Cover versions we have actually liked

[spankboy]

After Madonna's gawdawful 'American Pie' cover, I was thinking about cover songs that I thought were actually good.

My partial list (more as I remember them) includes (in no particular order):

* Rusty Cage, Johnny Cash (orig. Soundgarden)
* Southern Accents, Johnny Cash (Tom Petty)
* Hazy Shade of Winter, Bangles (Simon & Garfunkel)
* Mrs. Robinson, Lemonheads (S & G)
* I Love It Loud, Phunk Junkees (Kiss)
* Build Me Up, Buttercup, The Goops (Foundations)
* Paranoid, Megadeth (Black Sabbath)
* You're So Vain, Faster Pussycat (Carly Simon)
* Stone Cold Crazy, Metallica (Queen)
* Love Me Tender, B.B. King (Elvis)
* Satisfaction, Devo (Rolling Stones)

Oh, yeah, and pretty much anything by Dread Zeppelin. And I liked the Hole cover of 'Gold Dust Woman', which prolly won't win me any friends.

Conversely, besides the Madonna cover, what's your most hated cover? Pat Boone's 'Ain't That a Shame'? Slayer's 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida'? That Mallory chick from Family Ties covering 'Satisfaction' for the movie of the same name?

Your votes??

=sb

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They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain't bad.

[spankboy]

Oh, and if this really belongs in MPSIMS, pls kick it over.

Thx!

-sb

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They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain't bad.

[Cooper]

Lenny Cravitz (SP??) cover of American Woman is great, so is Social Distortion's 'Ring of Fire', the Red Hot Chili Pepper's 'Higher Ground'...really there are lots more but those come to mind.

Most hated...Bryan Adam's cover of 'Young Lust' from the Water's Wall Live in Berlin project...I don't care if Roger put him up to it was still awful. Actually, there were probably worse acts on that show (didn't Sinead O'Conner sing 'Mother' or something?), but I like picking on Bryan Adams cause he's such a sissy boy.

[Polycarp]

The Bangles' cover of 'Hazy Shade of Winter' was a desecration.

On the other hand, I found Guns 'n' Roses' cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" a vast improvement over the original. (Of course, it helps that Axl Rose can carry a tune! )

A couple of special cases, for reasons that will become evident:

• "Unforgettable" was Nat King Cole's signature tune, back in the days when we were listening to him while fighting off the sabertooth tigers. For Natalie to do a re-engineered duet with him was singularly touching.
• In view of the song's subject matter and the reputed relationship of artist and composer, Ugly Kid Joe's cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was singularly poignant.

[Cooper]

Allright, you think Axl Rose can sing? Better than Dylan even? I admit Dylan has a lousy voice - but at least he doesn't screech like a castrated rooster.

[Ursa Major]

Don't stop with "Mrs. Robinson" when talking about great covers by the Lemonheads. Check out "Different Drum" (Linda Rohnstat(sp?)) and "My Name is Luka" (S. Vega)

My all time favorite cover is still Man or Astroman?'s kick-ass version of the Mysterian's "Out of Limits".

[Jeannie]

Okay, any Michael Bolton version of ANYTHING was a disgrace (including songs that were his originally). Now that THAT's off my chest...
I'm not nuts about Madonna's new "American Pie" either. My husband says the worst cover ever was Ike & Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" (originally done by CCR).
My favorite remake is probably the Fugees' version of "Killing Me Softly."

[Clark K]

Tina Turner does a wonderful, soulful version of the Beatles' "Help."

Originally posted by Jeannie:
My husband says the worst cover ever was Ike & Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" (originally done by CCR).

I've always liked Ike & Tina's version.



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Up, up and away!

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Rod Stewart and Ronald Isley's "This Old Heart of Mine," originally by the Isley Brothers.

[spankboy]

Didn't Rod the Mod Stewart do 'Pinball Wizard'? I think Elton played him in the movie, tho. I'll agree-good cover.

