Luther Wright and The Wrong’s bluegrass interpretation of Pink Floyd’s album The Wall is superior to the original IMO.
Juice Newton had a lot of great remakes:
“Angel Of The Morning,” “Break It To Me Gently,” “Tell Her No,” “Hurt,” well most of what she remakes is better. But I love Juice.
Olivia Newton-John had a few good ones (and a few bad ones):
“What Is Life,” “If I Could Read Your Mind,” “The Long And Winding Road.”
Belinda Carlisle’s “Band Of Gold,” was great.
Laura Branigan’s “Killiing Me Softly With His Song.”
I think they’re both good, but I wouldn’t call Cash’s version soulless. It stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it – it was so haunting and resigned, fatalist. Somehow, to me, it sounded more honest than Trent Reznor’s vocal take, which I’ve always found a bit histrionic (although still powerful.) It’s actually quite an interesting contrast to me. You can hear the many years of Cash’s life experiences behind his approach to the song versus Reznor’s more young and melodramatic take on it.
Oh damn, I knew I forgot one!!! The best version of “Hurt” ever!!!
I prefer Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, although I enjoy hearing other versions. But it seems like a lot of the covers are really just covers of the Jeff Buckley cover. Various covers of the song pop up on a lot of movie/TV soundtracks when someone is dead or dying, but I think that must be because other performers have made it sound more “pure” (at best) or “schmaltzy” (at worst). When Cohen performs it, it doesn’t sound like a song about death to me, and it ain’t exactly pure either*. 
*Cohen has performed the song with somewhat different lyrics at different times, with some of his versions being more sexually suggestive than others. But AFAIK all of his versions have some clear hint of sex, as with most of his other work.
Yeah, I think That’s why I like it so much. It’s just so…sarcastic, I love it!
Not only do I consider Cohen’s Hallelujah to Buckley’s I consider Buckley’s to be an abomination against all that is right and musical.
I prefer Kim Carnes’ cover of “Bette Davis Eyes” over Jackie DeShannon’s original.
Also:
[ul]
[li]Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock & Roll” over the Arrows original.[/li][li]Naked Eyes’ “There’s Always Something There to Remind Me” over Lou Johnson, Sandy Shaw, and Dionne Warwick’s earlier versions.[/li][li]Can an artist cover themselves? Robert Gordon first recorded the Bruce-Springsteen-penned “Fire”. The the Pointer Sister covered Gordon (?) with a superior version. Bruce recorded it third (live in concert) with a version also superior to Gordon’s.[/li][/ul]
Exactly! Leonard Cohen doesn’t write a lot of “nice” songs, but the covers of “Hallelujah” tend to make it sound that way.
Don’t forget “Queen of Hearts”. I’ve never heard the original, but I doubt it could be anywhere near as good as Juice’s version.
And in a completely different vein, I’ll nominate Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ cover of “Something in the Air” as being much improved over the Thunderclap Newman original.
Chris Cornells cover of Billie Jean (by Michael Jackson) is a version I enjoy quite a bit
For folk songs, is calling it a cover necessary? When Ive heard Tom Morello play Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is My Land”, I don’t think of it as a cover. But when I hear him play Rick James(?) “Shake My Shit”, it feels like a cover.
Just as good as the original:
Heather Nova and Moby covering The Clash’s “Straight To Hell”
Indigo Girls covering The Clash’s “Clampdown”
Better than the original:
Smashing Pumpkins covering Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”
Orgy covering New Order’s “Blue Monday”
Marilyn Manson covering Eurhythmic’s “Sweet Dreams”
Dropkick Murphys covering Misfit’s “Halloween”
I love cover songs. I have over a thousand of them on this computer alone.
KT Tunstall’s version of I Want You Back by Jackson 5. I like the original a lot, but I like this one better.
“A Case of You” by Tori Amos. Joni’s a great songwriter, but Tori’s voice is like an angel. (Ignore the crapola video and just listen 
)
I really like the Ronnie Spector version of Here Today, Gone Tomorrow better than the version by the Ramones.
Moby’s version of New Order’s Temptation.
In 2008, 14 years after it was released and with no record company promoting it, Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ reached no 2 in the UK charts.
And it has over 1,000,000 views on Youtube…
I see what you did there.
I like Dope’s version of You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record)
Compare the original Pokemon Center music and the cover done for Brawl. The second is worlds better.
Granted, a lot of that is technological advances, but still…
The Smithereens just released “The Smithereens Play Tommy!”. There’s no way it could be “better” than the original, but to this long-time Who fan, it sounds pretty damn good.
They also did a great version of The Beatles’ debut, “Meet The Smithereens!”