OT: Songs that you like a cover version better than the original?
Just curious. Anybody have some songs where they think the cover version is better than the original artist’s version?
Here are some of mine off the top of my head...
Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” covered by Whitney Houston. Yes, I know, fairly obvious. If you want a chuckle, read or listen to Dolly’s comments about when Colonel Tom Parker tried to talk her into letting Elvis do a cover of the song.
CCR’s “Proud Mary” covered by Ike and Tina Turner
“The House of the Rising Sun” (maybe written by Georgia Turner and Bert Martin) covered by The Animals. Honorable mention: Frijid_Pink.
John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” covered by the Dropkick Murphys
The Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law” covered by The Clash.
It’s OT season as far as I’m concerned.
Led Zep is in the same category as The Beatles, where you just ignore them when you are doing comparisons because it's pointless. They're so head and shoulders above everybody else that when you compare them to other bands it's unfair to the other bands.
They also do a great (instrumental) cover of Ennio Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold (better known as the theme for The Good The Bad, and The ugly).
I was actually about to post the opposite. I love the Seger original, and I'm a Metallica fan (maybe slightly underrated, but no leaf clover is chefs kiss)
William Shatner- Rocket Man (originally Elton John)
he also OWNS Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds & Mr. Tambourine Man
Kate Bush's version is actually better. Sorry. :-)
I preferred William Hung's version of Rocket Man.
Shatner's cover of Common People (originally by Jarvis Cocker and Pulp) with Joe Jackson and produced by Ben Folds is a masterpiece.
Cash - Hurt
GnR - Knocking on heavens door
Sturgell Simpson - the promise.
Nirvana - any of the unplugged covers
willie Nelson - Just breath
Stapleton - Tennessee Whiskey
Fugees - Killing me softly
The Byrds were great at covering Bob Dylan (Mr. Tambourine Man, My Back Pages) and Pete Seeger (Turn, Turn Turn).
The Who’s Summertime Blues is a great cover (Eddie Cochran?)
Linda Ronstadt with the Stones’ Tumbling Dice
March 17th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Don’t forget the Who’s excellent cover of Mose Allison’s Young Man Blues, too.
Julie Andrew's "My Favorite Things" covered by John Coletrane.
I might give the nod to Coltrane's "Afro Blue" (Mongo Santamaria) as well ... especially the Live at Birdland version
Heresy, I know, but the Robert Glasper/Erykah Badu version of Afro Blue might be even better than Coltrane’s.
No love for the Replacements' version of Black Diamond?
(To be fair, I never was a Kiss fan.)
I'm a big Replacements fan and a bit of a TRex fan. I don't think 20th Century Boy is a great song by either.
That raises a question, if one band comes out with a mediocre song and another band does a version that is slightly better, but still just OK, should it be on this list?
I dig Jimmy Buffet's live cover of 'Southern Cross' better than CSN (above homage to GoJ). The track is on, 'Tuesdays, Thursdays& Saturdays'.
And Jimmy’s version of Mexico, is nearly as good as James Taylor‘s.
Right on. That one escaped me, but very true.
CSN's Southern Cross is actually a cover/remake of a song by Rick and Michael Curtis called Seven League Boots. It's quite good.
Elton John- Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Bruce Springsteen- Jersey Girl
Naked Eyes-(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
Phil Collins- Groovy Kind of Love
Bon Jovi- She Don't Know Me
Heart- What About love
My Chemical Romance- Desolation Row
Eddie Money- I Wanna Go Back
You beat me by 2 min on the Elton John cover of Lucy. Great minds think alike.
Elton John covering Lucy in the Sky (with diamonds) circa 1975. The Beatles did the original composition.
Billie Jean by Chris Cornell. Or by Aidan Hutchinson. :)
But seriously, if you haven’t seen/heard either, you need to today.
His version of Nothing Compares 2 U is pretty amazing.
Chris Cornell's, not Hutch's. Hutchinson is much better with peppy dance tunes!
Sinead O’Connor’s version of nothing compares 2 U has long been my favorite. (Say you are old without saying you are old?…..)
