The 5 Best Covers Of Bad Company, Ranked

The covers of Bad Company's self-titled track come in several different flavors and span multiple genres. There are country versions, dark melancholic reimaginings, heavy metal ballads, and more. It's become one of the most important songs of Bad Company's career because these covers have helped introduce their music to new audiences and widen their fanbase. It's one of the many things that make ranking these songs so difficult.

You won't get the "Bad Company" covers confused with the original, but let's get one thing straight: each of these versions are good — even if we do think the 1974 original song is better than any cover. We're not really ranking them from "worst to best" as you might expect, but rather "great to greatest." They're all musically sound and performed with technical proficiency. They capture the outlaw theme in unique ways. And, they each bring something different, interesting, or even improved to the table.

You may find that one or two of these "Bad Company" covers sound familiar to you, or you discover them all for the first time. Either way, you'll be glad to have found them. Let's check them out.

Rickie Lee Jones might be one of the least obvious artists to cover "Bad Company." Her music spans various genres — from rock and soul to pop and jazz. She won her first Grammy for best new artist in 1980 and a second in 1990 for best jazz vocal performance. And though going from a jazz-based award to an outlaw rock song might seem like a stretch, she released an incredibly interesting version of "Bad Company" in 2019. And, she definitely made it her own.

This cover takes the bluesy energy of the original, slows it down, stretches it to nearly six minutes, and makes it more ominous. It's darker and grittier than any other version of this song. To call it "atmospheric" would be an understatement. Jones does away with the machismo tone of the original and, in doing so, changes the entire feel of the song into something more melancholic, stripping away any idolatry for the outlaw life.

Don't get us wrong, this song is fantastic. All of the covers on this list are very good, which is what makes it so difficult to sort. Jones' cover only lands on the bottom of the list because it doesn't match the high energy of the original or the other covers, and it was never meant to. This is a more grounded and realistic interpretation of the subject matter that really makes you think about perspective.

Talk about a  cover that sounds nothing like the original. Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch (FFDP) has a unique deep fullness to his voice that makes the band's heavy metal version of "Bad Company" quite enticing. The instrumental is harder and louder than the classic rock original, which is to be expected in a metal song. 

The additive spoken word section during the song's bridge and the following, shredding guitar solo draw you into the song's atmosphere. In the moment, it's like you're riding the groovy blues drive of the original and wanting to head bang at the same time.

Five Finger Death Punch added a couple subtle lyrical changes to the song — including inserting their name into the line "The Death Punch sound is our claim to fame" and changing "six gun" to "shotgun." And while some Bad Company fans may roll their eyes at these tweaks, the song is nonetheless stellar. As blasphemous as it may sound, there are metalheads out there who think the FFDP version is even better than the original '70s version — a matter of (incorrect) taste. One thing is true, however: This version of "Bad Company" shows how truly adaptable the song is.

Bad Company's original is driven by a blues-rock base while embodying an outlaw vibe, and when we think of "outlaw music" in the U.S., our minds naturally go to the bad boys of outlaw country. But when Sara Spicer got a hold of "Bad Company" in 2018, she introduced the song to her brand of soulful Southern twang. And it helps solidify the hard rock favorite into yet another musical genre: the realm of country-rock.

First and foremost, this is a vocals-driven cover. Spicer has serious talent, and her vocal flair in this song shows masterful laryngeal control. The intro starts with acoustic picking that turns up the western quality of the song and pumps new life into an already lively outlaw theme. The added fiddle and steel guitar layer beautifully with the otherwise electric ensemble. You can clearly hear harmonic sounds throughout the track — though you can't actually spot a harmonica in the music video — and it lends an "on the lamb" dimension to the outlaw energy.

This is the highest energy cover of "Bad Company" on this list and has the most technically intricate vocals. Add that to the fairly large leap in genre boundaries, and it earns a no-brainer No. 3 spot on this list.

In 2025, traditional country artist Charley Crockett's cover of "Bad Company" came out on the Bad Company tribute album "Can't Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company." The cover comes alongside a number of other Bad Company songs performed by artists like Halestorm, the Pretty Reckless, members of Def Leppard, Slash, and more. With this cover being part of a tribute album, you might expect it to be an incredibly faithful modern rendition of the original, and — congratulations — you're correct.

Though Crockett has a slight twang to his voice, the cover captures the heart of the Bad Company's iconic outlaw tune with immaculate precision. Sure, Crockett brings enough of his style to let you know he's the man behind the mic, but he clearly left ego at the door and didn't try to rewrite an already quintessential piece of classic rock.

There's not a whole lot more to say about this cover. The music is good, the vocals are good, and it captures the essence of Bad Company. This spot-on resonance with the original secures Crockett's cover a place at No. 2.

The No. 1 best cover of "Bad Company" goes to Gretchen Wilson. Now, Wilson is a country and Southern rock artist who really broke out with the song "Redneck Woman." If you're not a country music fan, that fact might make you skip this cover, but you'd seriously be missing out. Wilson might not seem like the type to cover a hard rock hit like "Bad Company," but her version of the song proves that country artists can rock.

Wilson's voice brings a smoky rasp to this cover that makes you feel like you're listening to her play on a small stage in a backwoods bar. While instrumentally similar to the original, the soul she puts into the vocals on this track invokes images of a band on the run or nomads living on the outskirts of the law. Basically, when she sings, you believe her.

The cover dropped on the album "Under The Covers" in 2013. It contained six classic rock covers. And while Wilson's cover of "Bad Company" never charted or became a radio staple, it is the best "Bad Company" cover to date. Albeit an underappreciated one.