# Covers of Songs That Radically -- And Successfully -- Re-interpreted the Work **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927 "2010-12-31T08:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/41 "2010-12-31T21:09:04Z")
I heard [this version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vEStDd6HVY&feature=&p=FB2A700B1A28B590&index=0&playnext=1) of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” before I heard the original version. I didn’t realize it was a cover of a Gaga song, I thought it was just a great song. I was very disappointed by the original version, which I thought the cover vastly improved on. Urge Overkill’s version of “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” as heard in _Pulp Fiction_ is a lot better than the original by Neil Diamond. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/42 "2010-12-31T21:11:09Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Two of my favorite cover songs > > [While my Keytar Gently Weeps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ioD3KcVSE) by Lemon Demon Great goddess, that is one of the best things ever… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/43 "2010-12-31T21:16:16Z")
Bernadette Peters’ [_There is Nothing Like a Dame._](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRgKAGZ74s0) This song is usually sexist and condescending, as was originally intended. But this version is a proud and powerful and sensual statement of womanhood. I had the privilege of watching her perform this live, and it blew the audience away. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/44 "2010-12-31T21:16:26Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Great goddess, that is one of the best things ever… It really is, isn’t it. I do try to show it off every chance I get. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/45 "2010-12-31T21:21:02Z")
_They Might Be Giants_ gave _Istanbul (Not Constantinople)_ tighter harmonies and a catchier beat. It was a huge improvement over the original. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/46 "2010-12-31T21:43:13Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > How about “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by Devo? Turns the Stones version on its head. I think it works best if you know the original … more of a satire than a cover. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/47 "2010-12-31T21:49:33Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Don’t know if giving the song a reggae beat and a solo on the Uilleann pipes is radical enough, if so [here’s Kate Bush’s reinterpetation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g8v2RNLHr0) of Elton John’s _Rocket Man_. > > If that is not radical enough, [here’s the J. Davis Trio’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g8v2RNLHr0) very radical re-working of Kate’s song [_There Goes A Tenner_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bYXYlCbBJ0#t=0m11s). It’s not very radical at all and your second link is to the same song as the first link. ---
**Author:** ![DWSKAMS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b3f665/32.png) [@DWSKAMS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWSKAMS)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/48 "2010-12-31T21:58:12Z")
Cake’s version of “I will survive”. Manfred Mann’s (Earth Band) cover of “Blinded by the Light”. Stevie Ray Vaughan doing “Superstition”. George Michael (and Mary J. Blige’s) version of “As”. I could go on and on… ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/49 "2010-12-31T22:00:41Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Iron Man](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MII3ns2KTBc) by Black Sabbath > > [Iron Man](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzgZJEpLuw0) by the Cardigans didnt like the original all that much, but it had a raw quality that carried its meaning well. This cover is just silly. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/50 "2010-12-31T22:04:55Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Unless you’re old like me, you probably haven’t had the experience of hearing Bob Dylan’s version of All Along The Watchtower first, and then hearing the Jimi Hendrix version. I loved Dylan’s version, but the first time I heard Jimi’s, I got goose-bumps. To me this is the ultimate radical, successful cover. [Oh, hell yes.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bng3agUOYiI) But let’s face it, Bob Dylan’s great talent is as a songwriter, he’s not that great an arranger, composer or singer. Many artists have taken his songs and fixed em up and done em proper, though Hendrix arguably did it so well that no one else need bother covering it. How ya gonna beat perfection? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/51 "2010-12-31T22:17:58Z")
No one has contributed [Jeff Buckley’s version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4)of [_Hallelujah_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTiXoMCppw)? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/52 "2010-12-31T22:20:15Z")
[quote=“F.U.Shakespeare, post:15, topic:565927”] I liked [Deep Purple’s cover of the Beatles’ “Help”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx8RHoeGUWI), which is a pretty radical departure from the original. [quote] Different, but successful in its own right? 2 and a half minutes in I was still listening to a plodding intro, so I bailed. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/53 "2010-12-31T22:22:43Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > All Along the Watchtower is one of those ‘endlessly reinterpreted’ songs. You’ve got to throw in versions by U2 and Dave Matthews, too. > > For me, a reinterpretation should present a new angle on the song. Something that was there but unnoticed. To that end I’ll nominate Dolly Parton’s covers of Collective Soul’s ‘Shine’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’. She turns both songs into a much more religious feel. Both could easily be sung in church the way she puts them together and make God and heaven the center of meaning. The U2 version didn’t do much for me, but when Dave Matthews turned on the juice in the second stanza it was downright stirring. I’ve never heard anything by Dolly Parton I liked except Jolene. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/54 "2010-12-31T22:30:06Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > Gary Jules version of “Mad World” is incredible. And Judas Priest’s version of the Joan Baez song “Diamonds and Rust” is a really cool interpretation (ETA: the slow version, their speedy version is a little weird). I only know the Gary Jules version from [this video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Ig2JJRpdo&feature=related) Who did the original? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/55 "2010-12-31T22:31:21Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Don’t forget that Aretha herself had taken _Respect_ from Otis Redding (his version is essentially a demand for sex) and turned into the quintessential female empowerment anthem of its time. I’ll grant you that, but was there any radical reinterpretation other than the gender switch, which is kinda commonplace? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/56 "2010-12-31T22:33:42Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Who did the original[Mad World]? [Tears For Fears](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjTgOX5Cgaw). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/57 "2010-12-31T22:48:06Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Alanis Morisette’s tongue-in-cheek cover of [My Humps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmYfVCH2UA). > > [Original version.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEe_eraFWWs) Ok, that was exactly what I was talking about. Radical reinvention, successful on its own terms. It’s tongue in cheek but doesnt need the orginal to be worth listening to. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/58 "2010-12-31T23:00:26Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > And then Coil did their take on Tainted Love: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3TUtRnZi4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3TUtRnZi4) All they did was slow down the tempo. I’ll spot you a “radical” but … successful? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/59 "2010-12-31T23:02:40Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > This is my all-time favorite example: > > [“Walk on By” by Dionne Warwick](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO073fekFfA) > > [“Walk on By” by the Stranglers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqfqVDHNW6c) Ok, that’s a winner. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927/60 "2010-12-31T23:13:53Z")
> [@SeldomSeen](#): > > _In the Pines/Black Girl/Where did you sleep last Night_ > > Interesting song > Already about a century old when > [Ledbelly popularized it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3af4ZJS4w) > > [“High lonesome” rendition by Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_UkluxB7gc) > > [A haunting gothic cover by Curt Cobain](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcXYz0gtJeM&feature=related) Funny, the only version I’ve ever heard is [the Louvin Brothers version,](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWrSg5znyMU&feature=related) which I kinda like better than the others. None of them seem to be radical reworks of the original though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covers-of-songs-that-radically-and-successfully-re-interpreted-the-work/565927.md?page=4)