See also: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
My pre-pubescent heart beat wildly for The Bee Gees and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, I mean they wrote the thing. But you gotta admit Al Greene takes this song to a whole ‘nuther’ level
Yes, Cash does a fantastic re-interpretation of the original (and it was not long before he passed away.)
Also the accompanying video won awards.
Trent Reznor, who wrote the song said " 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."
Shinedown did a cover of Lnynrd Skynrd Simple man. While I’ve always liked the original, this cover blows that one away.
Green and Lyle Lovett recorded a fantastic version of Willie Nelson’s Funny How Time Slips Away, too.
On the flip side, I prefer Talking Heads’ cover of Green’s Take Me to the River.
Emma Franklin originated the song, but Janis actually reached down a pulled out a part of her soul for this song.
In the mid 90s the R and B group Blackstreet had a song called No Diggity.
About 15 or so years later, a group named Chet Faker did a cover that completely transformed the song while managing to keep the style of the original.
Oops, thanks. The Fiona Apple version Across the Universe, if anyone cares.
I didn’t know there was a Muzak version of No Diggity. They managed to strip everything out of that song that made it great. An accomplishment, I guess.
Ok then.
As far as being an improvement on the original, my top vote goes to Milky Chance and their cover of Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off”.
Feist - Inside and Out The Bee-Gees original is pretty bad.
Alien Ant Farm’s rendition of Smooth Criminal is way more fun than Michael Jackson’s.
In the movie Julia, Naked (a sweet little movie with a very misleading name) Ethan Hawke does a cover of Waterloo Sunset that is tons better than the Kink’s original or any of the other covers I’ve heard.
Funny thing; five hours ago I told my summer school class “When I’m king, it’ll be illegal to do a cover of a song unless it’s 1) Different… and 2) Better.” This thread is proof it can be done.
That was from an album pairing R&B and Country artists. Every song’s amazing… like “Rainy Night in Georgia” done by Sam Moore and Conway Twitty, or “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” with Vince Gill’s crystal-clear tenor paired with Gladys Knight.
Martha and the Vandellas’ version of, “Heat Wave,” is great, but Linda Ronstadt knocks it out of the park and into orbit. She actually makes me want to dance and NOBODY needs to see that.
Elvis’s covers of Blue Suede Shoes, originally by Carl Perkins, and Hound Dog, by Big Mama Thornton, are certainly the best known versions, though I’m not sure they’re “better.”
The Cowboy Junkie’s version of ‘Sweet Jane’ is better than the Velvet Underground’s version.
Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss do a much better version of “Teach Your Children” than CSNY did.
Not gonna read the rest of the thread before I respond to this, but abso-fucking-lutely not. That is an awful, awful cover.
I agree 100%. The Guess Who’s version is great; Lenny Kravitz’ is mediocre at best.
The best remake ever: Grand Funk’s “The Loco-Motion.”