For the record…(pun intended), The Grateful Dead WAS a cover band. Yes they did some original material but their repertoire was HUGE. Including too many Dylan songs to mention. Their cover of Watchtower (especially 4/1/2005 Memphis TN) was great…as was the cover of Al Greens Take Me to the River; Only played three times, I was at all three shows.
I like Leftover Salmons covers of Iko Iko/Brother John and their twist on lots of the Bluegrass masters tunes especially Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow
“Walkin’ Blues” a Robert Johnson song from the 30’s has been covered by every blues band since, but the best ever version IMHO is by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Hey speaking of bluegrass covers, Salamander Crossing did a bluegrass cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Two Faces Have I” which I like better than the original. (And the original is damn good.) You can find a sample here.
I always enjoy two fairly close-to-the-original covers from back in my days working at a record store (mid 80’s, so yes it was a record store.)
Just Walk Away Renee by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (on the ‘At Least We Got Shoes’ album) is faithful to the Left Banke original, but I like it better. Hardly ever hear it, though.
Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Elvis Costello (on his ‘King of America’ album) is also a pretty faithful cover of the Animals cover. I’ve never heard the Nina Simone original. Since I love Elvis, his is my favorite version. Wikipedia tells me that Cat Stevens has recently released a cover of it. If he still sounds as good as he did in the 70’s, that might be worth a listen, too.
I prefer Rammstein’s version of “Stripped” to the Depeche Mode original. My sister, a huge DM fan, actually agrees with me, but says the original sounds better in the context of the album it’s on.
A lot of good ones mentioned already. A few more I can think of:
Dread Zeppelin - Your Time is Gonna Come
Beseech - Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
Jimmy Ellis - Rockin’ little angel
Shonen Knife - Daydream Believer
Tool - You Lied
You think so? Maybe you should listen to Elvis’ version again to compare.
A bit late to the party, but what about Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan (from the Pogues) shambling through What a wonderful world. Puts a debauched and gleefully dark spin on the song.
Sarah Mclachlan’s cover of “Dear God” by XTC is brilliant. I like the original, I love her version.
Gob did a cover of “Paint it Black” on the soundtrack for Stir of Echoes. I slightly prefer that version to the original, but that’s mostly because of some sound updating. That’s such a kick-ass song that practically all the (numerous) cover versions are worth listening to.
There are some things I like about the NIN version of “Lost Souls” and some things I like about the original. I’ve got both and listen to them about equally. I might never have heard the original without being made aware of it by the cover, so that might give the edge to Reznor.
I agree with an earlier poster that the alternate version of “Don’t Stand so Close to Me” by the Police was better than the single version.
I must have blocked that post out of my memory due to the psychic scars it left :eek:
The original DSSCtM is the Police doing what the Police do best – a dark story behind a peppy rockin sound. DSSCtM86 sounds like they were all on downers. It does have a kick-ass drum intro, though.
What? No way. Consider my ignorance dispelled. I’m even more impressed by the song now, it sounds so much like an Elvis cover that my own brain generated an Elvis original that I can still hear in my head.
To restate, Queen’s version is much better than the one in my head
I specifically came in here to mention Alanis Morrisette’s cover of “My Humps” (I can’t stand the original–I quite like the cover) but somebody beat me to it.
A couple more that others mentioned: Live’s cover of “I Walk the Line” and Johnny Cash’s of “Hurt.”
Nothing specific comes to mind, but Richard Cheese did some fun covers of several songs (mostly rap) that I don’t like the originals of. Ah, yes: “Baby Got Back” is one of my favorite examples.
The Flying Pickets did a very nice covers of Dylan’s “Masters of War” and Duran Duran’s “Psycho Killer.”
flees
