Top 10 Worst Covers on Glee
#10: “The Final Countdown” “The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester”
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By season six of Glee, Will Schuester and Sue Sylvester had bickered and competed in just about every way imaginable. The two were no longer the same bitter rivals they were in earlier seasons, so it’s hard to understand why they suddenly needed to sing an overly competitive cover of Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. The singing is fine, of course, but the over the top facial expressions and ridiculous wigs make the whole number so embarrassing for both parties involved. This cover showed just how tiresome the Will and Sue rivalry had become, even though that definitely wasn’t the original intention of including this song in the episode.
#9: “A Little Less Conversation” “The Spanish Teacher”
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When a student complains about Mr. Schue’s incompetence as a Spanish teacher, he responds by singing this classic Elvis song partially in Spanish. With Will dressed as a matador and a mariachi band playing behind him, this song hardly proves his capability as a Spanish teacher. He even admits at the end of the number that he never wanted to be a Spanish teacher originally; it was just the only open position at the time. That much is completely believable, considering the super weird and stereotype-filled Spanglish disaster we just witnessed. We definitely agree with Santana - Will should just stick to what he’s good at: teaching Glee Club.
#8: “Baby Got Back” “Sadie Hawkins”
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Glee’s cover of Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s is about as far from the original version of the tune that you can get, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The song is meant to be a goofy and fun parody of the original, and it definitely comes across that way. The issue with this cover is that the new melody and many other aspects of the performance aren’t original to Glee at all; they came directly from Jonathan Coulton’s arrangement of the same song. Because it’s a cover of another artist’s song, FOX never credited Coulton or even asked permission to use his ideas in the first place. Therefore, any potential this number had was completely ruined by the controversy and scandal surrounding it.
#7: “I Still Believe / Super Bass” “Feud”
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This season four performance starts out normal enough, with Blaine and the rest of the Glee club singing a cover of Mariah Carey’s “I Still Believe”, but quickly transitions into an unexpected mash-up with Sue Sylvester going all out singing Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass”. Watching Jane Lynch clad all in pink leopard print performing under a black light feels like a fever dream, but it’s so painfully real. At the time, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj were in a very public feud on American Idol, which could explain how this insane mash-up idea came about. But even with context, this performance is one of the most jarring and shocking covers Glee has to offer.
#6: “Let’s Have a Kiki / Turkey Lurkey Time” “Thanksgiving”
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Speaking of terrible mash-ups, whose idea was this one? According to Glee, nothing says “Thanksgiving” like a classic drag queen party anthem from 2012 interrupted by a turkey-centric song from the 1968 musical “Promises, Promises”. These two songs should never have been mentioned in the same sentence, let alone turned into a mash-up. The entire number is nothing but chaos as a quiet Thanksgiving dinner transforms into a huge party, complete with a cameo from Perez Hilton as a party guest for a final bizarre cherry on top. At the end, Rachel proclaims that this has been the best Thanksgiving ever, but we’ll have to politely disagree.
#5: “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” “Previously Unaired Christmas”
Another Top 10 Glee Covers
It’s probably safe to say that no one could make a good cover of this ridiculous Christmas song, but that didn’t stop Glee from trying. Armed with helium balloons to raise the pitch of their voices, Santana, Rachel, and Kurt do their best imitation of Alvin and The Chipmunks for their new friend Cody. Compared to some of the beautiful Christmas carol covers Glee has done in the past, like “O Holy Night” or “Let It Snow”, this high-pitched holiday song easily became one of Glee’s most annoying and unnecessary covers.
#4: “Blurred Lines” “The End of Twerk”
As perhaps 2013’s most controversial pop song, “Blurred Lines” features lyrics that many interpret to be misogynistic and promoting a lack of consent in sexual situations. In spite of the controversies, Glee’s writers thought it would be a good idea to have their underage characters perform the song with their adult teacher. To make things even worse, Mr. Schue initiates the performance with the rest of the New Directions as a rebellion against Sue’s newly instated ban on twerking, leading his young students to sing along to questionable lyrics with even more questionable dance moves. We’ll have to agree with Sue on this one: high school students don’t need to be twerking, but watching them twerk next to their teacher is just unbelievably shocking.
#3: “Gangnam Style” “Thanksgiving”
Glee’s creator Ryan Murphy himself said this was the worst cover featured on Glee, and we have to say we can see where he’s coming from. Psy’s K-pop hit was insanely popular at the time, but it probably wasn’t the best choice to perform as a serious entry at Sectionals. Tina did get a much deserved moment in the spotlight for the solo, but this song definitely doesn’t show off all that she’s capable of musically. And for a final moment of musical whiplash, the song takes a suddenly dark turn when Marley passes out on stage due to malnutrition, bringing the whole insane performance to an abrupt end.
#2: “Thong Song” “Mash-Up”
It’s hard to tell if the original intention of this song was to be romantic, ridiculous, or both, but to us it just comes across as extremely embarrassing for everyone involved. Emma’s fiance Ken wants their first dance to be to this song, and Will is happy to help Emma practice her dancing as an excuse to spend extra time with her. It’s a good thing Glee is just a TV show, because in real life, this song, combined with Will’s odd dance moves and facial expressions, would scare any reasonable woman away. For a song performed so early in the series, it’s remarkably ridiculous and really set the bar high in the competition for the worst Glee cover. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “The Rain in Spain”, “Choke” The New Directions Boys Perform a Rock Cover of a “My Fair Lady” Song “Afternoon Delight”, “Sexy” An Incredibly Ironic Song for the Celibacy Club to Sing “Run Joey Run”, “Bad Reputation” Rachel’s Awkward Attempt at Appearng Popular & Desired “Friday”, “Prom Queen” “Glee”’s Take on Rebecca Black’s Widely Hated Viral Song “Red Solo Cup”, “Hold on to Sixteen” Sam Professes His Love of Plastic Drinkware
#1: “The Fox” “Puppet Master”
Top 10 Glee Covers
For a brief moment in pop culture history, this song was absolutely everywhere, prompting Glee writers to frantically come up with the best way to include it in their show. Their idea? Puppets. That’s right, they managed to make this bizarre tune even weirder by having Blaine give each character a puppet replica of themselves to perform the cover with. The original idea for this puppet number was to have the cast sing Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop”, but the song was changed to Ylvis’ viral hit for unspecified motives. We’re not sure if that would’ve been much better, but at least that version would’ve had fewer nonsensical and repetitive animal sounds.
