The Pointer Sisters’s Fire and Patti Smith’s Because the Night were both released before Springsteen’s cover versions.
This is awesome thanks for sharing.
EDIT: Holy fucking awesomeness on a piece of awesome toast they cover Ruby Soho. I need this album. I’m off to internetting to see if I can find it. Please Amazon don’t let me down.
My contribution:
Ring of Fire by Social Distortion is pretty badass.
The three covers that immediately pop into my head:
Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary”
Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”
Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”
(the originals were by, IIRC, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Liza Minnelli, and Dolly Parton, respectively)
Another vote for “wrong”.
This is the one I always pick for these threads:
Eight Miles High - Husker Du
It feels like a pile-on but yeah, IMO the only good part of the remake is when they sample the old Blue Monday’s drum solo. (The cover of “Cars” from that same era, on the other hand, wasn’t completely horrible.)
oh yeah here’s another one
The Raincoats - Lola
Can a version of a song written by that person *be *a cover?
Raul Malo doing Willie’s Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground.
Pure sex.
I was wondering this because I love this version of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
it is such a cool version of that song they did, just slowing it down like that changes that song so much. Love both versions but really love this version.
My first inclination was to be critical of some of these choices. I almost always write out a reply, then think about it for a minute and delete. This is particularly true about music threads. I dont really care if my taste gets criticized, but I used to. I guess I’m getting to an age where I am more comfortable with a live and let live mentality… So I think I will give a few of these another spin or two and see what it is that makes them great.
Gov’t Mule is one of my favorite bands for cover tunes. I’m always quite delighted when I see a new cover from them. I loved their Halloween concerts where they played Zep and Who covers. I think my favorite though is Humble Pie’s 30 Days in the Hole. It sounds greazy. Here’s a link, but it sounds much better on the album.
I am going to go against the fuddy-duddy old crowd around here and rock out with you to the cover version. 
… then go and age myself a bit and second the Hendrix version of “All Along the Watchtower” as one of my other favorite covers.
Add me in to the “hell no” on the Orgy cover of Blue Monday.
I am quite fond of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle done by Frente!
I should add that I’ve danced to that Orgy cover and like it, but better? No way.
And I’ll just have to remain in a minority of (apparently) one on the Johnny Cash Hurt. I don’t give a shit what he went through in his life vs Reznor. It just isn’t musically better. He sounds like a drunken wino. And dropping the “shit” was lame.
But it is a work of genius compared to the horror of his Mercy Seat.
I really like The Shins. But even better than The Shins is this bluegrass cover of The Shins:
http://www.subpop.com/releases/the_shins/full_lengths/bluegrass_tribute_to_the_shins
I’ve had this one stuck in my head for a few months now.
Anyone mention Leningrad Cowboys yet? Check out their version of Pretty Fly for a White Guy. 
4 Non Blondes’ cover of Misty Mountain Hop.
Of course, the epitome of the better cover song is Hendrix’s version of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower (as noted above).
But, a close second, very close, is Julie Driscoll’s Season of the Witch.
(Having said that, I really, really like Karen O and Trent Reznor’s The Immigrant Song. Wow!)
My current playlist has 103 songs on it which, if you count those kooky kids from McKinley High, probably consists of about 20% covers.
Torry would look hot in a dirty burlap sack. I like the jammies she’s wearing on the album cover for Spend The Night, though. 
This cover’s not on my iPod, simply because I can’t find a clean enough version of it. My current playlist does, however, have their covers of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” and Kim Wilde’s “Kids In America” (as well as Who Invited You and Fall Behind Me, which are The Donnas’ songs).
The others are:[ul][li]Skunk Anansie’s cover of The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” from the movie Suckerpunch[/li][li]Quietdrive’s cover of the Hooters/Cindi Lauper tune “Time After Time”[/li][li]A cover of Duran Duran’s “Hi Opal” by the 1920’s-Style Death Rays ;)[/li][li]Warren Zevon and the Hindu Love Gods (basically REM without Michael Stipe) singing Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”[/li][li]The Ramones doing a cover of “Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen. Blame Peter Griffin for this one.[/li][li]Joey Ramone without the other Ramones singing a cover of “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. I’m pretty sure some credit card commercial is to blame for that one.[/li][li]Ash Guff singing a cover of The Ramones’ “Spider-Man” (sorry, no Youtube available - it’s from the album Brats On The Beat: Ramones For Kids), which is itself a cover of the totally groovy theme song to the 60’s era animated TV show[/li][li]Caleigh Peters singing The Cars’ “Just What I Needed”. Got kinda tired of it because of that damned Circuit City commerical. This comes from the soundtrack to a most excellent Bruce Campbell/Kurt Russell movie called Sky High. The entire album is 80’s covers by contemporary acts… oh, and a cover of Devo’s “Through Being Cool” by They Might Be Giants![/li][li]Vocaloid Hatsune Miku’s cover (does it count if the singer isn’t even human?) of Loituma’s “Ievan Polkka”[/li][li]Amongst a whole bunch of songs by The Dollyrots, a few covers, including Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” (I have the Avril Lavigne version on there as well), plus their version of Bowling For Soup’s “High School Never Ends”, released on a split single with BFS covering The Dollyrots’ “Because I’m Awesome” on the flip side, and…[/li][li]Bowling for Soup also singing a cover of “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne …[/li][li]… and Fountains of Wayne singing a cover of “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” by ELO[/li][/ul]
Seaweed’s cover of Go Your Own Way. My favorite cover ever.