Best ever Cover Versions

Hadn't heard that before Charwell but that is excellent.

A completely different vibe to your choice but my personal favourite is Leona Lewis' version of Hurt. Builds up to a fantastic ending - stunning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGAZDDRlOwM

Johnny Cash - Hurt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEpx_A-H7s

Voodoo Chile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iPUZSEFb7E

Two excellent versions of the same song

Richard Cheese - Creep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jjiO4DcGMY

Scala & Kolacny Brothers - Creep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdJFePxeF-M

Here's something else by Scala & Kolacny Brothers - It's wrong, oh so very wrong. Probably for the best that they're Belgian and probably dont quite understand the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ5VNXIiv1c

Dear prudence - Siouxsie and the banshees (September 1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rrTROoZIw

fine video

Saxon.   Ride like the wind

Jesus RTB, that Leona Lewis version of Hurt is a worse crime against music than anything Oasis ever did. You're losing it, man!

For me, it has to be a great song to begin with, and the cover should be quite different from the original (so Hurt qualifies as both the NIN and Cash versions are brilliant.)

Any road, I'll nominate the Futureheads excellent cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. Not sure which one I prefer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcMAM9B7yAA

Honourable mention to PJ Harvey's version of Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlAKgtaBSz4

Coach's mention of Siouxsie and the Banshees has reminded me of another. From her album of cover versions a wonderful take on Trust in Me, from Jungle Book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbytZCT4Cy4

Talk Talks 'its my life' by No Doubt is pretty good imo.

The Damned and their cover of Eloise
(a hit in 1968 for Barry Ryan)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31L4P7G5j8

Rockin all over the world-quo
Shining light-annie lennox
Times like these-glen campbell

The Killers cover of Romeo and Juliet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAy3_WyWEgQ

Think Glen Campbell did the original of the Jimmy Webb song "Just This One Time," and it sounds kinda bland and nondescript.

Cher did a cover version in the 70s and it's probably the best "power ballad" ever - with an almost perfect arrangement : violins, guitar, piano, organ, voices, bass - the lot. You can see it on Youtube, a clip from the Carol Burnett Show. Can't understand why this song has been forgotten - you'd think Whitney Houston would have had a go at it, or Celine Dion. A brilliant song, but forgotten. It makes no sense.

Carter USM - Rent, for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdvpk48RRI8

All Along The Watchtower- Hendrix
Woodstock -Ian Matthew's Southern Comfort
Black Magic Woman - Carlos Santana

Kate Bush - Rocket Man. Only time you'll see her playing a ukulele as well.

https://youtu.be/rYSCHKmvcIY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DYhE-oOwbQ

Covers but one of the best albums ever,drop a duberry and enter heaven...

amy whinehouse/ mark ronson ...valerie

Cyndi Lauper cover of Joni Mitchell's Carey (at a tribute concert for Joni)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG3auM_WZS8

Kings of leon with robyns cover dancing on my own

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ-vU28uPb0

Song To The Siren - This Mortal Coil
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Alone Again Or - The Damned
Just Like Heaven - Dinosaur Jr
Since You've Been Gone - Rainbow
Love Vigilantes - The Oyster Band
Police And Thieves - The Clash
Something Else - The S3x Pistols
Macarthur Park - Donna Summer
The Tra La La Song - The D1ck1es

A few to start with

All Along The Watchtower - Jimi

Siouxsie and the Banshees has reminded me of another. From her album of cover versions a wonderful take on Trust in Me, from Jungle Book:

____________________
Mikael - wasn't what i was expecting -  a very nice hypnotic listen -

Blinded By The Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Roll Over Beethoven - ELO
The Day Before You Came - Blancmange

Better than Elvis version..

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2aha4uEpEQ

Without You - Harry Nilsson

I like this Joy Williams cover of Duran Duran's excellent Ordinary World, has touches of Erik Satie about it for me:

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h09XFa49lM

Nirvana - In the Pines/Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOZKz_sPM6U

Them - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdb_3H-28dE

And just for fun, the Gypsy Kings' (short) version of Hotel California, featuring the Jesus...

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

8-year-olds dude

Shut the fu ck up, Fishy.

Mad World - Gary Jules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Az2BvTcshg

Excellent

nice song moony

it is a mad world

Please Mister Postman -The Beatles
Twist And Shout -The Beatles
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
The Only Way Is Up - Yazz

Light My Fire - Jose Feliciano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Mb1-VS01U

agree with tobermory that soft cells must be one of the best cover versions, from the same period the communards don't leave me this way is another but the iconic winner for me would be marvin gaye & heard it through the grapevine

The Pet Shop Boys' Always on my Mind is up there with UB40's Can't Help Falling in Love, for crimes against the King. They anger me.

I'll nominate Stevie Wonder, a man with a plethora of brilliant covers to his name - as befits a genius, I suppose. His cover of The Beatles We Can Work It Out, being a particular favourite.

I don't know if it was Gladys Knight and The Pips who did the original 'Grapevine', elise? Although I do know it was before Gaye's version, a lot of those old Motown  tracks had had a few artists giving them a crack. But the two versions are very different and both great. It surprises me that the Gladys version gets played so infrequently in comparison.

yes that was the first released version, though not the first recorded, think gayes was at least the 3rd version recorded but the second released

Elvis' Always on my Mind is a cover version, so while I'm not a fan of the Pet Shop Boys, their crime wasn't strictly one of treason!

Marvin Gaye's version of Grapevine WAS recorded before Gladys Knight's, but wasn't released until afterwards.

Gloria Jones cover of Soft Cell's Tainted Love.
Bessie Banks cover of the Moody Blues Go Now.
Arctic Monkeys cover of Tom Jones You look Good on the Dance Floor.

