Which cover versions improve on the original?

Continuing on the subject of Mr. Hannon, I'm sometimes like The Divine Comedy's cover of "there is a light that never goes out" to the original.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - "Happy Together", live at the Fillmore 1971(?) ... though there were a couple of Turtles present, so maybe it isn't strictly speaking a cover.

On a similar tip -- I prefer Siouxsie's "Dear Prudence" to the Beatles'. That song was just MEANT to be gothed up.

I like Klaus Nomi's version.

And nothing, ever, in the past, present or future, is ever going to convince me that the A-Teens deserve to share the planet with right-minded souls. So wrong. And this comes from someone happy to tolerate the Star Girls From Planet Groove, so you'll see my threshold is pretty low as it is...

http://www.geocities.com/pat_ateens/backs.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/pat_ateens/floorfiller.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/pat_ateens/sm.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/pat_ateens/newa.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/pat_ateens/newateens.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/vicc13/mp3/backs.jpg
http://members.lycos.co.uk/vicc13/mp3/floorfiller.jpg
http://members.lycos.co.uk/vicc13/mp3/newateens.jpg
http://members.lycos.co.uk/vicc13/mp3/sm.jpg

Please, somebody tell me what's to like about them? Or am I suffering from an irony bypass (again)?

ps. pics now working, miraculously - annoyingly, they look like I *should* like 'em...

Wow! This sentence makes me look like an idiot. Nice.

the orig. does NOTHING for me.

and it's not like i hate bruce or anything.

If you would consider a remix a cover, then on the topic of Elvis the single "A little less conversation" (Elvis vs. JXL) also improves rather than simply changing/modernizing.

However, I must submit "The Logical Song" by Scooter, which is undeniably a visionary work of genius and MY single of the year thus far (sorry Missy, sorry Nelly). Siberia is, as it were, the place to be.

The Smokey Robinson version is better while I'm listening to it (those ragged backing vocals!)

a score-draw I suppose.

"none of the band seem to give a shit about making an effort or even know what it is they're singing (cf. Sugababes "Freak Like Me")"

Grrrr FITE! The 'babes know damn well what it is they're singing, and they know why they're singing it, too- it's an important public service to make the masturbational fantasies of teen boys (and girls) more interesting. Nuff respect.

adeva's "respect" pisses all over aretha's original.

Apart from the fact that nothing could ever possibly piss over Aretha Franklin, the original "Respect" is actually by Otis Redding.

"massively unpopular opinion: Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music" was much improved when the Beatles did it."

"The Beatles version of 'You've really got a hold of me' is better while I'm listening to it (that clomping piano!).

Other Beatles covers that improve on the originals- "Baby It's You" and "Money" (not as good as The Flying Lizards tho.)

i feel such a fool.

(Well, it's a tired answer. I had to make it interesting somehow.)

Also, the Ramones' version of "Let's Dance" is ace.

And I dunno if it's better, but Cinerama's version of London runs the Smiths very, very close...

I also remember Paul Heaton doing a fantastic version of Lean On Me a few years ago too, the Radio 1 Christmas Carols thing.

Vampire Weekend's Exit Music over the original anyday.

I'd take 'The Day Before You Came' by Blancmange over the Abba original, definitely. I like the fact that Neil Arthur turns the writer from Marilyn French to Barbara Cartland, that's really funny! But I also think Neil Arthur's delivery is close to perfection -- he adopts a tone somewhere between Neil Tennant and Billy McKenzie and they add lots of percussive and instrumental flourishes which make their version more interesting.

John Coltrane's My Favourite Things (Sound Of Music), Flamingoes I Only Have Eyes For You (think it was a broadway musical).
LOve Little REd Book
Roberta Flack No Way To Say Goodbye, First Time Ever I saw Your Eyes.
several Steeleye Span tracks from the first couple of lps, though the Dubliners' versions are also pretty great and that was presumably the source.
Gun Club Run Through The Jungle or at least I certrainly listen to it more than the CCR track it reinvents
MC5 I WAnt You? another major reinvention as regards the Troggs source, though I do like the Troggs

Coltrane's version is great but I prefer Mark Murphy's.

I Only Have Eyes For You is indeed from 1934 but it was written for this film: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dames

That one is a great suggestion.

(from the spiney-shivery thread)

Cecil Taylor's "This Nearly Was Mine" (South Pacific)

not sure as i never heard the original but i cannot imagine a better version of susie q than the one by creedence clearwater revival.

Yeah, I like CCR version better too.

Still a good time to plug the original. Such a small place the world's been lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex4D-L0cLZA

Wrong Hawkins pplains. The original is by Dale Hawkins not Ronnie Hawkins and it's miles better than that one you posted. The CCR is really good and I'd also say it's an improvement even tho I love Dale's version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ej9wmOrY4

Galaxie 500's version of 'Ceremony' by New Order

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_6Ot_4UpFk

On that tip, I'll add that Luna's version of 'Indian Summer' by Beat Happening.

Aw, Hawkins cousins be cousins.

Love Cave and the Bad Seeds version of "All Tomorrow's Parties." Great squalls of guitar and the frantic drumming...

who is Love Cave? Nick's daughter?

I hadn't realised until someone pointed it out the other day that Adeva ‘Respect’ was THE Respect. I really should pay attention to lyrics.

