Favourite covers of Beatles songs

[Shakester]

Originally Posted by Ulfreida

Working Class Hero Marianne Faithfull

I think this is the definitive version, myself.

Not a Beatles song, unless you stretch the definition to include songs by ex-Beatles.

[Shakester]

Originally Posted by Sparky812

/nitpick - I love the Flying Lizard cover but The Beatles version is a cover of Barret Strong's 1959 original hit.

As I pointed out back in post 26.

[twickster]

"Come Together" by the Hubos.

[Ulfreida]

Originally Posted by Shakester

Not a Beatles song, unless you stretch the definition to include songs by ex-Beatles.

well, okay. Still one of my favorite covers.

[california jobcase]

Cheap Trick used to do a fine live version of Day Tripper. I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet.

[Eonwe]

Ah, almost forgot: Vanilla Fudge's Ticket To Ride.

[handsomeharry]

Greatest cover ever:
Joe Cocker, With a Little Help from my Friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO7l_...eature=related

[blondebear]

Originally Posted by california jobcase

Cheap Trick used to do a fine live version of Day Tripper. I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet.

They did a pretty decent version of the whole of Sgt. Pepper too. I like Robyn Hitchcock's version better though, mostly because of the between-song banter.

[Winnie]

Originally Posted by Ceejaytee

We Can Work It Out by Stevie Wonder.

Hells yeah. That song BELONGS to Stevie in this version.

[The Other Jeffrey Lebowski]

Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except For Me and My Monkey) - The Feelies.

[ouryL]

Since he is in the news, Oh Darling! from the Bee Gees's Sgt Pepper Movie song by Robin Gibb is one of the high spots in the film.

[Lust4Life]

Originally Posted by Shakester

Not actually a Beatles song, though, their version is a cover.

Well I'll be damned !

Ignorace fought.

Also I used to have S.T.s version of I am the Walrus, loved it and hated the Beatles version, but as I've got older started really enjoying the Bs version.

As to S.T. haven't heard their stuff for a good many years.

[Arabella Flynn]

A Japanese lady named Shiina Ringo does the hottest cover of "Yer Blues" I've ever heard. (On another album, she also covers Lennon's "Starting Over", very cutely.) She's a huge fan of late-Beatles psychedelica and John Lennon in particular, and it's reflected in a lot of her other work.

Another Japanese musician who goes by Hyde is notorious for doing a cover of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" when he does solo tours. I've seen it; it's enthusiastic as all get out, but his accent makes it well-nigh incomprehensible.

[Hook]

I have a real fondness for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oZS0tP0oP0
Julie Covington doing a performance of In My Life.

[An Gadaí]

I've loved Assagai's version of Hey Jude since I heard it about 10 years ago. I prefer it to the original.

[goonhead]

"We Can Work it Out" by Stevie Wonder

"Fool on the Hill" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

"With a Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by Silkie

"Here Comes the Sun" by Ritchie Havens

"She's Leaving Home" by the Brad Mehldau Trio

[Pine Fresh Scent]

Originally Posted by fiddlesticks

Wow, lots of Tomorrow Never Knows covers out there...here's Phil Collins'. Not my favorite, but the first Beatles cover I was aware of as a kid, thanks Mom.

Yep, I thought it was just a neat, but original, ending track to my older brother's vinyl copy of "Face Value". Took me years to not mentally hear Phil Collins singing the chorus to "Over the Rainbow" on the fade out of Lennon's version, which I discovered much too late in life to admit here.

[etv78]

Originally Posted by goonhead

"We Can Work it Out" by Stevie Wonder

"Fool on the Hill" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66

"With a Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by Silkie

"Here Comes the Sun" by Ritchie Havens

"She's Leaving Home" by the Brad Mehldau Trio

Came in to post that. What can I say, Winnie Cooper was my 1st crush.