I don't know if they count as 'covers', but the whole Puff Daddy empire has pretty much been built on stuff he stole (Every Breath You Take, Kashmir, et. al.). Oh, how I loathe them.

Oh, yeah, I forgot! Joe Cocker remaking 'The Letter' (Box Tops?!!?)! I love that song!!! And, speaking of Linda Ronstadt, how about 'Blue Bayou'? It takes talent not to bruise an Orbison song, like that Vonda gal did on Ally McBeal.

Mannfred Mann's 'Blinded by the Light' is okay, but 10k Maniacs version of 'Because the Night' didn't float my boat; I liked Patti Smith's better. Oddly enuff, both written by Springsteen, which is odd..

-sb

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They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain't bad.

[spankboy]

"Oddly enough...which is odd"

Stupid brain. Needs more caffeine.

-sb

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They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children.
Two out of three ain't bad.

[Drain Bead]

This track is pretty hard to find unless you get it on MP3, but Foo Fighters did an amazing cover of "Baker Street." Definitely find that if you're a fan of either the band or the original. I played it for people who had never heard of Foo Fighters but knew "Baker Street" and they loved it.

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"Buffalo Bills? Oh, yeah. The guys that always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory." --WallyM7

[Drain Bead]

In view of the song's subject matter and the reputed relationship of artist and composer, Ugly Kid Joe's cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was singularly poignant.

Wait...is someone in Ugly Kid Joe supposedly Harry Chapin's son? There's a rumor I haven't heard.

[Sam Stone]

Best two covers of all time: The Beatles doing "Twist and Shout", and Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee".

[RTFirefly]

Harvey Danger's cover of "Save It for Later", originally by the English Beat.

BS&T's cover of the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil".

Byrds' covers of a bunch of Dylan songs, especially "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Chimes of Freedom".

[J String]

Deep Purple's "Perfect Stranger's" was covered by Dream Theater afew years ago. And don't laugh, but Dokken's rendition of "From the Beginning" (ELP) is quite good.

Other good covers:
Celtic Frost: "Mexican Radio"
Metallica: "Am I Evil"
Motley Crue: "Anarchy In the U.K."
Lillian Axe: "No Matter What"


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It's a long way to heaven, but only three short steps to hell.

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

Best: "Hey Joe" "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower" -- Jimi Hendrix
"Heard It Through the Grapevine" -- CCR
"What's Goin' On" -- Les McCann
"Little Wing" -- Stevie Ray Vaughn
"Stolen Moments" -- New York Singing Sensations
"Respect" -- Aretha Franklin (even Otis admitted she took it away from him)
"House of the Rising Sun" -- the Animals
"My Favorite Things" -- John Coltrane Quartet
"Angel" -- Rod Stewart

Worst:
"City of New Orleans" -- Willie Nelson. What he does to this song should be a felony.

Problem is, in the 60's & 70's you had a lot of singer-songwriters whose works were often released first or more definitively by someone else:

Examples:
Desperado - Linda Ronstadt vs. The Eagles
Tambourine Man - The Byrds vs. Bob Dylan
Leavin' on a Jet Plane - Peter Paul & Mary vs. John Denver
Me & Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin & Kris Kristofferson
and too many others to think of.

We could make sure we keep this in GD by endlessly discussing which version was THE version...

Good covers:
Shameless - Garth Brooks covering Billy Joel
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston covering Dolly Parton (now there's a visual image for you)

Bad Covers:
Wild World - someone totally forgettable covering Cat Stevens
Total Eclipse of the Heart - ?Nikki French covering Bonnie Tyler

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Sue from El Paso
Siamese Attack Puppet - Texas

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

[Rousseau]

-The three Hendrix covers previously mentioned.
-The covers on Phish's new box set: "Bold as Love" (Hendrix), "Sabotage" (Beastie Boys), "Cry Baby Cry" (Beatles), "Quinn the Eskimo" (Dylan)
- Blues Traveller: "Imagine" (Lennon)
- Nirvana: "The Man Who Sold the World" (Bowie)
- The Wallflowers: "Heroes" (Bowie)
- Just about anything the Grateful Dead ever covered.
- Jeff Buckley: "Hallejulah" (Cohen)
- Joe Cocker: "Just Like a Woman" (Dylan)
- Madonna: "American Pie" (McLean)
Wait, wait, wait, that's not right. Scratch that last one.


