Cover versions you think were better than the originals

Man_City_Loyal said:
  • The Gallows & Lethal B's cover of the Ruts - Staring at the rude boys
  • Five Finger Death Punch & Tech Nine cover of LL Cool J's - Mama said knock you out.
  • Metallica's Cover of Motorheads Overkill
  • Motorheads cover of Enter Sandman
  • The Futureheads cover of Hounds of Love
  • Marilyn Manson cover of Soft Cells cover of Tainted Love.
  • Amy Winehouse's cover of The Zutons - Valerie
  • Arctic Monkeys cover of the Beatles - Come together

I may upset a few people on here with this.
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Yeah, because Soft Cell isn’t the original of Tainted Love ;-)
 
Futureheads version of Hounds of Love has a fun punchy vibe to it, while the Kate Bush original just seems a bit dreary.
 
Stuuuuuu said:
As a general rule, cover versions are virtually always a lot, lot worse than the original.

I'm aware of two exceptions where the artist has improved the original. In both instances, they have had creative input to make significant changes to the song, such that you could almost give them a writing credit.

The first is Jimi Hendrix's cover of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower.

The original is of course a great song but I think it's fair to say that it's more about the bare bones (the chord structure, melody and words) without the decoration - which Hendrix added with aplomb. He also had a great drummer in Mitch Mitchell.






The second one is Lost In Music.

The original by Chic / Sister Sledge has some incredible musicianship from Bernard Edwards of course, but it also has some of the worst lyrics that I've ever heard, such that it's hard to listen without cringing.

The Fall took the best bits of the song, took out the awful verses and added a lot of their own: Mark E Smith rewrote the majority of the lyrics; the band added some fantastic keyboard and guitar parts and generally gave the song a different feel.



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Agree with you about the Dylan song but I much prefer the Sister Sledge version. I can hear individual real instruments but the re-make sounds too sequenced and keyboardy for me. Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers were an awesome pair. Crappy lyrics are unimportant to me when it comes to 70's Disco. :)
 
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