|
@xcool No huge argument from me, but both are wonderful. Here is another I just thought of--one of my all-time fav songs:
ORIGINAL: Charles Brown--Please Come Home for Christmas (1960)
REMAKE: EAGLES (1978), and NOT the "re-masterd" version (you have to pay someone to listen to the original version these days)...here is a live version:
ALSO, used in one of the sexiest videos EVER: Bon Jovi version. No nudity, just pure sexy by 2 genetic-lottery winners on this planet...
Oh, and it has a striking resemblance, but not all the tough guitar chords, of the Beatles' "Oh, Darlin' ", which is another of my all time favs...
Cheers!
|
Lucinda William’s cover of “Ode To Billie Jo” on Mercury Rev’s, “Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited” record. It’s raw and edgy.
Richard Thompson’s “Season Of The Witch”. I love Donovan’s version: he sings it in a spooky way, a la The Doors’, “People Are Strange”. Richard Thompson just doesn’t have Donovan’s voice, but he shreds it in that very typical Thompsian way.
|
@pesky_wabbit - Before I even looked to see what the link went to, I was thinking, 'my favorite version of 'Walk On By' is by the Stranglers!!'
Big Stranglers fan, here...
|
Mumford & Sons - The Boxer
Shine Down - Simple Man
|
Yuri Honing Trio "Walking on the Moon"
|
Talking Heads
Take me to the River
Terez Montcalm
Black Trombone... (There are on trombones in the song????)
|
Walk On By : Woong San feat. Toku
|
+1 Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah. Cohen might be a great writer, but can't take his singing!
I love me some Simon and Garfunkel but Yes doing America is great IMO.
|
Next by Scott Walker (orig. Jacques Brel)
No Senor Apache by Los Apson (orig. Larry Verne)
|
"Alone Again Or" by The Damned, cover of Love.
|
My dad, a true Baby Boomer, always said "If there are multiple great covers of a song, it proves it's a great song."
My take....
Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower."
Jeff Beck Group "Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You" (also a Dylan song)
Chris Cornell’s cover of "Nothing Compares To You"
|
Led Zeppelin's "In my Time of Dying" was at least a match for Blind Willie Johnson's version. And much better than the Dylan version.
|
Just thought of another one--again, kind of HERESY as NILSON is amazing, but HEART's version of "WITHOUT YOU" on their great, but not well-known (contract-fulfillment) album MAGAZINE is amazing.
Listening on Maggies will blow you away, especially with ARC tube gear driving them.
Cheers!
|
@bubba_buoy Yep, and Jeff Healey's version of Dylan's WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING is pretty amazing as well. So was Jeff, RIP.
Cheers!
|
And speaking of Jeff...pretty good stuff here...two major players...and he did WATCHTOWER as well...
|
First thing that popped into my head was Metallica “Turn The Page”.
Some others:
Bonnie Raitt “Angel From Montgomery”
Manfred Mann “Blinded By The Light”
RATM “Ghost Of Tom Joad”
|
Amber Rubarth's version of REM's "Losing My Religion".
|
OP, great idea for a thread!
This is obviously a very subjective thing, right? It has a lot to do with our individual preferences and taste.
Joni Mitchell's song A Case of You is such a gorgeous song, imo. But the first time I ever heard it sung by her I was like, Ew! lol
I had been listening to it for years, as sung and performed by Diana Krall ... and then one day it came up on Radio Paradise in the middle of an afternoon at my office performed by Joni Mitchell. I could hardly believe how turned off I was by it. And I'm a pretty big Joni Mitchell fan. I've been listening to Ladies of the Canyon since I was a teenager and have enjoyed a lot of her music. But listening to her perform that particular song, for me personally, is kinda like finger nails on a chalkboard.
|
Nothing compares 2 u - Sinead o conner / prince original
When u were mine - cyndi Lauper/ prince original
|
XTC - All Along the Watchtower
|
Cohen's Suzanne/ Karen Zoid + Zolani Mahola
Radiohead's Fake plastic trees/ Phoebe Bridgers and Arlo Parks
Joni Mitchell's That song about the midway/ Bonnie Raitt
|
Black Crowes—Hard to Handle
|
bobby vinton's 1972 cover of "sealed with a kiss." johnny desmond's version of "speak low" and "long ago and far away." kd lang's cover of "rose garden." chuck berry's version of "my dingaling." ELO's version of "roll over beethoven." mitch ryder's cover of "devil w/a blue dress on/good golly miss molly."
