It’s a silly thought, but do you think musicians will ever run out of original music?

More than once I’ve had a professional guitarist tell me “there’s only so many chords.” Does that mean, sooner or later, every composition of notes will be a remake?

Maybe that explains why the music from the ’80s tune “99 Luftballoons” found its way into a ’98 rap single. (There must be some valid explanation for such ludicrousness.)

Will original music exist in the year 3000? How about movies? Are our ancestors going to be listening to “Kashmir 3000,” watching the re-release of “Saving Private Ryan?”

I doubt it. But stranger things have happened. (Chad Calek getting engaged is a good example.)

Either way, covers will always exist in the music world, and fans such as myself will always be around to get excited about them.

It must be the element of surprise that does it for me, but some of my best memories are hearing a live or recorded cover for the first time.

Anyone who caught Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas and Cool For August’s Gordon Vaughn belt out duets of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” at Stephens Auditorium last spring knows what I’m talking about.

Well, I can’t bring back those memories, but I can tell you where to find some amazing recorded covers in case you missed them first time around.

In the past few years, soundtracks have served as launching pads for good covers.

Filter’s version of the Three Dog Night classic “One” made “The X-Files” a must-buy this summer, while Hole’s “Gold Dust Woman” (Fleetwood Mac) did the same for “The Crow: City of Angels” a few years back.

One of the most underrated covers is courtesy of “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” The English group Kula Shaker astounds on Deep Purple’s “Hush.”

Other worthwhile soundtrack covers include Jewel’s “Sunshine Superman” (Donavan) on “I Shot Andy Warhol,” Devo’s “Head Like a Hole” (Nine Inch Nails) on “Supercop” and The Presidents of the United States of America’s “Video Killed the Radio Star” (The Buggles) on “The Wedding Singer.”

Tribute records are also loaded with quality covers. Pretty much everything on the Fleetwood Mac “Legacy” tribute is noteworthy, especially the Cranberries’ “Go Your Own Way,” which is just as cool as when Seaweed covered it for “Clerks.”

Stone Temple Pilot’s “Dancing Days” on the Led Zeppelin tribute “Encomium” is beautiful and makes any Zeppelin cover Puff Daddy has done look like “Simpson’s Sing the East Coast Rap Favorites.”

Ben Folds and his threesome salute lounge music with a creative cover of The Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use Jelly” on “Lounge-A-Palooza,” which also features lounge-flavored remakes by The Fun Lovin’ Criminals and The Brian Setzer Orchestra.

Bands do cover songs on their own records as well. Bloodhound Gang pulls off Run DMC’s “It’s Tricky” on “One Fierce Beer Coaster,” as does Cake with Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” on “Fashion Nugget.”

Sugar Ray wails on Adam Ant’s “Stand and Deliver” (“Floored”), Red Hot Chili Peppers wails harder on Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” (“Mother’s Milk”) and Limp Bizkit is king of wail on George Michael’s “Faith” (“Three Dollar Bill Y’all”).

A few more harder to find, but worth the search, hardcore covers are 1,000 Mona Lisas doing Alanis’s “You Outta Know” and Rage Against The Machine doing Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

There may even be a cover or two so hard to find, I haven’t heard them — a lounge version of “99 Luftballoons” or Puffy does “The Go-Gos.”

But I can’t say I didn’t try.

---

Corey Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.