FWIW, between them Rockpile (Nick Lowe and friends) and Brinsley Schwarz (Nick Lowe and friends) had an influence that extended everywhere in British music. Costello, Graham Parker, Ducks Deluxe, the Feelgoods. Dave Robinson (manager) founded Stiff Records (The Damned, Ian Dury, Madness etc) and worked for Island - and so the influences go on. Dave Edmunds was Johnny Cash’s son-in-law, for crissakes.
j
One of my all-time favorite songs, “St. James Infirmary” has relatively ancient antecedents (supposedly going back to the 18th century) but was first recorded by Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra in 1927. It became a hit for Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra in a 1928 recording.
However I’m going to argue that it really hit national awareness in this acid-trip sequence from the Betty Boop “Snow White” animated film, as performed by Cab Calloway:
Or if you prefer, here’s Koko the Clown singing the White Stripes’ version:
Sorry, this is the Dope where we have to nitpick: Johnny’s son-in-law was Nick Lowe, who also wrote “The Beast In Me” for him.
Goddamn! I always make that mistake!
j
Nick himself at one point described his music as “disposable”. But one cannot overlook the fact that he rick-rolled all of us
long before anyone had ever heard of rick-rolling.
There’s no way it was a bigger hit than The Who’s original version: cite Pinball Wizard - Wikipedia
The original still gets airplay on classic rock stations. But the Elton John version (which I do like) faded like the movie version of “Tommy” did.
Light-weight or not, but he’s always been a funny guy 
I hear he feeds his dog dead actresses.
I came to this song by way of Shrek. You can buy the soundtrack but for some reason, they put a version by Rufus Wainright on it, not John Cale. You can also find Cale singing it (Music from Scrubs) but it isn’t THIS version. AFAICT John Cale’s version from the film is not available for purchase in MP3 or CD form.
This reminds me of Elton covering Lennon’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” but I’m too lazy to look up which sold more. The girl with colitis goes by…
The Beatles version never was a single, I don’t know if Elton John’s version was. At least the Beatles LP it was on sold several millions and is one of the most famous albums of all time, so I doubt that Elton John’s version sold more.
I came along later, so I can’t speak to what the Beatles released as singles. It has, of course, become famous. Wikipedia says:
Among its many cover versions, a 1974 recording by Elton John, with a guest appearance by Lennon, was a number 1 hit in the US and Canada.
But this is the definitive cover (The Langley Schools)
The Byrd’s “Turn, Turn, Turn” was way better than the Bible’s version, and totally different. The Bible is still a bigger seller, though.
< Pete Seeger slams his guitar down and stalks off >
A couple from Warren Zevon:
Dylan’s ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ is great, but Warren Zevon’s star-studded cover is awesome - not least because he was literally knocking on heaven’s door when he performed it. He only had a few months to live, and knew it. He died before the Album was released.
At the end you can hear him calling ‘Open up! Open up for me!’
Another obscure Zevon cover, he did an album of covers with REM as his backing band under the name ‘Hindu Love Gods’. Here’s their cover of Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’:
I missed another awesome, and very different Zevon cover.
Steve Winwood originally performed ‘back in the high life again’ as kind of an uplifting, ‘I’ll be back even though I’m down now’ song:
Zevon, in typical fashion, turned it into more of a cynical song by someone who thinks they’ll make it back, but it ain’t happening. It’s also much better than the original.
That article makes a distinction between “cover” and “remake”. I haven’t used the term “remake” in decades. I’ve always thought of them as interchangeable terms.
If the article is correct about the distinction, then “cover” is definitely the appropriate term for this thread!
B.J. Thomas’s version of Hooked on a Feeling (love that electric sitar) was a #5 hit in 1969, but five years later, here comes Ooga-Chaka-Ooga-Ooga 
by Blue Swede and it goes to #1.
“Venus” Shocking Blue, 1969
“The Banjo Song” The Big Three, 1963
Wall of Voodoo’s debut single was a sinister-sounding cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
This is also the answer to the question “What would happen if someone just recorded the Milkdrop animation on Winamp for a song.”
Was “Without You” as done up by Nilsson different enough from the original by Badfinger?
