Covers that are better than the original

[AtomicBlonde]

Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris with,

Jackson Browne's For A Dancer:

 

[Wallaby]

In no particular order:

Sinead O'connor Nothing compares to you/Prince
Fine young cannibals Suspicious minds/Elvis Presley
Cindy Lauper Girls just wanna have fun/Robert Hazard
Brian Ferry Jealous guy/John Lennon
Manfred Man. Blinded by the light/Bruce Springsteen
Joan Jett I love rock n roll/ The arrows
Nirvana The man who sold the world/David Bowie
The Byrds Tambourine man/Bob Dylan
Whitney Houston I will always love you/Dolly Parton

I'll just point out that the Whitney Houston version of I Will always Love You is a complete abomination and goes totally against the sentiments expressed in the song. Dolly's version is several million times better and deserves to be known as the definitive version of one of the best songs ever written.

 

[Plugger35]

 

[AtomicBlonde]

Jennifer Warnes' version of Bird On A Wire is still my favourite:

 

[Modified Dog]

Original- Betty Hutton

Bjork - It's Oh So Quiet

Hmph… I never realised that was a cover until just then.
I always thought it was an homage to the big band era show tunes

I liked Bjork's cover, but you can't really say it's better than the original. It's identical!


As for FNM's War Pigs… Better than Sabbath?!?

Give yourself an uppercut!

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

Aerosmith

Cover:

Run-DMC (w. Aerosmith)

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

Frank Sinatra


Cover:

Sid Vicious

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

The Loved Ones



Cover:

INXS

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

Jake Holmes



Cover:

Led Zeppelin

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

Robert Hazard



Cover:

Cyndi Lauper

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

The Seekers



Cover:

Shower Scene From Psycho

 

[Plugger35]

 

[Modified Dog]

Easy Star All-Stars covering Pink Floyd




Easy Star All-Stars covering The Beatles

 

[Modified Dog]

Original:

The Rivingtons



Cover:

The Trashmen

Check out this clip from 1963. Imagine what the folks at home were thinking as the whole family gathered around the TV set to watch this on a Sunday evening.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Good thread. I've never heard the original Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - I reckon it's great.

I detest INXS's version of the Loved One - the original all the way with that one as well.

Here's three different versions of a classic soul song:







I love all three but the Powder Monkeys version (which I can't find on youtube other than this rough live version) was huge.

 

[Freofalcon]

Old Irish folk song.

 

[Plugger35]

 

[Bomber32]

Carlos Santana - Black Magic Woman/Fleetwood Mac
Marvin Gaye - Heard It Through The Grapevine/Gladys Knight & The Pips
The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe/Albert Hammond
Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe/The Leaves
Harry Nilsson- Without You/Badfinger
Linda Ronstadt - Blue Bayou/Roy Orbison
Linda Ronstadt - You're No Good/Betty Everett

 

[danger_to_walker]

 

[UpForGrabs]

Wouldn't really count that as a cover. Springsteen never finished his version and it only lived in demo form. Smith took that and finished the song off.

 

[Black Diamond]

Original:



Cover:

 

[Faithful Hawk]

 

[Faithful Hawk]

 

[Gus Poyet]

Old Irish folk song.

And the worst version of it ever.

It's like when Americans try to remake English tv shows.

 

[Faithful Hawk]