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The IQ of a group is equal to the IQ of the dumbest member divided by the number of people in the group.

[ruadh]

The Bongos: "Mambo Sun" (T Rex)
Low: "Transmission" (Joy Division)
Monsoon: "Tomorrow Never Knows" (Beatles)
Chapterhouse: "Rain" (Beatles)
Husker Du: "Eight Miles High" (Byrds)
Galaxie 500: "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" (Yoko Ono)

And FTR I'd just like to say I *hate* tribute albums ...

[Persephone]

I'm almost 100% positive that The Righteous Brothers' version of You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling was a cover, but I can't for the life of me remember who originally recorded it.

I think they were the first ones to record it, but I'm not sure. I don't know if they wrote it, though. Hall & Oates covered it in the mid-Eighties, and that version was okay. Well, it wasn't great, but it didn't totally suck.

Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss," on the other hand....well, that one just blew. It blew yaks. Dead, maggot-infested, stinky yaks.

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Changing my sig, because Wally said to, and I really like Wally, and I'll do anything he says, anytime he says to.

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

Hey, Cristi, the original of the "Last Kiss" sucked canal water, too.

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The Coyote gnaws ....
but he does not swallow.

[Kamino Neko]

Originally posted by Rousseau:
- The Wallflowers: "Heroes" (Bowie)

Ugh.....ughughughughugh!

I hate that one. I hate that one. I hate that one. Crap, crap, crapcrapcrap!

Just had to say that.



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Eschew Obfuscation

[nebuli]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm almost 100% positive that The Righteous Brothers' version of You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling was a cover, but I can't for the life of me remember who originally recorded it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think they were the first ones to record it, but I'm not sure.

Maybe the song being thought of was Unchained Melody by Al Hibbler, covered by the Righteous Bros.

[RTA]

Oh, dear me ... I have NEVER heard a cover I didn't "actually" like. Never. Nnneh-vurr. ALL cover songs are GREAT, even the ones played by the WORST bar bands. I mean it, honest!
My favorites right now?
Face to Face's "Don't Change the Earth" (INXS)
The Lee Harvey Oswald Band's "You Talk Sunshine, I Breathe Fire" (Amboy Dukes) and "Brontosaurus" (Move)
The Neanderthal Spongecake's "Metal Health" (Quiet Riot)

[Persephone]

Peyote: yes indeedy it did. I don't like car crash songs. Actually, "don't like" is a bit weak when it comes to how I really feel about car crash songs. But this is GD, not the Pit. I'll just say that car crash songs don't just blow yaks--they felch them too.

Believe it or not, though, "Last Kiss" is not my least favorite cover. That dubious honor goes to everyone's least favorite song, "MacArthur Park." That song is soooooo bad, it makes me want to have hot monkey sex with every genius who ever even thought about writing a car crash song.

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Changing my sig, because Wally said to, and I really like Wally, and I'll do anything he says, anytime he says to.

[Lawrence]

Best live cover I've ever seen/heard: REM doing "Moon River".

Worst (tie): Springsteen singing "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and every single band that has ever come to KC doing "Kansas City". By the way, they always do the Beatles' version, which is actually a medley of "Kansas City" and another song called "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey".

[Rincewind]

I tend to prefer whichever version I've heard first. So there are times when I prefer the cover version to the original.

Covers I like.

