what’s a song cover that you think is better than the original?

Bananarama's remake of Shocking Blue's Venus.

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Linda Ronstadt or Boz Scaggs. Desperado stands out. For Boz, it's Lend me a Dime and On the Beach. Bonnie Raitt up there also - My Opening Farewell.

Ok, here is my contribution. the Mike Patton version of this guy is the best. 

coming from a huge Beatles fan (Happy 82nd Ringo!)......

Got to Get You Into My Life by Earth Wind and Fire

Travelin' Light by JJ Cale.

A very melodic, weaving tune by the Tulsa master.

Dig out the jet-fueled "live" version by Widespread Panic and it'll rip your head off. 

Mr. Cale sent the band a case of Jim Beam when he heard it, with a thank you note. The band thought they should be thanking him!

Aretha Franklin - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 

Holly Cole - Jersey Girl

Willie Nelson - Stardust

Judy Collins - Suzanne

Mel Torme - Take the A Train

Peggy Lee - Fever

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Twisted, Caravan

Linda Ronstadt - Tumbling Dice...no one here should need to be told who wrote that originally.

Santana - "She’s Not There"

Anything Eva Cassidy sings.

Heart "Down On Me" - (Blows Janis away... sorry!).

Here are the first three that come to mind:

Manfred Mann - Blinded by the Light (Bruce Springsteen)

John Mayer Trio (Live) - Wait ‘til Tomorrow (Hendrix)

Alana Davis - 32 Flavors (Ani DiFranco)

Here are the first three that come to mind:

Manfred Mann - Blinded by the Light (Bruce Springsteen)

John Mayer Trio (Live) - Wait ‘til Tomorrow (Hendrix)

Alana Davis - 32 Flavors (Ani DiFranco)

I've always preferred Gladys Knight & The Pips take on "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" to the better-known versions by CCR and Marvin Gaye. More funk-ified.

Almost forgot

Lynyrd Skynrd's version of JJ Cale's "They Call Me the Breeze"

I've never gone out of my way to find covers but I happen to catch Gary US Bond's cover of the Beatles "It's Only Love" the other day. I usually cringe when I hear most Beatle covers but I was pleasantly surprised at how bad this version wasn't.

It was much better than my English that's for sure!

Graham Bonnet's version of Dylan's "Its all over now Baby Blue"

Julie Driscoll Brian Auger & Trinity - Dylan's Wheels On Fire 

Flying Pickets rendering of Yahoo's "Only You"

Des

Damn Spellcheck %$#$#@!!

I meant Yazoo😀

Des

Because the Night - 10,000 Maniacs

Buddy Miller- I'm Gonna Be Strong (Gene Pitney original hit)

Levon Helm "Take Me To The River"

Joe Cocker "With a Little Help from My Friends"

Marvin Gaye - 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine'

Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Linda Ronstadt "Hey Mister That's Me Up On The Jukebox"

Guns N' Roses "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

Rod Stewart "I Don't Want To Talk About It"

Crosby Stills Nash & Young "Woodstock"

Jose Feliciano "Light My Fire"

"Spanish Moon" (Little Feat) by Gov't Mule...Warren Haynes puts some ass into this classic song meant to be driven hard live....and the Mule delivers. And yes, this is a very bold statement considering the world knows the song from the epic live double-album "Waiting for Columbus", one of the best live albums ever released.   

Feat's "Lonesome Whistle" kills me, as does pretty much any Lowell George vocal.

oooh...this is heresy...cowboy junkies sweet jane

Chantal Chamberland's version of U2's Miss Sarajevo

Inger Marie Gundersen's version of (Sittin' on) The dock of the bay

"Better" is probably the wrong term in the above cases, but they are both very different but valid arrangements of the originals.

Okay, Manfred Mann’s version of Blinded by the Light is not on my top 10 (or, even top 1000) list of favorite songs, but consistant with the OPs intent, it is infinitely better than Bruce Springstien’s original.

The Chantel’s version of the Ventures Pipeline

Joan Jett’s version of I Love Rock and Roll. Joan took the Arrow’s version and created a rock and roll classic.

The Blue Man Group’s version of the Who’s Baba O’Riley is really kick ass. And, yes, it helps to have a visual. Their version of I Feel Love is time well spent as well.

If you haven’t experienced Quicksilver Messenger Service’s version of Roy Rogers and Dale Evan’s version of Happy Trails, consider yourself fortunate.

Does Tomita’s version of Pictures at an Exhibition count?

