On the subject of covers of Beatles originals, it’s hard to go past Ray Charles’s version of “Yesterday”. (Sorry - can’t link from this machine). The original is sweet, sentimental, wistful - Ray is devastated and soul-sick.
I’ll take The Bird and the Bee’s version of How Deep Is Your Love? over the original.
Sonic Youth’s Superstar kicks ass.
:eek: :eek: :eek: Someone actually clicked on the links and listened?? faints dead away
Thanks!
I really like Nina Gordon’s Straight Outta Compton
http://download.wbr.com/mirror/ninagordon.com/media/sounds/covers-straightouttacompton.mp3
BBC Radio 1 was 40 in 2007, to celebrate they got 40 artists to each perform a song that was in the charts of one of those years. The bands were given the year and got to pick the song and cover it anyway they wanted. The results vary in quality, but some are really good. They released them all on the album “Radio 1 Established 1967”.
Some of the better (IMHO) covers,
Foo Fighters: Band On The Run (Wings)- Sounds like a Foo song
Amy Winehouse: Cupid (Sam Cooke/The Supremes)- Nice, Ska, lots of trumpets.
Kylie: Love Is The Drug (Roxy Music)- Camp electro version
Stereophonics: You Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate)- Lovely
Hard-Fi: Toxic (Britney Spears)- No really, it is good
Corinne Bailey Rae: Steady As She Goes (The Raconteurs)- Soulful version, pretty good.
My favourite has to be:
Gossip: Careless Whisper( George Michael)- totally unlike the original. I love this electro disco version, but then I quite like the Scissor Sister’s cover.
Equipoise, thanks for the links. Happy Rhodes: lovely voice.
I will only link to youtube if its the album version, or an almost equally good version.
Beseech - Gimme Gimme Gimme
A heavy metal rendition of the ABBA classic.
Cat Power - Satisfaction
She took only the verse, and stripped it down to just guitar and voice.
(This you are not going to believe:)
William Shatner - Common People
For some reason, his weird talking gimmick works for this song. And the choire rocks.
Dread Zeppelin - Your Time is Gonna Come
Reggae version of the classic Led Zeppelin.
Hayseed Dixie has made some interesting Bluegrass covers. One I could find:
Hayseed Dixie - Holiday (Green Day original)
I like Depeche Mode. But otoh I don’t mind if people heavyize their 80s synth sound.
Marilyn Manson - Personal Jesus
Interesting Jeff Beck style cover of the fantastic Stevie Wonder song:
Jeff Beck - Superstition
I know I’m in a minority of one (or possibly less) on this, but I think William Shatner’s version of Common People is a lot better than Pulp’s.
Of course, the unplugged (with Natalie) cover of the Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen Because The Night is excellent. I don’t think neither the Smith nor Springsteen versions count as covers because they are co-composers.
(From Wikipedia)
I guess it’s a cover since Stevie recorded it first, but I suspect that Jeff already had in mind what he was going to do with it, so maybe they’re independent original versions (since we now know we can have 2 “originals”).
Oh my god. I don’t mean to threadshit, but I hate that cover so very much I had always felt that I could tolerate her as long as she kept her nose out of my record collection. Geh!
Since they only do covers, it’s kind of cheating to mention Nouvelle Vague. I think their cover of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” is genius. The tap dancing gets me every time.
Rage Against the Machine’s cover of Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” isn’t necessarily better than the original, but it’s an interesting take. You’ll have to ignore the fan-made video, as it’s the only recording of the studio version I could find.
Silentree have an acoustic cover of Slayer’s “Seasons in the Abyss” that might actually be the best version out there.
You can’t have a thread about covers without mentioning Richard Cheese.
Baby Got Back
I agree. It’s one of a handful of songs - including the aforementioned Top of the World* - that I simply can’t listen to the original, because the cover is ‘the version’ for me.
Mad World comes close, but it’s mostly a mood thing for it.
I’ve already mentioned Shonen Knife, who have several good covers. I Wanna Be Sedated, Daydream Believer, and Cherry Bomb being my favourites.
- Looking for the Daydream Believer video, I found this one of the uploader’s vacation video set to SK’s TotW.
I like the Blue Cheer version which for the last 30 years I thought was Bubble Puppy. Apparently my alphabet was a little hazy back then.
The beginning of heavy metal.
I wouldn’t classify this as a cover version, as the song was co-written by David Crosby and Paul Kantner (of the Airplane) and both versions of the song were recorded and released pretty much concurrently with each other. (Kantner wasn’t listed as a songwriter on the CSN version at his own insistence, so that band wouldn’t get dragged into the legal disputes involiving the Airplane and their former manager.)
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.”
Bodyjar’s version kicks ten acres of ass. (just don’t watch the vid that goes with this.It be dumb.)
And you can hear part of it here. I went out and bought 2 Shonen Knife albums right after I heard that song.
Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles and Danielle Dax’s vastly improved version.
Ball of Confusion by the Temptations and Love and Rockets cover.
Aimee Mann did a great cover of One originally performed by Three Dog Night. http://www.last.fm/music/Aimee+Mann/_/One
Lenny Kravitz’s cover of American Woman originally performed by The Guess Who http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBJHszCsc2g
Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s version of Woodstock is better than Joni Mitchell’s version; although, I love her version, too.
Pearl Jam – Last Kiss (Oh Where Oh Where Could My Baby) I am not sure who originally did this song. Ricky Nelson –maybe.