"All Along the Watchtower" by Hendrix and U2

"Twist and Shout" by the Beatles

Annie Lennox did an album of covers called Medusa. I like most of the songs on that inluding No More "I Love You's"
Thin Line Between Love and Hate
and Waiting in Vain

[Hail Ants]

Since nobody's mentioned it, my favorite cover is The Power Station's "Bang-a-Gong", originally by T-rex. They took a goofy little sixties ditty and made it a hard rock classic. Also:

Rob Zombie / "Children of the Grave"
Motley Crue / "Anarchy in the UK"
GnR's / "Live & Let Die" (I'm sorry, but all post-Beatles McCartney stuff sounds like Britney Spears to me)
And who can forget Sid Vicious' "My Way"!

[Milossarian]

Joe Cocker's cover of the Beatle's "With a Little Help From My Friends" springs to mind.

I always hate it when bands cover a classic song and then do their damndest to sound just like it. What's the point in that?

A great example of a band putting their own spin on a song and making it completely different but still cool (like the aforementioned Cocker) was Toad the Wet Sprocket's slow, acoustic ballad version of "Rock and Roll All Nite" on the "Kiss My Ass" Kiss tribute album.

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"You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment." - Bill Hicks

As far as same era covers go, I left out Blowin' in the Wind - Peter Paul & Mary vs. Bob Dylan

Good Ones:
Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts (Dylan) by Joan Baez. Who can stand listening to Dylan that long?
Bye Bye Love (Everly Brothers) by Simon & Garfunkel

Bad Ones:
The Times They are a Changin' (Dylan) by Simon & Garfunkel. Dylan was a great songwriter. He was a good emotional storyteller. A great voice he was not. Why Garfunkel felt he had to imitate Dylan's voice is beyond me.

- Sue

[Kamino Neko]

Having posted about one I hatehatehatehatehate, I feel I must post a few that I do like.

Joe Cocker's 'With a Little Help From My Friends' (Beatles)

Any Bob Dylan song done by any artist other than Dylan.

Guns & Roses' 'Live and Let Die' (Paul McCartney)

Great Big Sea's version of 'End of the World' (REM)

Sheryl Crow's version of 'Sweet Child of Mine' (G&R)

Barenaked Ladies' 'Lovers in a Dangerous Time' (Bruce Coburn)



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Eschew Obfuscation

[Kyla]

- Rolling Stones' cover of "Like a Rolling Stone" is excellent (as well as being amusing, just for the novelty factor).
- Nirvana's cover of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World" is excellent, although I must admit I have never heard the original.
- Sinead O'Connor's version of "Nothing Compares 2U," clearly by Prince, as no one else would put "2U" in the title of a song.
- Tori Amos' cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is great, just because! Just try to imagine it.
- "Respect"! Aretha Franklin's version is a cover. I think that it was originally written by Otis Redding, whose version was also excellent. Oh, and he did a great cover of "Satisfaction."



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~Harborina

"This is my sandbox. I'm not allowed to go in the deep end. That's where I saw the leprechauns."

[Narile]

Elton John's Saterday nights allright for fighting cover by the Who is great.

Worst, Erg, so many to choose from.


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>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry....unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<

---The dragon observes

[Little Nemo]

Any cover version by Michael Bolton, David Lee Roth, or Natalie Merchant is bad.

I liked Hole's cover of Gold Dust Woman and the Bangles's cover of Hazy Shade of Winter. And I liked Banarama's cover of I'm Your Venus.

Along with the other Johnny Cash covers mentioned in the OP, I liked his cover of Johnny 99. Even Bruce Springsteen has said he prefers Cash's version to his own.

And of course Barnes and Barnes's cover of
Please Please Me will never be topped.

[Shayna]

Best:

George Benson's version of On Broadway (originally done by The Drifters or The Platters, can't remember which).

I'm almost 100% positive that The Righteous Brothers' version of You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling was a cover, but I can't for the life of me remember who originally recorded it.

I completely agree with Cooper about Lenny Kravitz's cover of American Woman. That one rocked, too.

Metallica's cover of Bob Seger's Turn The Page.

There are so many more, but I am just drawing a blank right now.

Worst:

Michael Jackson's Rockin' Robin. Maybe I just hate that song no matter who sang it, but his whiney, pathetic excuse for a voice just grates on me.



