Covers of songs that elevate the original by changing tempo, genre, time signature, etc

Cafe Society
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Art collective Laibach covered all of the Beatles’ Let it Be with the exception of the title track. “Elevate” is a judgement call, but none of their covers are scared of transforming the original. It’s very, very far from a tribute band.

My Favorite is probably their cover of “One After 909”. They generally preserved the structure of the original as far as verse/chorus/solo structure goes, but that’s about it. They even sneak in a little of “Smoke on the Water” in one of the solos.

Their cover of “Get Back” is further off the rails. If nothing else,I love it just because it has a choir echo “ANOTHER MAN!”.

The one they altered the least is “Across the Universe”, but it’s pretty great, and totally creepy in that Laibach way.

They also did a whole album of covers of “Sympathy for the Devil.” They’re all strange as hell, and they’re still kind of a staple of your better Halloween rock radio shows.

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I’d nominate Superstar, originally by Delaney and Bonnie, which was a far more up-tempo song than the sublime Carpenters version. The Carpenters song does justice to the lyrics and brings the poignancy to the fore. Plus its Karen Carpenter singing, so its beyond good.

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Granted, it’s excessive to the max, but ELO’s version of Chuck Berry’s Roll Over Beethoven is just happening, man.

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For some reason, I thought that Richard Thompson’s cover of “Oops! I Did It Again” had already been mentioned. The genre-switch break is especially good. In fact, I prefer his cover a great deal over Britney’s version.

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Has Big Daddy been mentioned in this thread yet? They covered the entire Sgt. Pepper album in the styles of various 1950s performers and genres. The highlight is “A Day in the Life” à la Buddy Holly.