# Best cover versions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2008, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070 "2008-01-26T10:00:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dkree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dkree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dkree)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/61 "2008-01-28T10:13:07Z")
Beseech - Gimme Gimme Gimme ---
**Author:** ![Ocean\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8797f3/32.png) [@Ocean\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ocean_Annie)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/62 "2008-01-28T10:13:21Z")
[QUOTE=George Kaplin] I would argue that Joe Cocker’s absolutely [immense](http://youtube.com/watch?v=6FMq0iDX1yE) interpretation of ‘A Little Help From My Friends’ is miles better than the Beatles original. So successful is it that most people don’t know that the Beatles did that song first. [/QUOTE] Oh, without a doubt. Cocker rocks this song, but then he just rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Ocean\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8797f3/32.png) [@Ocean\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ocean_Annie)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/63 "2008-01-28T10:42:22Z")
One last contribution, _The Man Who Sold The World._ I like both versions but have to give it to Bowie’s original. Nirvana’s cover is a great artistic interpretation and extremely well done. Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209ArurxVG4) David Bowie - [http://youtube.com/watch?v=LSnXjE66tvQ](http://youtube.com/watch?v=LSnXjE66tvQ) ---
**Author:** ![Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hook)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/64 "2008-01-28T12:33:06Z")
Not sure about better but I REALLY loved this version back in the day and it still stands up pretty well now - DEAR PRUDENCE (Beatles) by DOUG PARKINSON IN FOCUS: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IBKOvyIll8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IBKOvyIll8) I also like this one - ELEANOR RIGBY (Beatles again) by ZOOT (look for a vey young Rick Springfield). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q\_3IUASoqfM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3IUASoqfM) ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/65 "2008-01-28T13:28:24Z")
The Mountain Goats - “The Sign”. It puts the original by Ace of Base to shame. (Easy target, I know, but the Goats’ version kicks 90’s dance-pop’s well-polished butt.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/66 "2008-01-28T14:06:25Z")
The [Butthole Surfers](http://youtube.com/watch?v=reeOOA4Ha7M) cover of [The Guess Who’s](http://youtube.com/watch?v=A9o8SUSy_tY) _American Woman_ is sheer, unadulterated genius. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/67 "2008-01-28T16:26:09Z")
My favorite cover of all time is Fairport Convention’s cover of Dylan’s “Percy’s Song,” on “Unhalfbricking.” Second is The Clash’s version of “Pressure Drop.” The opening riff is currently being used in a Nissan commercial, but don’t hold that against it. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/68 "2008-01-28T17:11:39Z")
Nancy Sinatra’s Bang Bang (in Kill Bill) is a good one. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/69 "2008-01-28T17:36:21Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] The Airplane did do two really great cover versions though - “the Other Side of This Life” originally by Fred Neil, and “Rock Me Baby” by (I think) B.B. King, both on their '69 album “Bless it’s Pointed Little Head.” [/QUOTE] There’s another splendid cover on “Bless Its Pointed Little Head:” The Airplane do a fine job with Donovan’s “Fat Angel,” which contains the VERY appropriate lines, “fly Jefferson Airplane/gets you there on time.” ---
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/70 "2008-01-28T20:15:08Z")
I thought someone would have mentioned Van Halen’s cover of the Kinks “You Really Got Me” by now… So, there you go! ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/71 "2008-01-29T06:42:39Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] [Eva Cassidy, Fields of Gold](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3YVil3Ajjs) ([Sting’s original](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UppX6vP3c4g&feature=related)) I think this has taken the song to a new level; the original was a passable but slick AOR pop track. Eva’s version is heart-rending, through her emotional rendering of the lyrics, the beauty of her voice, and her fluid phrasing. [/QUOTE] To me Eva Cassidy’s version is almost unbearably moving (in a good way). I’d never heard the original before and always figured it was an old folk song. Hearing what the original actually sounds like makes her version even more impressive. [QUOTE=Equipoise] [David Bowie’s Space Oddity](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSCf15tBGqE) [/QUOTE] Wow, that is really good. Maybe not better than the original, but very impressive. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/72 "2008-01-29T11:12:47Z")
