There is a cover version that never goes out

The Deadly Sins:

Goodnight Electric:

The Ocean Blue:

No One Has to Know:

Will Francis of Aiden:

Rebus:

Shelby Sifers:

The 'Stand Up It's Thursday Night' house band:

Zakkum:

Cameron McEwan:

Alexander Sjöström/Saga Fredriksson:

Deluxe:

Pedro Gil:

David Fonseca:

Mikel Erentxun (a Spanish language verison):

Welcome Home:

Josh Moore:

A Company:

Bonaparte:

The Flying Adaptors:

"World class musicians and all round good guys Jon and John perform a bass/xylophone duet":

Lara Martelli:

Devon Williams plus Lavender Diamond/Residual Echoes people:

Perturbazione & Virginiana Miller:

Benjamin Biolay:

The Flailing Pits:

Javier Barria:

Neil Finn & Friends:

note that one of said friends is J. Marr
(fuck knows who the others are tho)

Friendly friends. (And true, I forgot to mention Mr. Marr in there! There's also a clip on YouTube of Andy Rourke DJing and playing the song.)

Be glad I'm not posting the horrible bedroom/webcam covers. (Though maybe there's a rough gem amid those. Maybe.)
Haha! I've actually been watching some of those recently - I'd say this guy qualifies as a rough gem (well actually, not so rough):

Daniel Earwicker:

Always enjoyed the Ocean Blue cover. I had no idea Schneider TM had done one, though!!!!

Really? Yeah that might actually be his most famous song in some corners, got a lot of (well-deserved) attention when it came out.

Of the slew I posted, my favorites would be Schneider TM, Zoe Woodbury-High, The Magic Numbers, No One Has to Know, Shelby Sifers, the Stand Up It's Thursday Night band, David Fonseca and Lara Martelli. They all have the gift of actually trying to reinterpret the song in some fashion instead of just covering it (No One Has to Know is the least adventurous but it's very good). The brief clip from Benjamin Biolay's performance I like as well.

(The Erlend Oye and Neuroticfish electronic reinterpretations deserve some note on that level too but Schneider TM kills em both.)

I played that Schneider TM a lot when it came out, haven't listened to it since. Pretty sweet. Of the other ones I only listened to Noel Gallagher and I'm sure that's the worst one

Thanks for the thread tip, Raggett! You've worked hard here it seems.

I saw the Gallagher once and it was stupid and pointless.

Oye is an ugly jerk, so not him.

I would probably vote for one sung by a beautiful girl. If there is one then tell me which one it is and I'll watch it.

Morrissey's version at the end of his Manchester video (2004!) is quite good I think.

The original Smiths demo, in G rather than E, is worth hearing - M. has to stretch to sing the chorus.

Also any Smiths live take brings out the lead guitar better than the record (where that lead part is on keyboard).

Actually my favourite alternative version is the INSTRUMENTAL Smiths rehearsal - remember the slow opening, the repeatedly bashed and tested toms, the halting chords, before they cruise off?

Alexander Sjöström/Saga Fredriksson:

This one is really the Lucksmiths' cover. They do better with their own "There is a boy that never goes out."

I would probably vote for one sung by a beautiful girl. If there is one then tell me which one it is and I'll watch it.

Try the Stand Up It's Thursday Night one, then. A rather different version musically.

I will!

The Lucksmiths' version is dull and wooden, as one would expect.

I'd like to hear the original Smiths demo version. Where would I find it?

I've only heard it once: Simon Goddard played it to the audience at a Smiths conference in 2005. Within two years, he promised us all, all this material will be out. He was, of course, wrong.

Gah! I came across this trove of rare recordings recently - I was hoping it'd be buried in there somewhere. I read once that those conferences were filled with fans standing around on their own, hugging the walls and too shy to talk to anyone. Not at a Smiths event, surely?

(I've never dared go to one myself)

I'm only aware of one conference, and I did read a trashy, semi-literate Guardian story about, written - well, typed - by one Gr*ace D*nt, that said that. It was utterly false. The only people standing on their own and hiding behind the potted plants were the journalists.

re. your trove of rare recordings: I clicked on the links, but how does one access the music? is it possible to get music directly off it? I don't have so much experience with these things.

It's an awful site for navigating around, but I did manage to get Thank Your Lucky Stars, which is really good. Click 'download' on the top row, then click on the sleeve of the one you're interested in, and then ctrl-clicking the green 'MP3' symbols beside the song names loaded them down track-by-track straight onto my desktop

And it's free??

There doesn't appear to be a catch, no

Thanks for that, Ismael -- I am trying to imagine what the hell the Irvine Meadows show in 1986 must have been like.

Greg Baldwin and the Aesthetics:

Molly and Alice:

My friend in HS maintained that Biz's cover of this was the best song of all time.

Biz Markie?!?!

What would have Biz Markie's version been like, really.

Miley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_CmGK2UDWw