The 50 Worst Albums Ever!

Day 3: Crappy Covers Albums. Featuring Ozzy, GN’R, Weiland and more. Plus: Have your say!

The new issue of Classic Rock features a rundown of the 50 Worst Albums Ever.

From incomprehensibly awful solo records to ill-advised dabblings with gay disco, it’s a litany of disaster that shows exactly what happens when albums go bad. Inside the issue, you can find the likes of Kiss’s Gene Simmons, Queen’s Brian May and Keith Emerson of ELP defending – or in some cases, apologising for – their actions.

Over the next few days, we’ll take a closer look at all 50 of these solid gold stinkers here on the Classic Rock website. And once you’ve taken these frankly indigestible offerings, we you to tell us what your worst albums are.

Day 3 of our series is dedicated to the crappest covers albums ever unleashed on the world. Strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…

Check out Day 1 here and Day 2 here.

1 Ozzy Osbourne – Under Cover
Gawd bless Ozzy – he’s a national treasure. But somebody should have had a word with him before he decided to cover – well, murder – the likes of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man and Mott The Hoople’s All The Young Dudes. You can read Ozzy’s attempts to explain away the new album in the current issue of Classic Rock.

Redeeming track: A surprisingly heartfelt version of John Lennon’s Working Class Hero. Sadly, that’s not on YouTube, so here’s him having a bash at The Beatles’ In My Life.

2 Guns N’ Roses – The Spaghetti Incident?
The year is 1993 and you’re the biggest band in the world. What do you do? If you’re Guns N’ Roses, you record a collection of half-arsed covers of songs by the likes of the Misfits and The UK Subs. Oh, and you throw in a ‘controversial’ rhumba-paced cover of Charles Manson’s Look At Your Game, Girl for good measure. Cheers, Axl!

Redeeming track: Duff McKagan’s sozzled take on Johnny Thunders’ You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory. Go, pissed bass fella!

3 Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right
There was nothing wrong with their titanic pop rock anthems, but they decided to break them anyway. Cue a stripped-down acoustic album in which the ‘Jove’ tackle their own back catalogue. Badly. If you’ve ever wondered what You Give Love A Bad Name would sound like if it was reimagined as a stripped-down duet with D-list actress Olivia D’Abo, here’s your answer: rubbish.

Redeeming track: Blood On Blood – and even that only appears on the bonus DVD!

4 Scott Weiland – The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
You’d have thought the Scott Weiland and all things white and powdery would have been a marriage made in heaven. Oh no – this absolutely hatstand album of ‘festive’ covers is possibly the craziest thing he’s ever done. And that’s saying something. Don’t believe us? How about a reggae version of O! Holy Night.

Redeeming track: His Sinatra-tastic version of White Christmas.

Now it’s your turn. We want you to tell us the albums you think are worse than the ones on our list. Email your nomination, with a few words as to why it’s such a stinker, to classicrock@futurenet.com, headed ‘The Real Worst Album Ever’. We’ll print the best suggestions in the next issue of Classic Rock.

Come back tomorrow for more on the 50 Worst Albums Ever. The new issue of Classic Rock, featuring the full list of all 50 albums, is out now.