Which cover versions improve on the original?

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GRACE JONES - she´s lost control (joy division) BEN WATT - you´re gonna make me lonesome when you (B.Dylan) BYRDS - my back pages (B.Dylan) CARL BEAN - i was born this way (Valentino) DRAGONS (they are cchinese and have a violin!) - anarchy in the uk (sex pistols) get off my cloud (rolling stones) SCHNEIDER TM - the light 3000 (smiths) Y PANTS - off the hook (rolling stones) Jay-Z Foxy Brown - Ain´t no nigga (Four tops) are a few of them
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― Jens (brighter), Monday, 9 September 2002 20:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Raincoats' "Lola" is one of the best covers ever.

― mike a, Monday, 9 September 2002 20:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

wedding present "let's make some plans" - the definitive version of an anaemic original.
napalm death "nazi punks fuck off" - it just gives it the anger it was always meant to have.
14 iced bears "summer nights" - a revelation, i always thought i hated that song.
and mr swygart is right - cinerama's "london" is the peerless, partly because it's almost a rewrite.
the fall "lost in music" - the original just doesn't sound right any more.

― kieron, Monday, 9 September 2002 20:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bob Dylan's version of "Belshazar."

Better than the Johnny Cash original?! This is something I have to hear.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 9 September 2002 21:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes, a whole album of covers of songs by other dead stars, called Gravelands. The first three tracks on it (Come As You Are, Love Will Tear Us Apart and Song To The Siren) are all terrific, though most of the rest is rather less good.

"Gravelands" was ace but by the time "Return To Splendour" was released the joke had pretty much worn thin (I mean, "Under The Bridge"? "CHILD Of A Preacher Man"??)

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 9 September 2002 21:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Otis Redding's version of Daytripper

Peaches version of Rock Show

― Dave Beckhouse, Monday, 9 September 2002 22:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hmm. From my perspective, it seems like Weird Al's "Polka Power" and "Alternative Polka" improved on a number of originals each, and were also the most entertaining things he produced.

― Captain Sleep (Captain Sleep), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 06:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Luna's cover of Beat Happening's "Indian Summer."

Sonic Youth's cover of Neil Young's "Computer Games."

― nickn, Tuesday, 10 September 2002 06:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Glad to see someone namecheck the Dragons. But the best cover of Anarchy I know of was the version by Frazier Chorus - a B s-de - made it spookily menacing, fragile and beautiful. A gem.

I'll think of some more in a minute. My mind's gone blank.

― jon, Tuesday, 10 September 2002 09:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cat Power - Satisfaction. By taking away the melody and the chorus Chan Marshall strips away everything that sucks about this song. I am not sure if what is left after is beautiful, but it grates less, for sure.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 10:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry, I missed the Elvis remix thread...anyway, the best cover ever and I can't believe I forgot it upon first posting is Killdozer's version of the Jessi Colter single "I'm Not Lisa."

― Ryan McKay, Tuesday, 10 September 2002 10:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sonic Youth's cover of Neil Young's "Computer Games."
Hyou mean "Computer Age", yes?

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 13:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" as done by the Blue Aeroplanes. Even Paul Simon fans (egh) like it.

.. Vanilla Fudge's version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 18:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oh, and Johnny Cash's versions of "One" and "Rusty Cage" - FAR superior.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 18:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

Just listening to Bethany Curves cover of Gouge Away which is far more scary than the Pixies original.

My Bloody Valentine's cover of 'Map Ref 41°N 93°W' ever so slightly improves it also.

bis's recent cover of 'Shack Up' was better than the A Certain Ratio version they were covering (it was an ep of Factory covers) but not as good as the Banberra original.

That's all Ican think of at the moment that hasn't been mentioned.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 20:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

mr bungle doing billy squire's "the stroke" is AMAZING

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 20:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

Some more:
- I wouldn't say that Low's version of Transmission is better than the original but the slow motion is a new interesting perspective of the song.
- The Motorcycle Boy's Run, Run Run is much better than VU's original. One reason is the voice of the female singer.
- The Dandy Warhols version of AC/DC's Hells Bells is quite nice. Pretty slow and melodic.
- The Red House Painters version of Kiss Shock Me is more classic than the original which I don't even remember.
- The AC/DC cover album of Mark Kozelek/RHP is very nice as well.
- Johnny Cash's version of Nick Cave's The Mercy Seat is brilliant and more impressive than the original (his voice is better and his phrasing as well).
- Stina Nordenstam's Purple Rain version is quite bizarre but I like it.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 21:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

lovejoy's second attempt at biff bang pow!'s 'the beat hotel' is better than the original, i've not actually heard lovejoy's first try.