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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank

[aseymayo]

I, too, like Joe Cocker's way with a song. "Feelin' Alright" is another good one.

Others worth noting:
Fine Young Cannibals - Suspicious Minds (Elvis)
The Cramps - Lonesome Town (Ricky Nelson - there might be an earlier version, but Ricky's was the first one I heard)
The Ramones - Needles and Pins (Sonny and Cher) and Baby, I Love You (The Ronettes first, but it's been covered several times)

[RM Mentock]

Like it or love it, Me and Bobby McGee / Janis Joplin.
<font color=#FCFCFC>------------------
rocks</font>

[kunilou]

There are a lot more covers out there than you could ever imagine. Some of my favorites--

Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower

Tina Turner and Proud Mary

Elton John's Pinball Wizard

Marvin Gaye, Heard It Through the Grapevine

Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Woodstock

And can we count anything by Weird Al?

[Hunsecker]

Well, my favorite covers that haven't been mentioned yet are:

Chiquitata by Sinead O'Connor
To Sir With Love by 10,000 maniacs
Raspberry Beret by Hindu Love Gods
I Shot The Sherrif by Clapton (well, its not as good as Marleys, but its still damn good)

the funniest cover:
Iron Man by the Cardigans

And I've gotta say, Tori Amos wins the award for the most bizarre covers. I just heard her and Tool doing Amazing Grace, ugh. But her Smells Like Teen Spirit and Angie were awesome

Long as it is, this is not a complete list. If you know the original artist where I don't (or if I made a mistake), please provide the correct information.

Favorite covers:

Louie Louie -- Kingsman (Richard Berry)
Route 66 -- Rolling Stones (Bobby Troup)
Jenny Take a Ride -- Mitch Ryder (Little Richard)
Gloria -- Shadows of Knight (Van Morrison & Them)
War -- Edwin Starr (Temptations)
Johnny B. Good -- Jimi Hendrix (Chuck Berry)
John Barleycorn -- Traffic (traditional)
Feelin' Allright -- Joe Cocker (Traffic)
Shake Your Money Maker -- Fleetwood Mac (Elmore James)
Move Over -- Slade (Janis Joplin)
C'mon Everybody -- Humble Pie (Eddie Cochran)
Silver Train -- Johnny Winter (Rolling Stones)
Maybelline -- Ted Nugent (Chuck Berry)
Chevrolet -- Foghat (?)
Rated X -- Pat Benatar (Nick Gilder)
Do You Wanna Touch Me -- Joan Jett (Gary Glitter)
Real Wild Child -- Joan Jett, Iggy Pop (not sure who did this first -- Buddy Holly, maybe?)
Summertime Blues -- Joan Jett, Blue Cheer (Eddie Cochran)
Star Star -- Joan Jett (Rolling Stones)
Stupid Girl -- Ellen Foley (Rolling Stones)
I'm Not Your Stepping Stone -- Sex Pistols (Monkees)
Friggin In The Riggin -- Sex Pistols (traditional -- the basis for Yankee Doodle Dandy?)
Down On The Farm -- Guns n' Roses (UK Subs)
Raw Power -- Guns n' Roses (Stooges)
Search And Destroy -- Red Hot Chili Peppers (Stooges)
Brontosauras -- Lee Harvey Oswald (The Move)
Breadfan -- Metallica (Budgie)
So What -- Metallica (Anti-Nowhere League)
Come Together (live version) -- Aerosmith (Beatles)
Spider-Man -- Ramones (tv cartoon theme song)
California Sun -- Ramones (?)
Let's Dance -- Ramones (Chris Montez)
You Really Got Me -- Van Halen (Kinks)
You're No Good -- Van Halen (Linda Ronstadt)
I Ain't Superstitious -- Jeff Beck (Willie Dixon)
Back Door Man -- Doors (Willie Dixon)
American Society -- L7 (Eddie & the Subtitles)
Hangin' On The Telephone -- L7 (Blondie)
Jenny Says -- Cowboy Mouth (Dash Rip Rock)
I Saw The Light -- Dash Rip Rock (Hank Williams)
Winnebago Warrior -- Mojo Nixon (Dead Kennedys)
Rock 'n' Roll -- Mitch Ryder & Detroit (Velvet Underground)
Gimme Shelter -- Mitch Ryder & Detroit (Rolling Stones)
House Party -- J. Geils Band (?)
Emergency -- Motorhead (GirlSchool)
Cat Scratch Fever -- Motorhead (Ted Nugent)
Who Do You Love -- George Thorogood (Bo Diddley)
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer -- George Thorogood (John Lee Hooker)
The Green Manalishi -- Judas Priest (Fleetwood Mac)
I Got A Right -- Misfits (Iggy Pop)


