I’d love to hear this one. Any idea where I can find a copy? I’ve checked Google, Amazon, and Wikipedia - so far no luck…
Well, there goes two of my favourites. Five more:
“Proud Mary” by Ike & Tina Turner (Credence Clearwater Revival)
“Hazy Shade of Winter” by The Bangles (Simon & Garfunkel)
“Everlasting Love” by U2 (Robert Knight)
“Midnight Train To Georgia” by the Indigo Girls (Gladys Knight and the Pips)
“Bizarre Love Triangle” by Frente (New Order)
I’m glad someone mentioned Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” and Soft Cell’s cover of “Tainted Love,” because I would probably have submitted a list without them and felt quite foolish afterward.
Let me also throw Cake’s cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” onto the pile. I like covers that offer a significantly different interpretation than the original. Cake took a stirring song of overcoming obstacles and refashioned it as a sullen complaint. R.E.M.'s cover of Television’s “See No Evil” transforms a clunky – but eminently listenable – tune into a nimble little speedster.
Lastly, I find Superchunk’s cover of the Magnetic Fields’ “100,000 Fireflies” to be very stirring. I’ve never heard the original, but what I’ve heard of Stephin Merritt’s stuff doesn’t lead me to believe that I’d have much use for it.
Two of mine (Hallelujah and All Along the Watchtower) are taken.
- “Rueda de Fuego” (Ring of Fire) – Mingo Saldivar (originally by do I really need to say?)
- “The Mercy Seat” – Johnny Cash (original by Nick Cave)
- “Across the Universe” – Fiona Apple (original by the Beatles)
If picking another two:
“One Note Samba/Surfboard” – Stereolab and Herbie Mann (original A.C. Jobim)
“Joga” – Ben Gibbard and Ben Barnett (original by Bjork)
An alternate, which would not be on my list, is the most bizarre recent cover I’ve heard. Santana, on his new album, has a track named “Trinity” done in collaboration with Robert Randolph. This is an instrumental cover of a “Longing” by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (!!!) and Michael Brook off of the “Night Song” album.
Damn - I think a lot of mine are already listed, but here you go:
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Love will tear us apart (Red Version) - Swans’ Michael Gira doing the Joy Division Classic. Swans’ Jarboe also does one, but I prefer the Gira.
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Bizzare Love Triangle - Frente
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Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies
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Song To The Siren - Cocteau Twins’ classic remake of the Tim Buckley song
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The Passenger - Siouxie and the Banshees do Iggy Pop
Oops, I didn’t see rule 5.
OK, replace those with:
2) And The Band Played Walting Matilda - The Pogues cover of the Eric Bogle song
3) Live Is Life - Czech ComiPseudoArtFascists Laibach cover Euro-rockers Opus
Realsied that should read - This Mortal Coil’s classic remake …featuring Cocteau Twins’ Liz Frasier on vocals.
Good one.
Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Leadbelly)
Dread Zeppelin - Your Time is gonna come (Led Z)
Led Zeppelin - Babe Im gonna leave you (Anne Bredon)
Rufus Wrainwright - Halleluja (Leonard Cohen)
Oasis - Helter Skelter (Beatles)
Final, final five.
I’ll go down Swingin’ Exene Czervenka/Los Straightjackets, (Charlie Walker)
Going Down Slow Duane Allman, (Champion Jack Dupree)
Hoochie Coochie Man Long John Baldry, (Willie Dixon)
Personal Jesus Johnny Cash, (Depeche Mode)
Streets of Bakersfield Dwight Yokum, (Homer Joy)
Yeah, it’s like saying Elton John covered a Bernie Taupin song.
FWIW, Jerry co-wrote the music. And, I don’t think Hunter recorded “Friend of the Devil” before the Dead released it on their studio album American Beauty. to my knowledge, he’s never recorded it for commerical release. If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t qualify as a cover.
I am glad to see Cash’s “Hurt,” Frente’s “Bizare Love Triangle,” Cake’s “I Will Survive,” Cowboy Junkies’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (I didn’t think I should put two from the same album), and I have had a lot of fun chasing some of these others down. Since this is, at least, the 50th post (who knows what has happened since I started writing this) I am going to add an alternate desert island top five (now six), can’t believe I forgot it in the first place
Aztec Camera’s cover of Jump, original by Van Halen
When You Say Nothing At All, Alison Krauss & Union Station (Keith Whitley)
Get It On (Bang-a-Gong), The Power Station (T-Rex)
It’s My Life, No Doubt (Talk Talk)
Baby, Now That I’ve Found You, Alison Krauss & Union Station (The Foundations)
Pancho and Lefty, Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard (Townes Van Zandt)
(Alison Krauss is pretty okay in my book.)
Warning - Black Sabbath covering Aynsley Dunbar’s Retaliation
W P L J - Zappa & The Mothers covering from The Four Deuces
I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down - Paul Young covering Ann Peebles
A Shot In The Dark - John Zorn & Naked City covering Henry Mancini
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (Funk Jazz version of Free Beer & Chicken) - John Lee Hooker updating himself & covering Amos Milburn
Did he record it first? Not challenging you, I’d like to get my hands on a copy of the recording. There are several Willie/Merle, Willie alone and Merle alone versions that I have, but some are waaaaay overdone – string and such. I think Townes would probably keep it real.
He did indeed. Try The Late Great Townes Van Zandt from 1972, or Live at the Old Quarter from 1977.
As Labdad noted, Townes’ version of the song he wrote is available on a couple of his albums. If you haven’t got a copy, I heartily recommend Live at the Old Quarter. Townes does indeed keep it real. He played in front of what sounds like 10 people, and painted a very vivid picture of a tiny, hot and humid Houston bar at the beginning of the recording (he apologized for how hot it was that night and helpfully pointed out the location of various amenities, all of which were upstairs).
Willie and Merle’s version came out in 1983.
just ordered it.
oh yeah, thanks. you to Labdad
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Land of 1,000 Dances --Wilson Pickett (Cannibal and the Headhunters)
2.My Way --Sid Vicious (Sinatra, Elvis, etc, etc)
3.Blinded By the Light --Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (Bruce Springsteen) -
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) --U2 (Ronnie Spector)
5.Twist and Shout --The Beatles (Isley Brothers)
Good one. That’s why I picked it. 
see rule 5
. . .and while you’re at it, look for the prohibition on holiday tunes. 
you’ve got two more selections
I misread the rules … I also appear to have two more selections.
OK, I’ll mention Marshall Crenshaw’s cover of Grant Hart’s “2541.” Hart originally put out an acoustic version that I think is the best version I’ve heard. But then Hart needlessly rocked it up, and didn’t do the greatest job. Crenshaw’s version is what an electric version of the song ought to sound like.
For my last, I will mention the Scissor Sisters’ disco demolition of “Comfortably Numb.” Blasphemous to some, but I applaud the band’s sense of adventure.