While I have grown fond of a great cover tune, I have also developed a severe disdain of bands covering songs and completely butchering them. There's nothing wrong with covering a great song, but don't attempt it if you can't make it your own and do the original justice.
When I first got into radio, (big) bands weren't really doing covers. Yeah, every so often one would pop up, but they weren't as evident as they are today. When the tidal wave of these big bands doing covers first hit, I was adamantly opposed to the idea of cover songs. To me, they were for small bands who play the bars on the weekend. Yeah, that sounds a bit harsh, but it's what I honestly felt.
So I was perusing around on Youtube listening to various Marilyn Manson cover songs and realized this guy has done a ton of cover songs. Way more than I ever knew.
First and foremost, I am still mad that Coal Chamber broke up. Today's second hand song comes from Coal Chamber, with the help of the Prince of Darkness.
I was surfing around on YouTube and found a cover Limp Bizkit did at Woodstock '99. I knew they covered "Thieves" (Ministry) but completely forgot about it. Say what you want about Limp Bizkit and/or cover songs, personally I dig them both. You also have to give credit to a front man and band that can command 200,000 like they did.
My daily dose of cover tunes is not really rock, but they're all Texan, and that's fine in my book. Out of Austin, The Gourds covered Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" many years ago and if you were to see them live you'd see that it's still a big hit for them and their fans.