Battle of the Covers: Enjoy The Silence

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures)
08/22/2014 at 12:30 • Filed to: Battle of the Covers, BOTC, Musiclopnik, Drunk Uncle Gamecat

They say silence is golden. As it turns out, singing about silence is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Welcome back to Battle of the Covers, and today we're setting our sights on the hit title from Depeche Mode.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! brought us one of those "grey area" covers, where what is widely considered the "original" is really itself a cover. Much like with Black Betty, which fell under the same circumstance, The Animals' original cover was a runaway hit. Unlike Ram Jam, however, The Animals didn't have to worry about fighting off any spiders, and in the end they left the polls with a massive 28 votes, more than twice that of second place Five Finger Death Punch. No contest.

What was a contest was the battle for worst, as the lead was traded repeatedly between Dolly Parton, Muse, and Five Finger Death Punch. At the end of Wednesday Muse had a three point lead. By noon Thursday 5FDP was leading by two, and when the polls finally closed Dolly had eclipsed them both and taken it by one. 5FDP becomes the bridesmaid on both polls.

Enjoy the Silence is, by far, the youngest song to grace our battles thus far, originally being released in 1990 by the legendary electronica/alternative rock Depeche Mode. The song soared to the top of the charts, reaching #1 in three countries (Denmark, Spain, and the U.S.) and cracking the top 10 in eleven others. The single went on to be certified platinum in both the United States and Germany. Since 2000 it has become a staple of the list of "go-to" covers and has been visited by the likes of Tori Amos, Breaking Benjamin, and Susan Boyle.

After admittedly missing a few good covers of House of the Rising Sun last time around I scoured the interwebs for covers of Enjoy the Silence, which I then had to cut down to the best contenders, which is tough. I opted to drop the Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park) remix, because it still used the original vocals and ultimately I decided if I had to cut something... I also dropped It Dies Today, which admittedly I did mostly because of all the terrible "emo hair" in the music video. Also, Evergreen Terrace is already representing the metalcore genre on this list. There's still more versions than I wanted (I try to limit myself to 6-8), but with each artist providing their own unique interpretation I couldn't bring myself to drop any more.

Don't forget: I'm always looking for suggestions for future rounds!

Failure - (1998)

Tori Amos - (2001)

Evergreen Terrace - (2002)

Lacuna Coil - (2006)

Keane - (2006)

Anberlin - (2007)

Nada Surf - (2010)

Breaking Benjamin - (2011)

Susan Boyle - (2011)

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DISCUSSION (18)

Gamecat235 > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 12:34

NONE! NONE AS GOOD. DM4LYF!

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 12:45

Ugh there are so many bad ones!

Jcarr > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 12:49

May I suggest covers of Duran Duran for a future contest? There are a few good reboots of Come Undone and Ordinary World.

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 12:50

Lacuna Coil, Keane, and Susan Boyle pulled it off. The rest were various shades of suck.

tromoly > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 12:53

You forgot the It Dies Today cover.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 12:59

For the distant future, I wish to suggest, "Wagon Wheel"

Let others go firster though.

King Ginger, not writing for Business Insider > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 13:05

Just stopping in to say that Cristina Scabbia's voice makes me happy.

Dusty Ventures > tromoly
08/22/2014 at 13:23

I debated using them, but as I said in the write-up I cut them due to having so many covers to choose from and terrible hair. Ultimately with It Dies Today and Evergreen Terrace both being of the metalcore genre I decided I had to keep one and drop one. Evergreen Terrace won by sounding more unique, and by naming themselves after The Simpsons.

Dusty Ventures > Jcarr
08/22/2014 at 13:24

Absolutely. Which would you like first?

Jcarr > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 13:27

Let's go with Come Undone. Great original, and some damn good covers, in my opinion.

tromoly > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 13:51

Ah, missed that part.

Dusty Ventures > Gamecat235
08/22/2014 at 13:52

You chose the perfect round for an all-caps outburst

Gamecat235 > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 13:53

#winning!!!!!

ETA: #WINNING!!!!!

vorspringing > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 20:10

There are some surprisingly good/weird covers of Britney's "Toxic" - might be good for entertainment value.

Dusty Ventures > vorspringing
08/22/2014 at 20:11

Well there's a song suggestion I wasn't expecting. Alrighty, I'll add it to the list.

vorspringing > Dusty Ventures
08/22/2014 at 20:34

I collect effed-up covers ;) don't own the original.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Dusty Ventures
08/23/2014 at 15:05

Was hard to choose between lacuna coil and breaking benjamin, but I think the song suits a female voice better so that swung it for me.

Dusty Ventures > King Ginger, not writing for Business Insider
08/24/2014 at 00:14

Having listened to all these covers repeatedly the past few days I've come to the conclusion that I need to find more songs Cristina has covered, either with or without the rest of Lacuna. Because I need an excuse to post more of dat voice.