Total Guitar have published their best and worst cover versions. Link The Best 5. MUSE - Feeling Good (original artist: Nina Simone) 4. Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World (original artist David Bowie) 3. Guns 'N' Roses - Live And Let Die (original artist Wings) 2. The Beatles - Twist And Shout (original artist The Top Notes) 1. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower (original artist Bob Dylan) The Worst 5. Wonderwall - The Mike Flowers Pops (original artist Oasis) 4. Light My Fire - Will Young (original artist The Doors) 3. More Than Words - Westlife (original artist Extreme) 2. Walk This Way - Sugababes and Girls Aloud (original artist Run DMC & Aerosmith) 1. You Shook Me All Night Long - Celine Dion (original artist AC/DC) (For some reason Walk This Way is listed as being All Saints on the website, but all the other links I've seen confirm it as the Sugababes and Girls Aloud.) So what do you think and which songs do you think are the best and worst covers? I'll have to think about this myself as there are so many to choose from. Edit: Also, are there any you think are better than the original?
I liked the Mike Flowers Pops Wonderwall The Ryan Adams version of said song wasn't bad either. Best cover evah is Cake's I will survive
There's a cover of "Dream On" (originally recorded by Aerosmith) that's performed by Kelly Sweet, and it's actually very good. She brings something new and unexpected to the tune, and really, if you're going to cover a song, that's exactly what you should do.
I quite like the Placebo cover of Running up That Hill. A bit emo and not as good as Kate Bush, not bad though. [yt="Placebo"]zKkaLM9NcSo[/yt] The Gary Jules version of Mad World is good too. Again I prefer the Tears for Fears version, but still worth listening to. [yt="Mad World"]4N3N1MlvVc4[/yt]
I like both versions on "Mad World", but I'm forced to think that the Gary Jules version is more poignant and sublime than the one done by TFF.
Paul Young is a great singer. Love will tear us apart is a great song. Paul Young's version of Love will tear us apart is the very definition of a criminal record. Muse's Feeling Good is probably my favourite recent (ish) cover version, but I've always had a soft spot for the Pet Shop Boys' version of Always on my mind.
There was a country group with a girl singer who did a kick ass cover of "Crazy Train". A friend of mine has a band (www.twotons.com) that recorded a country/rockabilly cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated" that's pretty cool. Singer/songwriter Doyle Bramhall (wrote or co-wrote some of Stevie Ray Vaughan's biggest hits) did a great cover of "I Can See Clearly Now" on his 1994 album, Bird Nest on the Ground. It's better than the original, IMHO.
I'm out of rep but that has to be highlighted. Such an utterly fantastic song and so poignant when you know what Ian Curtis is singing about
I think it would be an oversight in a thread like this not to mention Luther Wright and the Wrongs, and Hayseed Dixie for their great additions to covertunedom.
With Anastacia... I can see Anastacia doing it justice if she did it solo though... [YT="Celine Dion - You Shook Me All Night Long (AC/DC)"]FONt47Z0KZg[/YT] But still one of my favourites: [YT="CAKE "I Will Survive""]10C68Gzd5GM[/YT] Another fave: [YT="David Byrne - Don't Fence Me In"]b3p_Rf0AY6E[/YT]
Hmmm...the Taylor Dane cover of Barry White's "Can't get enough of Your Love Baby" is quite incredible IMO.
I agree with some of the other posters that Gary Jules' Mad World is better than the original Tears For Fears version. Tori Amos' Smells Like Teen Spirit is better than the original Nirvana version, if only for highlighting how utterly vapid a song it was in the first place. Automatic Baby's One is better than the original U2 version. And though they aren't better than the originals, I have to admit that Natalie Merchant does a kickass cover of Sympathy For The Devil and Hootie & The Blowfish (remember them?) do a darn good cover of Hey Hey What Can I Do. Just my two cents.
Let's seeeee... The Sundays' cover of "Wild Horses" is pretty astonishing. I like The Bangles version of "Hazy Shade of Winter." Natalie Merchant did some great covers including "Peace Train," "Space Oddity," "Sympathy for the Devil," "In the Ghetto"... I liked Susanna Hoffs' "To Sir With Love." CSN's version of the Beatles' "Blackbird." Mariah Carey's "I'll be There" beats the crap outta Jackson's. Indigo Girls do Dylan better than either Dylan or Hendrix - their "Watchtower" and "Tangled up in Blue" are freakin epic masterpieces.
Interesting fact about Mariah Carey's MJ cover..... originally her version was entitled "I'll Be Bare."
The worst I've ever encountered was:[YT="All Saints: Under the Bridge."]DA_c1o5Y95o[/YT] Compare to the original:[YT="Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge."]cHcGmhvDlCY[/YT] "It seemed kinda funny, it looked as if they didn't know what they were singing about." ~Anthony Kiedis
As much as I liked Hendrix' version, SRV's cover of "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" is fucking powerful, IMHO.
Wow...now this is photo-finish. Hendrix and SRV were both from another planet IMO. Anyway, the SRV version of "Texas Flood" (also a cover, perhaps Lightning Hopkins) has him digging so deep into the song I thought he just might hit magma! "Well there's floodin' down in Texas...... all the telephone lines are down...."
WHOA! Here's "Texas Flood" live: he's bending strings like nobody's business....thick gauge strings from around the fifth fret! Talk about some finger strength/control! Whoa....just whoa! Oh who am I kidding? Celine Dion could do that with one hand tied behind her back wearing boxing gloves!
For a little guy, he had powerful hands. He could easily bend/flex the neck of his guitar. One of my only major regrets is never seeing him live.
Though Chaka Khan made it more famous, I Feel For You was pretty good for the time. A former hit of Prince.
I like Billy Idol but that is shocking Mind you, I always associate Don't You Forget About Me with The Breakfast Club and that's an aces film, so it gets double credibility points And any thread about bad covers isn't complete without mentioning the progressively worse and worse versions that have spawned of How Soon Is Now.
[YT="The lowest of the low..."]9sfatiRpFMM[/YT] Pat Boone's cover of Tutti Frutti. Technically, isn't that a cover as well? [YT="The original"]ZvD3_b8E45w[/YT] It was a great song long before Run DMC & Aerosmith covered it for the MTV crowd.
