« previous next »
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5

Author Topic: Cover versions that are better than the original  (Read 28666 times)

gonzo

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #75 on: 30 December, 2008, 02:46:34 pm »
Weird al Yankovic's cover of star wars episode one.

It's not better than the original song, it's better than the film!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/YSwwa9RqyQU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/YSwwa9RqyQU&rel=1</a>
Logged

mr_brooks

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #76 on: 20 October, 2011, 06:58:05 pm »
I'm not sure if this has been done before (on this forum anyway)... But I'd love to put a playlist together of songs where a cover version absolutely, indisputably knocks spots off the original, to the extent that we think it's the covering artist's own...

Track 1) Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Track 2) Hurt - Johnny Cash
Track 3) ?
Logged

Gandalf

  • Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #77 on: 20 October, 2011, 07:52:10 pm »
How about Joe Cocker's 'With a Little Help From My Friends' ?
Logged

mr_brooks

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #78 on: 20 October, 2011, 07:52:42 pm »
Perfect addition!! Thank you!!
Logged

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #79 on: 20 October, 2011, 08:13:39 pm »
Flaming Lips version of Can't Get You Out of My head? Or Sonic Youth's version of Superstar?
Logged

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #80 on: 20 October, 2011, 08:18:36 pm »
I think this is the oldest merge topics I've ever done.  Almost 3 years.
Logged
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #81 on: 20 October, 2011, 08:23:02 pm »
Forever Young : The Pretenders, is much better than the original
Logged

spesh

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #82 on: 20 October, 2011, 09:10:22 pm »
Quote from: Wascally Weasel on 30 December, 2008, 01:06:09 pm
The version of 'Raspberry Beret' that Warren Zevon recorded with members of REM (recording as 'The Hindu Love Gods').

Heard that on Planet Rock the other day, 'tis rather good indeed.  :thumbsup:
Logged
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Peter

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #83 on: 20 October, 2011, 09:12:02 pm »
Quote from: jogler on 20 October, 2011, 08:23:02 pm
Forever Young : The Pretenders, is much better than the original

No it isn't (though I confess to not having heard The Pretenders version)!
Logged

mr_brooks

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #84 on: 20 October, 2011, 09:29:20 pm »
Quote from: rogerzilla on 20 October, 2011, 08:18:36 pm
I think this is the oldest merge topics I've ever done.  Almost 3 years.

Felt sure it would have been.... Should have searched - didn't ... sorry .... thanks!
Logged

pcolbeck

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #85 on: 21 October, 2011, 08:32:58 am »
Quote from: PaulF on 20 October, 2011, 08:13:39 pm
Flaming Lips version of Can't Get You Out of My head? Or Sonic Youth's version of Superstar?

Better than the Carpenters version but not better than the origional:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/aA7tR9vUuew&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/aA7tR9vUuew&rel=1</a>
Logged
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

rafletcher

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #86 on: 21 October, 2011, 08:59:16 am »
A cover version that's maybe not that different from the original, but possibly had everything to do with who was singing it  8)

The Photos' (featuring Wendy Wu) version of "Just don;t know what to do with myself"  ;D

Logged
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #87 on: 21 October, 2011, 10:39:32 am »
I'm a huge fan of the Stones' original but Melanie Safka makes Ruby Tuesday her own. Her version always sends shivers down my spine…

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/9alAuYr2g_8&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/9alAuYr2g_8&rel=1</a>
Logged
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

pcolbeck

Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #88 on: 21 October, 2011, 10:41:58 am »
I'd forgotten about t hat version. My sister used to have a Melanie album with that on when we were kids and I always liked it.
Logged
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #89 on: 21 October, 2011, 11:14:08 am »
Quote from: Gandalf on 20 October, 2011, 07:52:10 pm
How about Joe Cocker's 'With a Little Help From My Friends' ?

Please tell me this is a joke...  The only thing worse than Cockup's version of this song is watching a video of him performing it while fending off invisible wasps.
Logged
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

StuAff

  • Folding not boring
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #90 on: 21 October, 2011, 11:27:37 am »
Quote from: mr_brooks on 20 October, 2011, 06:58:05 pm
I'm not sure if this has been done before (on this forum anyway)... But I'd love to put a playlist together of songs where a cover version absolutely, indisputably knocks spots off the original, to the extent that we think it's the covering artist's own...

Track 1) Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Track 2) Hurt - Johnny Cash
Track 3) ?