― keith, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 02:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

i'm surprised no one's said this but, hendrix's 'all along the watchtower', or 'hey joe', or probably anything he ever even thought about covering completely annihilated the original.

― brian badword (badwords), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 04:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

The best covers are transformations of catchy songs by artists who feel whole universes of emotions beyond those of the originators (as opposed to covering a Hank Williams song, which no one could possibly screw up). So I'll pick the Pet Shop Boys' "Go West" - takes the Village People's fun-but-cheesy original, adds some earnestness and thus intensifies the joy a hundredfold, and then adds a tragic undercurrent (you only Go West if there's something you need to escape from).

― B:Rad (Brad), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 05:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

To be fair to the Village People the particular undercurrents (AIDS escapism and the fall of Communism) the PSB put in weren't actually available in 1979.

Am I the only person who prefers Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" by far? I don't think it's a very good song in the first place and I think Hendrix' version gives it a gravitas it really doesn't earn, and unearned gravitas = horrible bombast, nice guitar work or no.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 05:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wall of Voodoo -- "Pretty Boy Floyd."
Radiohead -- "Rhinestone Cowboy" (okay, I don't like the original all that much, which makes it too easy)
Kate Bush -- "Rocket Man" (and I -do- like the original, and would ordinarily prefer the best of Elton to the best of Kate).
David Bowie -- "My Death" (does it count as a cover if it translates the lyrics?)
Elvis Presley -- "Sweet Caroline"
Radio Iodine -- "These Boots Were Made For Walkin"
Luxt -- "Genie in a Bottle"
Razor Skyline -- "One Night in Bangkok"

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 05:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

idunno how many songs mentioned here have, uh, gravitas but, hendrix just blew things up, i think.

― brian badword (badwords), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

And I'm reeeeeally tempted to say Bowie's cover of the Pixies' "Cactus" (which is saying something, as a former Masshole), but the novelty hasn't worn off enough yet for me to say for sure.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Nice guitar work (sorry blowing things up) w/no relation to song is no better than Whitney vocal-diva stuff w/no relation to song.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

As a Dylanite, off the top of my head I can't think of any cover that improves on his Bobness (especially true of "Mr Tambourine Man"). "Watchtower" might get close (the guitar work at least fits the theme), but Dylan could sing better.

― B:Rad (Brad), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think The Byrds' "Mr Tambourine Man" is as good as the Dylan track. I'm a Dylan fan too but I think he's written a few dull or rubbish songs and unfortunately his most famously covered ones ("Watchtower" and "Knocking on Heaven's Arsing Door") are two of them.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

well, if you put it that way, whitney made 'i will always love you' hers too. whether anyone likes it/her/the original or not (i sure don't). i don't particularly think a song needs to have any substance whatsoever to be good music anyway...

― brian badword (badwords), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tom is right on about "Watchtower." The only Dylan covers I like nearly as much as the originals are by the Byrds, but really I find it hard to call those songs 'covers' - I mean, the Byrds could sing the ingredients list of a cereal box and I'd probably still find it lovely.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fair do's. I wasn't really talking about substance....I suppose I'm saying that some artists (eg Hendrix, Whitney too probably) have such a unique and strong style that they shouldn't do/have done covers, cos they just overwhelm the material and make it sound like a novelty record.

Actually Justyn is right in that the Byrds also did this, and I love them because they make everything sound so flat and pretty. So my point sort of falls apart.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

ehh, i don't even remember the last time i cared to listen to hendrix anyway :)

― brian badword (badwords), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

flaming lips: "after the gold rush"

chocolate watchband: "baby blue"

shellac: "jailbreak"

the swamp rats: "louie louie"

hendrix's "like a rolling stone" at monterey is better than his other dylan covers. it's also a proven scientific fact that loadsa dylan songs are done better by other people. i think d. zarakov will back me on this...

