unplugged and Slightly Phased.