Hayseed Dixie’s entire album. (Bluegrass covers of AC/DC.)
“Come Together” by Aerosmith. I always felt it had a lot more punch than the Beatles’ original version.
“Sunshine Of Your Love” by Jimi Hendrix. My favorite song ever.
“Boys n the Hood” by Dynamite Hack. Hilarious.
Joe Cocker: “I Get by with a Little Help from My Friends”
Queensryche: “Scarborough Fair”
Sting: “Shadows in the Rain” (reinvented for The Dream of the Blue Turtles as a catchy jazz tune. I knew that version first and find the earlier Police version nigh-unlistenable.)
“Who Do You Love?” - The Jesus and Mary Chain
“Bizarre Love Triangle” - Frente!
Nearly anything by Tom Jones.
Pop a Top- Alan Jackson (originally Jim Ed Brown)
Man of Constant Sorrow- Soggy Bottom Boys (originally Stanley Bros.)
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer- George Thorogood (originally John Lee Hooker)
Why Baby Why- Webb Peirce & Red Sovine (originally George Jones)
Gotta go with ** Frigid Pink**'s fuzzed-up version of “House of the Rising Sun”
Hendrix’s cover of All Along the Watchtower so far exceeds the original.
Clapton’s unplugged Layla is quite a nice redux
Manfred Mann’s cover of Springsteen’s Blinded by the Light is quite good.
George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord cover of the Chiffon’s He’s So Fine is neato.
But my all time favority is Bobby Darrin’s version of Mac The Knife from the Three Penny Opera
Have you heard Ella Fitzgerald doing it live in Berlin? It’s fantastic. She actually forgets the words and fakes her way through it and somehow it just comes out great. But that aside, I think Bobby Darin has the definitive version.
The Coolies do fantastic covers of Simon and Garfunkel tunes.
And I urge you all to find Fountains of Wayne’s cover of “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. I love it.
William Shatner - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Beatles)
William Shatner - It was a Very Good Year (Frank Sinatra)
William Shatner - Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds)
William Shatner - Rocket Man (Elton John)
They’re SOOOO bad that … they’re GOOD! Hilarious!
Oh, and…
Tears for Fears - Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
Aerosmiths “Dream On” done by Ronnie James Dio and Yngwie Malmsteen
Elvis Costello - Psycho (Leon Payne)
Sinead O’Connor - I Believe In You (Bob Dylan)
Led Zeppelin - The Lemon Song (Howlin’ Wolf)
The Pogues - Dirty Old Town (Ewan McCall)
Elvis Presley - Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Another Dylan song)
Tom Waits - Big Joe and Phantom 309 (Tommy Faile)
Johnny Cash - The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave)
The most inventive cover version I’ve ever heard is The Sneaker Pimps acoustic version of The Prodegy’s ‘Firestarter’.
My favourite cover version has to be Bob Dylan’s cover of the Willie Nelson song, ‘Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground’. A beautiful uplifting version of the song, so much better than the orignal.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by betenoir *
I can’t believe somebody mentioned the Swans before me.
[QUOTE]
That’s funny, I can’t believe someone mentioned them AFTER me! 
Gram Parsons - Wild Horses, Love Hurts
Guns N’ Roses - Live and Let Die, Knockin on Heaven’s Door
those are a few that i could think of right now…
Shania Twain cover of “Sweet child o’ mine”
Cowboy Junkies- “Dreaming My Dreams” (Orig. by Waylon Jennings)
Aretha Franklin- “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” (Orig. by Otis Redding)
The Derailers- “Raspberry Beret” (Orig. by Prince) A country cover of a Prince classic.
R.E.M.- “Pale Blue Eyes” (Orig. by Velvet Underground)
George Benson- “This Masquerade” (Orig. by Leon Russell?)
Sixpence None the Richer- “There She Goes” (Orig. by The La’s)
Tom Petty- “Needles and Pins” (Orig. by The Searchers)
The Clash- “I fought the Law” (Orig. by Bobby Fuller 4)
Eric Burdon and the Animals- “House of the Rising Sun” (Orig by ?)
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs- “You Are My Flower” (Orig. the Carter Family)
Salamander Crossing- “Two Faces Have I” (This is a bluegrass cover of a Bruce Springsteen song. It works.)
Bob Dylan- “Pretty Boy Floyd” (Orig. by Woody Guthrie)
The Beatles- “Money (That’s What I Want)” (Orig. by ?)
The Beatles- “Twist and Shout” (Oig. by ?)
Elvis Costello- “A Good Year for the Roses” (Orig. by George Jones)
Nazareth- “Love Hurts” (Earlier performances by The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison)
Elvis Presley- “Lawdy Miss Claudie” (Orig. by ?)
Also, I’ll concur that Aerosmith’s “Come Together” squashes the Beatles version like a grape.
I have to disagree with xcheopis about “Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I hate their version. Fogerty screws up the lyrics royally.
Also disagree with Dragon Phoenix and DPWhite about “Blinded by the Light.” Springsteen’s original is far superior.
Lawdy Miss Claudy- originally by Lloyd Price (Stagger Lee, Personality)I think.
“I Think I Love You” by Voices of the Beehive, a Boston group.
“Get Back” by Rod Stewart
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Tori Amos. Yes, you can understand the lyrics
“Like A Virgin” from Moulin Rouge Better than the original.
Salamander Crossing- “Two Faces Have I” (This is a bluegrass cover of a Bruce Springsteen song. It works.)
I can’t even believe that… I was going to post that! I LOVE Salamander. Always wanted to hire them for our wedding… I don’t know why… I just did. Not even that into bluegrass.
What’s funny is I was also going to say better for Manfred Mann on the other Springsteen song “Blinded By the Light” I just don’t like him that much I guess…
hey SPOKE- do you live near the real " 'crossing"??
Lenny Kravitz’s- American Woman, Originally by The Guess Who
This thread, has some more that have not been mentioned.
Would that be the Jarboe or the Michael Gira version? I ask only because you say it like there’s only one. I like the MG one better, personally.
Some covers I rate include:
Maxwell covering This Woman’s Work (Kate Bush)
I believe Istanbul by TMBG is a cover
and along the lines of Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley) by This Mortal Coil, what about his Morning Glory by the same?
But my personal favourite would be Gary Glitter’s Did You Miss Me as done by … the Young Gods. Their Kurt Weill album is good too.