HELL YES!!! I had heard Gaga’s version before I heard the Pamplamoose version, and had sorta found it forgettable, in fact, I forgot about it, and the Pamplamoose version just blew it away. It’s great to see some indies with relatively limited resources just crushing a massively produced hit.
Thanks to everyone for all the cover posts, it’s been fun spending the holiday just listening to them and comparing them to one another.
UB40’s cover of Neil Diamond’s Red Red Wine.
I was blown away by Stan Ridgway’s cover of 16 Tons
I teach a class on creativity, and one thing I do to keep my brain flexible is listen to cover songs. And if a song can make you see something in the material you didn’t before, even better, so this thread is perfect!
I have a playlist called “COVERAGE” with close to a hundred covers. My best ones have been mentioned here.
But I’ve gotta link to Shawn Colvin acoustifyin’ Gnarls Barkley.
And Amy Lee from Evanescence brings even more angst to a couple of Nirvana songs: Lithium (and acoustic), and Heart-Shaped Box.
Oh, and what’s cooler than Vampire Weekend name-checking Peter Gabriel in Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa? Peter Gabriel covering it (with Hot Chip) and singing “It feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel, too. / And it feels so unnatural… to sing your own name!”
And I just found Mumford & SOns do a cover of VW’s Cousins.
Oops! Here is the correct link: The J. Davis Trio’s version
Placebo’s version of the Kate Bush song Running Up That Hill. The bridge (about 2:59) makes me all shivery.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned **Marvin Gaye’s **cover of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", originally done by Gladys Knight and the Pips. The original was outstanding in its own right, but Gaye took it to a whole new level.
Yes - America (Simon and Garfunkel), a complete 10 min prog version.
Richard Cory - Simon & Garfunkel
Richard Cory - Them (Van Morrison)
Laibach doing a cover of Queen’s One Vision in German. Also check out their covers of the Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil, amongst others.
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Perhaps I should add that, as I hear it, the Them version completely subverts the trite message of the original poem. It is just possible that the Simon and Garfunkel version is intended to do the same, but if so it is not nearly as clear or passionate.
Tears On My Pillow
Little Anthony and The Imperials
Vastly different cover, I think everyone would agree. As for successful, not commercially, but it works for me. The energy of the Clem Snide version* reawakened my interest in modern music, so it’s a success for me! 
*It’s icing on the cake that I heard this on the Stubbs the Zombie soundtrack. Any song associated with zombies in any manner gets double points!
Remember that Japanese pop song known as Sukiyaki in the U.S., by singer Kyu Sakamoto?
Bill Parson’s version of Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded me with Science”
Holy shit. It’s like a torch singer traveled back from the future in order to be awesome! That cover is unreasonably neat. And I think I’ve a crush on the singer.
Not a massively different but one of my favorite covers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRbKc32i09c
Another favorite NWA’s boyz in the hood redone by Dynamite hack
This cover of Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast is probably one of my favourites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OueweGTvps
Also, pretty much anything off of Pat Boone’s album In a Metal Mood is great.