Anyone have some favorite covers of popular songs?

The track I’m recommending is the Postmodern Jukebox cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” featuring Ariana Savalas on vocals.

For your requirements

popular song

Yes - the original got a ton of airplay on MTV and radio in the early 90s

from the 80s or 90s

Yes

hard rock or metal version

Nope

female vocalist

Yes

Link:

https://youtu.be/bTfz36WArSU

If Savalas sounds familiar, her dad is the actor Telly Savalas.

Sleep Theory - Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC.
Bad Wolves - Zombie by The Cranberries.
Daughtry - Separate Ways by Journey.
5 Finger Death Punch - Bad Company by Bad Company.
All that Remains - The Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks.
Disturbed - The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel.
Disturbed - Land of Confusion by Genesis.
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson.
A Day To Remember - Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson.
Electric Callboy - Everytime We Touch by Cascada.
Framing Handly - Lollipop by Lil Wayne.
Our Last Night - Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush.

There's definitely more, but those are some that I've enjoyed, sorry no I females in the list though, except a collab on Separate Ways.

Nirvana version of "where did you sleep last night"

Hailstorm doing Daft Punk’s Get Lucky is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Johnny Cash's version of Hurt https://open.spotify.com/track/28cnXtME493VX9NOw9cIUh

Honestly, most anything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a pop punk band I used to listen to a lot in the oughts that strictly performs covers. Favs include “My Boyfriends Back” “Stand By Your Man” and “Sloop John B”

Boys of Summer - The Ataris

Don Henley's 1984 version is nice, but this early 00s power pop version hits so good.

Placebo's version of Running up that Hill is the definitive version. Fight me.

Hurt - Johnny Cash

Toto - Africa (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli feat. Rabea & Hannah)

This cover should meet just about all of your criteria, but it's already a few years old.

AWOL nations got a cover album a couple years ago. There is at least one Abba song on it.

Chris Cornell did a couple of covers I cant get enough of. Acoustic Nothing Compares to you.

And a cover/mashup of Metallica's Ones lyrics to U2s One Lyrics which is amazing.

I follow a guy called Leo Morachioli who does metal covers of popular songs. I really enjoy Leo's version of toss a coin to your witcher and also his cover over final countdown. His videos are rad.

Lourdes all along the watchtower is good

Alien Ant Farm did a fun cover of Smooth Criminal is good too

Sultans of Swing (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli feat. Mary Spender)

Cover - check
Popular song - check
From 80s or 90s - check
Redone into metal - check
Female vocalist - check!

Bonus song: Manhattan Skyline by Ihsahn feat. Einar Solberg
It's not harder than the original, but Ihsahn and Einar are some of the most influential metal musicians out there

I never found a metal rendition of a 'softer' song that's better than the original so I got nothing on that.

But here's few of some artis I follow.

Eleanor Rigby - Josh Turner I think most of the song he cover is old (idk I don't really listen to classic song). But good lord, he's talented af.

Jack Conte (CEO of Patreon) are on both of these. Pomplamoose is his band with his wife Nataly Dawn.

Scary pockets brings different singer (and other instrument) each song, mostly funk forward.

Pomplamoose - Mr Blue Sky

Just the 2 of us - Scary Pockets

If you like those two, you probably also like Lawrence

This is just straight up jazz but they're super good. Young Original - Its a lovely day today

Children of Bodom cover of Oops I Did it Again

Marilyn Manson's cover of Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics is a personal favorite

Hurt by Johnny Cash

Republica's cover of Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric

Which also Dead Weather did I think

Wind Rose - Diggy Diggy Hole

https://youtu.be/34CZjsEI1yU

Love this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_NEFpri0g

I wanna be like you (jungle book) by psychedelic porn crumpets. Give it a try, it's good.

The standouts for me are A Perfect Circle doing covers of People are People by Depeche Mode and Peace, Love, and Understanding by Brinsley Schwarz.

The band Tragedy started out as a heavy metal BeeGees cover band, I believe, but expanded to do hard rock covers of disco, pop, and adult contemporary staples. I'm not a big Abba fan but I love every one of this band's covers and their cover of Madonna's Borderline.

https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCe33AhFCT2agDzBideLHGRw

Pomplamoose - Pumped Up Kicks/Radiohead's Creep mashup comes to mind for me. Creep 'Everything in it's right place'* which was recorded in the 90s

I like Denzel Curry's cover of Bulls on Parade.

