What's your favourite cover version of a song that's way better than the original.

Devil#20

Most likely this thread done before and several contenders, but here's my choice which gets better everytime you hear it. 
Spirit - Like a Rolling Stone. 

gordiji

This Flight tonight by Nazareth , originally Joni Mitchell

Devil#20

gordiji said:

This Flight tonight by Nazareth , originally Joni Mitchell

That's a good shout and thanks for reminding me what a great band Nazareth were. 

bencowling81

Nirvana’s unplugged cover of Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”

equalsql

Joe Cocker's cover of The Beatles  "With A Little Help From My Friends". The stuff of legends no less.

Devil#20

bencowling81 said:

Nirvana’s unplugged cover of Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”

Very different vibe in that version and for what it's worth I agree with you. Bit of a challenge to better a Bowie original too. Just watching a Bowie doc on BBC2 at the mo. Sometimes it's seen as sacreligious with some artists but SRV did better versions of some of Hendrix's stuff IMO. 

Jonathangus

Devil#20

Jonathangus said:

Love Nine Inch Nails but got to hand it to JC he absolutely monstered this one. 

Devil#20

Check this one out. Better than the fat lad's version that he got someone to write for him (like all his songs)

midiman1962

You Really Got Me - Van Halen 

Winny_Pooh

lovestrat74

The most obvious one I can this think of is All Along The Watchtower 

CHRISB50

Fleetwood Mac - Need Your Love So Bad / Jumping at Shadows

Futureheads - Hounds of Love

Teyeplayer

I know it’s the one we say every time, but The Byrds version of Mr Tambourine Man has to be it’s definitive outing.

axisus

@Devil#20 I was a massive Spirit fan back in my college years (early 80s). Loved that album!

axisus

Cuts out all that indulgent soloing bollox

ICBM

Wow... I know everyone likes different stuff, but apart from All Along The Watchtower, so far this has been a thread entirely for covers which, while some are good, are not a patch on the original.

For one that actually is - apart from AATW - Blondie, Hanging On The Telephone.

EricTheWeary

I was looking back at a 2020 discussion about this, even that probably wasn’t the first. I slightly struggle with the idea because a) the original is the original so that’s where the concept, the original thinking was regardless of how it is interpreted over the years and b) by ‘better’ people invariably just mean the version they are more familiar with so better is often just a function of their age. 

The song I posted last time was a cover of the Adele song Hello. I don’t like the original and I don’t like Adele’s voice so transforming it into something I do like was ‘better’ for me but I realise that 90% of what works about it still lies with the original. 

Anyway, I’ll choose something where I like listening to the cover version more than I like listening to the original. This is a live version so there’s something to look at and it’s complete with bagpipes just to up the eccentricity of it all…

https://youtu.be/7sJNy5zvy8o

idiotwind

With both Watchtower and Tambourine Man, I just think of the original and cover as being two completely different songs. Both are perfect in their own ways.

poopot

https://youtu.be/jRk5Gjl_cAg

Reverend

ICBM said:

Wow... I know everyone likes different stuff, but apart from All Along The Watchtower, so far this has been a thread entirely for covers which, while some are good, are not a patch on the original.

For one that actually is - apart from AATW - Blondie, Hanging On The Telephone.

Hurt. Cash's is vastly superior