When an artist performs a cover song, especially alternative or punk artists, it's usually reserved for live shows or as a bonus track for an album, but on rare occasions these cover songs make their way into the album's proper tracklisting. However, even more rare is when an artist includes multiple cover songs on a single album. Here are five alternative rock albums with more than one cover song (excluding cover albums, of course).
1. Minutemen - Double Nickels On the Dime/3-Way Tie (For Last) (1984/1985)
When the Minutemen heard that labelmate Hüsker Dü was releasing a double album in 1984, it was inspired to release a double album of its own, which became the massive Double Nickels On the Dime, an album with a staggering 45 songs. On side four of the album's original vinyl release, the band placed two cover songs right next to one another: Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" and Steely Dan's "Dr. Wu," which are some defiantly non-punk choices for such a beloved punk band. The band would outdo itself on its next and final album 3-Way Tie (For Last), which featured five covers, including CCR's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
2. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One (1997)
Yo La Tengo is known for its huge repertoire of cover songs, so much so that the band would make annual visits to WFMU in Jersey City and attempt to perform any song the listeners requested (these recordings were compiled on the album Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics). Though the band hasn't recorded a cover song for one of its albums in over ten years (other than a covers album released under the name "Condo F**ks"), it would regularly record covers throughout the '80s and '90s, including two for its 1997 classic I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One: the Beach Boys' "Little Honda" and Anita Bryant's "My Little Corner of the World."
3. Ramones - Rocket to Russia (1977)
Though many other New York punk bands of the '70s were conceptually progressive and avant-garde, such as Patti Smith and Talking Heads, the Ramones were unapologetic champions of simple, old school rock 'n' roll, and showed its retro influences through its choice of cover songs. On the Ramones' third album Rocket to Russia, the band covered two rock songs from the late '50s-early '60s: Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance" and The Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird."
4. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - From Her To Eternity (1984)
To kick off his solo career, Nick Cave made some bizarre choices. The first single he released as a solo artist wasn't an original song, but a cover of Elvis Presley's "In The Ghetto," and for the opening track to his debut album From Her To Eternity, he chose another cover: Leonard Cohen's "Avalanche." Either Cave wasn't yet confident in his abilities as a songwriter, or he was so confident that he saw no harm in using someone else's song as an opening statement.
5. Jeff Buckley - Grace (1994)
Jeff Buckley's most famous song by far is his heavenly version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," but this wasn't the only cover song on his debut (and only) album Grace. The album's fourth track is a dream-like cover of "Lilac Wine," while the album's eighth track is a rendition of the Renaissance-era hymn "Corpus Christi Carol," inspired by a version sung by opera singer Janet Baker.
