Iron and Wine’s cover of Such Great Heights is wonderful. The lyrics fit better in a quiet acoustic ballad, instead of the peppy indie-electronic feel that the original by The Postal Service had.
And while it’s still ridiculously over-the-top… I do have a soft spot for the Alien Ant Farm cover of Smooth Criminal.
I can’t say better, because it’s not. But surely it’s equal, or close. This is a cover of a song I never thought could be succesfully covered:
Original “Teardrop” by Massive Attack
I have no idea who this guy is, but my God, I never thought anyone other than Beth Fraser would be able to send chills up my spine with that song. I was wrong.
Jose Gonzalez is amazing. I saw him at Bonnaroo last summer, and he played that song, along with a cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats”, which is also just as good, if not better than the original.
He also covers Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” in a musical collaboration called Junip that absolutely kills the original.
Gotta agree here. The Zwan cover is respectable, but it doesn’t have the energy or urgency of Iron Maiden’s original. It’s not even close. Frankly, it’s a bit boring.
However, I have to say, I do like Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.” I just heard the original NIN version last night, and it was much better than I remember it. However, and I’m not sure how to phrase this right, there is a certain “honesty” that comes through in Johnny Cash’s voice in his cover of that song that is missing from Trent in the original. I just believe Cash’s plaintiveness more than Reznor’s (and I’m actually quite fond of NIN).
Absolutely, on both counts. Cocker kills and you need to hear the 1957 recording (in German, and not with Lotte Lenya singing it) of Die Dreigroschenoper" to see the excellence of “Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife),” though Sting’s version is pretty much a direct translation.
And of course Johnny Cash isn’t just any old schmendrik :).
Aretha Franklin didn’t cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac” but she did go “a -ridin on the freeway of love in a pink cadillac” in a whole other song. An R&B-ish cover of Bruce’s song was done by Natalie Cole. I found it utterly lacking in soul and rather twee, myself.
My choices:
George Michael’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” over Bonnie Raitt’s (or Prince’s)
Duran Duran’s “Perfect Day” over Lou Reed’s (he agrees)
Alison Kraus’s “I Will” over The Beatles (sacrilege! but true)
Tom Jones’s “Kiss” over Prince’s
Judy Collins’s “Chelsea Morning” over Joni Mitchell’s
Alana Davis’s “Carry On” over Crosby, Stills & Nash’s
Basia’s “Waters of March” over anybody’s (in English, at least)
Gotta agree that Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” tops the original [sorry Trent!]. I also love Def Leppard’s YEAH! which is nothing but covers. Their version of “Rock On” is so edgy and raw, it’s brilliant. And Phil Collen singing “Stay With Me” is tons better than the original.
Juice Newton always did excellent covers, “Angel of The Morning,” “Break It To Me Gently,” “Tell Her No,” “Hurt,” always did a great job.
Others that were good, Belinda Carlisle’s “Band of Gold,” Olivia Newton-John’s “What is Life,” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” “Fire” by the Pointer Sisters, “Kiss” by Tom Jones (Actually I like Prince as a writer far better than a performer)
Surprisingly Tiffany’s version of “I Saw Him Dancing There,” though not a great cover, was better than any other song she had. “You Won’t See Me,” by Canada’s greatest female singer Anne Murray. (John Lennon said her version of this song was the best cover version of any Beatle song ever).
I prefer the Ike and Tina Turner version of “Proud Mary” to the version by CCR. It just kicks so much ass!
Oops. Sorry. Missed that.
I like the video on Joes Gonzalez’s version. Is the footage taken from something else?
-Kris
RE the Hurt cover, since hearing the Cash version it has seemed to me that the singer of Cash’s version has more of a right to say what the song says than does the singer of NIN’s version.* The singer of the original now seems to me simply to be whining.
I seem to recall Reznor himself has said (or said something close to?) that the Cash version is better. Maybe I’m confabulating, though.
-FrL-
*I don’t mean Cash and Reznor. I mean the singers portrayed in the two songs.
I just listened to the original. That’s the original? Listening to the cover, I was quite sure it was a cover of a song I’d heard before, one that was from a few decades ago. But the Massive Attack song, I had never heard before except for the bit that appears as the House theme song.
-FrL-
10,000 Maniacs also did a pretty good cover of the song. Of course it would have been much better if they had done it before Natalie Merchant left the band. 
And as a bonus, two more that I haven’t seen yet in this thread:[ol]
[li]Land of Confusion, Disturbed’s cover of the old Genesis song[/li][li]The Boys of Summer, the Ataris cover of Don Henley’s song[/li][/ol]
Oops, thanks for the correction. So, the world needs a better cover of Bruce’s.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=493205&highlight=covers
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=493169&highlight=covers
This was much easier than remembering the ones I already came up with or agreed with!
The Pixies’ cover of Warren Zevon’s Ain’t That Pretty At all darn near surpasses his original. I think Warren would be proud.
The Pixies: Ain’t That Pretty At All
Sinead O’Connor’s version of “Ode to Billy Joe” is better than Bobbie Gentry’s.
Aerosmith’s “Come Together” is better than the Beatles.
I prefer Dixie Chick’s version of “Landslide” over Fleetwood Mac’s.
I prefer Live’s version of “I Walk the Line” over Cash’s (also done by Daughtry on AI).
Elvis’ version of “Something” is better than the Beatles. I also prefer George Harrison’s solo live version better than the Beatles version
Luther Vandross beats Whitney Houston for the best “All the (Wo)man I Need.”
I love George Michael’s live version of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and wish that Elton John wouldn’t have arrived to help finish it.
FYI, I’ve yet to hear a better cover version of any Simon & Garfunkel song yet.
Nine Inch Nails’ version of Dead Souls is better than the Joy Division one.
Ian Curtis’ voice in the original is just odd and the song is much more aggressive than other Joy Division tracks.