# Cover songs better than the original **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344 "2009-05-04T21:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hroark2112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hroark2112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hroark2112)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/21 "2009-05-05T02:53:47Z")
Disturbed - Shout [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Mu509Ln-M](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Mu509Ln-M) Disturbed - Land of Confusion [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqEzkdA2-\_k](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqEzkdA2-_k) Dream Theater - Master of Puppets [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O4HOMPD-1E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O4HOMPD-1E) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/22 "2009-05-05T04:16:55Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > This topic has been covered extensively [twice](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=455919&highlight=cover+songs+original) [before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=438187&highlight=cover+songs+original). The topic name is even identical. Considering new covers come out all the time, so what if the topic has been done before? I like Deepfield’s cover of “Don’t Let Go (Love)” at least as well as the original, despite it being a very different take on the song. I tend to like covers like the one above which are covered by a singer of a different gender than in the original versions. Like “Running Up That Hill” by Placebo, “Hot in Herre” by Jill Sobule, “Straight Out Of Compton” by Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon, “Possession” by Evans Blue, “Baby, One More Time” by both Travis & Fountains of Wayne, “Jolene” by The White Stripes, “Let’s Go To Bed” by Ivy, “Say It Ain’t So” by Julianna Hatfield, “When You Were Mine” by Cindy Lauper & Tegan and Sara, “Paint It Black” by Vanessa Carlton, “Strange Little Girl” by Tori Amos etc. They’re not all better than the originals by any means, but it often helps make them more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/23 "2009-05-05T04:23:50Z")
Whenever this comes up, I always have to stand up for NIN’s _Hurt_. I like Johnny Cash a lot, and I’m not really a NIN fan at all, but Johnny Cash’s Hurt is soulless compared to NIN’s. I honestly think it’s a terrible cover. And, before it comes up: Dynamite Hack’s Boyz-in-tha-Hood is the worst cover song of all time. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/24 "2009-05-05T06:39:11Z")
I actually prefer Jose Feliciano’s version of _Light my Fire_ to the Doors’ original. Not that I dislike the original, I just prefer the Latinized styling. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/25 "2009-05-05T07:18:32Z")
Nick Cave’s version of Neil Young’s Helpless is pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/26 "2009-05-05T08:32:54Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Considering new covers come out all the time, so what if the topic has been done before? Yeah, but a topic on cover songs seems to come up monthly. We do this a lot. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/27 "2009-05-05T09:28:56Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Whenever this comes up, I always have to stand up for NIN’s _Hurt_. I like Johnny Cash a lot, and I’m not really a NIN fan at all, but Johnny Cash’s Hurt is soulless compared to NIN’s. I honestly think it’s a terrible cover. I feel the same way. I like the \*\*This Mortal Coil \*\*covers, including Buckley’s _Song To The Siren_ (Elizabeth Fraser of **Cocteau Twins** ) and Syd Barret’s _Late Night_(Caroline Crawley of **Shelleyan Orphan** ) Then there are a couple of Rolling Stones covers I like better than the originals (although I do like the originals): The **Sisters of Mercy** cover of _Gimme Shelter_ and the **Laibach** covers of _Sympathy for the Devil_ (a whole album of covers, but I like the single version best) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/28 "2009-05-05T12:07:03Z")
The main reason Cash’s version of ‘Hurt’ moved me is that he was old and near death when he recorded it. The lyrics include: ‘I hurt myself today to see if I still feel I focus on the pain the only thing that’s real the needle tears a hole the old familiar sting try to kill it all away but I remember everything’ which can really apply to being elderly. Trent Reznor (the composer) became a fan of Cash’s version, however, once he saw the music video. [“ I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure."](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails_song)) ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/29 "2009-05-05T12:45:51Z")
