I prefer the Nine Inch Nails version of “Metal” to the original by Gary Numen. Numen’s is good (as is pretty much all of “The Pleasure Principle”) but I think Trent really nails “Metal” and his whisper/singing of “Crawl around the floor just like I’m real” is damn disturbing.
I really want to hear the Johnny cash cover of “Hurt” I can see how the lyrics might fit better with a wiser sort of pain in the voice.
Not doubting that in the least. But, given that there were currently fav/least fav movie and music threads going already, I thought I’d bring a post back.
Did Aerosmith also cover “Who Do You Love?” by The Woolies? Or was that George Thurogood & The Destroyers?
Other great covers:
“Jessica”, originally by The Allman Brothers Band, covered by They Might Be Giants (the “Why Does The Sun Shine?” EP)
The Creedence Clearwater Revival version of “I Heard It Thru The Grapevine”
“Honey, Don’t” by Carl Perkins, covered by The Beatles
I’m a big fan of Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies, who do punk covers of a lot of songs, like “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane”, “Rocket Man”, and “The Rainbow Connection”.
You might be thinking of Chantal Kreviazuk, who covered the song on the soundtrack to Armageddon. Her version was quite popular on the radio when the movie came out.
When I saw the thread title, the first song that came to mind was “Respect”, and sure enough, it was the first song mentioned
Otis Redding was a great, but Aretha Franklin owns that song.
I also agree about the Clash’s “I Fought the Law” (and even the Dead Kennedys version) and the Pixies’ “Head On”.
Another cover superior to the original (IMNSHO) is Husker Du’s cover of the Byrds’ song “Eight Miles High”.
I also prefer for the most part the songs from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, covering songs from the 60s and 70s as well as showtunes. As a punk fan, I just enjoy them more
Jewel and Bjork did “Leavin on a Jet Plane” as well.
As much as I love the Beatles, I’m gonna go with Fiona Apple’s “Across the Universe” (even though I’m not big on Fiona Apple).
As much as I love Nick Cave, I’m gonna go with Johnny Cash’s “The Mercy Seat.”
As much as I love Johnny Cash, I’m gonna go with the Ranchera
“Ring of Fire” (Rueda de Fuego) by Mingo Saldivar y Sus Tremendos Cuatro Espadas (even though I’m not big on Ranchera).
And the Mothers of Invention doing “Happy Together” on Live at the Fillmore East is classic (although the Mothers of Invention are technically the Turtles, it is great to hear them singing about cleft lip dyke-o girlfriends who can only get off in the back seat with a Yoohoo bottle).
Well, I’m a big Metallica fan, so I’d say about half (or more) of Garage, Inc is better than the original versions, or if not actually better, damn good. A list off the top of my head:
[ul]
[li]Metallica-“Turn the Page,” “Stone Cold Crazy,” “Die, Die My Darling”[/li][li]AFI-“Last Caress”[/li][li]Blues Traveller-“Gin and Juice”[/li][li]Dope-“F*ck the Police”[/li][li]Gipsy (sp?) Kings-“Hotel California”-and it was in “The Big Lebowski”!!! Bonus points![/li][li]Hendrix-“All Along the Watchtower,” “National Anthem”[/li][/ul]
Probably a bunch more, but I’m starting to blank out
I’m with the Ramones crowd, but I’ll further it to include any of their Beach Boys/Jan and Dean/etc. etc. covers.
I just can’t get through the original versions of, for instance, Do Ya Wanna Dance or Needles and Pins, without trying to kick the tempo up about 150% in my head. All those songs seem much too slow to me, after hearing the Ramones kick 'em out in a minute twenty.
For similar reasons, the Goops’ cover of Build Me Up, Buttercup ranks higher than the original, too.
Mr. Tambourine Man–sure the Byrds did alright, but Shatner really brought out the true paranoid delusional angst of what seemed like a simple mellow hippie tune.
