Let’s see, someone already covered (ha!) the Lemonheads Mrs. Robinson, so I’ll go with their cover of Luka. It is awesome.
Also, mentioned is the Bill Shatner/Joe Jackson cover of common people, which I was coming in to mention.
Hmmmm.
Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s are a punk cover band, and their version of Mandy is phenomenal! Also, they covered Earl Had to Die, by the Dixie Chicks which is great.
The Supersuckers version of Bloody Mary Morning must be heard, and southern Culture on the Skids just did an album of covers which include great versions of I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Wolverton Mountain, and Engine Engine # 9.
That’s all for now, but I’m sure I’ll have some more soon.
Wow, there are so many. Do they have to be “better”, can’t they just be great in their own way?
Wait, I know one I’d call better, WAY better, goddamn brilliant:
Richie Havens, Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” - Just freakin gorgeous
**“How Deep is Your Love” - Davey Ray Moor. ** Wonderful. That and
"She blinded Me With Science" by Bill Parsons Are all very educational examples of the power of arrangement. They show that any song can be anything you want depending on how you arrange it.
Oh man, I forgot another one…and this one is, to me, WAY WAY WAY better than the original, which is fun, but kinda irritating: Ray LaMontagne’s version of Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy"
Leave Your Hat On–Joe Cocker better than Randy Newman
Satisfaction–Devo better than Stones (well, so different that it’s hard to compare)
Woodstock–CSN&Y better than Joni
Shadows in the Rain–Sting (solo) MUCH better than Police (where it was just another bland semi-reggae tune)
Side note, since Joe Cocker has been mentioned so many times in this thread. My voice coach was talking about putting emotion into one’s performance and said: “Joe Cocker can make me cry with the way he can sell a song. Then I think about what he’s doing to his voice and I cry again!”
What’s with all the hate for Dolly Parton? First she is judged inferior to Whitney Houston, and now to Jack White. Dolly has a fantastic and expressive voice. She’s the goods.
*De gustibus non disputandem est * and all that, but I just don’t get how anyone can pick Soft Cell’s anemic “Tainted Love” cover over the original. Ah well, to each his own.
This isn’t a cover that’s available in recorded form, but one of my all-time favorite encores was hearing the dB’s rip through Television’s “See No Evil” a long time ago at the old 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Counterexample: The Band’s cover of Blind Willie McTell. Most Dylan covers I’ve heard are inferior to the original, but that’s including Dylan covering Dylan. Some songs in concert are so changed they might as well be a cover.
Jefferson Airplane’s cover of **Wooden Ships ** is far better than the CSN original. On the other hand, the CSN cover of Woodstock is better than the Joni Mitchell original.
Barnes & Barnes cover of Please Please Me is what the Beatles would have sung if they had dared to back then.
Plus, just about anything by Spike Jones is an improvement.
I must concur that the Bangles’ A Hazy Shade of Winter absolutely kicked ass. And part of my brain is desperately fighting off the need to kick my own ass for speaking such sacrilege.
I didn’t even know that I liked More Than This until I heard 10,000 Maniacs’ cover. Roxy Music’s recording does nothing for me.
Club Nouveau’s cover of Lean On Me was far better than the original.
I gotta vote for the John Cale version as my favorite (blows aways Buckley’s cover, IMHO).
I’m gonna throw in Tom Waits covering the Ramones’ “Danny Says”
And I’ll second the Shatner version of “Common People” - damn that’s excellent.
Billy Bragg has a lot of great covers, but my favorite is probably the cold war classic “Think Again” which was originally by a Scottish guy whose name I cannot remember.
