As we mock cover bands, lest we not forget those great cover bands of the sixties and seventies like The Rolling Stones and ZZ Top (started out covering Muddy Waters) or God himself (E.C.'s entire early style is a cover of Robert Johnson).

What about Johnny Cash's haunting cover of Trent Reznor's Hurt, or Hendrix's cover of All Along the Watchtower, on which Dylan said was better than his original? I will even confess that the Roxanne-Tango in Moulin Rouge still gives me chills.

Cross-genre covers are not a bad thing when done by true musicians; only when either the source material or the re-interpretation lacks musicality.