_The Air That I Breathe_, best known for its lush recording by The Hollies. Its little-known original is by Phil Everly on his album _Star Spangled Springer_. It’s actually quite nice, with Phil’s beautiful tenor voice, until you get to the instrumental break, and in comes this hideous la-la-la choir. If you listen to it you’d think you were being punked. And who do we have to blame for this travesty? Warren Zevon, who arranged the mess. And Duane Eddy, who produced it. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/30 "2009-05-05T13:20:12Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Considering new covers come out all the time, so what if the topic has been done before? That we have to read the same, old, well-known suggestions over again. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/31 "2009-05-05T14:02:53Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > That we have to read the same, old, well-known suggestions over again. There’s a gun to your head? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/32 "2009-05-05T14:07:13Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > That we have to read the same, old, well-known suggestions over again. Are you going to post this in every such thread? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/33 "2009-05-05T14:10:31Z")
\*\*Cover songs better than the original \*\* Damn near anything by Bob Dylan. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/34 "2009-05-05T14:19:22Z")
A quick reminder, folks: please keep your song quotations down to about one verse. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/35 "2009-05-05T14:23:58Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > There’s a gun to your head? Well no. But I like the topic. Maybe if an old thread was resurrected again each time, there wouldn’t be this problem. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/36 "2009-05-05T14:27:01Z")
The all-time example remains Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Dylan’s _All Along the Watchtower._ ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/37 "2009-05-05T14:32:33Z")
“Mad World” by Tears for Fears, sung by Gary Jules. Cat Steven’s “Here Comes my baby” by Yo La Tengo. “When U Were Mine” by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal” Alison Krauss “Baby, Now That I Found You” Eva Cassidy “Fields of Gold” Wild Colonials “Don’t Explain” Annie Lennox “Whiter Shade of Pale” Aretha Franklin “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Respect” Bettye Lavette “How Am I Different” and “Streets of Philadelphia” Big Daddy “Once in a Lifetime” Tori Amos “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Snakefarm “Pretty Horses” Natalie Imbruglia “Torn” (although the Edna Swap version is cool too) Shawn Colvin/Mary-Chapin Carpenter “One Cool Remove” The Pixies “Head On” Mandy Moore “Umbrella” Black Crowes “Hard to Handle” Otis Redding “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” Curtis Stigers “Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright)” The Puppini Sisters “I Will Survive” The Bad Plus “Heart of Glass” Save Ferris “Come on Eileen” Skee-Lo “Tale of Mr Morton”(Schoolhouse Rock Cover) The Sundays “Wild Horses” ---
**Author:** ![Theodore\_Striker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Theodore\_Striker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theodore_Striker)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/38 "2009-05-05T15:01:03Z")
With a Little Help from My Friends is still the king for me, but the Woodstock version over the studio version. The video of this that was linked around here a few weeks ago is both brilliant and hilarious. When the Levee breaks, as done by Led Zeppelin is incredible, but it can be argued that half of LZ’s early stuff were covers. An oft overlooked is “Hazy Shade of Winter”, originally by paul Simon, then covered by the Bangles. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/39 "2009-05-05T15:13:51Z")
I actually prefer the Puppini Sisters’ version of “Wuthering Heights” to the Kate Bush original (and had the opportunity to personally tell the Puppinis that recently!). ---
**Author:** ![FalconFinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@FalconFinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FalconFinder)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344/40 "2009-05-05T15:15:16Z")
Just about every cover done by Def Leppard is better than the original. Just some examples of songs I loved by the original artists and now love Leppard’s version better (but I do still like the original version): [Rock On](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqU9Mu3JSm8) [No Matter What](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Pl7-qpl9A&feature=related) [20th Century Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmX3_bHZqiE) Check out their covers CD “Yeah!”. I pretty much like or love all the versions on it. Plus, Joe and Phil did a side project called “Cybernauts” with members of Bowie’s Spiders From Mars and those versions are amazing as well. Moonage Daydream is my favorite from that set of songs. If you can find a way to hear it, it’s worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cover-songs-better-than-the-original/495344.md?page=3)