The Darkness have premiered their cover of Radiohead’s Street Spirit.

Track: The Darkness – Street Spirit

File under: the weirdest cover version since Paul Anka recorded Smells Like Teen Spirit (or the Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain did Anarchy In The UK)

The Darkness’ rendition of Street Spirit will be included on Justin Hawkins and co’s forthcoming album Hot Cakes which will be released on August 20 through PIAS.

Radiohead originally recorded the song on their second album, 1995′s The Bends, and The Darkness have been featuring it in their live set for, oh, ages.

“It’s not going to be for everybody, but the band [ie. The Darkness] isn’t for everybody,” said frontman Justin Hawkins in a recent interview with Gigwise. “We didn’t do it in a mocking way, to take the piss out of Radiohead.

“Radiohead are one of the very few bands that we all agree on. We wanted to do a cover that showed we didn’t hate Radiohead – because we were so sick of people saying that we hated Radiohead.”

Drummer Ed Graham added: “If you don’t want a song to be covered – don’t release it.”

Listen to The Darkness’ version below.

from classicrockmagazine.com