Or Billie Jean by Robbie Fulks.
The Civil Wars cover is very good also.
Somebody That I Used to Know
Original: Goyte
Remake: 3 Days Grace
In honor of the passing of Weirdos' guitarist Dex Denney, I give you this cover by Ann Arbor's own Laughing Hyenas.
I know this is going to piss off some Beatles fans but I cant remember a Beatles cover that i didnt like better than the Beatles original.
Nina Simone’s “Here Comes the Sun” ftw
Sabor a Mi - Los Lobos
Not sure who originally sang it, but it’s been covered countless times
Might be cheating a bit since the original is somewhat obscure, but will never not pass up a chance to fangirl over my favorite artist:
Florence + The Machine's cover of Candi Staton's "You Got the Love" The original is a cool disco-soul track that's a fun and laid-back funky bop, but Florence turns it into an incandescent and emotive paean about longing and really makes the song her own, with no shade towards the original.
There could also be a whole subsection of Dylan covers that I gravitate to over the originals; but that's more a credit to his songwriting then a slam on his musicianship.
Also, another one from someone who was generally known more for songwriting then covers, but Prince's cover of Joan Osborne's "One of Us" Although the original 90's hit was an interesting straddle between the realms of secularism and spirituality that you don't ever really see in pop culture, Prince's (who btw was a Jehovah's Witness) feathery guitar work spoke to that schism far more profoundly then the original - at least insofar as you can within the space of a four minute pop song, of course.
Scientist, Willie Nelson. I'm not even a big Wiilie fan but his version is just different and much better.
Jerry Garcia does a nice Simple Twist Of Fate. Did, I should say.
The whole Garcia plays Dylan album. Jerry is better on every single one.
as you probably already know, he also has some sublime versions of I Shall Be Released.
there are so many!
off the top of my head:
Chris Cornell doing Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U
Charley Crockett doing Tonya Tucker's Jamestown Ferry
Jimmy Hendrix doing Dylan's All Along The Watchtower
Poncho Sanchez doing Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man
Aretha Franklin doing Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water
Aretha Franklin doing The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby
Medeski Martin & Wood doing Jimi Hendrix's Hey Joe
Chris Cornell - Nothing compares 2 u (prince cover)
Mr Little Jeans - The Suburbs (Arcade Fire)
Regina Spektor - Real Love (Beatles)
Cat Power - I found a reason (Velvet Underground)
Gary Jules - Mad World (tears for fears)
A$AP Rocky - (Sittin on) The Dock of the Bay (Otis)
Chvrches - Do I Wanna Know (Arctic Monkeys)
The White Stripes and The Stones both do several really good Robert Johnson Covers
There's a really great youtube channel / podcast from Australia called Like a Version that's really great for some very interesting covers.
chvrches cover is so unique to the original and beautiful. love lauren mayberry lol
Radar Love isn’t a great song, but the version by White Lion is better than the original by Golden Earring.
YouTube "Josh Turner Guitar" brings together all kinds of people to do covers-and they are always very good. "Paradise" and "Loves me Like a Rock" are a couple of my favorites.
Earth, Wind & Fire; Got to Get You into My Life (The Beatles)
And for you smooth Jazz folks:
Najee; Sweet Love (Anita Baker)
EW&F took Got to Get You into My Life and kicked it up a few notches with their version of the rock, jazz and soul fusion. Always liked the EW & F version.
Curiously, no one has mentioned Taylor Swift's version of "September"
Curious...
Janis Joplin's cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee."
Veorra's cover of T-wayne's "Nasty Freestyle."
Teemid and Joie Tan's cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."
Terry Reid's version of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)."
Vanilla Ice's version of Queen's "Under Pressure." /s
All covers by Whitney Houston. 🎤
Including The Greatest Love of All, originally by George Benson.
One of the best of all time because of how different and beautiful was:
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole’s Over The Rainbow & What A Wonderful World Medley. It got a little over played for a while
i think the Ataris Boys of Summer is equal with Don Henley's version. both songs together are my fave cover + original