To combine the Japanese and cover song posts: The greatest pop cover version in the history of recorded popular music ever — and by popular music I only mean music since the ’50s, not “popular music” in the Richard Thompson sense — is (of course) Shonen Knife’s version of the Carpenters’ “Top of the World,” off the If I Were A Carpenter tribute album.

Hear it (5.44 mb, 192 kbps m4a).

Popularity: 1% [?]