10 Worst Hard Rock Cover Songs Of All Time
6. Johnny B Goode - Judas Priest
Johnny B Goode has become a staple for every rock act to cover at this point. In just over two minutes, Chuck Berry was able to capture the pure spirit of rock and roll through a story of a country boy with stars in his eyes. The only way you could screw up this song is if you blew it out of proportion... but Judas Priest were never really known for their subtlety, were they?
On the surface, these leather-clad metalheads had some slower songs like United in their catalog, which showed that they at least knew how to balance the more downtempo material. Everything seemed to be in the right place for them to hit a home run with this, but they ended up going a bit too far the other way. There's nothing really wrong with the playing per sé, but there's just too much sonic madness going on that it ends up distracting you from the actual song you're supposed to be hearing.
Even when Rob Halford hits those screams, the amount of kickass is nullified when you can't even understand what he's saying anymore. Chuck Berry's classic might capture the heart of rock and roll, but this take on the classic tune is when you practically give rock and roll a heart attack.