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.
[QUOTE=Clothahump]
Alison Krause and Union Station - “Now That I’ve Found You”.
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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.
[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
There’s nothing wrong with Dolly, but in this case Jack White simply owns the song. Check out this version performed live on Conan. Fantastic.
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Sorry, but that version sucks big time.
I don’t care who sold the most records of it, Dolly wrote it, and She owns it.
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
[QUOTE=GargoyleWB]
Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love knocked Elvis out of the stadium
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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.
[QUOTE=Sleel]
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.
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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.
That song was original to Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury. You might be confused because it is a rockabilly song, in the style of Elvis Presley.
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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