|
Big Sugar - Dear Mr. Fantasy
|
Patricia Barber - A Taste of Honey. Audiophile heaven! Check it out.
|
Jealous Guy by John Lennon as done by Roxy Music incredible arrangement aand singing by Bryan Ferry, and as the same song as done by Lou Reed at the John Lennon tribute concert. Raw emotion
|
I'd rather be cool and say Eva Cassidy but I'm going with John Denver's cover of "Angel From Montgomery". He does a great job on it. Joe
|
Counting Crows: “Big Yellow Taxi” and I happen to love Joni Mitchell but on some songs, I find myself appreciating her voice in the same way that I enjoy the performance of the spring pageant where my kid has the lead.
|
Angel From Montgomery
Buddy Miller & Friends (with Brandi Carlile & The Lone Bellow)
My favorite version
|
The Star Wars theme, Samba Style
https://youtu.be/aGm_X6viE0A
|
“Love Is All Around”
- cover by WET,WET,WET versus
- original by THE TROGGS
|
“Hallelujah” - cover by K.D. LANG versus original by LEONARD COHEN
|
Couple more,... Fugees doing Roberta Flack’s "Killing Me Softly" Lauren Hill is amazing, Black Crowes doing John Lennon’s "Jealous Guy" & Vanessa Fernandez doing Curtis Mayfield’s "Here But I’m Gone" - soooo many great covers. Again, not better than the originals but different in sensational ways
|
Sorry but I don’t think the covers for “Walk on By” mentioned above come close to the original. They are interesting, but please. Not a huge Dionne Warwick fan, but her voice and the Burt Bacharach vibe are pure chemistry.
|
I think Dionne and Burt are a wonderful combo, but I don't have any records by them, whereas I do have every Stranglers album featuring Hugh Cornwell. Very different indeed, but personally I wouldn't say either is 'better' - vive la differance!
|
Nirvana, Where did you sleep last night, is a favorite cover of mine. Counting Crows Like Teenage Gravity is a great cover as well. Easily the best sounding cover I own is a pressing of Kat Edmonson's version of Summertime from her Take to the sky album.
|
Cream's version of Robert Johnson's 'Crossroads'
and Willie Dixon's 'Spoonful'
Santana's version of Fleetwood Mac's 'Black Magic Woman'
Pete Seeger and other's versions of Woodie
Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land'' as long as ALL the lyrics are sung
And one of the best covers ever is ... Jimi Hendrix's of Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower'
IMHO it's uncommon for a cover to overtake an original,
but they do expose new audiences to not just unfamiliar songwriters, but for the curious often different genres of music also.
|
Grace Jones - In Crowd
Randy Crawford - Imagine
UB40 - Ain't no sunshine
Joe Cocker - A little Help from my Friends
|
Hendrix All Along the Watch Tower
|
|
Maybe the Slits version of Heard It Through the Grapevine could be on this list. Sam Gopal’s Back Door Man (the original is fine, but just fine). Also, Nina Simone’s Love Me or Leave Me.
|
Twist And Shout by The Beatles.
|
Love Is All Around - R.E.M.
Solitary Man - Sidewinders
Bus Stop - Fountains of Wayne
Natures Way - Firefall
Twelve-Thirty - Autoliner
|
Frijid Pink's cover of The House of the Rising Sun was always my preferred. Such a product of it's time.. Animals was great too.
|
Angelina Jordan - "Suspicious Minds" (Elvis Cover)
Angelina Jordan - "Easy On Me" (Adele Cover)
|
Virtually... ALL... covers by Elvis... are better than the originals... not only more talent reflected, but also, better production values...
|
Never My Love live from a concert on The Fifth Dimension's greatest hits LP. I guess they never recorded it. I wasn't expecting it and it floored me. Marilyn McCoo at her considerable best. Wonderful sound.
|
Clapton's cover of JJ Cale's "Cocaine"--much more impactful like the drug itself
Cream--Crossroads
Marcus Mumford--I Was Young When I Left Home--not sure if it was performed outside of the concert for Llewelyn Davis but it's exquisite
|
The Animals' version of 'House of the Rising Son' kind of redefined it like Hendrix did with 'Watchtower'....
|
