I've always been a big fan of hearing artists cover other people's songs, especially when it's something you wouldn't expect them to do. On a few occasions, I've found myself even preferring the reinterpretation to the original, eg. Jimi Hendrix rocking Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, Jeff Buckley's angelic version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and Gary Jules' melancholic rendition of the Tears for Fears song Mad World.

I find the most interesting offers though are when the song is completely reconstructed within a different musical genre.

This evening I stumbled across some live video footage of the undisputed Queen of Pop - Madonna - paying quite an unanticipated homage to the late Dimebag Darrell, guitarist of heavy metal band, Pantera.

Darrell Lance Abbott was shot and killed onstage midperformance of a Damageplan gig (a band he formed with his drumming brother and fellow Pantera bandmate, Vinnie Paul) in Columbus, Ohio on 8 December 2004.

In the footage below, Madonna breaks into the main guitar riff from Pantera's song A New Level, from their 1992 debut record Vulgar Display of Power. And she surprisingly does it justice! There's even a comparison with footage of Dimebag busting out the riff, just for you non-believers.

Watching this reminded me of when Tori Amos transformed Slayer's Raining Blood into one of the most haunting pieces of music I've ever heard. The piano pounding redhead converted one of the metal gods' defining songs into an arrangement of sinister ghost melodies for her album Strange Little Girls, a concept album where Ms Amos covered songs originally written and performed by men and reinterpreted them from a female's perspective.

Not the best quality video, but you get the jist! Go download the track or buy the album!

Perhaps I've opened up a can of worms here, but let me know what cover songs you prefer to their original versions!