What's your favorite remake of a song

I just saw Gretchen Wilson and Alice in Chains do Heart's Barracuda but Nancy Wilson was playing too. I actually think that Gretchen Wilson sang it better.

Sonny and Cher's "I've got you, babe...", sung amazingly well by Patricia Barber.

These made extreme hits out of previously obscure songs

Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
All Along the watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
Der Kommissar - After the Fire
Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
Please don't let me be misunderstood - The Animals
Red Red Wine - UB40
Shake rattle and roll - Bill Haley's Comets

Shirelles - "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by Carole King
Aretha Franklin - "Natural Woman" by Carole King
Natalie Merchant - "Because the Night" by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen
I'm sure there are many others but these 3 came to mind first.

Dave Matthews remake of Daniel Lanois's "The Maker"

Nirvana's unplugged cover of the Meat Puppets
"Lake of Fire", also their versions of Bowies song was great aswell.

Mott The Hoople's cover of The Velvet Undergrounds Sweet Jane.

I'll second Rebecca Pidgeon's version of Spanish Harlem on Chesky Records. It was released by Ben E. King in 61 Though I think it was written by Phil Spector and Jerry Leiber . Quite nicely done.

I second Blood Sweat and Tears' "God Bless the Child"
Rare Earth's remakes of "Get Ready" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (I also really like Rod Stewart's version)
Santana's "She's Not There"
Grand Funk Railroad's "Feelin' Alright"

Pat Travers' cover of Born Under a Bad Sign from Crash and Burn.

Many of my fav's are mentioned above.

Cowboy Junkies released a CD called "'Neath Your Covers". It was actually a throw in with "One Soul Now" when I bought it. Among the songs on 'neath your covers are 3 I like better than the original:

"Thunder Road" (Springsteen)
"Darkness, Darkness" (The Youngbloods)
"Helpless" (N. Young)

Darkness. Darkness is especially notable as it's already one of my favorite songs.

Devo "Satisfaction".

Patti Smiths new "12" is hard to beat for 12 classic covers.

Aretha..."What a Fool Believes"

Maura O'Connell's cover of The Beatles "If I Fell" is great.

As is Linda Ronstadt's cover of John David Souther's "Faithless Love".

Both are breathtaking vocals.

Bill Sheffields cover of the Tom Waits tune "Invitation to the Blues."
Allman Brothers cover of Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues"
Off the cd "Bronx in Blue" Dion's version of Howlin Wolf's "Built for Comfort."

Johnny Cash = Hurt

Nirvana doing Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World", Cowboy Junkies "Sweet Jane".

Bauhaus' Ziggy Stardust
Annie Lenox' Don't Let It Bring You Down
Megadeth' Anarchy In The UK
Voivod' Astronomy Domine

Link to William Shatner singing Rocket Man
http://www.devilducky.com/media/21099/

William Shatner singing Elton John's "Rocket Man"

Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" on Grace. This song absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it and it's not even the best song on the album.
Three great cover albums are:
Annie Lennox -- Medusa
k.d. lang -- Hymns From The 49th Parallel
Patti Smith -- Twelve

I can think of Alison Krauss's "When you say nothing at all", previously done by Keith Whitley.
Whitney Houston's "The greatest love of all", also done by George Benson.
Simply Red's "If you don't know me by now", done by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
Rebecca Pidgeon's "Spanish Harlem", done by Ben E. King.*
Blood Sweat and Tears's "God Bless this child", with the untouchable version, IMHO, done by Billy Holiday.
I am not quite sure who sang the original version of each song but those are my comparisons of remakes vs popular versions.
Happy Holidays to everyone and all the best in the New Year.
Keep the music playing.
Thanks, BJ.
* I could not find the Rebecca Pidgeon CD to verify this but I am pretty sure of it.

cat power's 'satisfaction' is so nice

How about Paul Young's remake of Hall & Oates' Every Time You Go Away?

The Queen Of Soul: "Respect." Otis Redding, in admiration, said: "That girl stole my song."

Tool doing No Quarter on Salival. The live feel makes it that much better for me.

I have 2 CDs I’d like to recommend. Both are total remakes of excellent songs. The first is “Big Bang Theory” from Styx. Not only are the covers done extremely well, the song choices are exceptional. A few of my favorites are “I am the Walrus”, “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “One Way Out”.

Following the Styx theme, Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades did an great CD of covers titled “Influence”. A few favorites here are “Lucky Man”, “Summer Breeze”, “Sound of Silence” and “California Dreaming“. Shaw and Blades sound like they were born to sing together.

I'll go a different route....

Jazz: how about John Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things"? Bill Evans' "Love Theme from Spartacus"...won him a well deserved Grammy.

Pop/Rock: Almost any Jamie Cullum remake of almost any song. He's outstanding!

Pop/Country: Whitney Houston's version of Dolly Parton's "I will always love you".

The worst remakes....of all time.....: ANY BEE GEES/ABBA/BARRY MANILOW SONG....they all sucked!

Nirvana Unplugged, "The Man Who Sold The World", originally by David Bowie, before his big break-out.

kid rocks country version of fat bottom girls

Bryan Ferry's/Roxy Music's versions of "Like A Hurricane" (Neil Young) and "Jealous Guy" (John Lennon) have been favorites for 20+ years.

Regards, Rich

Jimi Hendrix' version of "All Along The Watchtower" probably surpasses Dylan, IMHO.

Anything by Joe Cocker.

How about early Rolling Stones or Beatles tunes, most of which were remakes that are better known than the originals.

"Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin.

One of my favourites is "It's Only Love", Bryan Ferry's remake of the Beatles song.

Also, the Cowboy Junkies remake of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane. Even Lou Reed himself says it's good.

I could go on and on.

Eva Cassidy's versions of Fields of Gold, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and Over the Rainbow. . . among others. . .

Ramones' version of the Stones' song, Out of Time.

I like Queen Latifa's remake of Phoebe Snow's "Poetry Man"