Covers that should never have been recorded:

I Wanna Be Your Dog -- Joan Jett (Stooges)
Stray Cat Blues -- Johnny Winter (Rolling Stones)
I Want To Tell You -- Ted Nugent (Beatles)
Helter Skelter -- Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Pat Benatar (Beatles)
Dancing In The Streets -- Mick Jagger/David Bowie (Martha Reeves)
Satisfaction -- Devo (Rolling Stones)
Johnny B. Good -- Judas Priest (Chuck Berry)
Be My Lover -- Mojo Nixon (Alice Cooper)

And a question about a more recent cover, if anyone has heard of it: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/005519.html

RTA, I never would have guessed that anyone else on this board had ever even HEARD of Lee Harvey Oswald. Great CD.

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"You can observe a lot just by watching." -- Yogi Berra

[astorian]

Among the best covers of all time (and all far better than the originals, in my opinion) are:

1) "Rod Stewart's cover of the Temptations' "(I Know) I'm Losing You"

2) The Beatles' covers of CHuck Berry's "Rock & Roll Music" and Little RIchard's "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" (Man, could John Lennon belt out a rock and roll song!)

3) The Rolling Stones' cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away"

4) Guadalcanal Diary's cover of the BEatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing"

5) Deep Purple's cover of Joe South's "Hush"

6) The Jeff Beck Group's cover (with Rod Stewart on vocals) of Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up"

7) Joe Cocker's cover of the Box Tops' "The Letter"

8) Dave Edmunds' cover of Bruce Springsteen's "From Small Things (Big THings One Day Come)"

9) Linda Ronstadt's cover of ROy ORbison's "Blue Bayou"

10) Jimi Hendrix' cover of "Hey Joe"

I'll unjdoubtedly think of 50 more good covers as soon as I click "submit," but 10 seems like plenty from one guy.

[longhair75]

good morning friends,

i must first qualify what i am about to say by admitting that i am not a country music fan.

i really dislike country music covers of rock tunes. my typical example: faith hill's cover of janis joplin's "piece of my heart"

and because i am admittedly not a country fan, i have no idea who the artists are for these, but there have been country covers of aerosmith "i don't want to miss a thing" eric clapton "wonderful tonight" the grateful dead "truckin"

alana myles had a pretty good tune, "black velvet" on the pop charts. about a week after it dropped out of the top ten, there was a country cover.

maybe the most amusing is a middle aged country singer singing the line: "i'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote" in a country cover of eddie cochran's "summertime blues"

one already mentioned: natalie cole's remix version of "unforgetable." possibly, natalie singing with her father via technology was a touching and nostalgic moment, but getting the grammy award for best song? maybe we should term it the "milli vanilli grammy" or the "karioke grammy"



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"don't get strung out by the way that i look, don't judge a book by it's cover" (tim curry as dr. franknfurter in rhps)

[DoctorJ]

Good covers:
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston covering Dolly Parton

I must disagree. This one always makes me want to jump out the nearest window. (Of course, I didn't care for the original, either, but Whitney's is worse.)

