I did not know that, neat!
Nice topic. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Pennywise cover of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me (it starts with a slow tempo)
The Peacocks cover of Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz (if '70s glam rock could be considered pop)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes cover of Blondie’s Heart of Glass
And if we stretch the definition of punk-ish to include ska-punk-ish and the definition of pop tune to include Russian folk songs from the nineteen century, then we can include this one:
Goulamas’K cover of Korobeiniki (also known as the Tetris theme)
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I adore Care Bears On Fire’s version of Everybody Wants to Rule the World:
Also, Patti Smith’s “Twelve” is an exquisite album of covers, including this rendition of The Boy in the Bubble from Mr Edie Brickell, Paul Simon:
El Vez is truly The King, though I’m not sure if reinterpretations count in this case. Regardless, here he is covering Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio”:
And let’s not forget Pansy Division’s cover of Johnny and June’s “Jackson”
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Dickies - sound of silence:
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Also,
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Punk covers go right back to the early days of the genre:
here’s the B-Side of the first Punk single released in the UK:
The Dammed covering the Beatles
And some more of the heavyweights of the genre:
The Jam take on pop culture
And The Clash Start some very early Punk-Ska fusion.
And the Stranglers give their take on Dionne Warwick:
EDIT to add:
Oh wow, while searching these things out, I’ve discovered that someone’s put a rare unreleased recording of another punk cover on the net. Here’s the Jam getting their soul on in 1981 with “Give Me Just a Little More Time”
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Shockabilly were not exactly punk in the purist sense, despite opening for small town punk rock bands all across this great land of ours. In their day, Shockabilly really took the idea of “destructive” punk covers of classic songs to heart. Their albums are full of scorching brown acid covers of “Born on the Bayou,” “Instant Karma,” “Life’s a Gas” (a personal favorite that eclipses the T. Rex for me), “Georgia in a Jug,” “Day Tripper,” etc. The band is also the easy way into appreciating Eugene Chadbourne’s formidable discography.
Rapper’s Delight featuring Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant
Not punk but here’s a weird cover of Rapper’s Delight, made with the voices of Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.
Maybe these are just rock covers.
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Local H covering Peter Gabriel’s Shock the Monkey as part of AV Club’s excellent series:
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Shades Apart doing Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”
ETA: should read “Shades Apart covering Soft Cell’s cover of Gloria Jones’ Tainted Love”
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Voice Of The Beehive doing The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You”.
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Joan Jett’s cover of the Mary Tyler Moore theme
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Michael Cera Palin - If It Makes You Happy
More emo than punk, but it fits the bill I think.
Husker Du’s transformative/transcendent take on the Byrds’ “8 Miles High”
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I always thought the lead singer of National People’s Gang sounded like Johnny Rotten:
Dinosaur Jr. covering “Just Like Heaven”
Lydia Lunch/Clint Ruin covering “Why Don’t We Do It In the Road”
One of my favorites: MDC covering “Love Potion Number 9”
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That’s a funny way of spelling Gloria Jones
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