String Quartet Tributes

The first String Quartet Tribute cd I heard was Whisper: The String Quartet Tribute to The Cure. It was in rotation at WUOG and I played a track off of it during one of my early morning rotation shifts. Instrumental versions of some of my favorite Cure songs, I was in heaven! For those of you who don't know anything about the String Quartet Tribute series, I'll fill you in.

Vitamin Records is a Los Angeles based label that releases string quartet, lounge and electronic tributes to different pop and rock artists. Their very first release was The String Quartet Tribute to Led Zeppelin. It's definitely really interesting hearing some of these songs done in a completely different fashion. But for the most part, you can always tell what the song is once it starts playing.

All the songs are completely instrumental, and it's really quite impressive the way they interpret them. Some songs that you'd never think would sound beautiful, like Slayer's South of Heaven, sound amazing when played in a new way. There are a myriad number of String Quartet Tribute cds, including ones for Radiohead, Bjork, Sonic Youth, Jeff Buckley, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac, U2, Weezer, Pink Floyd, Elliot Smiths, and Guns 'n' Roses, just to name a few. I think there are over 170 in all, which is pretty amazing.

I really love the covers of these albums as well, because they try to mimic the actual album covers of the artists they're covering. For instance the cover for The String Quartet Tribute to the Smiths looks like it could've been the cover of an actual Smiths record.

And clearly, the cover of The String Quartet Tribute to Red Hot Chili Peppers is similar to the cover of Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

There are lot of great String Quartet Tribute songs. It might seem like I got a little carried away posting all of these tracks. Ok, so I definitely got carried away. But I couldn't help myself. So many of them are really good. So have at 'em.

You Shook Me All Night Long (from Back in the Baroque: The String Tribute to AC/DC)

3 Libras (from The String Quartet Tribute to A Perfect Circle)

Human Behaviuor (from Ice: The String Tribute to Bjork)

Last Goodbye (from The String Quartet Tribute to Jeff Buckley)

Clocks (from The String Quartet Tribute to Coldplay)

Boys Don't Cry (from Whisper: The String Quartet Tribute to The Cure)

Girls on Film (from The String Quartet Tribute to Duran Duran)

She Don't Use Jelly (from The String Quartet Tribute to The Flaming Lips)

Bizarre Love Triangle (from The String Quartet Tribute to Joy Division and New Order)

All These Things That I Have Done (from The String Quartet Tribute to The Killers)

Immigrant Song (from The String Quartet tribute to Led Zeppelin)

The Beautiful People (from The String Quartet Tribute to Marilyn Manson)

Intertiatic E.S.P. (from The String Quartet Tribute to The Mars Volta)

Closer (from The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails)

Come As You Are (from The String Quartet Tribute to Nirvana's Nevermind)

Wonderwall (from Decadence and Vanity: The String Quartet tribute to Oasis)

Here Comes Your Man (from The String Quartet Tribute to The Pixies)

No One Knows (from Strings for the Deaf: The String Quartet Tribute to Queens of the Stone Age)

No Surprises (from Strung Out On Ok Computer: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead)

Soul to Squeeze (from The String Quartet Tribute to Red Hot Chili Peppers)

South of Heaven (from The Evil You Dread: The String Quartet Tribute to Slayer)

Buddy Holly (from The String Quartet Tribute to Weezer)

Seven Nation Army (from The String Quartet Tribute to The White Stripes)