― cameron, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 11:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

re: proven scientific fact that loadsa Dylan songs done 'better' by other people. Can I just say 'good' yes, 'interesting' yes, 'accoplished' yes, but 'better' nooooo siree.

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 11:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

i forgot the lips version of knives out which is rather wonderful. suddenly the song becomes a strange thing in between guitar feedback and epic western soundtrack, maybe not better than the original but an interesting take on it

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 11:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Heptones' version of "I Shall Be Released" is a heap better than Dylan's.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 11:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

Suede's cover of Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding off the Help album is the best Suede song, and the best Elvis Costello song.

Ditto the Pixies, Leonard Cohen, I Can't Forget, I'm Your Fan

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 12:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm sorry but you're all wrong. The three best are Neil Young covering "Oh Lonesome Me", Jeff Buckley covering "Lost Highway", and The White Stripes covering Jolene.

End of discussion.

― John Barlow, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 12:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

also, i prefer dolly parton's "boulder to birmingham" to emmy-lou harris's original, but probably just 'cos i heard dolly's version first.......the preachers (pebbles vol. 1)do the best cover (but not better than the original) version of bo diddley's very much-covered "who do you love?"

― cameron, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 13:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thea Gilmore's 'I dreamed I saw St Augustine'
(perhaps we need a 'covers ofsongs off John Wesley Harding' thread.

Is Robert Wyatt's 'Shipbuilding' a cover or Elvises'? It was written for him. Any way, I think much better than the Costello version.

The Clash tribute album had a zydeco version of White Riot that was much better than the original. Which wasn't hard.

― jon, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 13:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

People who put "End of Discussion." with new answers below always look rather silly.

Daphne And Celeste's "UGLY"! I had the misfortune of hearing the Fishbone original and the quality gap is a galaxy wide!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 13:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Suede's "Brass In Pocket" is just as lovely as "Shipbuilding"...

(very pleased people seem to have liked my first ever thread...)

― Charlie, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 22:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

I've always thought that Bryan Ferry's signing "I'm a man of wealth and taste..." on Sympathy for the Devil was a vast improvement. Really, the devil *should* be so smooth.

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 12 September 2002 00:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

Elvis' live version of "Unchained Melody."

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 12 September 2002 03:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

I really like Sonic Youth's "Superstar", but that might be a seasonal ~~vileplume~~ gloom thing.
& this might be the teenage Ess Kay speaking, but Nirvana's "The Man Who Sold The World" is k-grebt!

― Ess Kay (esskay), Thursday, 12 September 2002 03:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh...i should've said this a few days ago instead of getting in a hendrix/dylan tiff:

nina simone - i put a spell on you.

― brian badword (badwords), Monday, 16 September 2002 21:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Any Coltrane version of My Favourite Things.

― OCP (OCP), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 15:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

she couldn't come close on "Respect", but amazingly Kelly Clarkson's live American Idol version of "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" cut Aretha's.

yeah, it's a Goffin/King/Wexler song, but Aretha's is the famous version. as for "Respect", Aretha took that away from Otis Redding, but hers has been overplayed so much who wouldn't rather hear the original nowadays...

― Paul (scifisoul), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 16:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Two painfully cliché answers:
Hendrixes "All Along the Watchtower" is better than Dylans version
Byrds "Mr Tambourine Man" is better than the original.

and one bit of Blasphemy...
The vibrant, fizzy version of "How Soon is Now" off the soundtrack to The Craft is better than the listless, hissy original by the Smiths.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 17:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

i'm not sure if i evah heard dolly parton's version, but whitney houston's "I Will Always Love You" is better anyway

i decided it is my favourite song ever

(hey custos, is The Craft what became Charmed? cz i agree w.you abt that version of "How Soon is Now", if the TV version is the same as the one yr talking abt) (also The Smiths didn't star Shannon Docherty)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 22:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

travis' radical rework of britney's "...one more time" adds a real musicality and depth that ms. spears' bubblegum pop just couldn't attain.

― michael w., Wednesday, 18 September 2002 07:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

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