**Roky Erickson and the Explosives** doing the Velvets’ \*\*Heroin \*\*live, as presented on the _Gremlins Have Pictures_ album. This may well be the very best cover version of any song ever recorded anywhere by anyone, but I don’t quite have the balls to say so unequivocally. \*\*Joan Jett \*\*has done a whole lot of covers in her career, and damned good ones too, mostly, but there are three that stand out: **Roadrunner, Crimson and Clover,** and **The Little Drummer Boy** **The Dead Kennedys** also gave us a trio of the most kick-ass renditions of all time IMNAAHO: **Viva Las Vegas,** the **theme from Rawhide** , and \*\*I Fought The Law [And I Won] \*\*-- it’s the Bobby Fuller song as done by **Dan White** , you see… **The Divine Horsemen** did a version of **Gimmee Shelter** way back in the 1980s, that still gives me the chills whenever I listen to it; a decade later, **Chris D**. went back and re-formed the **Flesheaters** , and they did a blistering take on **AC/DC** ’s classic\*\* If You Want Blood, You Got It,\*\*. Speaking of **AC/DC** , **The Atomic Bitchwax** also gave props to Australia’s finest with their rendition of **Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)** And Nick Cave’s **The Mercy Seat** , the way it’s sung by **Johnny Cash** ,is one of the very few songs to lay me out on the floor near tears and physically shivering from the sheer beauty and power of it. In fact, it’s the only song that’s _ever_ done that to me. **Patti Smith** ’s version of **Gloria** just simply spanks every other version right out of existence --but you already knew that, right? **Lynyrd Skynyrd** : one great rock band. **That Smell:** one _great_ fucking song. **That Smell covered by Canned Heat:** one pinnacle of greatness so high that there’s ice and snow on it,that’s how motherfucking great it is. There are a shitload of covers of **Hey Joe.** It’s simply a hard-assed righteous little gem of a song is all, and a lot of fine rock musicians have recorded their own gloss on it. Some of those recordings are pretty damned good, like **Patti Smith’s**. A few approach excellence, like the early one by the **Leaves** (who?). Some are acknowledged classics like **Jimi’s**. But **the greatest Hey Joe cover of all is the one on Body Count’s third album.** Because Body Count were a great, intense, hard-and-heavy-as-a-motherfucker rock and roll group, who carried the power of Satan’s lightning onstage with them, and that song could have been written just for \*\*Ice-T \*\*and the snarling urgency of his voice, and the total gut sincerity of his delivery. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/73 "2008-01-29T14:02:17Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] [Cake, I Will Survive](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10C68Gzd5GM) [/QUOTE] I came into this thread to recommend that, and damn you it’s the first one in your OP. [QUOTE=Equipoise] [Peter Gabriel’s Mercy Street (with Bon Lozaga)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytyc72RiXE0) [/QUOTE] YMMV, etc…but by god, that’s really, really pants compared to the original. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/74 "2008-01-29T16:48:24Z")
**Iron and Wine** covered [Such Great Heights](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKGHkBComjM) ([original by **Postal Service**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMOkfI7wCrI)) as a hushed acoustic lullaby. I have to say, I actually like it better than the original, since the minimal arrangement makes the lyrics shine through. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/75 "2008-01-30T11:51:49Z")
Some I’d add: Beck’s version of the Korgi’s “Everybody’s got to learn” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/axCOvXnvvhY/hqdefault.jpg "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axCOvXnvvhY) The already mentioned Nouvelle Vogue’s version of “Dance with me” (I think it was originally Lord’s of the New Church, but could be wrong) [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekQZPozjCX8) ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/76 "2008-01-30T15:18:08Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Cocker also did the same with Traffic’s [Feelin’ Alright](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmqQKZPlj6M), The Box Tops’s [The Letter](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoW81x4j7ow), and [Cry Me a River](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwXPueu-RM). In fact, just about anything by Cocker is the best cover version of the song. The Beatles did an interesting cover of **Till There Was You** There’s also the Who’s version of [Summertime Blues](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5euZ3YWLXQ)] [/QUOTE] Cocker’s version of “The Letter” really whips the buttocks of the original. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/77 "2008-01-30T16:12:44Z")
[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer] And you can hear part of it [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHZiDHjq8rs&feature=related). I went out and bought 2 Shonen Knife albums right after I heard that song. [/QUOTE] Which two? I’ve got _Rock Animals_ and _Let’s Knife_. There are some moments of brilliance, but a little Shonen Knife goes a long way, too. The best description I’ve heard is that Shonen Knife are what you’d get if you crossed The Ramones with Hello Kitty. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/78 "2008-01-30T16:31:47Z")
_Early In The Morning_ was originally done by Jimmy Rushing or somebody way back when I was a toddler. The very best cover was by Harry Nillsson. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/79 "2008-01-30T17:30:06Z")
Speaking of Harry Nilsson… [QUOTE=unconventional] Aimee Mann did a great cover of _One_ originally performed by Three Dog Night. [/QUOTE] Three Dog Night’s version was itself a cover of Nilsson’s original. (All of TDN’s hits were covers or songs given to them by songwriters; they didn’t write their own songs.) ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070/80 "2008-01-30T18:39:08Z")
Weird. Two pages of replies and no one (that I saw) has mentioned Manfred Mann’s cover of “Blinded by the Light”. I honestly thought that was the default answer to the OP’s question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-cover-versions/435070.md?page=5)