The Covers Of UFO

UFO has been one of the very few bands that can successfully cover songs.  It had been a key part to their early career, because many of their hits during the Mick Bolton days were covers.  The biggest from the early days was their cover of "C'mon Everybody" by Eddie Cochran.  This was famous because it made the song much heavier than the original.  The first three songs on the album above are covers.  "Who Do You Love" is by Bo Diddley, and "Loving Cup" is by The Rolling Stones.  The covers in these early days were often heavy and psychedelic, and often very bluesy.  These songs showed the chops of the early formation of the band, and I feel that they have possibly held up better than some of the other songs from the era.

On the album Phenomenon, the song "Built For Comfort" by Willie Dixon is covered.  I love this cover because it is very true to the original, and Michael Schenker's bluesy riff sounds awesome.  The covers during the Michael Schenker era were much better than the past era, and I listen to them much more.  On the album Lights Out, the song "Alone Again Or" by Love is covered.  Even though this is an often panned song, I feel that UFO did an amazing job covering it, because it is also very far from their comfort zone.

One of my favorite covers by UFO is "Come Away Melinda" by Harry Belafonte.  This song was originally released in 1963, and it is much different than the version UFO did.  It had been covered by many other musicians like Judy Collins, Uriah Heep, and Tim Rose.  I think that the version by Uriah Heep had the biggest influence on UFO, because it is the most psychedelic version of the song.  UFO had the best performance of the song, because they made it much more dark and psychedelic and it is much more enjoyable than the original. 

                                

My favorite cover of all time by the band is "Mystery Train."  The reason why this cover is my favorite is that they took a classic song from the 30's that had also been covered by Elvis Presley, and they turned it into a brutal rock song.  I love how it goes from the bluesy acoustic playing to the extremely heavy electric guitar from Paul Chapman.  Phil's vocals are also completely amazing.  What is your favorite UFO cover?