Some singers are hard to cover. There are not many Aretha Franklin covers, for instance, because why should somebody even try? Van Morrison may not be the same kind of force of nature like Aretha (though he’s close), but he also has a distinct voice and style of singing and arranging that sets him apart from most others.
So there really aren’t many Van Morrison covers compared to peers like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. The two best I know are both by British bands of the eighties, the Dexys Midnight Runners version of “Jackie Wilson Said” and the Waterboys’ “Sweet Thing”. Both bands were heavily influenced by Van and not only paid tribute to him in their covers, but also in their own songs. Then there’s Maria McKee’s version of “The Way Young Lovers Do”, which I also like very much.
This is odd. I put Morrison and Dylan in the same category of “Brilliant lyrics, meaningful music, but such a quirky voice”.*
As mentioned, a lot of people have done a lot of good Dylan covers (where would the Byrds have been without them?).
But some of them sound close to Dylan’s version. At my first ever live gig, we went onstage after a folkie who covered “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts”, and the guitarist said “I’ve got to apologize, I sang that just like Bob would. I tried different styles, but none of those worked. Weird, huh?”
And whenever I hear a Van Morrison song covered, like the OP’s examples, it sounds pretty Vanny (Dexy’s was so close, I kept waiting to hear some Pee Wee Ellis sax (best part of the original).
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*I’m old. I loved “Astral Weeks”, and “Moondance” was the first album I ever bought with my own money. And I’m almost used to Van’s voice.
Somewhere I have an entire album of different people covering Van Morrison songs. I haven’t listened to it in a long time and I can’t recall the title. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to the OP’s topic — List of artists who have covered Van Morrison songs - Wikipedia
