The Best ’90s Covers You Can Enjoy With Your Kids
For older millennial parents who grew up in the 1990s — and by grew up, we mean old enough to remember the “Parental Advisory” icon and understand the impact of Napster — you will be happy to know that the music of this era is getting a whole new life thanks to the art of cover songs. We stumbled upon this realization recently after hearing Ryan Adams’ version of “Wonderwall” pop up on Spotify. And he's not the only one reviving the sounds of our youth for a whole new generation.
Not surprisingly, there are some very bad covers of ’90s songs (“Losing My Religion” as a jazzy lounge number, for instance). So, we looked for renditions that are less than 10 years old and, mostly, take the original song in a whole different direction. This collection includes a grunge god, several pop stars, a boy band, a country crooner, much alt-rock and, of course, Oasis.
Perhaps the best part of these ’90s covers? You can share these classics with your kids and avoid seeming out of touch.
Wonderwall
Original: Oasis
Released: 1995
Cover: Lungley
What Makes It Great
It’s that moment when the cello joins Liam Gallagher’s pleading voice and the simple guitar riffs, when this contemplative, melancholic study of failure and missed opportunity builds toward the first mention of those words that every single teenager in 1995 couldn’t stop thinking about: “Maybe you’re gonna be the one that saves me.”
We view “Wonderwall” as the perfect package of ’90s music and the strange videos that always accompanied the biggest hits. It’s the song we still know the lyrics to every time it pops up on the car radio. It’s as nostalgic as a warm glass of milk. And, not surprisingly, it’s well covered.
There are many to choose from, but we’re partial to a version from a young British brother-and-sister duo named Natalie and Matt who go by their surname, Lungley. They’re known for their covers, and this was one of their earliest. Natalie’s striking voice and Matt’s introspective guitar are all that’s needed to revive this ’90s classic.
No Scrubs
Original: TLC
Released: 1999
Cover: Bastille
What Makes It Great
“No Scrubs” is prescient for our modern era in which more and more men are paying for their disturbing, often criminal behavior toward women. It also marked the end of TLC’s reign as a power group and preceded the death of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes by only a few years.
The song has been covered countless times and by other male vocalists, but we’re partial to Bastille’s version because of its decidedly British twang. And while Bastille is one of the most successful pop acts going today, bandleader Dan Smith was only 13 years old when “No Scrubs” debuted in 1999. Perhaps he’d been waiting since then to become famous and established enough to pull off a rendition of this scathing attack on male dirtbag culture.
Heart Shaped Box
Original: Nirvana
Released: 1993
Cover: Kawehi
What Makes It Great
If there’s one song that encompasses Nirvana and the intense but fleeting time it spent at the top of the music world, it would be "Heart Shaped Box." Esquire simultaneously called the song "uncoverable" while applauding Kawehi’s version as “nuanced and big and, hey, not trite, overdone or insincere.” That’s a nice compliment for a song that’s about kids with cancer.
We’re not going to guess what Kurt Cobain would think about this cover, but we think it brings an all-time ’90s classic into relevance for a whole new generation in which music — and life, for that matter — is increasingly more digitized and synthesized. A single person can be an entire band these days, and Kawehi is making the case that sometimes that’s a good thing.
MMMBop
Original: Hanson
Released: 1997
Cover: Postmodern Jukebox
What Makes It Great
Postmodern Jukebox is actually bringing back musical genres much older than the ’90s, but just happened to take a hit song from 1997 and give it a 1957 treatment. Lyrically, it’s fitting that “MMMBop” sounds way better as a Doo Wop number — in fact, band member Zac Hanson once revealed that the sibling trio was inspired by The Beach Boys and Doo Wop music when they recorded it.
Still, the original is the epitome of bubblegum pop. And love it or hate it, it was hard to deny the catchiness of “MMMBop” when it first hit the airwaves. To Hanson’s credit as musicians, the song has grown up just as much as the brothers themselves. They now perform it stripped down with just a guitar and tambourine complementing the harmonies.
Wicked Game
Original: Chris Isaak
Released: 1989
Cover: Wolf Alice
What Makes It Great
If you grew up in the 1990s, then you undoubtedly remember Chris Isaak and supermodel Helena Christensen’s sexy romp on the shores of a Hawaiian beach. You probably remember even better that misty look in your romance-starved mother’s eyes whenever “Wicked Game” came on the radio — part lust, part longing and part special feeling you wanted no part of.
This song was technically released as a single in 1989, but it didn’t become a hit until 1991 after appearing in the movie “Wild at Heart” and then receiving considerable airplay. It is great material for a cover version, and we particularly enjoy this rendition from British alt-rockers Wolf Alice, who spin the campy country hit into the dark and rollicking ballad it always wanted to be.
Tearin’ Up My Heart
Original: NSYNC
Released: 1997
Cover: Kina Grannis
What Makes It Great
Inside every boy band ballad is a heartfelt tune that just needs the right treatment. Case in point: Kina Grannis and her take on the NSYNC staple, “Tearin’ Up My Heart.” The low-key singer-songwriter tugs at the heartstrings by soulfully singing lines like, “And no matter what I do, I feel the pain / With or without you.”
Grannis is a Patreon artist, which explains why it appears she’s performing in her living room. We think a few more covers of ’90s classics might boost her supporter numbers.
