Could there be a band more widely covered than The Beatles? Time was, a Beatles cover was the safest of safe bets, a quick way to reinterpret, rerecord, or just repackage one of their hundred billion hit singles. By the 1970s, the bulk of The Beatles’ catalogue had become pop standards. Need a quick B-side for that soulful single, Aretha Fraklin? How about “Eleanor Rigby”? Need a straw to clutch at in order to stay halfway relevant, Bryan Adams? Try “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”!

We all love these Beatles covers. Many, like Joe Cocker’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” and Wilson Pickett’s “Hey Jude,” have even become as popular and well-loved as the originals. But just as the Fab Four’s discography goes deeper than their Number Ones, it follows that loads of musicians record Beatles covers for more than just proven bankability. Here are a handful of The Beatles’ worthier reinterpretations; ones which take the tunes at something other than face value.

10. Beastie Boys – The Sounds of Science

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onYwDMnbVCw

So this isn’t a strict cover per se, but it’s more than good enough to warrant a mention. Midway through the Beastie Boys’ seminal sample-heavy Paul’s Boutique, the band mixes together half a dozen Beatles tunes, as if in sheer contempt of being sued. Blending “Back in the USSR,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (and the reprise), the dippy bass line from “When I’m 64” and, most memorably, the end of “The End,” “The Sounds of Science” proved The Beatles as sample-worthy as “Funky Drummer” or The Supremes.

9. Nick Cave – Let It Be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdX769_xujo

There’s enough schmaltzy, shitty solo covers of Beatles songs on the I Am Sam soundtrack to embarrass, ugh I don’t know, a guy who writes greeting cards or the woman who does For Better or For Worse or something. But a sans-Bad Seeds Nick Cave has his moment with a stirring take on “Let It Be.” With the vague religious imagery and upbeat resignation to fatalism, the song suits Cave perfectly, resulting in a cover that—blasphemous though it may be to suggest—comes off better than the original.

8. Frank Zappa – I Am The Walrus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn1kPR00fxg

Late game Zappa is often ignored by many but the most hardened Zappaphiles. It’s as technically proficient as any Zappa, but the satire is so heavy handed and dated (take that Jerry Falwell!) that it usually doesn’t warrant much repeat listening. But his cover of “I Am The Walrus” is an exception. Performed frequently during the 1988 tour, Zappa’s band would bring all the quirkiness and kookiness and musical exactitude to The Beatles’ foremost anthem of surrealist nonsense. Due to copyright snafus, it’s never been officially released, but it is widely available on bootlegs. Just ask the hardened Zappaphile in your friend circle to track you down a copy.

7. Lemmy – Back in the USSR

There are a lot of good Beatles covers on the 2006 heavy metal tribute compilation Butchering With The Beatles. But Motörhead front man Lemmy Kilmister’s is the best. “Back in the USSR” lends itself perfectly to his hasty, gravelly vocals. Plus, all the lyrics about jetlag, Soviet women, and waking up somewhere where you don’t know where you are, make it, lyrically at least, the most metal song The Beatles have ever written.

6. “Weird” Al Yankovic –Taxman (Pac Man)

If there’s one problem with “Taxman” it’s that it’s not about the arcade game Pac Man. “Weird” Al’s version more than rectifies that. And if you don’t laugh at the high-pitched “Pac Man, get the cherrrrrry!” hook, then you don’t have a soul and shouldn’t be listening to “Weird” Al. Or, for that matter, The Beatles.

5. Hüsker Dü – Helter Skelter

If you want to cover The Beatles with a bit of an edge, you cover “Helter Skelter.” Any shitty hard rock act, from Aerosmith to Marilyn Manson to Mötley Crüe has done it. But Hüsker Dü’s cover is exceptional in the same way that all Hüsker Dü songs are exceptional. It’s noisy, sure, but there’s a sweetness to it. Like a lot of the earlier, more straight-up punkish, Hüsker Dü songs, it sounds a lot like the band is trying really hard to be heavy. Just like The Beatles version.

4. William Shatner – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

Okay, so William Shatner’s 1968 musical debut The Transformed Man may consistently rank among the worst albums ever released. But that’s mean. Remember Serial Joe? Or Econoline Crush? They’re way worse than William Shatner. But any way you cut it, you’ve got to give Shatner points for ambition. The Transformed Man put pop on par with Shakespeare, with the Shat sing-speaking radio hits with a bombast and practiced flourish befitting the man who used to grace the stage at Stratford. His version of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” (a.k.a. “Lucy….INTHESKY…With…Diamonds”) proves no exception. Unlike so many takes on The Beatles catalogue, nobody would ever fault Shatner for not injecting his own personality into the song.

3. Phish – All of The White Album

And while we’re giving away As for effort, jam band demigods Phish deserve a tip of the ol’ stoner-issue Cat in the Hat-style hat for performing The White Album in its entirety during a 1994 Halloween set. The band was known for their Halloween “musical costumes,” which have seen the band performing entire albums by The Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and Little Feat, among others. But their track-for-track takedown of The Beatles ambitious double-LP may be their finest. If “Revolution 9” was ever want for anything, it was a vacuum cleaner solo performed by Phish drummer Jon Fishman in a dress.

2. Residents – Hey Jude

[fast forward to 6:56]

Oddball avantists The Residents have a weird reverence for the Fab Four. Their 1973 Ralph Records debut, Meet The Residents, borrowed its title and album art from With The Beatles!, and their 1977 single “Beyond the Valley of A Day In The Life” saw them taking the sound collage experimentation of Lennon’s “Revolution 9” to its parodic endpoint, well before “mash-ups” were even a thing. But on their 1976 pop patchwork Third Reich ‘n’ Roll, The Residents minted one of the more potent moments of Beatlephilia. As Reich comes to a close, a wonky version of the guitar solo from “Hey Jude” runs underneath distorted vocals from the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” It’s a brilliant equivalence, and one which changes how you listen to both songs (like that first time you realized “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Werewolves of London” are the same song). To wit, the “Jude”/”Sympathy” combo would later be repeated by The Dirtbombs in the coda to their cover of the Stones’ “No Expectations” (that’s Norton 9654, nerds).

1. Sonic Youth – Within You Without You

Sonic Youth covering The Beatles plays like The Beatles covering Chuck Berry. It’s an epoch-defining band tipping their hat to those who went before. (It may be odd for the band that once preached “Kill Yr. Idols” to pay homage thusly, but like anything Sonic Youth does, there appears to be a considerable disjoint between the product and the packaging). But besides all this, SY’s take on “Within You Without You” kills, transposing the sitar-noodling psychedelia of the original against the band’s trademark landscape of aural fuzz.