The covers on Phish's new box set: "Bold as Love" (Hendrix), "Sabotage" (Beastie Boys), "Cry Baby Cry" (Beatles), "Quinn the Eskimo" (Dylan)

Don't forget "Boogie On Reggae Woman" (Stevie Wonder), and "Get Jiggy Wit It" (Will Smith), which is fun if not virtuoso. I don't care for their "Bold as Love", though.

Phish does a lot of great covers--two of my favorites are "Loving Cup" (the Stones) and "When the Circus Comes to Town" (Los Lobos).

- Just about anything the Grateful Dead ever covered.

Don't listen to "Hey Jude" on Disc 1 of "2-11-68 (Good Morning Little Schoolgirl)". Not one of Pig's finest moments. I always particularly loved "Dear Mr. Fantasy" from "Without a Net".

Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts (Dylan) by Joan Baez. Who can stand listening to Dylan that long?

Actually, "Blood on the Tracks" is one of my favorite albums. I guess I'm in the minority here in thinking that Dylan's songs lose something when someone else does them. His voice may not be pretty, or even tonal, but he packs more emotion into one sneering moan than most singers have in their entire ouevre.

That said, Joan Baez is the best interpreter of Dylan's work--I saw her join the Indigo Girls to do "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright". (I was stage security, and Joan looked me in the eye and laughed as I was singing along. Great moment.)

Tori Amos' cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is great, just because! Just try to imagine it.

That kicks so much ass! The whole "Crucify" EP is great--in addition to "Teen Spirit", she covers the Stones' "Angie" and Zeppelin's "Thank You". One that she does occasionally in concert that I'd love to hear is "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by the Police. (It should be pointed out that these are all solo piano and vocal arrangements. You'd just have to hear it.)

Some of my favorite covers:
--"Crosstown Traffic" (Hendrix) by Medeski, Martin, and Wood. You want to talk about having your own take on a song.
--"Kathy's Song" (Simon and Garfunkel) by Shawn Colvin, on her "Live '88" disc. Not a big departure from the original, but I like it anyway.
--"1999" (Prince), by the Asylum Street Spankers. The definitive jug band version.
--"Apache Rose Peacock" (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Dr. J's solo acoustic version. Actually, this one really sucks, but if you get me drunk at a party you might have to hear it anyway.

Dr. J

[PunditLisa]

UB40's "Red, Red Wine" (Neil Diamond)
Sting's "Come Down in Time" (Elton John)
George Michael's "Tonight" (Elton John)
Aerosmith's "Come Together" (Beatles)
Luther Vandross' "Killing Me Softly"(Roberta Flack)

Strangely, three of the best covers are slowed down, or acoustic versions, of a song previously recorded by the same band (does that count as a cover?):

Police "Don't Stand So Close to Me"
Eric Clapton "Layla" and
Heart "Alone"

[douglips]

Someone has already mentioned "Any Bob Dylan song sung by anyone other than Bob Dylan." Let me add to that "Any Bruce Springsteen Song sung by anyone other than Bruce Springsteen."

Including:
Blinded By the Light, Spirits in the Night, and I Came for You by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

[Ringo]

Hendrix' cover of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" is already well represented. I'll include Dave Mason's cover of Hendrix cover.

Another Dylan cover - "Baby Blue" as per the 13th Floor Elevators.

[Sam Stone]

Bonnie Raitt's cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" is fantastic.

Linda Ronstadt covered about a zillion Warren Zevon songs, but none of them were as good as the originals.

The Cowboy Junkies have an album called "The Trinity Sessions" which is essentially a collection of covers, and it is phenomenal.

[Cervaise]

Big second (or third, or however many it's been) to Tori Amos's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Truly haunting, and something to go back to when the swirly nature-sylph stuff on the latest albums gets too annoying.

Another candidate: Billy Joel does "Back in the U.S.S.R." on his Russian live album. Now, I'd hardly say the Beatles are outdone by his version, but there's something truly unique and thrilling about a born-in-the-USA rocker taking a Western rock classic and blasting it out for a Soviet audience. The roar of the audience when they recognize what's coming up -- it gives you chills.