[mambocrow]

One of my favorite Beatle covers not mentioned yet - Bob Welch's cover of "I Saw Her Standing There".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTsfTQcmidQ

[septimus]

Maybe I'm a sentimental fool but I like the movie Across the Universe with, for example, I Want to Hold Your Hand sung by T.V. Carpio.

[tadtooornamental]

Eleanor Rigby by Thrice. The verses are a bit bland, but the chorus just has this howling intensity. Also- this is the song that made me actually pay attention to the Beatles when I was in high school.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Speaking of Joe Cocker, I didn't care for most of the covers in the movie Across the Universe, but I loved Cocker's version of "Come Together."

[denquixote]

Ray Charles' Yesterday

[njtt]

Originally Posted by denquixote

Ray Charles' Yesterday

I don't know Ray's version of Yesterday, but almost every cover version of the song I have ever heard is dreadful overblown schmaltz compared to Paul's simple, brilliantly understated original. (Apparently he had quite a fight with the string players, and George Martin, to prevent them from drowning it in schmaltzy vibrato.)

This a song that nearly everybody gets wrong after The Beatles (actually Paul on his own) got it very right.

[Kamino Neko]

ANY Joe Cocker Beatles cover is excellent.

Halestorm has a great version of I Want You (She's So Heavy) on their EP Reanimate...I'm quite fond of it.

[OttoDaFe]

Not sure if it fits the strict definition of a "cover," but I really like "Ouverture [I Want To Hold Your Hand]". It's the first track of The Baroque Beatles Book, an album that was arranged by Joshua Rifkin in 1965 and (supposedly) recorded by the "Baroque Ensemble of the Merseyside Kammermusickgesellschaft."

As the name implies, Rifkin took familiar Beatles tunes and put them in baroque settings. Specifically, IWTHYH is done as a toccata and fugue.

[tomcar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHFxCj3wqaQ

I am partial to Billy Bragg's She's Leaving Home. It's possibly my favorite Beatles song and his version is even more lonely than the original.

[lieu]

Pearl Jam's You've Got to Hide Your Love Away stops me in my tracks every time.

[Death of Rats]

Originally Posted by california jobcase

Cheap Trick used to do a fine live version of Day Tripper. I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet.

They also did a great job with Magical Mystery Tour.

[Clothahump]

Originally Posted by rowrrbazzle

"Fool on the Hill", Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 (showing my age here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzP-K...eature=related

+1. Great cover.

[koeeoaddi]

Originally Posted by Purd Werfect

Elliot Smith doing Because. One of my all time favorite musical acts covering one my all time favorite musical acts.

Thanks for posting this, Purd Werfect, I think it's my new favorite Beatles cover!

[Snowboarder Bo]

Not covers, but remixes that I actually like more than I like the original (and it's one of my favorite Beatles songs, so there's that):

Come Together (SirCular Remix)
Come Together (David Starfire Remix)

[dalej42]

Bette Midler-In My Life

Video

[The Second Stone]

A great cover of Baba O'Riley sequeing into Tomorrow Never Knows by the Greatful Dead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaZL5QYb5z8

[control-z]

Originally Posted by Accidental Martyr

Happiness Is a Warm Gun-The Breeders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixd-dZZtpA&nomobile=1

That was my answer. They really rock out on the "Mother superior jumped the gun" part.

[RealityChuck]

I love Lol Coxhill's version of I am the Walrus, probably the strangest version of a Beatles song ever recorded.

[Jaledin]

Funny. I woke up this morning with Billy Preston's arrangement of "Blackbird" in my ears. Before going out for a run, while waiting for my friend, I tried to remember some of it more concretely.

One of the best covers ever. Certainly up there in Beatles covers.

Well, that and Laibach's "Get Back."

[orderfire]

Can't find a working link, but The Jam did a rocking version of And Your Bird Can Sing.

[akrako1]

The Alice Cooper version of "Because" (on the otherwise horrible '76 Sgt. Peppers movie soundtrack) is quite wonderful!

