35 Years After 'Message In A Bottle,' Music Times Considers Covers from Big-Name Performers: John Mayer, Thirty Seconds to Mars and More

The Police finally hit no. 1 on the charts in the UK on this 35 years ago with its classic track "Message In A Bottle." Music Times has rounded up five cover versions recorded over the years and ranked them to see how well they live up/manage to separate themselves from the original version by messrs. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland.

05) Thirty Seconds to Mars (2007)

Thirty Seconds to Mars probably deserves a reprieve of sorts from being ranked for this list. Although the band has covered The Police's hit many times during live concerts, the only official recorded version was done for an AOL Sessions Undercover session during 2006. That means that Jared Leto's brother, drummer Shannon Leto, was totally absent (as is wont to happen during acoustic sessions) leaving just Jared and guitarist Tomo Miličević on guitars. The pair accelerated the pace but only slightly enough to make it awkward.

04) Matisyahu (2006)

The Police were among the first wave of white performers assimilating the traits of reggae into its music, so of course Matisyahu would feel at home covering the appropriately dubby "Message In A Bottle." The cover begins a little more rock 'n' roll than we would've expected from such a reggae-tinged performer but he reaches full-Jamaica for the title line. It's a passable enough cover until the vocalist gets ambitious and replaces the bridge with a rapped verse about the dangers of the "vampire" media (MTV) and casual sex. Too much of a stretch for our liking.

03) Leatherface (1991)

Those who bought the rerelease of Leatherface's 1991 album Mush got a few bonus tracks plus this Police cover for good measure. What the British punk band does with the classic version isn't exactly complex—the band just speeds it up dramatically—but it's effective. Unlike the Thirty Seconds cover, this version hustles along at a clip dramatic enough to alter the nature of the song, versus making it sound like an uncomfortable imitation. The harsh vocals of frontman Frankie Stubbs also make for a different experience from that of the silky-smooth Sting.

02) John Mayer (2003)

John Mayer's biggest problem on Any Given Thursday is the raucous crowd of screaming females in the Birmingham, AL crowd. This only somewhat muddies up his entirely acoustic cover of "Message In A Bottle" however. He does a wise thing considering the instrument in his hand: Slowing things down is almost always more effective with an acoustic guitar compared to speeding them up. It results in a cover that's a tad long-in-the-tooth but maintains the sense of "cool" that pervades throughout Mayer's discography.

01) Machine Head (1999)

Many metalheads consider Machine Head's The Burning Red to be the band's "Black Album" moment, where it went from authentic thrash to overly pop-friendly. You might get that idea from listening to this cover, even if the band has maintained its rough edge in the years to come. Literally dozens of metal bands have turned "Message in A Bottle" into a screamfest just to paradox the original but Robb Flynn and company opt to open creepily with an echoing version of the signature riff...more trapped in a cave than on an island. The thrash doesn't even kick in until verse two but still at a much less hardcore clip than we're used to for the band. This cover deserves credit for being modified to the band's forte while still balancing the original intent of The Police.

Tags

Thirty Seconds to Mars, John Mayer, Machine Head