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Sherwin · Feb 19, 2005, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by _?_:
Speaking of covers, I heard an acoustic version of Metallica's "One".

Any ideas who it might be?

?

Oisín · Feb 19, 2005, 01:32 PM

Originally posted by lavar78:
I do. That has to be the worst thing Madonna's ever done by far.

I take it you've never heard the stuff she did with Otto von Wernherr then

So, I take it I'm pretty much alone in actually quite liking her version of American Pie, then? Might have something to do with the fact that I'd never heard the original before I heard Madonna's version.

Mr. Blur · Feb 19, 2005, 01:37 PM

Originally posted by malvolio:
Fairport Convention's cover of Bob Dylan's "Million Dollar Bash".
(Climbing out of the WayBack Machine... )

I think Fairport's version of Dylan's "Percy's Song" is better than Bob's orginal too (and I am a pretty big Dylan fan...).

saddino · Feb 19, 2005, 02:05 PM

"Tainted Love" by Soft Cell (Gloria Jones)

In fact, it's such a good cover that most people probably think it's an original. Always good to find obscure 60's hits to cover.

Here's an interesting story about the cover (and its surprising runaway success) by the Producer (Mike Thorne) of the cover version:
http://www.stereosociety.com/taintedlove.html

Sven G · 02:15 PM

In the town where I live, there's a very interesting blues band, the Long Horns (sorry, only in Italian), who are also partly a Doors tribute band: Break On Through...!

P.S.: I'm really not a Doors expert, so maybe it's just an average or even poor imitation: difficult to say; sounds decently, anyway...

theJoKell · Feb 19, 2005, 03:42 PM

Originally posted by waxcrash:
The Scissor Sisters' cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb is pretty good. I like how they put their own twist to it.

No it's not, not at all. In fact, it made my ears bleed when I saw them perform it on SNL. Every member of that band should be dragged out into the street and shot for what they did to that song.

Stradlater · Feb 19, 2005, 03:46 PM

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:
all along the watchtower- hendrix.

brutal · Feb 19, 2005, 09:18 PM

Everything with Max Raabe und das Palast Orchester

bubblewrap · Feb 19, 2005, 09:46 PM

Oingo Boingo covering Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear The Reaper.

WhaMe · Feb 19, 2005, 09:54 PM

Richard Cheese's cover of "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot
Local H's cover of "Toxic" by Britney Spears
The Postals Service's cover of "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins
Matt Pond PA's cover of "Holiday Road" by whoever originally recorded it
Hooverphonic's cover of "Shake the Disease" by Depeche Mode
The Gypsy King's cover of "Hotel California" by the Eagles
Cake's cover of "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor
Kings of Convenience's cover of "Boys Don't Cry" by the Cure
The Offspring's cover of "Feelings" by Doby Gray?
The Pizzacato Five's cover of "The Girl from Ipanema"
Save Ferris's covers of "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners and their cover of "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations
Social Distortion's cover of "Pretty In Pink" byt the Psychedelic Furs

Pretty much the entire "The Man Comes Around" album by Johnny Cash

demograph68 · 10:36 PM

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Our Lady Peace - Imagine (live) (cover of Lenon)
Nine Inch Nails - Dead Souls (cover of Joy Division)
Nine Inch Nails - Physical (cover of Adam Ant)
Nine Inch Nails - Metal (cover of Gary Numan)

More later.

I just heard the Metal original. Thanks for the info!
Now I'm listening to Joy Division via iTunes Music Store. Their not so bad.

Sherwin · Feb 19, 2005, 11:42 PM

Originally posted by bubblewrap:
Oingo Boingo covering Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear The Reaper.

That reminds me:

The Beautiful South's cover of the same.

sugar_coated · Feb 20, 2005, 12:26 AM

Such occurances may be purely due to chance.

Secret__Police · Feb 20, 2005, 01:31 AM

Johny Cash's version of Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode) is pretty good. I like it more than MM version.

Cipher13 · Feb 20, 2005, 01:52 AM

Originally posted by Secret__Police:
Johny Cash's version of Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode) is pretty good. I like it more than MM version.

Reminds me... Matthew Good Band do an incredible cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence".

Another one: 99 Red Ballons, by Goldfinger. Cover of Nina.

Ω · Feb 20, 2005, 01:58 AM

Originally posted by Sherwin:
[img]snip
?

