I was just surfing the internet and was looking for something about Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild. That’s when I stumbled upon the plethora of covers that have been released of the iconic 60′s counter-culture anthem. Released in 1968, the song became an instant classic and was the main theme song for the movie Easy Rider. Although it was originally written as a ballad, when Steppenwolf did their version, they sped it up, and rearranged it from Mars Bonfire’s original version, and a timeless anthem was born.

I did not realize when I was looking around for the song, just how many times its been covered, and by such a wide range of artists. Before we get into the covers though, we have to pay respect to the original.

And now here are just some of the cover versions, because not all of the versions are good.

Here’s INXS’s version:

And here’s a version by 80′s metal gods Krokus:

Twisted Sister cranked up the tempo and almost turned it into a punk song:

UK’s Slade, one of my faves, apparently finished many of their live shows with a version:

Hinder did a cover version which you can also hear on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster at Universal Studios in Orlando:

And if you want it REALLY heavy, even Slayer did a super metal cover:

So, other than the original, which version is your favorite?

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