Five Awesome Versions Of The Smiths' "Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"!

As popular as The Smiths were in the '80s, for every die-hard fan, there were ten people put off by the band, for any number of reasons.  I was one of them, but have since made amends.  The rest of you who've yet to make the conversion, I simply offer one of the band's best songs (and a B-side at that!) covered by five different artists with varying degrees of success, but all proving that a good song is a good song is a good song.

Elefant (2005)

After two great, but under-promoted albums and a near-hit with 2002's "Misfit", the NYC garage rockers found themselves enlisted to make an '80s cover for the Disney flick "Sky High".  Their reading of the tune is pretty fasithful to the original, but singer Diego Garcia turns in an understated, yet compelling performance that makes this one of the best things the band ever did.

Dream Academy (1986)

The band covered the tune shortly after the Smiths released it in '84 and director John Hughes grabbed the instrumental version for use in the infamous Chicago Art Institute scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".  I recall reading an interview with Morrissey, who said that it was because of the song's use in that iconic film that he felt required to perform the song every time he performs in Chicago.  I contend that he should be required to play the song anyway based on the fact that it's one of his best.

Johnny Marr (2013)

While touring last year, Mar began performing the song again and, in doing so, reminded everyone why the song had been so great in the first place and that there is a reason Marr is regarded as one of the best guitarist of the last thirty years.

She and Him (2009)

While I'm normally lukewarm on the subject of Zooey Deschanel, chanteuse, I've got to hand it to the gal, who covered the tune for the soundtrack to the film "500 Days Of Summer", in which she starred.  I had never actually visualized the song in a loungey setting, but now that I've heard her take it in that direction, I'd be curious to hear someone like Lana Del Rey take a stab at it.

Muse (2001)

As the non-LP B-side to their double-A-side UK single "Feeling Good"/"Hyper Music", the band definitely took it upon themselves to give this tune "the Muse treatment", which, even back in 2001, was prone to unusual amounts of bombast thanks to Matthew Bellamy's operatic vocals and the band's usual wall of distorted guitars.