Alanis Morissette Covers Green Days Basket Case

You remember when Alanis Morissette released that video of her covering the Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” for no real reason, and it was totally brilliant and great? Like few other pop stars of the last 20 years, Alanis has an ability to turn just about every song into one that it sounds like she wrote, simply by performing it in the style we’ve come to expect from her. Delivered with Alanis’ piercing wail and somber piano playing, even a song as superficial and uproarious as “My Humps” can sound like a tortured lament.

Alanis’ cover of Green Day’s “Basket Case” isn’t quite on the level of her “Humps”—what is?—but it’s a more-than-worthy re-appropriation of arguably the definitive hit by one of the few rock acts that could have claimed to be on her commercial level in the mid-’90s. In fact, with the timing of the cover—Alanis performed it while filling in for Green Day, who had to cancel their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel when singer Billie Joe Amstrong high-tailed it to rehab after a lost weekendof sorts  at the iHeart Radio Festival in Las Vegas—it comes across as a statement of support for the group, and a fairly touching tribute.

Hopefully some day, a reunited Green Day will be able to return the favor with a cover of “Hand in My Pocket” or “Uninvited” or something.