On the first one, it depends on whether you’re regarding it as folk or blues – it straddles the line between them. I’d be inclined to agree with you, though – and Barb and I are Kristoffersons from way way back – so far back that the going up was worth the coming down, so to speak. 
The original Crimson and Clover was by Tommy James and the Shondells, a group with more talent and musical skills than their bubble gum image suggests.
I’ve always thought Stevie Ray Vaughn’s cover of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” is so much better than the original. Sorry Jimi.
Natalie Merchant’s Because the Night in my opinion is the best version of them all.
I’d like to hear it… I looked on YouTube and all I could find was lots of people covering the Frente cover.
Hereyou go. It’s alright. I like it, though it doesn’t really have any depth. It’s an acoustic version with a pretty female voice.
And I can’t danceto it.
Thanks! It’s pretty but it’s not as good as the original.
As for Hallelujah, K.D. Lang’s version is beautiful, but my favorite rendition is Rufus Wainwright’s. I just like that he doesn’t add a lot of ornamentation (like dragging out a phrase so that it doesn’t match up with the accompaniment…drives me crazy when artists do that too much).
I’m gonna agree with Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt. NIN’s version does nothing for me. Johnny Cash’s makes me bawl like a damn baby.
And has anyone mentioned Major Tom? Peter Schilling’s version is good (though for all I know that could be a cover too), but I think I prefer Shiny Toy Guns’ cover.
The answer to this question generally depends on the kind of mood I’m in. Jose Gonzalez also does a really awesome cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop (aka the song from House).
I’ve come to prefer Boy 8-Bit’s cover of Fake Blood’s awesome Mars.
I’ve linked to the covers, and the originals can be found somewhere along the right side. Y’know.
When this first came out I didnt know it was a cover but for me it’s the only version I love - for various reasons one of my favourite all time tracks
Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil
This one really blows me away: What Becomes of the Broken Hearted by Joan Osborne
A lot of the best This Mortal Coil tracks are good covers - Siren, of course, is the best IMO, but The Apartments’ Mr Somewhere and Syd Barret’s* Late Night* sung by Caroline Crawley, ), The Jeweller (a Pearls Before Swine cover), some excellent Chris Bell (from Big Star) covers: I Am the Cosmos and You and Your Sister, and I Come and Stand at Every Door which covers the Byrds/Seeger version of the Hikmet poem The Little Girl are all brilliant covers where I prefer the TMC version to the original.
In fact, the only TMC cover where I prefer the original , is Morning Glory (Tim Buckley)
Probably been mentioned before me (I haven’t read through the thread yet), but Ike and Tina Turner’s version of CCR’s “Proud Mary”. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54XRNQ2C2x0)
I’ll take How Deep Is Your Love by The Bird and the Bee ahead of the original.
Rufus Wainwright’s version if the best of them all…Yes, even better than the original.
I prefer Blue Rodeo’s cover of this one.
“The Hangman and the Papist” was a moderately-interesting, kind of whiny song from hippie group The Strawbs.
Martial-neofolk, very un-PC band Blood Axis did a sumptuous, ominously-celtic cover from it.
I concur.
Just thought of another.
Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man”, while quite good, pales in comparison to the Man in Black’s version of the same song.
Tom Paxton himself has admitted he loves the hard rocking covers of his folk songs–Bottle of Wine by the Firebirds and Wasn’t That A Party by the Irish Rovers. He also says “If I tried to sing like that, my throat would jump out of my mouth.”
Joan Osborne’s version of Son Of A Preacher Man