Covers that are better than the original

[CLUBMEDhurst]

I love Otis, but his version of Satisfaction is garbage.
When I think of Otis and cover versions, ?I always think how Aretha Franklin took Respect which was a pretty average Otis song and turned it into a masterpiece. I also think of Michael Bolton ruining Dock of the Bay

Each to their own, I love the addition of the horn section and the increased tempo, not to mention Otis' superior delivery. I do however agree with your take on R-E-S-P-E-C-T

 

[Quokka]

There's been about a billion covers too many of Hallelujah, especially when Jeff Buckley's is near perfect.

Gotta love Joe Cocker singing With a Little Help From My Friends live at Woodstock, the guy looks so trashed that he can barely stand up and then every time he flops up to the mic he just nails the vocals.

Favourite song off Hugh Laurie's first album had him on piano and Dr John doing the vocals.

 

[Damon_3388]

And the original, for comparison...



I wish The Mozfather would re-record this, as he's more partial to muscular musical arrangements than he was at the time he recorded the rather tame original in 1994. The Killers just add a sense of menace and so much more depth to a great lyric with their version.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Rainbow's 1975 cover



of the Yardbird's 1965 effort Still I'm Sad



is far superior in my opinion. F*ck Ronnie James Dio was a good singer...

 

[grouse mate]

The evolution of a cover.

 

[SnakeMan86]

 

[Ron The Bear]

The original

The original original

 

[skilts]

Gotta love Joe Cocker singing With a Little Help From My Friends live at Woodstock, the guy looks so trashed that he can barely stand up and then every time he flops up to the mic he just nails the vocals.

I had the privilege of seeing Cocker perform at Festering Hole in 1972, the night after he was busted for drugs in Adelaide. Understandably, the man was a complete shambles. He proceeded to drink a whole bottle of whiskey on stage, between a couple of desultory songs, and then he just sort of wandered off. The splendid, mostly black, women who were his backing singers then performed on their own, for about forty minutes. The feeling among the audience was that Cocker had topped himself offstage.

He then reappeared, and gave a flawless, impassioned, incredibly moving performance of utter magnificence. He lifted the roof off the auditorium for another hour and a half, and absolutely slayed 'em. To this day, I've never seen anything like it. If a **** who managed bands could have bottled this performance, it would have been done. Bad luck for them. There was only one Joe Cocker. An Australian newspaper of which most would know little, The Nation Review, nominated Joe at the time as, "the artist most likely to be found dead in a motel room as a result of an overdose of drugs". What a man to have survived.

 

[skilts]

Favourite song off Hugh Laurie's first album had him on piano and Dr John doing the vocals.

Two geniuses in the same room at the same time, rarely a bad thing.

 

[happydude]

Didn't read the whole thread but In this moment does a mean version of Call me

 

[Demonalke]

Love CCR but I just like this version better.

 

[Tbonefreo]

Sarah blasko doing hey ya is fantastic

 

[kanye_best]

i think Adele did this song better than Dylan

 

[blackshadow]

Doesn't get much better than this...

 

[andrew coombs]

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a great cover band. I was at their show in Singapore recently and enjoyed their versions of “Just what I needed” ( Cars ) and “Purple rain” ( Prince ) immensely.

 

[stax on the mull]

I'm not a fan of Luna - meaning I never bought what they put out, or listened to any of their albums, just heard bits and pieces on radio without really perking my interest, although I like Dean Wareham's previous band Galaxy 500 quite a bit and through the quirks of unplanned music collecting have several albums by the other 2/3rds of that group after Galaxy 500 split. Only picked this CDEP up in a bargain bin because it had several covers of songs that I was curious to hear (Beat Happening's "Indian Summer" and Velvet Underground's "Ride Into The Sun".)

This cover of the Dream Syndicate's "That's What You Always Say" turned out to be the best of the them - even though it begins as pretty standard early 90's major label indie rock, a by the numbers faithful recreation, but by about half way it kicks on a lot harder than the Dream Syndicate's version. Maybe something to do with better quality equipment and studio 10 or so years on from the original.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Jay Reatard and Deerhunter put out a split single a few years ago with both artists covering songs by each other

 

[Quokka]

About 5 years ago 1000 musicians got together to play a cover of Learn to Fly as a way of asking the Foo Fighters to come and play a concert at Cesena, Italy. It worked.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

 

[blackshadow]

Another fine Chilton cover I've been listening to a bit (I wouldn't say better than the original but I like)