Not sure. It sounded more like acoustic gee-tars, but me being such a heathen, it might of been cello's.

Though an interesting band it seems....cover of Slayer and Metallica....hmmmm

Thanks for the heads up.

X-Ray · Feb 20, 2005, 02:00 AM

"Summer Time Blues" - The Who
"Sweet Jane" - The Cowboy Junkies
"Hey Joe" - Jimi Hendrix
"Pennyroyal Tea" - Nirvana

demograph68 · Feb 20, 2005, 02:00 AM

Originally posted by Secret__Police:
Johny Cash's version of Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode) is pretty good. I like it more than MM version.

That's a really good song! You guys have taste!

theJoKell · Feb 20, 2005, 03:12 AM

Travis - Hit Me Baby One More Time (originally by Britney Spears)
Travis turns it into a good song, who woulda thunk it

Bedhead - Believe (originally by Cher)
a cher song that can be played on a telephone, great stuff

Spliff · Feb 20, 2005, 03:47 AM

The three that immediately come to mind are . . .

"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Guns 'N' Roses
"Cocaine" by Eric Clapton
"Sea of Love" by Cat Power

malvolio · Feb 20, 2005, 04:06 AM

On the subject of Dolly Parton covers, I'll take the Incredible String Band's version of "My Blue Tears".

Oisín · Feb 20, 2005, 07:26 AM

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Reminds me... Matthew Good Band do an incredible cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence".

So does Tori Amos.

as2 · Feb 20, 2005, 09:32 AM

I'll second that Gypsy Kings version of Hotel California

But my most recent/and british cover version that is better than the original is The Futureheads cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love

Adam

CMYKid · Feb 21, 2005, 12:55 AM

I don't know that you've much lived until you've heard Afghan Whigs covers. I'm rather a cover junkie myself, probably a third of my gigs are devoted to covers and live bootlegs, but I haven't heard many at all that are better interpreted than the ones Greg Dulli does.

It's kind of like the difference in architecture between renovation and adaptive re-use. If i wanted to hear somebody cover a song just like the original then I'll go check out queeraoke at any number of bars, the covers that I really end up not being able to stop listening to are the ones that infuse the song with an entirely new identity, make me see it from a totally different perspective.

My latest crop of faves includes

Deftones cover of Sade's 'No Ordinary Love'...dark, gritty, everything you'd expect of the Deftones.

Ryan Adams and Beth Orton covering the Stones 'Brown Sugar'...slow, drawn out with only the piano...immensely sad, it brings an entirely new meaning to the song.

Veronica · 12:46 AM

Max Raabe Orchestra with "Oops I did it again"! Well, anything that they cover is great

Edit: Sorry, didn't see the post above... But then again, this just shows how great the band is

zigzag · Feb 22, 2005, 12:32 AM

Originally posted by malvolio:
On the subject of Dolly Parton covers, I'll take the Incredible String Band's version of "My Blue Tears".

I thought no one else had ever heard of the ISB - one of my picks was Judy Collins' cover of "First Girl I Loved." Indeed, that whole Collins album - Who Knows Where The Time Goes - is full of stunning covers and remains one of my all-time favorites. In addition to the Fairport Convention cover (which I would've picked as well but it wasn't as transformative), the album reveals why Stephen Stills was such a highly regarded musician (which can be difficult to discern in some other contexts). Gorgeous guitar accompaniment throughout.

Miniryu · Feb 22, 2005, 12:43 AM

Killing Me Softly, originally done by Roberta Flack, redone by Lauren Hill.

lavar78 · Feb 22, 2005, 06:55 AM

Originally posted by Miniryu:
Killing Me Softly, originally done by Roberta Flack, redone by Lauren Hill.

That was mentioned before. The cover is by the Fugees, not just Lauryn Hill. Frankly, I'm a little alarmed (but not surprised) that people think it's better than the original. It's a great song either way, but, while I appreciate what the Fugees did to it (especially Lauryn's vocals and "one time"), it's a shame the gorgeous backing music was dropped completely. I suspect many of you haven't really listened to Roberta's version. It's outstanding -- there's a reason it won the 1973 Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (an amazing feat considering the great songs released that year).

While it isn't technically a cover (it was recorded first but released second), Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is better than the Gladys Knight & The Pips version. They're both great, of course.