[Ponch8]

Ray Charles also did a very good version of "Elanor Rigby."

[robardin]

Originally Posted by garygnu

I raise you one Jake Shimabukuro.

He's also done a cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps in tandem with violinist Charles Yang that is unbelievable. (The latter of which, by the way, also does an amazing cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean.)

I've also always liked Rod Stewart's cover of Get Back.

[Lazlo Hapsburg]

I have heard it said about dog lovers that a true dog lover would never just go out and buy a new dog to replace a dog that had died or disappeared.

I think that may also apply to Beatle songs in that a true lover of The Beatles would never love or like or even want to listen to a Beatles song that was sung by anyone else.

I know many people will say that is just stupid and that if someone can make good music ... well ... good music is good music after all.

But the way I feel about it is that I loved the Beatles and still do love their music and I have absolutely no interest in hearing any of their songs performed by anyone else.

If anyone else wants to display their own talent, let them write their own songs or let them record any songs they like. But, if it's a Beatles song, I just don't want to hear it.

P.S. My feeling also applies to any songs by Lennon or Harrison. I don't care for any of McCartney's post-Beatles music. I consider it to be almost all style with very little substance. Give me Lennon's Working Class Hero (that has almost zero music) over any shit performed by Wings any day.

I don't intend any offense to anyone else or any other musicians. My love for The Beatles is just so strong, I can't find any room for anyone else singing their music.

[NineToTheSky]

This must be one of the earliest - and weirdest - Beatles covers: Peter Sellers recitation of A Hard Days Night. The 1965 television show “The Music of Lennon and McCartney” featured a brilliant recitation of “A Hard Day’s Night” by Peter Sellers as channeled through Laurence Olivier’s performance of Shakespeare’s “Richard III”.

[Snowboarder Bo]

I'll see your Peter Sellers recitation and raise you another: Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove reciting She Loves You as a conversation with Der Führer. I used to love hearing this on Dr. Demento, and the animation that Meliss did is excellent.

On preview: sorry about the ad, but the quality is better than what they posted to youtube.

[Katie Mae]

3/1/69...the Dead's encore cover of "Hey Jude"...Pig's melodious rendition has never been duplicated! /Katie

[mr. jp]

Originally Posted by Lazlo Hapsburg

I have heard it said about dog lovers that a true dog lover would never just go out and buy a new dog to replace a dog that had died or disappeared.

I think that may also apply to Beatle songs in that a true lover of The Beatles would never love or like or even want to listen to a Beatles song that was sung by anyone else.

I know many people will say that is just stupid and that if someone can make good music ... well ... good music is good music after all.

But the way I feel about it is that I loved the Beatles and still do love their music and I have absolutely no interest in hearing any of their songs performed by anyone else.

If anyone else wants to display their own talent, let them write their own songs or let them record any songs they like. But, if it's a Beatles song, I just don't want to hear it.

P.S. My feeling also applies to any songs by Lennon or Harrison. I don't care for any of McCartney's post-Beatles music. I consider it to be almost all style with very little substance. Give me Lennon's Working Class Hero (that has almost zero music) over any shit performed by Wings any day.

I don't intend any offense to anyone else or any other musicians. My love for The Beatles is just so strong, I can't find any room for anyone else singing their music.

I can't believe I read all this. What a waste of time.

[mr. jp]

A lot of good covers in this thread. I really like the Shiina Ringo one and I came in to suggest The Feelies.

Instead I will submit Paul McCartney covering his own I've Just Seen a Face, in a faster version: Link

[bunyupp]

Elanor Rigby by Ethel The Frog

[Czarcasm]

Alarm Will Sound's rendition of Revolution #9.

[Clothahump]

Originally Posted by rowrrbazzle

"Fool on the Hill", Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 (showing my age here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzP-K...eature=related

This.

Quite possibly the best cover of any Beatles song ever.