# Common People by William Shatner

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Common People by William Shatner and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People praise Shatner's spoken-sung cover of Pulp's song as a great version, several saying they prefer it to the original. No criticism of it appeared in the discussion.

## Why people recommend it

- Praised as a great cover (3 comments): "his duet of the song Common People is pretty awesome" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47131465)) "it's IMHO a really great cover of Common People" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47131747)) "his version of Common People is fantastic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47133029))
- Preferred to Pulp's original (2 comments): "His rendition of “Common People” is my favorite cover and I honestly prefer it to Pulps original." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47132965)) "I honestly thought his voice fit better for the theme of the song than the original" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47132540))
- Fans of the Shatner version (2 comments): "I'm a fan of the Shatner version after seeing it suggested here a few weeks back." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48062070)) "I love the Shatner version" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48054101))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Jolene by Dolly Parton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jolene.md): 6 recommend
- [Total Eclipse of the Heart (bardcore version)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/total-eclipse-of-the-heart.md): 5 recommend
- [Nightcall by Kavinsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nightcall.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Common People by William Shatner", https://hackerapproved.com/p/common-people/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).