Paco500 · Feb 22, 2005, 04:32 PM

Amen. I've never heard the song except on SNL and I can only pray they were just especially horrific live and their studio stuff is good. Otherwise, the fact that they have any measure of popularity actually frightens me.

Originally posted by theJoKell:
No it's not, not at all. In fact, it made my ears bleed when I saw them perform it on SNL. Every member of that band should be dragged out into the street and shot for what they did to that song.

theJoKell · Feb 22, 2005, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by Paco500:
Amen. I've never heard the song except on SNL and I can only pray they were just especially horrific live and their studio stuff is good. Otherwise, the fact that they have any measure of popularity actually frightens me.

Your prayers go unanswered.

I downloaded the song for my friends that missed it. It was every bit as terrible as the SNL broadcast.

Paco500 · Feb 22, 2005, 04:39 PM

I was (one of the) one(s) who posted this earlier, and now I'm having second thoughts. When I read your post, I thought, "well, the test is if the Fugees version came on the radio, I would turn it up, and the original, well..." and it stopped there. I'd turn up the original and enjoys it as well.

The Fugees version is great, but the original is a classic.

Originally posted by lavar78:
That was mentioned before. The cover is by the Fugees, not just Lauryn Hill. Frankly, I'm a little alarmed (but not surprised) that people think it's better than the original. It's a great song either way, but, while I appreciate what the Fugees did to it (especially Lauryn's vocals and "one time"), it's a shame the gorgeous backing music was dropped completely. I suspect many of you haven't really listened to Roberta's version. It's outstanding -- there's a reason it won the 1973 Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (an amazing feat considering the great songs released that year).

While it isn't technically a cover (it was recorded first but released second), Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is better than the Gladys Knight & The Pips version. They're both great, of course.

Fothb · Feb 22, 2005, 05:19 PM

The Apoptygma Berzerk cover of Metallica's "Fade To Black".

ghporter · 07:57 PM

One I didn't see mentioned was "In Cars" by Fear Factory-covering Gary Numan's seminal techno tune. While I won't say Fear Factory did it better per se they did a fine job with it.

I'd also like to add two Rolling Stones covers. "Sympathy for The Devil" covered by Guns n Roses is pretty darn good, as is WASP's cover of "Paint it Black."

Skip Breakfast:
I liked Pat Benatar's version of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights"-at least the Bush versions you can find anymore-better than Kate's. But way back, when I first heard of Kate, it was because of a version of "Wuthering Heights" that not only beat Pat's rendition, it brought tears to my eyes. And I hate the Bront�s' writing... Anyway, that one song got me to buy probably eight Kate Bush CDs, Pat Benatar's CD ("Crimes of Passion"), and at least the Cliff's Notes on the book!

Paco500:
I've heard a techno version of 99 Red Balloons, and it rocks-but it completely misses the point of the song. I don't know the name of the group that did the cover.

Yes, Roberta Flack did Killing Me Softly first. I'm going to have to find the Fugees' version if you think they did it better! It's been a while since I've heard the Fugees.

Covers that Deserve the Death Penalty:
Oh yes, some actually DO richly deserve this punnishment, and here's my candidate. Anita Bryant did a cover of Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" around the time she was on her "I hate Gays" warpath. She was a shill for Florida Orangegrowers then too; good thing I could get orange juice from Texas. Wow, how incredibly horrible can you get? I still wish I had one of the tee shirts they sold for her last tour that went through Austin, TX; it shows "Anita" in pinup style riding a huge orange, with the slogan "Squeeze a Fruit for Anita!"

Miniryu · Feb 28, 2005, 11:33 PM

Originally posted by lavar78:
That was mentioned before. The cover is by the Fugees, not just Lauryn Hill. Frankly, I'm a little alarmed (but not surprised) that people think it's better than the original. It's a great song either way, but, while I appreciate what the Fugees did to it (especially Lauryn's vocals and "one time"), it's a shame the gorgeous backing music was dropped completely. I suspect many of you haven't really listened to Roberta's version. It's outstanding -- there's a reason it won the 1973 Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (an amazing feat considering the great songs released that year).

While it isn't technically a cover (it was recorded first but released second), Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is better than the Gladys Knight & The Pips version. They're both great, of course.

I know the remake was done by the Fugees- I have the CD (The Score). Lauryn Hill was the one who performed it so beautifully- I don't care for Pras and 'clefs work on it at all (which is why I didn't credit the whole group). But you are right, taking the whole song into consideration the original is better.