Nope. A match, yes, John made it his own & it's superb...but self and every other NIN fan would say no way it 'knocks spots off the original'.
Logged

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #91 on: 21 October, 2011, 11:44:38 am »
In a similar vein to Johnny Cash doing NIN, here's Glenn Campbell doing the Foo Fighters…

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SBlJ325lgYk&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SBlJ325lgYk&rel=1</a>
Logged
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #92 on: 21 October, 2011, 12:32:02 pm »
Anything, really, by this lot.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/q6DP1aFeHbs&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/q6DP1aFeHbs&rel=1</a>
Logged
There's no vibrations, but wait.

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #93 on: 21 October, 2011, 06:17:23 pm »
Matthews Southern Comfort's version of Joni's 'Woodstock'
Logged
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Redlight

  • Enjoying life in the slow lane
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #94 on: 21 October, 2011, 08:44:46 pm »
Quote from: rogerzilla on 20 October, 2011, 08:18:36 pm
I think this is the oldest merge topics I've ever done.  Almost 3 years.

Er, I have a vague memory of starting a "Great Cover Versions" thread as well,  about a year ago.  Sorry.
Logged
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

Redlight

  • Enjoying life in the slow lane
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #95 on: 21 October, 2011, 08:59:36 pm »
So, here's a sample from my "great cover versions" playlist on the ipod...  I wouldn't say that all of these are necessarily better than the originals, just different, but I have marked with an asterix a few that I think of as being the best version so far.

Peace Train - 10,000 Maniacs
I scare myself - Thomas Dolby
Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil
Black Magic EWoman - Santana
Giving it all away - Roger Daltry*
Thin Line Between Love and Hate - Pretenders
The First Cut is the Deepest - Martin Simpson
Wonderful World - Otis Redding
Another Saturday Night - Cat Stevens
This Flight Tonight - Nazareth
From a Distance - Nanci Griffith (covering Julie Gold, not Bet Midler!)*
Song from Under the Floorboards - My Friend The Chocolate Cake
Can't Stand the Rain - Lowell George
Glory Box - John Martyn*
Oh Well - Joe Jackson
Bird on a wire - Jennifer Warnes*
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley*
One Love - Jason Mraz
Summer Breeze - Isley Brothers*
Love the one you're with - Isley Brothers
Walk on by - Isaac Hayes
Suspicious Minds - Fine Young Cannibals
Cocaine - Eric Clapton
Say hello, wave goodbye - David Gray
I will survive - Cake
Guitar man - Cake*
Twist and Shout - The Beatles*
Blinded by the light - Manfred Mann's Earthband
Logged
Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #96 on: 21 October, 2011, 09:37:11 pm »
Quote from: Redlight on 21 October, 2011, 08:59:36 pm
...I scare myself - Thomas Dolby...

I didn't know that was a cover - cracking track  :thumbsup:
Logged

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #97 on: 22 October, 2011, 12:26:18 am »
Quote from: pcolbeck on 21 October, 2011, 10:41:58 am
I'd forgotten about t hat version. My sister used to have a Melanie album with that on when we were kids and I always liked it.

My dad put it on one of his holiday compilation tapes for the long car journey down to southern France one year. It became a bit of a family favourite, not least because my sister's pet hamster at the time was called Ruby. I'm not sure if I can judge the song at all objectively, since it has such Proustian resonances for me.

d.
Logged
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Oaky

  • ACME Fire Safety Officer
  • Audax Club Mid-Essex
    • MEMWNS Map
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #98 on: 22 October, 2011, 12:40:01 am »
Two potentially controversial borderline ones

"Viva las Vegas" -- Dead Kennedys

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/DLNI0AND4rU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/DLNI0AND4rU&rel=1</a>

"The Model" -- Big Black

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eP3ge9DGsKU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/eP3ge9DGsKU&rel=1</a>
Logged
You are in a maze of twisty flat droves, all alike.

85.4 miles from Marsh Gibbon

Audax Club Mid-Essex Fire Safety Officer
http://acme.bike

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: Cover versions that are better than the original
« Reply #99 on: 22 October, 2011, 01:46:23 am »
All Along the Watchtower - in fact anything written and recorded by Zimmerman which is then covered by someone else.

Except 'Mike Flowers Pops' cos that's just shite.
Logged
VELOMANCER

Quote from: trekker12 on 16 July, 2016, 08:54:33 am
Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5
« previous next »