Examples of cover songs better than the original

Lenny kravits cover of American Women is a little better than the original only because it is more contemporary.

His cover version of 70s rockers The Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in the Grammy Awards of 2000 and helped The Guess Who find a new audience.

Someone mentioned Little Feat...I won't say it's BETTER, but the cover the Byrds did of their "Truck Stop Girl" is pretty darn good.

Arlo Guthrie's biggest hit, "City of New Orleans," was a cover version and an improvement on the original by Steve Goodman. Arlo also did a real good job on Dylan's "Gates of Eden."

A great cover version by a guy most of you never heard of of a song most of you probably never heard of was Leo Kottke's cover of "Power Failure," originally done by Procol Harum.

Southern Cross (Jimmy Buffett's version is so much better)

I think the original version of American Woman more. Tool's version of No Quarter doesn't come close to Zep's original, and Seger's Turn the Page blows the doors off of Metallica's cover.

I prefer Aerosmith's cover of the Beatles' "Come Together"

Noticed wrote:Arlo Guthrie's biggest hit, "City of New Orleans," was a cover version and an improvement on the original by Steve Goodman. Arlo also did a real good job on Dylan's "Gates of Eden."

Yes, but his biggest hit SHOULD have been Alice's Restaurant, a song that, sadly, I do not believe anyone will cover, ever. Maybe that's just as well. Even his own children don't know the words.

Bruce's version of Because the Night is on disc 2 of the 3-disc 1975-1985 Live album. "What I've got I have earned, what I'm not I have learned . . ."

I just read a review of the current concert tour in which the reviewer mentioned that it was the first time he had ever heard Bruce do the Patti Smith version of the song.

"If You Don’t Know Me By Now" - Simply Red / Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes "

You are definitely smoking crack!!!

The only clear-cut, unargueable answer to this question is "All Along the Watchtower" by Hendrix. And anyone who thinks Dave Matthews' version is better should either committ suicide or be shot immediately.

Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" was better than the original.

Jesus and Mary Chain's "Head On" was matched by the Pixies. Both versions rock.

No way is Orgy's cover of "Blue Monday" better than New Order's original. When I heard it I almost puked.

datboy wrote:

The only clear-cut, unargueable answer to this question is "All Along the Watchtower" by Hendrix. And anyone who thinks Dave Matthews' version is better should either committ suicide or be shot immediately.

hendrix' best, most innovative cover was not that, no - it was the star-spangled banner!

but perhaps that is my deference to dylan.

i cannot agree with anyone recording any of the original beatles stuff better than they did the first time. aerosmith, are you shitting me? perhaps, but not quite, rufus wainwright's "across the universe," but not steven tyler croaking his flaccid conception of the abbey road standard. "yesterday" is the most covered song of ALL TIME - but to this day and forever, nobody can outdo mccartney performing the song that started out as "scrambled eggs" on the piano.

doubly ditto for any reed / velvet underground covers, though lou has a nice version of "this magic moment."

my least favorite cover is that twatwad who bastardized waits' downtown train.

anyway,

babe i'm gonna leave you by zep comes to mind foremost

lake of fire by nirvana via the meat puppets is certainly

distinguished

whereas mrs robinson by the lemonheads was mentioned,

overlooked is their excellent cover of suzanne

vega's "luka"

ween's "let me lick your pussy" is a transcendant

interpretation of prince.

the cardigans have a great cover of the boys are back in

town

and more and more...

but seriously, the best covers of all time are glenn gould playing bach. or anyone else for that matter. not even up for discussion :)

Patti Smith's cover of 'Gloria' is legendary.

And whoever said that REM cover of Velvet Undergound's 'Pale Blue Eyes' was better - well, to be honest, I can't disagree with you since I haven't heard the REM version (!), but I'll say this.... it'd have to be damn good, cos the original is one of the most amazing songs EVER

one thing i forgot to mention was sonic youth's cover of "superstar" on the carpenters' tribute. that might be the most superlative performance.

None of the aforementioned covers of Dylan tunes are better than the original, in this man's opinion. Sheryl Crow has done some good Dylan covers - notably a live cover of Tombstone Blues.

Anyone ever heard Molly Hatchet's version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird? That one's not half bad.

I was about to comment that noone except cover bands ever covers Pink Floyd, but of course there were a number of high profile artists that covered songs from The Wall when Roger Waters hosted the open air concert in Berlin after the collapse of the wall.

And on the subject of Pink Floyd, has anyone ever hear Luther Wright and the Wrongs version of The Wall? They do it with a country twang and some country-fied lyrics. It's a hoot, and has some pretty good musicianship.

Flagpole Willy wrote:

Call Me The Breeze" - Lynyrd Skynyrd / JJ Cale

Check out the Mavericks version of CMTB on Skynyrd Frynds.

piss poor wrote:

That's not a good list, Flagpole. I don't know all of those songs, but many of the ones I do know are not as good as the original.

Ok.

Dr. Feelgood wrote:

Metallica's Turn the Page is better than Seger's.

Exactly!

Clapton's version of JJ Cale's Cocaine... did anyone already call that one?

"and he held up 27 eight by ten color glossy photos with circles and arrows and a story on the back telling what each one was..."

p.s.- anyone who thinks that a cover of a jj cale song is better than the original is out of their skull.

Janis Joplin covering "To Love Somebody" by The Bee Gees

Nirvana covering "The Man Who Sold The World" by David Bowie