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"
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Buddy Miller- I'm Gonna Be Strong (Gene Pitney original hit)
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Because the Night - 10,000 Maniacs
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Damn Spellcheck %$#$#@!!
I meant Yazoo😀
Des
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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
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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!
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Almost forgot
Lynyrd Skynrd's version of JJ Cale's "They Call Me the Breeze"
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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.
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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)
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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)
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Santana - "She’s Not There"
Anything Eva Cassidy sings.
Heart "Down On Me" - (Blows Janis away... sorry!).
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Linda Ronstadt - Tumbling Dice...no one here should need to be told who wrote that originally.
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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
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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!
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coming from a huge Beatles fan (Happy 82nd Ringo!)......
Got to Get You Into My Life by Earth Wind and Fire
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Ok, here is my contribution. the Mike Patton version of this guy is the best.
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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.
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Bananarama's remake of Shocking Blue's Venus.
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The Animals' version of 'House of the Rising Son' kind of redefined it like Hendrix did with 'Watchtower'....
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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
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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.
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Virtually... ALL... covers by Elvis... are better than the originals... not only more talent reflected, but also, better production values...
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Angelina Jordan - "Suspicious Minds" (Elvis Cover)
Angelina Jordan - "Easy On Me" (Adele Cover)
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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.
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Love Is All Around - R.E.M.
Solitary Man - Sidewinders
Bus Stop - Fountains of Wayne
Natures Way - Firefall
Twelve-Thirty - Autoliner
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Twist And Shout by The Beatles.
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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.
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Hendrix All Along the Watch Tower
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Grace Jones - In Crowd
Randy Crawford - Imagine
UB40 - Ain't no sunshine
Joe Cocker - A little Help from my Friends
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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
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“Hallelujah” - cover by K.D. LANG versus original by LEONARD COHEN
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“Love Is All Around”
- cover by WET,WET,WET versus
- original by THE TROGGS
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The Star Wars theme, Samba Style
https://youtu.be/aGm_X6viE0A
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Angel From Montgomery
Buddy Miller & Friends (with Brandi Carlile & The Lone Bellow)
My favorite version
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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.
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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
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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
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Patricia Barber - A Taste of Honey. Audiophile heaven! Check it out.
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Big Sugar - Dear Mr. Fantasy
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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."
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Black Crowes—Hard to Handle
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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
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XTC - All Along the Watchtower
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Nothing compares 2 u - Sinead o conner / prince original
When u were mine - cyndi Lauper/ prince original
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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.
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