This cover is performed by The Gourds, a lesser known bluegrass act. The cover is sometime wrongly attributed to Phish, but this is incorrect.
And I agree, it’s one of the coolest and most unique covers ever. They really turn the song on its head and make it their own.
I’ll second Dubious Weasle’s nomination of **Johnny Cash’s ** cover of Hurt originally performed by Nine Inch Nails. Another case where the song is really turned around and made totally different.
And I really like **Evanesence’s ** acoustic cover of Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana. They performed it live on a radio station once and the female lead singer really lends a new texture to the song, more smooth and silky as opposed to Kurt Cobain’s gravelly screaming.
David Lindley’s cover of Mercury Blues is a full throttle celebration on fuzzy slide guitar.
Ry Cooder had some big balls to cover Jim Reeves’s He’ll Have To Go, but Flaco Jimenez’s Tex-Mex accordian makes it perfect.
Hundreds of covers have been made of George Gershwin’sSummertime.Janis Joplin’s take stands alone at the pinnacle, though.
Back Door Man was a classic long before The Doors got hold of it, but they took it to another level.
Peter Ostroushko does Hank Williams, Sr.'sHey, Good Lookin’ in Ukranian, with Johnny Gimble on fiddle. It’s great fun. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band does a more conventional cover, with Linda Ronstadt on backup vocals.
Speaking of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, they do a quiet, spare, growly cover of The Battle Of New Orleans that you’ll never forget.
If I repeat any, then consider them seconds:
“Hazy Shade of Winter” by The Bangles
“Shameless” by Garth Brooks
“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” by Eddie Vedder/Pearl Jam
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by IZ, but I must note he completely butchers the lyrics - I like the cover-of-the-arrangement featured on an episode of Scrubs.
“Istanbul, Not Constantinople” by They Might Be Giants
“Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul, and Mary
“Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by Niel McCoy
“Landslide” by The Dixie Chicks (country version only - no banjo=no good)
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” by The Dapper Dans
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” by Bare Naked Ladies
Any Nat King Cole version of any song
“Tiny Dancer” by Tim McGraw
“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Mark Chesnutt
“Cold, Cold Heart” by Nora Jones
In their concerts, Gaelic Storm does imitation covers of their most popular song “Johnny Tarr” all of which are hilarious.
Really? I heard Sting talk about it, and it sounded to me like he didn’t like it but was too polite to say so, in the circumstances. I don’t think the Eva Cassidy version is that good, anyway, it’s too schmaltzy. Sorry.
My vote would be for Sheryl Crow’s cover of Sweet Child O’ Mine. No spandex and no fretwank, and it really suits her voice.
I’ll third (or whatever) Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”. My all-time favorite is probably Husker Du’s cover of the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”. Also like XTC’s “All Along The Watchtower” and Devo’s “(I Can’t get No) Satisfaction”.
Buckley’s cover of Halleluja is nice, but I don’t think it’s as good as Cohen’s original. Buckley’s just a little too on the nose. Bono does an IMHO more interesting version on Tower of Song, a Leonard Cohen tribute album.
That album also has Suzanne Vega’s gorgeous rendition of “Story of Isaac.”
There’s a lot of good stuff on the Hendrix tribute album Stone Free. Perhaps my favorite track is Belly’s Are You Experienced?, although I won’t say it’s better than the original version.
But my favorite cover has to be the Pet Shop Boys’ disco-y version of Where the Streets Have No Name, where halfway through they break into the R&B standard Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You with a fantastic wave of energy. Every time I’ve heard the original U2 version in the last 15 years, I find myself adding “I love you baby, and if it’s quite all right, I need you baby, to keep me warm at night…” at the appropriate moment.
Here’s some heresy for you: I think Elvis Presley’s cover of Bridge Over Troubled Waters is much, much better than the original, and I say that as a big Paul Simon fan. Art Garfunkel just doesn’t have enough personality to be a lead vocalist, and the song’s production is much too self important. The King, OTOH, infuses just enough bravura into the song (not to mention gospel backing) to make it work.