• Joy Division’s She's Lost Control covered by Spoek Mathbo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKfwSFI8LhQ
• Talking Heads’ entire Remain in Light album covered by Angélique Kidjo: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mbIYOh0HJq4wi9oYI-SjACbkSJHC_u7Ng

 
Edit to add: Apparently bands like to cover This Must be the Place.

I misread the original post. This one isn't female but it is a (prog) metal cover of Take on Me (A-Ha) by the band Leprous

https://youtu.be/Te2MR6j5Qhg?is=pwBpxHfcAFXb5aiP

The whole channel is just great covers being made on the fly so I'm sure there's some stuff in there you'd enjoy

Motörhead - Heroes

Original by David Bowie 1977.

motörhead recorded the cover version while recording their last album in 2015.

Generally I would say I like the music of Bowie better than motörhead, but in this case, their cover of his song is better than the original.

Thunderstruck by Walk Off the Earth. Female vocalist, a wild twist on instuments that just seems to work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RnGkIxhFGU

I know it's probably not what you're asking for but there's an album where a bunch of Japanese anime voice actresses did covers for popular songs from the 80s and 90s. It called Voice Actresses Legendary Punk Songs Collection and here's a playlist that has most of the songs (one of them is unavailable for some reason).

Outside of that, I mostly only know bands who have covers of video game music (and some movies) from the 80s and 90s. If you are counting those, here are some examples of them:

Lighting Strikes Again and Metal Squad from Thunder Force IV by SSH. SSH is known for metal covers of old video game music, so this is just one example of his music.

Cranial Syphon by Armcannon, which is a cover of some song from Metroid but I'm not familiar with that game so I don't know what it is exactly. On top of covers for other video game music, they also have stuff like the Ghostbuster's theme.

Kraid by Metroid Metal, which is obviously another metroid song (possibly the same one). There music was a bit hard to find on YouTube, I've forgotten where I first heard their music before but Youtube might not be the best platform to find the rest of their music.

Battle Scene from Final fantasy by The Black Mages. While they are currently disbanded, they were known for rock/metal covers of music from the Final Fantasy games (which makes sense given that the band was created by Nobuo Uematsu himself). They did briefly rebrand as "Earthbound Papas" for one album because not only did they want to cover more than just the Final Fantasy games but they also wanted to branch out to more genres.

I know for sure that there are some that I'm forgetting and there's also some that I don't feel like looking for examples for (mainly artists who've covered the music from the 90s era Touhou games). If asked, I may do through and provide them but I think I've provided more than enough already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scZY7VNV-Go Halestorm - Get Lucky (and a bunch others)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRKAL-i-UbE Alestorm - You are a Pirate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkRUF-aEkmI Animetal - Moonlight Densetsu

Anything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

The Protomen - The Cover Up

I really like this cover of Dead Man's Party

And for some Metal, as you requested, Everytime We Touch

(Embrace the chaos of my picks)

Gimme More (SID)

Mad World

Ocarina of Time as a Prog Rock Album

Take Me to Snurch

Gangnam Style

In This Moment covered In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. It's a slow burn, but it's great!

Joe Jacksons cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh, Well" rocks! The Ramones cover of the old 1960's Spiderman TV theme song was excellent! Nancy Griffith's cover of "Tecumseh Valley" by Townes Van Zandt always leaves a lump in my throat.

Jack Johnson covered Badfish by sublime for a tribute album. I'm not really familiar with his music, but damn his version is better than the original to me.

And iron and wine's cover of waiting on a Superman by the flaming lips. It's a heartbreaking song in his whisper-singing.

For a different feel, Tool's cover of No Quarter.

My favorite is in the opposite direction - Porter Robinson covering Fontaines DC "favorite" in a 90s pop rock style. Such a good version of such a good song, and it's worth reading the interview where he talks about recording it.

Maybe sorrrttttt of the opposite of your "especially", but:

Do They Owe Us A Living? by Croy and the Boys, which is a country cover of the 70s punk song by Crass.

Absolutely love this song.

Puddle of Mud has a nice Nirvana cover

Covers of popular songs

Okay...

from the 80s or 90s

...ah, fuck. Yeah, the original is from 2013 😄

redone today into a hard rock or metal version.

Check!

Bonus if it's a female vocalist.

Well, 2 out of 3 is good enough: Take Me to Church by The Agonist

I know there's a whole anti cars movement but I think it's a pretty good cover

https://youtu.be/nDh6rr36spU

I love Shinedown's cover of Simple Man.

