The same album has the saddest version of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” ever. Considering the song, I guess saddest means best.
All Along the Watchtower–Michael Hedges
Oh Well – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Dinosaur Jr - Show Me The Way (Peter Frampton)
Phantom Tollbooth - Barracuda (Heart)
Buddy Guy - Baby Please Don’t Leave Me (Junior Kimbrough)
Zeke - Shout It Out Loud (KISS)
The Bad Plus - Tom Sawyer (Rush)
Bongwater - Dazed and Chinese (Led Zeppelin)
Butthole Surfers - American Woman (The Guess Who)
DJ Leibowitz - Holiday In Cambodia (Dead Kennedys)
Devo - Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers)
Wilson - Sleep Now In The Fire (Rage Against The Machine)
Rage Against The Machine - Maggie’s Farm (Bob Dylan)
The Residents - It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (James Brown)
I’ll stop here, before I wear the hamsters out with a list of Louie, Louie covers; I think I have about 150 of them now.
Aerosmiths cover of The Beatles ‘Come Together’
Arlo does Elvis (Can’t help falling in love with you)
Stones’ Ya Ya Carol (C. Berry).
Yeah, and this is THE VERY BEST version of that cover.
The Stevie Ray Vaughn cover of that song is my favorite. It rocks.
Eugenius covering Beat Happening’s Indian Summer
Nick Cave covering Lefty Frizzell’s Long Black Veil
Smashing Pumpkins ripping through The Animal’s Girl Named Sandoz
The DelByzanteens doing Sally Go Round the Roses by the Jaynetts
The Dum Dum Girls covering the Smith’s There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
Morrissey doing The New York Doll’s Human Being (can’t find the album version), and Magazine’s Song From Under the Floorboards
The Feelies covering The Velvet Underground’s What Goes On
Pixies covering The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Head On
Robert Smith does Pirate Ships by Wendy Waldman
This Mortal Coil (Cocteau Twins) doing Song to the Siren
The Ataris’ Boys of Summer crushes Don Henley’s original like a grape.
Not one of my favourites, but definitely a curiosity when there’s an affinity between The Monkees and 80’s metal bands.
Here “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone” gets the workover from both Intruder and Aragon.
Go figure.
Posted this a couple months ago somewhere -
Electric Love Muffin doing Norwegian Wood.
I did not know “Go Now” was a cover. But it looks like it was sung by Bessie Banks, one-time wife of the composer, Larry Banks.
I prefer Lotte Lenya’s 1955 version of Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife) to the Kurt Gerron 1938 version from The Threepenny Opera.
Pet Shop Boys “Go West” over The Village People version.
Lots more I can’t think of at the moment. Grrrr.
Galaxie 500’s majestic takes of Jonathan Richman’s Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste, and Yoko Ono’s Listen, the Snow Is Falling
This super-fun cover of EMF’s Unbelievable by Grass Widow
Similarly, Shannon and the Clams’ garage rock version of Snap’s I’ve Got the Power
Maybe not technically a cover, but Nico’s gorgeous rendition of Jackson Brown’s These Days
Cat Power doing Sea of Love
The Bobbyteens version of the Rubber City Rebels’ Young and Dumb and Joan Jet’s Do You Wanna Touch
Linda Ronstadt’s version of Heat Wave got me interested in her music. I’ve listened to nearly everything Linda has recorded since. She was the hottest rocker chick that I ever saw. Smoking hot.
Martha and the Vandellas originally recorded it.
Martha and the Vandellas originally recorded Heat Wave. But they never brought the sexual tension that Linda had. Not even close. Their version was much too tame
I could barely tell the difference, myself, other than a couple of little details like a Black Flag rather than a Deadhead sticker on the Cadillac.
You know how very often, a band’s live performance of one of their songs will have more energy than the studio version? It was like that.
Sorry for the mistake. My source was the music magazine Goldmine, and usually music magazines are solid sources.
Me and Bobby McGee covered by Janis Joplin versus anyone who wrote it or tried to sing it.
Georgia Lee Brown – The Cramps
I Got You Babe – Chrissy Hynde & UB40 (Sorry folks, this one just does it for me)
Hard Rain – Leon Russell
And…
Help! – The Damned, because what they did to that song was just so…necessary.