Usually I like Leonard Cohen more than Rufus Wainwright. For the latter’s cover of the former’s song “Hallelujah,” though, the reverse is the case.
Should mention Yat Ka’s thoatsinging version of Love Will Tear Us Apart. Great!
Señor Coconut’s wonderful cover of Kraftwerk’s Wir sind die Roboter - Youtube . I am a big Kraftwerk fan, but I couldn’t help but love these guys’ strange salsafication of the German electronica godfathers.
ETA: Sound quality sucks in the clip, but you get the idea, I hope.
I’ve had her CD’s for years now. Strangely I cannot get them to transfer them over to my iTunes library and so I can’t listen to them on my iPod. Exquisite voice.
My favorite song of hers is currently “Songbird.” It’s even more compelling when you know that she faced death so young.
Well, I gotta say that this thread has really had a huge payoff for me. Talk about surprises, and she really does nothing BUT covers. It’s still too early for me to pick a favorite yet. Each time a new song begins, I think “Ooo! Ooo! It’s this one!”
In honor of Ike’s Death, I’m remembering his & Tina’s cover of CCR’s “Proud Mary.”
THAT was one good cover.
I agree with Lib that the major appeal is her voice. It has a crystal clear purity of tone that I’ve rarely heard in pop music. Her pitch is excellent and you never hear her having to slide into the proper note, she always hits it dead on. She’s also got a wonderful range and lovely vibrato, as well. Not to mention impeccable phrasing. Y’know it’s starting to get a little embarrassing how much I’m gushing about her. Call me a fanboy, I guess.
That’s a tough one. She excelled in so many different genres that it’s hard to just pick a few. She could swing from blues belters to jazz standards to country crooners to pop ballads to traditional gospels all within one live set and make it all work.
The aforementioned “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” is a good choice. That’s a song I’ve hated for years, but I had to admit I was impressed by her interpretation. “Songbird” is a personal favourite. I also love a lot of her standards like “Cheek to Cheek” and “Autumn Leaves”.
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” is on that list too. At least I didn’t mention Cat Power’s “Satisfaction”…
It’s because my parents are about 10 years older than anyone else around my age (I’m 38, they’re in their 70’s), so they kind of “skipped” the Beatles in my house. When I was growing up it seems like we skipped from Benny Goodman straight to Linda Ronstadt without any music from the 60’s at all, and generally no rock & roll until I was a teenager and started picking my own music to listen to.
However, a daughter of one of my mom’s high school friends was an Elton John fan, and had all his albums. She would play them when she was stuck watching me when we were visiting, so I ended up hearing his version first.
I ended up having to go back as a young adult and pretty much completely educate myself on the early history of rock & roll. But I know a pretty decent amount about Big Bands & Swing. 
I prefer Aerosmith’s “Come Together” cover over the Beatles. It added an edginess that was missing in the original.
Unchained Melody - U2 (or maybe just Bono)
The Boys of Summer - Ataris (“Out on the road today, I saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac…”)
Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for reviving an old thread, but i thought of this when I caught this video of the Donnas doing Ratt’s ‘Round and Round.’ Nice!
I’m partial to Shinedown’s cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Kind of Man. The lead singer really tears it up.
I read about Rory Block’s The Lady and Mr. Johnson in another thread. She certainly has Robert Johnson’s guitar down, but it’s weird listening to a woman singing in a deeper voice than Johnson, and her imitation of his spoken voice is distracting. Eric Clapton’s cover of Robert Johnson, Me and Mr. Johnson is superb, but lacks Crossroad Blues. Perhaps he has it tied up on another label. At any rate, Block’s guitar and Clapton’s singing would be perfect. 
Walk This Way always was a rap song. It just came out before rap was invented.
+1.
sniff
There are a few songs that when I heard the cover version, I knew it had (to me) set the new standard for the song.
The Fugees cover of Killing Me Softly
Cake’s cover of I Will Survive
And while I wasn’t really around to hear the original before the cover existed,
The aforementioned Ike and Tina Turner cover of Proud Mary
Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower
Bob Dylan’s electric version of Bob Dylan’s acoustic version of I Don’t Believe You (the “Live 1966” version)
Dwight Yoakem doing the Dead’s Truckin. I NEVER thought of that as a country song, but damn if it doesn’t make it better. I am a bit of a Deadhead - so from me this is quite the compliment.
I like it when songs are taken out of the their genre for a spin.
It better be, considering Neil Young had nothing to do with Southern Cross…!
At the risk of being laughed out of the thread, I have to nominate Rod Stewart’s cover of Robert Palmer’s “Some Guys Have All the Luck.” Yes, Palmer recorded it first, even though I heard Stewart’s version before his. Once I hear Palmer’s version, I actually decided the cover was better.