4 Rock Covers I Wish Existed, Even if It Can Never Happen

The rock ‘n’ roll world is full of incredible covers, some of which are even better than the original. For that, I’m thankful. But as grateful as I may be, there’s still a small part of me that is forever bummed that some rock ‘n’ roll covers never came into existence.

Maybe the timeline just didn’t pan out that way, and my dream cover songs came out after a band already broke up. Other times, an artist’s premature death prevented these mash-ups from coming into existence. In any case, it’s fun to imagine how incredible these rock covers could have been, had fate dealt a different hand.

“Sound Of Silence” by Ozzy Osbourne

It seems somewhat counterintuitive to have a rock legend like Ozzy Osbourne cover a song like “The Sound Of Silence” by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. But in a way, that’s exactly why I think this cover would work. The original lyrics to the moody folk song are already dark and unsettled. With Osbourne’s signature voice on top, I would imagine that “The Sound Of Silence” would take on an even eerier quality. Dare I say even better than the Disturbed version.

“Helplessly Hoping” by The Beatles

The Beatles were in the rearview mirror by the time David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young were joining forces on defining folk-rock songs like “Helplessly Hoping”. Still, I can easily hear how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison would have blended their own harmonies into this iconic track. The Fab Four probably would have added a sitar, too. Maybe they would have added reversed guitar solos or an unexpected key change. In my mind, this is a psychedelic shoulda-coulda-woulda of epic proportions.

“Solitude” by Nirvana

Kurt Cobain often cited Ozzy Osbourne as a major influence. So, it only makes sense that a Nirvana-fied version of an Osbourne song would make this list of dream rock covers. In this case, the song is technically a Black Sabbath tune from Master Of Reality. Cobain’s signature rasp and introspective attitude could have added even deeper, more painful layers to lines like “my name it means nothing, my fortune is less / My future is shrouded in dark wilderness,” á la “Something In The Way”.

“You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” by The Doors

Finally, aside from the obvious tongue-in-cheek joke of Jim Morrison singing a song like “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim”, I legitimately think that The Doors could have done a fantastically gritty, slinky cover of Jim Croce’s classic song. (Except they might swap the East Coast terminology for popular West Coast locales, like Venice Beach and Rodeo Drive.) Sadly, The Doors frontman never got to see Croce’s original version come into existence. “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” came out in 1972, one year after Morrison’s premature death in Paris.

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