Wasn’t the original Manfred Mann?
I don’t recall who did the original, but Flack’s * Killing Me Softly With His Song. * I read she heard it on an airplane, loved the song, and got the rights. They played the orignal once on an oldies show. Not bad, but not as good.
** Me First and the Gimme Gimmes ** also did a CD of covers of various songs from musicals (MFATGG are a Drag). It’s hard to find, and musical lovers will rip your eyes out for a copy.
Peter Paul and Mary’s “Leaving on A Jet Plane.”
I’ll second Fiona Apple’s cover of Across the Universe.
I love The Velvet Underground, but I think that David Bowie did a much better job with Waitin’ for the Man.
I prefer Natalie Merchant’s Space Oddity to David Bowie’s.
And Stan Getz did a much better job with Misty than Erroll Garner (I think Erroll Garner did the original on that one.). That was a song that cried out to be played on the sax.
I prefer Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You to Dolly Parton’s.
I also prefer Ike and Tina’s Proud Mary to CCR’s.
Summertime Blues by The Who on the Live at Leeds album
Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” is actually a cover. Notice how you never hear the original anymore?
Rasputina’s cover of M. Manson’s “Tourniquet” is a lot better than the original.
Collide’s cover of Devo’s “Whip It” begs to be heard. Same with Devo’s cover of NIN’s “Head Like A Hole”.
Amorphis did a cover of “Light My Fire” that, while arguably not better than the original, is still very interesting.
Does Hugh Grant singing Killing Me Softly in About a Boy count as a cover? I busted a gut on that one.
X with Breathless
This was what I got on the thread to mention. I’m a huge Talking Heads fan, but I’m not sure if I’d say theirs is better, exactly. It’s one of their best, but it is so different from Al Green’s that the two can hardly be compared. It’s the same deal with Iggy Pop’s take on Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Real Wild Child”.
I agree with the Clash’s “I Fought the Law” being better than the original, but I’ll even go so far to include “Police and Thieves” (gasp!) being better than the Junior Murvin original.
I don’t usually like This Mortal Coil’s stuff, but Kim Deal singing Chris Bell’s “You and Your Sister” is absolutely stunning.
I also like Robyn Hitchcock’s covers, especially of the Psychedelic Furs’s “The Ghost in You”.
I like Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World” better than David Bowie’s. Ditto The Pixies version of “I Can’t Forget” by Leonard Cohen. This will get me in a lot of crap, but I prefer Kelly Osbourne’s “Papa Don’t Preach”. It’s an awful song anyway.
Probably the best cover ever is The Raincoats doing “Lola” by the Kinks. Imagine an all-female avant-garde punk band beautifully harmonizing with jangly guitars and primal drums.
Bruce Springsteen wrote “Blinded by the Light” and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band mangled, I mean, covered it, and somehow took it to #1. How anyone can prefer the MMEB’s version to Bruce’s is beyond me. MMEB also covered “Spirits in the Night” and “For You,” of which I was blissfully ignorant until now.
Ruby,
Don’t recall ever hearing Bruce’s version. The only one I recall hearing was Mann’s. Chalk yourself up one for fighting ignorance.
99 luft baloons as covered by Goldfinger, originially done by Nena.
Video killed the radio star, any version, originially done by the buggles
Ugh, ugh the originial version is just horrible. Somehow every cover of this song is incredibly better than the originial.
I really like the Alien Ant Farm version of “Smooth Criminal;” I especially like the video.
Runner-up favorite cover song:
Helter Skelter by the accapella group The Bobs
All-time fave:
Light My Fire by the Lettermen. Must be heard to be believed! (For the full effect, dim the lights and don a smoking jacket. Don’t forget the martini!)
Eddie Vedders’ cover of You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away on the I Am Sam soundtrack is amazing. The Beatles version was just another pop song, Vedders’ voice gives it depth (and pain) that make the song truly emotional.
I second the Rufus Wainwright version of Across The Universe as well.
Someone already mentioned Hole’s cover of Gold Dust Woman from the Crow 2 soundtrack- but it also has an awesome version of I’m Your Boogieman by Rob Zombie that is much better than the original (in an evil kind of way).
Really? The local Best Buy had two or three copies of it just now; I was picking up “Blow in the Wind”. And it’s available on amazon.com. (In case you were talking from personal experience & someone is there threatening to claw your eyes out…)
OT (sorry)
I went to check and see if you lived in Portland, Maine (cause of the Tori gig you saw)…but all I saw was a song by Slayer. You in maine?
I love Morrissey’s cover of the Jam’s “That’s Entertainment”
I got tenner that it was actually Lagwagon, not Pennywise, that covered Van. Of course, I’m sure a lot of people have coverd this song, but I’d be surprised if two very similar bands were to ccover the same song.
I’ve got a version of Jonny Cash doing “Cat’s in the Cradle” that’s damn good. Mightn’t be better than Chapin, but it is just as good.
I also like the Jane’s Addiction version of “Rock and Roll” and “Sympathy for the Devil.” Again, these we both great songs originally and I don’t think JA necessally improved on them, but they did do nice versions.
I’m not the biggest fan of the over-synthed “More Than This” by Roxy Music, but Robyn Hitchcock’s cover is great.
Sunday Morning Coming Down originally by Kris Kristofferson done better by the Handsome Family
Eep-Epp-Ork-Uhh-Uhh originally on the Jetsons TV show… done better by The Violent Femmes
A couple of songs that I don’t think were done better than the originals… but were done so differently that it was like hearing the song for the first time (and loving it)
Summertime Blues original good version by Eddie Cochrane, done great by Blue Cheer
California Uber Alles couldn’t be done better than by the Dead Kennedys, but totally nailed by The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy
Jumping on the Stranglers appreciation bandwagon… they do a fine cover of 96 Tears too.
Finally, there’s a pretty cool web site called The Covers Project that is building a database of cover songs with the intention of creating cover “chains.” A cover chain is a set of songs in which each song is a cover of a song by the band who covered the preceding song.
Johnny Cash covering U2’s “One”
The best cover ever.
Also, Johnny cash covering Tom Petty’s “I won’t back down” with Tom Petty singing backup.
That’s about it for me. I’m not a big fan of covers. Write your own music, people!