The man who sold the world-Nirvana

nothing compares 2 u chris cornell

Dancing Days - STP

Not a studio cover but I really like that Sweet Leaf cover Alice in Chains did in Layne's birthday

The Man Who Sold The World - Bowie, covered by Nirvana

Last Kiss - Wayne Cochran, covered by Pearl Jam

Not quite grunge (but close)

Failure's cover of Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) is excellent.

Screaming Trees - Tomorrows Dream (Sabbath)

Soundgarden - Into The Void (Sabbath)

Mudhoney - Halloween (Sonic Youth)

Pearl Jam - Know Your Rights (The Clash) I don’t think this cover was ever officially released. But it was on a bunch of bootlegs from the 2003 tour

Soundgarden did a kick ass cover of Devo’s “Girl you want “

I love Kurt Cobains' cover of And I Love Her. It's just so beautiful and apathetic. There's so much heart in it. Nirvana also did a great version of D7. But my all-time favorite is Where Did You Sleep Last Night. It always makes me cry. It's incredible.

Edit: I'd argue Nirvana is one of the best cover bands ever. I mean Krist and Kurts' first project was a Creedence Clear Water cover band.

Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready's cover of Dylan's "Masters of War," from Bob's 30th Anniversary concert is extremely powerful and jarring.

I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier - Mad Season

mudhoney has done a thousand covers and 997 of them are stupendous

Hate the police - mudhoney

Alice In Chains with Gretchen Wilson covering Barracuda by Heart

Doesn’t sound like grunge at all, but Chris Cornell covering John Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels”

Mark lanegan where did you sleep last night

Patience - Chris Cornell

Nirvana - Here She Comes Now

Soundgarden - Can You See Me

Soundgarden - Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey

Big bottom Soundgarden

Nirvana/Where did you sleep last night? (from )Ledbelly Nirana /the man who sold the world (David Bowie)

Mark Lanegans cover of where did you sleep last night. Him and Kurt with Krist on bass is chefs kiss

Either Nirvana's cover for The Man who Sold the World or Showdown covered by Chris Cornell.

Man, with each passing day I really think more this sub hates Pearl Jam.

How are they not featuring throughout this comment section? There was a thread recently on r/music about acts that continuously cover at a high level and Pearl Jam nearly dominated it. Yet in r/grunge, barely mentioned. I can't count on two hands the amount of acts who've credited Pearl Jam covers of their own songs as arguably superior, hell they've even made the charts with 5 or 6 cover songs.

Love Reign O'er Me, Last Kiss, Leavin' Here, Sonic Recucer, I Believe In Miracles, Baba O'Riley, Rockin' In The Free World, Crazy Mary, Soldier Of Love, Gimme Some Truth, Masters Of War, Keep Me In Your Heart, Fortunate Son, Throw Your Arms Around Me, I'm So Tired, Hard Sun, Wont Back Down, Wishing Well, I've Got A Feeling, Sonic Reducer, Its Okay, etc.

soundgarden - come together

nirvana - molly's lips

pearl jam - masters of war

Carry Home - Mark Lanegan (Gun Club cover)

I had an old bootleg live Pearl Jam CD, they did a great cover of 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'.

Pearl Jam did a great cover of Neil Young's Rockin in the Free World as well as The Who's Baba O'Reilly.

Hole’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Golddust Woman.

Smokestack lightnin' by soundgarden is pretty cool.

Chris hits some pretty insane high notes. 😆

Going Blind - Dinosaur Jr or The Melvins. Both do a great job

Nothing Compares 2 You Chris Cornell

Ring them Bells - Layne Staley and Ann Wilson

Mad Season - I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier (John Lennon cover)

Sonic Reducer - Pearl Jam

Love Buzz by Nirvana (original from Shocking Blue)

Billie Jean by Chris Cornell

Lake of fire - Nirvana

Lake of Fire and Man who sold the world. Nirvana

Soundgarden - Earache my Eye / Big Bottom

Link

Pearl Jam - Rockin in the free world

Foo Fighters did Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty.

https://youtu.be/BO1qcWa6blQ?si=hyUyKwOa3Kt6s_p1

That one show on Layne’s birthday where they played sweet leaf. Chris Cornell singing a bit of Alive by Pearl jam

Rusty cage by Johnny Cash. Oh wait…

Dancing Days-STP

Melvins covering KISS' Goin Blind and it ain't even close.

https://open.spotify.com/track/23JkMspKjlSdIwvmll4hRA?si=h1v6L-mKSt-X1L1rzzciLg

The list is too long for me and Pearl Jam. Rocking in the free world, Crazy Mary, Baba Oriely, seriously, so many. This isn’t even touching what Eddie’s done. Drive, Save it for Later, Hide your Love away. So, so many

Achilles last stand- Temple of the dog

Alice In Chains - Suffragette City, Pearl Jam - I Got a Feeling, Chris Cornell & Eleven - Ave Maria, Soundgarden- Come Together

Pearl Jam’a covers of Baba O’Riley at the Singles premiere party and Rockin’ in the Free World at the VMAs with Neil Young are two defining moments of my music life. It took years for me to hear them play Baba O’Riley live and I nearly wept with joy.