Listen to any Linda Ronstadt album and you'll hear several.

@inscrutable , I especially like Bonnie's cover of McCuller & Lasly"s I Can't Make You Love Me.

Gordon Lightfoot: Me and Bobby McGee. So much better than Janis Joplin

K.D. Lang’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is superior to Cohen’s original and to all the other covers I’ve heard (and there are a lot of them). Her cover is on “Hymns of the 49th Parallel,” a terrific disc of her covers of other songs written by Canadians.

@jimcrane since you mentioned it, if you’ve not heard, check out the Canadian Tenors version … very different treatment from most and probably my favorite.

And can’t wait for the new doc to be more widely available.

Feeling Alright - Joe Cocker

All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

@inscrutable, thanks for the rec! I hadn’t heard their version before. You’re correct that it’s a unique approach to the song, and a really good one. Beautiful harmonies and strong individual singing. 

@rrm - how is it compared to Kris Kristofferson's original? 

Lyle Lovet's version of Friend of the Devil

Hard for me to admit, but it is better. 

@rrm 

Gordon Lightfoot: Me and Bobby McGee. So much better than Janis Joplin

Actually the song, written by Kris Kristophersen, was first recorded by Roger “King of the Road” Miller. Then by Kenny Rogers and THEN by Gordon Lightfoot…Joplin recorded it in 1970 IIRC and yes, almost any version is better than hers unless you are a diehard Joplin fan. I’m not.

The Cure doing Purple Haze on the tribute Lp Stone Free. 

What a great thread.... 

I'll add some obscure alternative ones...

Bizarre Love Triangle - Frente (New Order)
Pure Imagination - Smoking Popes (Willy Wonka)
Toxic - Local H (Brittany Spears)
True - Duvall (Spandau Ballet)

How bout Ryan Adams covering Taylor Swift's, "1989" albumin its entirety - guilty pleasure that TS (I mean talent is talent). He does a great job with that LP front to back; it's pretty fun!

Yes - Paul Simon’s America. 

Townes Van Zandt's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers"

Yes to Jimi’s "All Along the Watchtower." Two of my favorite covers are below.

"A House Is Not a Home" -- this Bacharach/David tune was debuted by Dionne Warwick, and maybe the most popular cover was by Luther Vandross. Dusty Springfield never recorded it, which is mystifying when you hear her live version w/the composer on the piano and singing the 1st run-through:

"Walk This Way" -- This Scary Pockets/Judith Hill cover pushes all the buttons, especially the super-slow meter (risky but so effective for a slow build) & Judith’s astounding voice lighting up the tune.

Ray Charles doing "Eleanor Rigby".

Ima say Aerosmith “Come Together”

@richopp 
"This is TOTAL HERESY, and I apologize to one of my favorite vocalists, but Linda Ronstadt's ARRANGEMENT of Smokey Robinson's "Ooo, Baby, Baby" is really good."


Have you heard Seal's version from the Soul 2 album? 

@sokogear Guess you missed my earlier posts.  I was going to get after her Buddy Holly stuff, but I just can't say anything against any Buddy song.  To me, as a person who was coming up at the time, Buddy and Elvis and Jerry Lee and Chuck are the masters, period.  You can redo their stuff, but it will never be like it was originally.  It was hard enough for me to pick Linda's version of a Smokey song.  As I posted, it is kind of heretical to one of the all time greats...

@julie_priest I just listened to it and to me, it sounds like the Ronstadt ARRANGEMENT, which is clearly different from Smokey's, and it is good, no doubt.  I guess if you prefer a male version, that would be the one to go to.

Cheers!

vanilla fudge keep me hangin on

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

There are lots of great covers here and I’ll try organon a proper answer later.

For now, and given the songs already mentioned, I am surprised not to see lots of support for Mr. Cash singing Personal Jesus. 
 

Mind you, as soon as I typed that, I realised that I need to mention:-

Bert Jansch’s cover of Davey Graham’s Angie (no, not the Rolling Stones song) and the Stones’ cover or Robert Johnson’s Love In Vain.

Wichita Lineman by The Meters is very good.

@nickofwimbledon - indeed, Johnny Cash has done a number of great covers. 'Personal Jesus' is excellent, but my favourite is his version of Nick Cave's great 'The Mercy Seat'. Really like 'Rusty Cage', too.... 

Cover of a cover.

Cover of a cover.

The cover.

The original. 

The cover including great guitar solo.

The original with the originator and the cover artist.