Usually I end up preferring the original over the cover. The one time that is not the case is with (Peter Green’s) Fleetwood Mac’s Black Magic Woman. I much prefer the Santana version.
Cocker also did the same with Traffic’s Feelin’ Alright, The Box Tops’s The Letter, and Cry Me a River. 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]
And Anna. But the definite Beatles cover has to be undenibly, 100% absolutely Twist & Shout
My personal favorite cover-album is The Smiths is Dead. Billy Bragg’s Never had no-one ever is great.
You have to include Aretha Franklin’s cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” as another one that completely eclipsed the original.
I must second Annie-Xmas’s mention of Wilson Pickett’s “Hey Jude.” Probably my favorite cover of all time! That Duane Allman plays a smokin’ guitar on that song doesn’t hurt a bit!
I prefer The Red Paintings’ cover of Mad World here, which also features The Dresden Dolls.
Richie Haven’s cover of Jefferson Airplane’s Comin’ Back to Me is almost better than the original and Alison Krauss does a nice countrified banjo-ie I Will (YouTube with syrupy pictures).
I Can See Clearly covered by The Holy Cole Trio. I like it at least as much as I did the original, and perhaps better.
Ditto Blue Bayou. Also Elivs Costello’s version of Girls Talk, assuming Dave Edmunds released his first- I can’t recall.
There’s 10,000 Maniac’s cover of More Than This. It’s apparently post-Natalie, and the video is embarrassingly self-indulgent, but I like their recording better than Roxy Music’s.
Also, Weird Al Yankovic does a polka version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody which is good, though not as good as the original.
I about laughed my ass off when I first heard that. It is an abomination unto the ear, no doubt, but it has an appeal that I cannot deny. I take it out occasionally to indulge in my secret thrill.
Speaking of covers of Beatles songs, Earth Wind and Fire’s cover of Got to Get You Into My Life is awesome.
And Bobby McFerrin’s cover of Blackbird is a joy to listen to.
And the Carpenters’ Ticket to Ride has some absolutely beautiful moments.
ETA: Speaking of the Carpenters, there’s a compilation disc of, well, I don’t know what kind of label to attach to them, but they’re not the Carpenters, singing covers of Carpenters songs. The album is called If I Were a Carpenter. Does anyone know if there’s anything awesome on that (outside the title)?
I thought Tori Amos’s cover of I Don’t Like Mondays (youtube link) was better than the original by The Boomtown Rats, which was confusingly upbeat.
Wow. I’d only heard Happi Rhodes in “Kate Bush” mode. I had no idea she had that kind of range.
The Bangles Hazy Shade of Winter (vs Simon & Garfunkel’s original)
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels are great, but Springsteen takes it to a new level.
Wooden Ships - CS&N
Wooden Ships - Jefferson Airplane
Who covered who, when the song was written by members of both and released the same year? Wiki says they are both considered the original version, if that is possible.
I prefer Kim Wilde’s ‘You Just Keep Me Hanging On’ and second the Bangles’ cover of ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’.
Led Zeppelin covers…
Who would have thought Stairway to Heaven still had so much room to grow? This is a class act:
And Fool in the Rain, by OAR. I’m linking their live YouTube version, but the it’s the studio one that I think is better than the original:
(sorry I don’t know how to make my links pretty yet)
Favorite cover ever…
Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back by Jonathan Coulton (starts at 0:31).
He makes a fun song gorgeous, and yet also hilarious.
Aimee Mann did a cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” that I prefer over the original.
Ditto for Paul Anka’s version of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”.
And for the movie A Knight’s Tale, Queen did an electrifying rendition of that traditional medieval pre-jousting song, “We Will Rock You”.
I’m very fond of Shonen Knife’s version of Top of the World, from it.