Elvis Presley -- "Sweet Caroline"
^^this. Elvis and the TCB Band take a good song and give it that little extra push over the cliff.

Jeff Buckley's version of "Lilac Wine".

Well, The Flamingos' 1959 cover of 'I Only Have Eyes for You' still knocks pretty much every other version of the song out of the water, but it sure beats the first recording by Ben Selvin from 1934.

Niece knew there was an original of that, thought that was it. Although I thought the same thing of the Marcels's "Blue Moon" for longer than I should admit.

Wilson Pickett - "Hey Jude"
Fotheringay - "The Way I Feel"
Fairport Convention - "Time Will Show the Wiser"
Grateful Dead - "Morning Dew"

I'm a huge fan of Dillinger Escape Plan's cover of Come to Daddy, featuring the radiant vocals of Mike Patton

I am sure we had a thread on this but the search is closed so there we go again.

I wanted to mention The Feelies dynamic version of "Everybody has got something to hide except me and my monkey" again.

Which cover versions improve on the original?

I mean, you can still search within a thread.

You know I tried to open a new thread and then ILM suggested this thread and by accident I posted on it automatically, I thought I'd get the choice but I didn't. That's all.

I think "I Call Your Name" by The Mamas and the Papas (Beatles cover) might be one of these.

Donald Byrd - where are we going?
Jorja Smith - rose rouge
Melanie De Biasio // every cover she has made is an improvement on the original

The Cramps also tend to improve every song they touch with their filthy hands.

Dorothy Ashby Fool on the Hill

obviously Sinéad's "Nothing Compares 2 U"
Nico "These Days"
Cat Power "I Found a Reason"

Hijokaidan "Silver Machine"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCWxjV_M64

My top 10, in order:

Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out -- I searched this thread and there are *two* different version of We Can Work It Out listed, and somehow neither one is the miraculous Stevie interpretation.

The Clash - Police On My Back — The Equals original is just fine. The Clash version dials the energy up to 11 and lights the guitar riff on fire.

Al Green - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart -- Maybe this is the definitive version? If not, it should be. The Bee Gees version is great, but the slow build of the Al Green version turns it into an absolute epic.

The Main Ingredient - Summer Breeze — This Main Ingredient album had two different Seals and Croft covers, both of which improve on the originals. Their Summer Breeze adds tons of flute and vibraphone (xylophone?) and blows the tune wide open.

All Mixed Up - Red House Painters -- I know, i know, Mark Kozalek. But I loved this song for years before I realized that I already knew it as a Cars song, and his cover of it has so much more depth.

Nouvelle Vague - In A Manner of Speaking -- The Tuxedomoon original is so gawky, I'm a bit surprised that anyone heard the potential in this.

Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane — Another song that gets improved by sanding down the rough edges. The disparity is most striking on the bridge. Technically, Margo Timmons is singing the same notes as Lou Reed, but there’s just no comparison.

REM - Crazy — Maybe I just like Stipe’s vocals better than the jerky-jerky Pylon singer. My favorite track on Dead Letter Office.

Jackson 5 - Doctor My Eyes — The Jermaine verse almost tanks the whole endeavor, but MJ (who is only 13 here) just hits it out of the park. Exuberant.

Toots and the Maytals - Take Me Home Country Roads — A little corny (“West Virginia” becomes “West Jamaica”), but undoubtedly an upgrade.

I’m also ashamed to admit at one point of my life that “all mixed up” cover was one of my favorite songs ever.

Bongwater - The Drum
Galaxies 500 - Listen the snow is falling
Butthole Surfers - Hurdy Gurdy Man

Nico "These Days"

Is it technically a cover if it comes first?

Basically EVERY cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is an improvement on the original, which I just heard a couple years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXYPb0rrwbA

But apparently Peggy and Ewan MacColl were especially down on Roberta Flack's definitive take, so fuck 'em.

It also applies to “it’s all over now baby blue”, every cover I’ve heard tends to improve on the original.

13th floor elevators and Them versions being the peak so far.

Dylan version is so… soulless. You’d never guess it’s one of his best written songs if you went by the original version.

Even the Anonhi version which sounds as if recorded on a potato is better.

In a similar vein, does anyone stan for Leonard Cohen's original version of Hallelujah?

Rod Stewart – Tom Traubert's Blues
Rod Stewart – Downtown Train
Bruce Springsteen – Jersey Girl

(hmmm, I see a pattern developing here)

Fairport Convention – Percy's Song
Nick Cave – Death Is Not the End
Marianne Faithfull – The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
10,000 Maniacs – Everyday Is Like Sunday
10,000 Maniacs – Hello In There
Tindersticks – If You're Looking for a Way Out
This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren

Nina Simone - Feeling Good (the original Broadway musical version ("The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd") of the song is...uhh...fairly unremarkable)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPdoWp-PHFU

Nina Simone also makes the most definitive version of Sinnerman. I wasn’t even aware it was a cover until recently via another thread on ilm.

Nina Simone's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" is also the definitive version IMHO.

I still love the original but boy is this one smooth take on this song

kali uchis - venus as a boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47oiB_quDf8

Nina Simone does a lot of reinventions of very white singer songwriter stuff on the material I have collected as Sugar In My bowl.
Have found that an odd companion to black militancy which I thought she was about at the time.
BUt the versions are really good from what I've heard of them and I'm really glad to have them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgZ3B-2q-g