Cover Versions Of Songs, Better than Original

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lemon said:
i was told you need to go through school with no friends to get them. I dont need that to get into a band.
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lol...i never heard that description, but it certainly seems to match the fans of theirs i was familiar with.
 
The Smiths - For me, are the best band EVER! Seriously.

Maybe because I am from the same city/neighbourhood as good 'ol Morrissey. Hence, I can physically see what he was writing about. He isn't depressing, when you can look at his work from this angle - In fact, he is extremely amusing, and very few lyricists have been able to have me splitting my sides in laughter at some of his lines.

Because of this, I get very annoyed when people try to cover Smiths songs, as I find that damage the song, transforming it into into "Just another song" instead of the excerpt out of a diary of a real life event, which it was meant to be.

Having said that, I can tolerate Placebo's cover of "Bigmouth Strikes Again", Supergrass's cover of "Some Girls are Bigger Than Others", and Death Cab For Cutie's cover of "This Charming Man". Colin Meloy also did a few respectable covers on his "Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey" album.

Back to the thread at hand -

Placebo's cover of "Running Up The Hill" (Originally by Kate's Bush, sorry... I meant Kate Bush)
Deftones cover "No Ordinary Love" very well.
 
Rolf Harris - 'Stairway to Heaven'??

hehehe :biggrin1:
 
The Ataris cover of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer"...I would not say better, but just as good.
 
For some reason, I've always found covers of Kinks songs to be superior to the originals. Thus:
STOP YOUR SOBBING belongs to The Pretenders
YOU REALLY GOT ME belongs to Van Halen
WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE belongs to David Bowie
WATERLOO SUNSET belongs to Def Leppard

Same thing with Bob Dylan:
ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO belongs to Cher
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN belongs to The Byrds
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER belongs to Jimi Hendrix

Also:
YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND - James Taylor over the Carole King original
I LOVE ROCK & ROLL - Joan Jett over The Arrows original
NEW YORK GROOVE - Ace Frehley over the Hello original
BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY - Bette Midler over the Andrews Sisters original
DO YOU WANNA DANCE - The Beach Boys over the Bobby Freeman original
SUPERSTAR - The Carpenters over the Leon Russell original
HELLO HOORAY - Alice Cooper over the Judy Collins original
TWISTIN' THE NIGHT AWAY - Rod Stewart over the Sam Cooke original
ME AND BOBBY McGEE - Janis Joplin over the Roger Miller original
ALL THE YOUNG DUDES - Mott The Hoople over the David Bowie original
RESPECT - Aretha Franklin over the Otis Redding original

Finally - though I feel it's impossible to better The Beatles, Joe Cocker's radical reworking of WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS deserves an honourable mention.
 
Sarah McLachlan's cover of Dear God by XTC is much better than the original.

Peter Gabriel's most recent album, Scratch My Back is made up of cover songs, some of which, I think, are better than the originals (Bowie's Heroes, whilst perhaps not better than the original is certainly different and quite good in its own right).
 
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