Creep
Original: Radiohead
Released: 1993
Cover: Karen Souza
What Makes It Great
Sometimes, we hear a song so often that it’s difficult to imagine it any other way. “Creep” by Radiohead was exactly that song until we heard the cover from Karen Souza. With a voice as deep as the Marianas Trench, this crooner spins “Creep” into a beautiful, loungy tune with a new edge (and she doesn’t need to sing the F-word parts to make it poignant). Savor the way she lingers on syllables and draws out lines like, “And I’m a widow / what the hell am I doing here?”
Souza has a tendency to give this special treatment to classic songs that many feel have no business being covered. But when she does it, everything seems to work out just fine.
...Baby One More Time
Original: Britney Spears
Released: 1998
Cover: Ed Sheeran
What Makes It Great
It’s refreshing to hear a male singer cover the work of a female singer without trying to change the lyrics, and thus meaning, of a song by making it more masculine sounding. It can give new depth to the song, even one as poppy and bland as Britney Spears’ debut single.
We’re not saying Ed Sheeran suddenly made this ditty worthy of repeat play, but his version will certainly take you back to a time when former “Mickey Mouse Club” Mouseketeers like Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were all the rage in teen music land. Sheeran seems to have a talent for this, as he’s done singer-songwriter riffs on rap songs like “No Diggity.”
In Bloom
Original: Nirvana
Released: 1991
Cover: Sturgill Simpson
What Makes It Great
When someone calls a singer’s voice “twangy,” they have nailed the sound of Sturgill Simpson. And that plucking of the vocal cords does wonders to this angry Nirvana hit about being misunderstood (a signature of the band).
Unlike many covers of instantly recognizable songs, Simpson’s recording of “In Bloom” is one of his most popular tracks. It appears on his "A Sailor's Guide to Earth" studio album and even got its own music video. It’s much different from Kurt Cobain’s original, and at times in Simpson’s version, it’s hard to believe they are the same song.
Torn
Original: Natalie Imbruglia
Released: 1997
Cover: Neck Deep
What Makes It Great
We know this is actually a cover of a cover of a cover of a cover, as Natalie Imbruglia took it from Ednaswap who got it from Lis Sørensen — all in the 1990s. And it’s been covered many times since, most recently by Welsh pop-punk darlings Neck Deep.
“Torn” was one of those songs that, when we heard Imbruglia’s version in the late ’90s, we swore we’d just heard it on another radio station a minute earlier and then couldn’t help but sing along to the chorus. It was everywhere, and it was always annoyingly catchy. So, it’s good that Neck Deep gave it new life (with a music video to boot) as a briskly paced but still sad love song.
Enter Sandman
Original: Metallica
Released: 1991
Cover: SHEL
What Makes It Great
There are a handful of songs that define ’90s music, and this is certainly one. Unmistakable from the first guitar riffs, it’s not a cover to be taken lightly. Thankfully, the four sisters from Colorado whose first names make up the band’s moniker (Sarah, Hannah, Eva and Liza) do quite a number on the heavy metal icon. In fact, we’d prefer to listen to SHEL’s version from the band's "Just Crazy Enough" album.
“Enter Sandman” is a dark story to begin with, centered around a child’s nightmares about death, and the orchestral sounds included in SHEL’s rendition really drive up the spooky factor while casting the song in a whole new light. They really make it a creepy children’s story instead of a pounding metal anthem.
Don’t Speak
Original: No Doubt
Released: 1996
Cover: New Years Day
What Makes It Great
Before Gwen Stefani broke out for her own solo success, she was part of a little ska outfit called No Doubt that reached peak popularity with “Don’t Speak.” The song is decidedly sad and was meant to be cathartic for Stefani following the end of a seven-year relationship.
The lyrics are indeed reflective and blue, but the substance of the song is anger and frustration. That made it the perfect vehicle for the genre-blending rock band New Years Day, who gave it a harder edge in their cover version, released on their "Diary of a Creep" EP.
No Rain
Original: Blind Melon
Released: 1993
Cover: Yonder Mountain String Band
What Makes It Great
It’s fun to take a hit song way out of its genre and give it new life, and that’s exactly what happened with “No Rain” in the version by prog-bluegrass group Yonder Mountain String Band, which you can find on the band's "Mountain Tracks: Volume 6" album.
The song marked the biggest success for the short-lived but recently revived rock band Blind Melon. Two years after the song’s debut, lead singer Shannon Hoon died from a cocaine overdose during a tour, and the band never really recovered. “No Rain” lives on as the perfect accompaniment to the ennui youth of the 1990s — and the Bee Girl from the music video is still rocking the same outfit.
I Can’t Make You Love Me
Original: Bonnie Raitt
Released: 1991
Cover: Justin Vernon
What Makes It Great
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” is one of the enduring songs of the ’90s and a defining track in a career full of them for Bonnie Raitt. For this cover, it’s simply Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) and a piano — and the results are chilling and beautiful.
It can be difficult for a male vocalist to take on a female super-hit love ballad without sounding forced. Instead, Vernon just let’s go and absorbs all the heartbreak and sadness Raitt so memorably displayed in the original. At the end, he also tacks on the last lines from Raitt’s “Nick of Time” for good measure. On the whole, this is less of a cover and more of a tribute to one of the greats.