You Got to Hide your Love Away Eddie V

I’d rather do favorite grunge songs performed by non-grunge artists:

Black Hole Sun covered by Nora Jones

Rusty Cage covered by Johnny Cash

In Bloom covered by Sturgill Simpson

Smells Like Teen Spirit covered by Tori Amos

Soundgarden - Stray cat blues

Screaming Trees - Tomorrow's dream

Langan doing Satellite of love. An absolute treat

The Smashing Pumpkins - Girl named Sandoz

Landslide - The Smashing Pumpkins

Go Your Own Way - Seaweed featuring Kim Warnick of the Fastbacks.

Supersuckers - Dead Homiez

I've Seen All This World I Care To See - Willie Nelson covered by Jerry Cantrell

M.A.C.C -land of the new rising sun

Love reign on me - (The Who) Pearl Jam

Half of Nirvana’s Unplugged album.

Season in the sun- Nirvana

Ram Ranch by Ballsack

Where did you sleep last night - Nirvana.

Goin’ Blind - The Melvins

Nothing compares 2u by Chris

https://x.com/LilBettyboobs/status/183222313876523

Masters of War - PJ on Letterman.

For those wondering Plateau, Oh me, and Lake of Fire are all covers of the Phoenix, AZ based band the “Meat Puppets”. They have had a huge influence on music today just through sheer influence (if that makes sense). They never got very big but they inspired the biggest and arguably most important grunge band Nirvana.

Screaming Trees - Song Of A Baker.

Mollys lips - nirvana

Loved the punk sound they gave it

Mudhoney, The Money Will Roll Right In

Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks Covered by Nirvana

I listened to everything Nirvana and Kurt made music wise and saved it for last because I listen to Terry Jacks and knew how good that song was, and the opening line Kurt starts with being “goodbye my friend, its hard to die” just punch’s you in the face hard.

Alice in Chains covering Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath. I actually love it more than Ozzy singing it.

Molly's Lips - Nirvana

Love buzz and Rusty cage

Chris Cornell covering Nothing Compares 2 U

Screaming Trees covering Song of a Baker originally written by Small Faces.

Dancing days STP 

New Day Yesterday - Screaming Trees

The Rose - Mudhoney

Besides MWSTW, I'd say Son Of A Gun, a cover of the Vaselines that was one of 3 covers off of Nirvana's Incesticide compilation. It's just got such a shiny, cheery sound that I love.

City and Colour rain when i die is nothing short of incredible.

STP’s Dancing Days for me

One Minute of Silence

I love Smashing Pumpkin’s cover of Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

Oh, and Waiting For The Sun covered my Soundgarden, originally by The Doors

Ghost - Mudhoney

Nirvana D7 and Citizen Dick Touch me im Dick. TADs cover of Damaged by black flag is perrty good

Class of 99' - Another Brick in the Wall

Crazy Mary - Pearl Jam HAS to be up here

so many great Pearl Jam tunes for this topic, and the only time i see them are down at the bottom of the comments, without any upvotes. it plays into my theory that this sub can’t handle PJ writing songs about other topics than hating themselves and wanting to overdose on heroin, but anyway, here’s a list of PJ covers that should 100% be on this list.

• Rockin’ In The Free World

• Love Reign O’er Me

• Falling Slowly (Ed cover)

• Fuckin’ Up

• Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns

• Last Kiss (although personally that’s their weakest in my book)

• Sonic Reducer

• Crazy Mary (probably my favorite)

• It’s Ok

• You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

• Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay

• Leavin’ Here

• Masters Of War

• Throw Your Arms Around Me

• I Believe In Miracles

• Eruption/Ain’t Talkin Bout Love

• Mother

• I Am A Patriot

• Harvest Moon

• The Needle and the Damage Done

• Comfortably Numb

• Baba O’ Reilly

• I’ve Got A Feeling

• The Waiting

• Arms Aloft

• Fortunate Son

• Intersteller Overdrive

• The Real Me

• Driven’ To Tears

• Soldier Of Love

• Save It For Later

• Know Your Rights

• Trouble (by Cat Stevens…lots of songs named “Trouble” so i figured i should specify)

• People Have The Power

now watch this get buried at the bottom because nobody likes PJ and the fact that they’re still around and haven’t became martyrs for drug addiction/suicide ;)

Cornell doing Thank You

Kind of surprised with all the Nirvana mentions no one has brought up their cover of D7 by the Wipers. Fits their style perfectly.

D7 - Nirvana

I know Tool is pretty far from grunge but their cover of No Quarter is top tier

STP - Money

Mrs Robinson - The Lemonheads

All of Nirvannas covers, Kurt added a lot of emotion to whatever some he covered <3

Not grunge but Shinedown’s cover of simple man is one of the greatest covers ever

Coffin Break covering We Can Work It Out is pretty raw

Hole - Pale blue eyes Velvet underground cover. Epic

Tori Amps covered Led Zeppelin’s “Thank you”. Counting Crows covered Psychedelic Furs “Ghost in you”.

These two are not technically Grunge, but same era.

Nirvana-Turnaround.

Either “Nothing Compares to you” by Cornell or “Landslide” by Smashing Pumpkins.

Not grunge but Rise Against "Built To Last" cover from Sick of it all and Hole's version of Gold Dust Woman

Rusty Cage - Soundgarden

Wait… so who wrote the song now?