Time was when cover versions raised as much of a smile as a jester's hat at a funeral. The Byrds joylessly facsimilied "Mr Tambourine Man"; lots of people bought it; everyone else yawned. Straight-faced covers still blight our charts - witness Madness's new double album, The Dangermen Sessions. Recourse to this kind of activity usually indicates that a band or artist has run out of ideas: in Madness's case the LP is to its own, original material what a shrug is to a bodypop or a swift uppercut.
In an era when novelty rules the earth, novelty cover versions are never far behind. Travis's pointless, unfunny version of Britney Spears's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" was the rock equivalent of the archetypal "I'm mad, me" office joker. It's difficult to work out whether the motive was the usual condescension-masking jealousy that rock bands demonstrate towards pop stars, or whether the Travis boys were just "having a laugh". The fact remains that Britney's songs do more for global happiness in three minutes than Travis would do in a thousand lifetimes.
The new generation knows how to do a comedy cover that is listenable enough to transcend novelty. Nouvelle Vague are the kings (and queens) of this: a French lounge act that performs only early 1980s new-wave songs. The band's versions of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", the Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk To Fuck" and XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel" rise above the transience of most genre-bending covers: all available from iTunes.
If you want pure throwaway silliness, Richard Cheese's, um, cheesy takes on the likes of The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up"and Papa Roach's "Last Resort" do a lot to rid metal of the po-facedness common to the genre. Lyrics such as "tear myself into pieces . . . suffocation, no breathing", sung in a style usually found at cheap weddings and cheaper hotel bars, are just harmless fun. Everything on Cheese's album Lounge Against the Machine is available to download from Napster. Finger-clickin' good.