Is it still sacrilegious to mention Little Rick Astley's cover version of Nat King Cole's 'When I Fall In Love" ?

Yes Alun it certainly is. Say 3 Hail Mary Hopkinses and beg forgiveness!

I am a Non-Conformist and thus say 3 Hail Mary Viscontis.

Slicer • March 23, 2015 3:00 PM GMT
Gloria Jones cover of Soft Cell's Tainted Love.

Soft Cell covered Gloria's version Slicer.

You've no problem with his other two then?

Following on from the OP, would never have put Tom Jones with this lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWK1F1b5uRg

No just my inability to put irony across on a forum Mikael lol.

Heh, sorry Echobelly. Whatever happened to them btw?

FFs  Shenaid O'conna...nuffink compares to u.

Mar 23, 2015 -- 7:37PM, Mikael D'Haguenet wrote:

Heh, sorry Echobelly. Whatever happened to them btw?

Health and legal problems certainly interrupted the success of Echobelly. Sonya and Glenn were doing some accoustic stuff back in 2009.

only love can break your heart- st etienne
my back pages- byrds
year of decision- wah !

In all seriousness here's a cover version that is miles better than the UK Subs original.

Guns and Roses : "Down On The Farm" 

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEeii9aR6o

1) Cowboy Junkies - The Velvets/Lou Reed's 'Sweet Jane'.
2) Jimi Hendrix - Dylan's 'All along the Watchtower'.
3) Happy Mondays - John Kongos' 'Step on'.
4) Soft Cell - Gloria Jones' 'Tainted love'.
5) Jeff Buckley - Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'.

A pleasing list.

2 little known facts:
Gloria Jones cover of Soft Cells Tainted love also sampled Rihannas SOS.
The Byrds My Back Pages was also a cover of Boy Georges My Back Passage with the lyrics slightly changed.

Another gem that unless you are a motown or soul fan you might not know is that What Becomes of the Broken Hearted by Jimmy Ruffian was recorded first by the Isley Brothers as Smile before the lyrics received a makeover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYcDbkH-U4g

I hope this enhances the popular music knowledge of all interested forumites.

Let me guess, Slicer's version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was covered by Nirvana and then Tori Amos usurped him and made him look like an amateur???

Don't be silly! The Nirvana to whom you refer did not cover Smells Like Teen Spirit, but it did cover its name from the original Nirvana:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcf19K5QFqQ

Allegedly the first single to use phasing!

erm no, the small faces have that honour

if I recall correctly, the Young 'Slicy' Slicer was something of a guitar prodigy,  a man who surely had every right to be mentioned in the same stratosphere as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin's Elaine Page.

I fought the law - The Clash.

In ye old days it seemed to be common to cover each others songs so the most famous one wasn't the original.
An awful lot of Elvis hits were covers.

Thanks for the compliments my good friend Alun. Indeed I was quite an "axeman" in my younger days as my work in Saudi will testify to. Indeed it is rumoured that Slash only took his name after he realised that there was already a guitarist called Slicer.
Mr McCann in that case there can't be more than a year or so in it.

ps have also been compared to Judy Cornwall of the Stranglers.

To round off my suggestions is the Billingsgate Choir's cover version of the Isley Brother's Put Yourself in My Plaice.

girls talk - dave edmunds

Gotta Serve Somebody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5nEbNLpYQ

just looked it up and itchycoo park made the charts aug 67
and rainbow chaser may 68
so whats that slicer,oh yeah 8months innit

Mr McCann, being the mathermatical genius wot I is (my 3 best subjects at school were pure maths and mental arithmetic) I would say that 8 months is less than a year.

I hope this clarifies the matter.

cher . walking in memphis, might not be better than original but a decent attempt

I was rather hopeing you wouldn't fall that one , anyway I agree that rainbow chaser is a fantasic tune and should have done a lot better

sorry you didn't fall for it,
its actually 9 months

a few more

Sorrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdsedY0foGc

licence to kill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QDq-fUrpI8

runaway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSDHKeMKqds

got my mind set on you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGYYDvZnpg

Axel Rudi Pell - In The Air Tonight

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gllbk7Yl-dY&list=RDlSfc29RuD10&index=11

Now this really is different.

Rosa de Saron - "Folhas do Chão" com "With or Without You" do U2

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqJ_otLZJnc&index=6&list=RDHCS-hVCNdthTI

Jimi Hendrix - Dylan's All Along the Watchtower
Nirvana - Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World
Chili Peppers - Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground

Bluegrass version of Rocket Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=forqmom3YuY

Woodstock - Mathews Southern Comfort

The Happy Mondays did a great version of John Kongos's "He's Gonna Step On You Again" . I don't usually like the band's music but their producers and technicians played a blinder with this one.


"Step On"

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0xdLO_bmo

The Bobby Fuller Four,

i fought the law

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgtQj8O92eI

Covered this way before the clash

alun2005 21 Apr 17 11:46 Joined: 11 Jan 02 | Topic/replies: 31,386 | Blogger: alun2005's blog
The Happy Mondays did a great version of John Kongos's "He's Gonna Step On You Again" . I don't usually like the band's music but their producers and technicians played a blinder with this one.


"Step On"

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0xdLO_bmo


I only found out this was a cover last year when i heard the big Kongo fella

Listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93S_l0qZrXA

^ I heard it through the grapevine - Creedence Clearwater Revival

... great from 9:00 onwards

The Dream Academy's cover of The Smiths 'Please, please, please, let me get what I want' is a bit of a gem, as featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, perfectly chosen for that scene in the movie:

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

Great White doing Rock 'n Roll. More Led Zeppelin than Led Zeppelin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfJz8TKk5WM

Emerson/Lake/Palmer - Jerusalem
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Delilah