If you want covers better than originals, Johnny Cash is your man. His 'America 1-4' albums are full of them.

Oh, I'm so bookmarking this discussi.

Tweeter and the Monkey Man - The Headstones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLEvl_uplUk

GWAR did a cover of Pink Pony Club

It's infinitely better to the original. I known it's a new song. I don't care.

The Shrek 2 'fairy godmother' cover of I Need a Hero is far more enjoyable than the original one imo.

Others that come to mind have already been listed here..

Neither metal nor female singer, but this is one of the best covers ever.

Macha Loved Bedhead - Believe

The A.V. Club used to do a series where bands would come on and choose from a list of songs to cover. As the season goes on, the list shrinks and the covers get more exotic. You can search "av undercover" on YouTube to watch through the back catalog of old seasons for some pretty great covers. I don't think they do it anymore, but it ran for several years.

Maybe not what you are looking for, but unironically entertaining on several levels (at least to me)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWWBeaqdBas

Spice Girls - Wannabe (in the style of System Of A Down) feat. ‪@macglocky‬

Right round by Dope.

Absolute banger just no female singer.

Could have a look through the punk goes pop albums too there's some good stuff in there

Super Guitar Bros. featuring Dan Avidan - Kiss From A Rose

Country roads.

Perfect Strangers by Yob

Straight Up by Mares of Thrace (this is what you're looking for)

Joint State (South African rock band) covering Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72U7UYmxA3k

I'm unable to meet your specific requirements, but i do have a playlist of covers i enjoy. Be warned, there is alot of weeb shit and video games. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRuZiBzA6WvKe-FKkZ0rfltPbFyU6BFt

Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen/John Cale's Hallelujah is the definitive version.

The style is alt pop rock bullshit, so it might not be your bag, but Weezer has a whole album of covers from that era, and I am absolutely enamored with that album, the "teal" album.

Also featuring this banger of a music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk5Dwg5zm2U (Africa)

22 Jacks - Message in a Bottle

Doesn't quite fit the requirements perfectly but I love Ella Red's soft cover of MCR's I'm not okay (I promise).

Radio goo goo by electric Six. Is danger danger High Voltage!

How do you feel about ska?

Save Ferris - Come on Eileen

The Interrupters - Bad Guy

No Doubt - It's My Life

Yes Sir, I can Boogie as performed by The Fratellis. The original was from the 70's but I'm told people liked it.

Not really sure if it is relevant to what you're asking, but I think it's so cool. https://youtu.be/NLnfFUZNkww?

Guano Apes - Big in Japan Goldeneye - Wallace Vanboven Message in a bottle - Machine Head Baby one more time - August burns red Baby one more time - Children of bodom Enjoy the silence - Lacuna coil Paranoid - Megadeath Wicked game - Stone sour Tainted love - Marilyn Manson

Some match your requirements better than others

My all time favorite cover. Hey Ya - Cover by The Blanks

Every cover by Scary Pockets is incredible like sweet child o' mine

The Bad Plus released an albulm with a female vocalist that covers songs from around that time:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kYOVekH8fgd2t1h3GMLmxCmp5D_tIs-KE

Maphra

Hey Ya But It's Let The Bodies Hit The Floor

Call Me Maybe In Minor Key

Uptown Funk But Every Other Beat Is Missing

GnR's Sympathy for the Devil is better than the original

Please Don't Touch by Motorhead/Girl School

Originally recorded in 1959 by Johnny Kid and the Pirates

Edit: never mind, I should have read the metal sentence LOL

Lo Fang, covering Your The One That I Want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYluMAO1b7Y

And for something weirder, Ohgr covering Borderline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT7yQ45xLVI

Careless Whisper in Japanese i know it screams AI, but its actually old cover

The Replicants had a self-titled album of covers in 1995 and they are all killer rock versions. Check it out. No female singer though. They do a great cover of Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young.

This retired the whole genre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyb_alTkMQ

Sid Vicious's version of I Did It My Way. I think originally from the 1980s.

I Melt With You - Bowling for Soup

Its a fairly recent one, but Maphra's cover of Doomed by Bring Me The Horizon. It's crazy good!

Deftones - No Ordinary Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC8fsX-B0BE

Archenemy made a whole album of coversin metal, their vocalist is a woman (Alissa White-Gluz). It includes cover of bands like: Tears of Fear, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Europe and Manowar.

Screaming Females have a cover of Shake It off that absolutely fucks: https://youtu.be/Zm1-bVYio1k