The Best Covers

I believe I can be brief with this post: these are the best covers I've heard of songs that are familiar to most people and many of which are old faves with most people. See if you can guess the original tunes:

It Takes Two To Tango

Ever since the tango became fashionable in 1911, many people around the world have tried to emulate it. One reason is that many Argentine tango artists went on tour in the United States and in Europe. Tango became wildly popular in Finland and the country even has its own tango style and culture. From Eino Gron (the undisputed king of the tango in Finland in the 1960s) to Roland Alphonso (from Jamaica, a very primitive style of tango indeed, complete with bongos), you could travel the world in search of unique tangos.

Songs to Get High On

Music is the best drug there is. I don't need to say anything more, I think.

Geography

Not only are there songs with one-word titles that are people's names, there are tunes that are one-word that are names of places. I have tried to stick to place names sung by people from that place, but there are exceptions, such as that Polish singer who sang about the Galapagos. Many of these songs are about the beauty and wonders of those places.

The Name Game

I will make this short and to the point. There is that odd song whose title is simply a name. More often girls' names than boys'. Most of the names are run of the mill like Julie, Sammy, and Denise, but some are more exotic like Andrei, Jeremie, and Karmela. Some names in certain countries became very popular when these songs were hits.

Foreign Fab Four

Ever since 1963, the Beatles have been loved by millions around the globe and continue to inspire everyone. Just as every country in the world had its own Elvis, every country had its own Beatles. In many places, the most popular groups and singers usually recorded at least one Beatles song. Tunes by the Fab Four have popped up in very interesting places, such as Thailand, and sung in languages as diverse as Latvian and Hebrew. Some people, such as Augusto Righetti in Italy, made a career out of covering Beatles songs.

ELVIS

Every country in the world had their own brand of Elvis. He might have resembled Elvis in looks, he probably could sing like Elvis, or he could have sure as hell sounded a lot like Elvis! Everybody loved Elvis. They also sang his songs in their own languages too. Here is a sample of international Elvis covers: