How about Elbow’s cover of Independant Woman, here played by dancing kittens.
Queensryche did a haunting cover of Simon and Garfunkle’s “Scarborough Fair.”
Counting Crows’ cover of “Friend of the Devil” by the Grateful Dead was pretty good.
Ben Folds, Ben Lee and Ben Kweller did a great remake of NWA’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit.”
And I like The Dan Band. Most people know them as the band that sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart” during the wedding scene in *Old School[/.] Youtube some of their stuff. It’s great.
And who doesn’t know the original?
That’s a different version. He first did it as all “Over the Rainbow”.
There’s also an A Cappella version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjNNxnKVEpQ&feature=related
This is an awesome thread.
I was surprised to find out that the Johnny Cash song “I Hung My Head” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcmbFKstspk was actually a cover of a Sting song - YouTube. The songs have fairly different sounds to them.
Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice it’s All Right” as covered by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (as “Wonder Who”)
Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” by The Specials
Huh! I always assumed that Marvin’s was first! I thought Gladys’s “cover” was a bit cheeky after the sublime beauty of the “original”.
Patti Smith did a cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It’s fairly different from Cobain’s. I think there’s a banjo in there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvR-JBPhnxI
The Slits - I Heard it through the Grapvine
Smooth Criminal Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic
My point was that if you had to know the original to appreciate it, it wasn’t really a success in its own right.
Yes, it was brilliant of me to start it, of course, I had help from a few posters here and there … I’d like to thank all the little people that made this thread possible!
Yannick’s Ces soirees la, a French cover the the Four Season’s “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night”) And I don’t particularly like rap.
I posted this in another thread a while ago and thought to put it in this one, but this thread had fallen off the first page. But here it is again so-- Billy Stewart’s Summertime.
The fancy mic work cracks me up.
I’ll give you “radical” but I don’t know that it’s an improvement. The more souped-up arrangments and styling kind of detract from the soulful tone of the original, IMHO.
Also not an improvement. The tone is all wrong. There’s some serious rebellion and anger in the original song, and some intelligent analysis too. Not seeing a lot of that in this version. I’m thinking it’s another song that could be improved by a driving blues beat and a rough bass male vocalist … kind of Howling Wolf-ish … the lyrics sure sound like an old-time blues tune.
I’ve always liked Dire Straights Romeo and Juliet but really liked the Indigo Girls cover.
I don’t know if it will have been succesful enough to pass Evil Captor’s scrutiny but the way they make it a softer, almost timid at times, song really works for it. (I still love the original as well though.)
That is indeed awesome. 
I just thought of another example. “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” by Lynn Anderson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvyramcYAfQ, and the punk cover by Suicide Machine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu1sL2gk7Eo
I hope this bump rejuvenates this thread for a little while.
The Residents dropped that song on it’s head.
And Laibach did the same with Sympathy For The Devil.
I prefer my version. I also prefer my version of Deeper & Deeper.