Cover versions that are better than the original

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 10:26 am

The Pogues - Dirty Old Town
Madness - It Must Be Love
Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing
The Beatles - Twist And Shout
The Clash - Police And Thieves

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:24 pm

Fountains of Wayne doing The Kinks song "Better Things" is one. Nick Lowe's take on "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road" is another and The Futureheads doing "Hounds of Love" is a current favourite.

DrJ

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 5:19 pm

Of all the great versions of I Fought The Law I think the Dead Kennedys' is my favourite.

Kevin Rowland's The Greatest Love Of All (and all the other covers on My Beauty, including Labelled With Love)

Little Jimmy Scott's Jealous Guy

Lou Reed's September Song

Nina Simone's Pirate Jenny (and pretty much every cover for RCA, like Suzanne, Just Like Tom Thum's Blues, Since I Fell For You, I Think It's Going To Rain Today...My Way sucked, though)

Stiff Little Finger's Johnny Was (Bob Marley)

Chemical People's Rip It Out (Ace Frehley)

The Ramones' Surfin' Bird

Norma Waterson's The Birds Will Still Be Singing

and especially:

Richard & Linda Thompson's Dark End Of The Street

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 6:42 am

Sid Vicious - My Way
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Helter Skelter
The Specials - Monkey Man
Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World

Girls Talk is hardly a cover, it was given to Edmunds and as far as I remember was a hit before EC ever recorded it. I prefer EC's take anyway.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:01 am

Hearing M. Ward's splendid version of David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (from his 2003 album "Transfiguration of Vincent") made me want to resurrect this thread. What a stupendous cover version - dusty and desperate - blows the doors off the original, and I like Bowie's version. Can I go back and make this my album of the year?

BTW, his new one, "Transistor Radio" is excellent (I've been raving about it elsewhere), but "Transfiguration" is a truly great record that everyone should hear.

OK, I'll shut up about the guy now, but he's a genius.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:12 pm

Thought I'd chime in with some of mine:

Jimi Hendrix - Drifter's Escape (orig. Dylan)
Stop Your Sobbing - The Pretenders (orig. Kinks)
Summertime Blues - The Who (orig. Eddie Cochran)
George Harrison - If Not For You (orig. Dylan)
Johnny Cash - Rowboat (orig. Beck)

I'm sure I'll think of more...

ice nine · Post by **ice nine** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:42 pm

Last Train to Clarksville - Cassandra Wilson
While I wouldn't say it's better I will say its just as good for what it is.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:24 am

Respect - Aretha Franklin

guidedbyvoices · Post by **guidedbyvoices** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:11 pm

First ones to pop into my head:

Cat Power - her covers album has an amazing (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction tha ignores the chorus and turns the verses into a tense bluesy quiet desperation. As many times as I'd heard Satisfaction, somehow I never paid attn to the verse lyrics before, and it's like hearing a completely different song. Instead of defiant, it becomes a song of desperation. And extra points for doing it to a song so overplayed and part of the rock lexicon to make me hear it with new ears.

And the Zeppelin Whole Lotta Love medley on How The West Was Won where they blast through John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillun, Ricky Nelson's Hello Mary Lou, Elvis' Let's Have a Party, and a ripping Going Down Slow. It kills me that for most people Zep have this stigma of being heavy 70s cock rock when they were sch an amazing band that would even play those songs just for sheer love of them! And the fact that every nigt for 4 years, they'd do this at the end of WLL or How Many More Times and just throw in whatever they felt like at that moment. Shaft? Sure. Beatles? Why not. Elvis? A given.

SweetPear · Post by **SweetPear** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:48 am

I like a lot that have already been mentioned......

Stop Your Sobbing~the Pretenders
My Way~Sid Vicious
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood~Elvis Costello

Satisfaction~Devo (the Stones)
Mrs. Robinson~the Lemonheads(Simon and Garfunkle)
What a Wonderful World~Joey Ramone(Louis Armstrong)
I Touch Myself~Eve6 ( the Divinyls)
I Want You to Want Me~NOFX (Cheap Trick)
Video Killed the Radio Star~the Presidents of the United States of America( the Buggles)
And I LOVE this one....
I Will Survive~CAKE!!!!!! (Gloria Gaynor)

LittleFoole · Post by **LittleFoole** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:13 pm

Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover (of Jimi)

Walking On Thin Ice - EC's cover (Yoko OhNo !! )

Heartbreaker Hotel - Dread Zeppelin doing Heartbreak Hotel (the dead Elvis) to the tune of Heartbreaker (Led Zep)

Bob And Charlotte · Post by **Bob And Charlotte** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:59 pm

Baby one more time - Travis
Nobody does it better - Radiohead

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:22 pm

By Your Side - Beachwood Sparks (in which the Sparks turn Sade's song into a psychedelic epic)

Daytripper - Cheap Trick (in which the Trick turn up the Beatles original to 11 on the Richter scale)

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:57 pm

I Call Your Name - Mamas and the Papas

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:05 pm

Mike Boom wrote:Daytripper - Cheap Trick (in which the Trick turn up the Beatles original to 11 on the Richter scale)

Heresy! Burn the witch!

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 7:07 pm

SweetPear wrote: I Want You to Want Me~NOFX (Cheap Trick)

That's Propagandhi, not NOFX. Same label and same sound, though.

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 8:58 am

also
I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:09 am

The Clash - Police And Thieves

Now, THIS is heresy

Sorry IP, but there is no way that this version is better than Junior Murvins. Perhaps in some parallel dimension where pasty white boys play reggae better than the Rastas mon.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:14 pm

I'm not sure if this is heresy or just plain repulsive but I actually greatly prefer.....

Faith/Limp Bizkit

(Don't hate me...it's just about all the Limp Bizkit I've knowingly even heard!)

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:50 am

Alison - Linda Ronstadt

Only joking - don't send the lynch mobs over here.