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Diva Dion's AC/DC cover deemed worst ever: guitar mag

24.06.2008 21:01 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Singer Cline Dion performs on NBC's Today Show on Nov. 14, 2007, in New York.(Peter Kramer/Associated Press)

Cline Dion has a dubious distinction to add to her myriad awards and achievements: world's worst song cover, according to a popular European guitar magazine.

British-based Total Guitar conducted a poll that named the French-Canadian singer's rendition of You Shook Me All Night Long the No. 1 "worst cover song," editor Stephen Lawson said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Performed about six years ago during her hit Las Vegas run, the diva's version of the classic AC/DC anthem was sung as a duet with U.S. pop singer Anastacia. The magazine dubbed the cover "sacrilege" and an "offence."

Other cover songs the magazine scoffed at include:

British girl groups Sugababes and Girls Aloud performing Walk This Way, made famous by Aerosmith and Run DMC.
British boy band Westlife's rendition of rock ballad More Than Words by Extreme.
Pop Idol winner Will Young's version of Light My Fire by The Doors.
Oasis hit Wonderwall as performed by easy-listening lounge act The Mike Flowers Pops.

Flops aside, the poll also highlighted a handful of the most successful song tributes.

"The best covers are unlikely choices and they do something radical," Lawson said.

Electric-guitar legend Jimi Hendrix's version of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower came in first, followed by the Beatles version of Twist and Shout — originally recorded by U.S. R&B group The Top Notes.

Rounding out the best five were:

The Guns N' Roses cover of Live and Let Die, by Paul McCartney and Wings.
Nirvana's rendition of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World.
British rock band Muse's version of Feeling Good, written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the 1965 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint — the Smell of the Crowd.

Total Guitar, touted as the bestselling guitar magazine in Europe, is known for regularly carrying tablatures (guitar-music notations) of popular music, reviews of guitar equipment and interviews with prominent guitarists.

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