During his speech at the recent iTunes Festival, Stephen Fry reminded the audience of a quote by the British composer Sir Arnold Bax.

'You should make a point of trying every experience once,' he said, 'except incest and folk dancing.' I'd like to add to those perfectly reasonable exceptions by suggesting that no one should ever try listening to Gareth Gates and Will Young's version of The Beatles' The Long And Winding Road. I enjoy a cover version as much as the next man (unless that next man is my friend Stuart, who at the last count had assembled 93 covers of Smiths songs; his top picks include Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now by Act, London by Cinerama, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me by Eddie Reader and Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Ukrainians), but I'd implore anyone to avoid this demolition of Paul McCartney's fatalistic ballad unless they want to wake up screaming in a cold sweat at regular intervals for the rest of their lives.

I can, however, heartily recommend listening to the reimaginings of Beatles songs on Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band, the latest album from Easy Star All-Stars. In 2003, the New York-based reggae band released a dub version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon called Dub Side Of The Moon, then in 2006 they did the same thing to Radiohead's OK Computer on the brilliant Radiodread. As the title of the new album implies, it adds rootsy, bubbling atmospherics to the Fab Four's 1967 music-hall-on-acid classic. Easy Star All-Stars are masters of the reinterprerative art, so I asked the band's Michael Goldwasser for his views on what makes a good cover version...

What's the best cover version you've recorded?

It's tough to say what's the 'best'. Our most popular ones are probably Karma Police from Radiodread, in terms of sales, and Money from Dub Side Of The Moon, in terms of fan reaction at live shows. If you're asking what my favourite one is, well, I'd have to say either Exit Music (For A Film) from Radiodread or Lovely Rita from Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band.

What's the best cover you've ever heard by another artist?

There are so many great ones. One that immediately comes to mind is Hello It's Me by The Isley Brothers. It was originally by Todd Rundgren, but hearing that version always makes me feel good.

And the worst?

I've got to say Sh-Boom by The Crew-Cuts, which was originally by The Chords. It's not that the cover was so terrible, but it started the whole trend of taking R&B by black groups and literally white-washing it for the white audience.

What's the secret to giving good cover?

Well, for us it's complicated. We don't set out to 'cover' individual songs. The Easy Star All-Stars records are all about taking entire albums and adapting them to reggae. So the secret is to find an album where every song could sound good in this different style. That's one of the reasons why it takes us so long to figure out what to tackle next.

Is there any song you'd never dare to attempt?

No, not really. But in general, I wouldn't want to cover a song just for the sake of doing a cover. There has to be some meaning behind it.

Have you had any feedback from the artists whose songs you've reinterpreted?

Yes. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd has said that he's a fan and everyone in Radiohead said that they liked what we did. We're still waiting for word from Sir Paul or Ringo, but the album's only been out for a while, so hopefully that'll be forthcoming.

How do you decide what you're going to cover? A democratic band vote?

A democratic band vote? Then we'd never decide! The decision is made by me and two of my partners in Easy Star Records, Lem Oppenheimer and Eric Smith. We bandy about ideas and discuss all of the pros and cons of each album we're considering. It takes quite a while to really figure it all out.

Is there an album of original material somewhere on the horizon?

We did release an EP of original songs in 2008 called Until That Day... It was only available digitally, but it's about to have a limited edition re-release as a physical CD on September 28. The band have plenty of original material, much of which gets heard in our live sets - although less than it used to, since we now have three albums of tribute material to draw from for the live shows. We hope in the next year to get into the studio and do another original project, so the world can see there's more to this band than just the tribute albums.

Easy Star All-Stars play Brighton Concorde 2 on August 5. Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band is out now on Easy Star.

20 More Covers You Should Hear

Dancing In The Dark - Jim Eldon (originally by Bruce Springsteen)
What A Waster - Adam Green (orig. The Libertines)
Lost In The Supermarket - The Afghan Whigs (orig. The Clash)
(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) - Andrew Paul Woodworth (orig. The Beastie Boys)
She Belongs To Me - Billy Preston (orig. Bob Dylan)
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Burl Ives (orig. Bob Dylan)
She's Lost Control (Dub Version) - Grace Jones (orig. Joy Division)
Common People - William Shatner (orig. Pulp)
I Ain't Thick, It's Just A Trick - Jeffrey Lewis (orig. Crass)
I Fought The Law - Roy Orbison (orig. Sonny Curtis & The Crickets)
Gimme Shelter - Ruth Copeland (orig. The Rolling Stones)
Bizarre Love Triangle - Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (orig. New Order)
I Wanna Be Adored - Axton Kinkaid (orig. The Stone Roses)
Lost In Music - The Fall (orig. Sister Sledge)
Ca Plane Pour Moi - Sonic Youth (orig. Plastic Bertrand)
Straight Outta Compton - Nina Gordon (orig. NWA) Wichita Lineman - Dennis Brown (orig. Glen Campbell)
Teardrop - Newton Faulkner (orig. Massive Attack)
About A Girl - Cibo Matto (orig. Nirvana)
Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Diana Ross And The Supremes (orig. Stevie Wonder)

Take Cover! 10 Of The Worst

In My Life by Sean Connery (originally by The Beatles) This spoken-word effort by the former 007 will leave you shaken and disturbed.
Father And Son by Boyzone (orig. Cat Stevens) More wailing than Cat Stevens on a hot tin roof.
Mrs Robinson by Frank Sinatra (orig. Simon & Garfunkel) A rare lapse in cool by Ol' Blue Eyes. He sounds like Charlton Heston playing at Creamfields.
Come Together by Robin Williams (orig. The Beatles) Nanu nanu? No-no no-no!
White Lines (Don't Do It) - Duran Duran (orig. Grandmaster Flash) It clearly says 'don't do it', but they did it anyway. Why?
My Generation - Hilary Duff (orig. The Who) F... f... f...
Fairytale Of New York - Ronan Keating & Maire Brennan (orig. The Pogues with Kirsty Macoll) Definitely like a fairytale. Grimm.
911 Is A Joke - Duran Duran (orig. Public Enemy) Them again. From the album Thank You. Yeah, cheers.
The Scientist - Avril Lavigne (orig. Coldplay) I don't like Coldplay, but compared to this version the original is as beautiful as the fragile dawn light reflecting through the prism of an angel's tears as the sun ascends over the Iguazu Waterfalls.
Itchycoo Park - M People (orig. The Small Faces) Like being trapped in a lift with a klaxon.