Covers that are better than or as good as the original songs

[revjor]

There are only two covers that are objectively better than the original. Those are Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower, and Johnny Cash's version of Hurt. Everything else is just an opinion.

Haha. No.

Each one of these has more than past their originals. Some of them have surpassed their originals to the point that many people don't know they are covers.

I could easily see "Respect" beating Watchtower in a poll on a large scale. Seriously though, Aretha CRUSHED the track.

Both of these seem to fall under the same realm as Hurt. Where the people who like the original are far far outnumbered by fans, sales and cultural impact of the cover.
Not much needs to be said here. Hound Dog IS Elvis.
The Earth Band made this the only #1 hit Springsteen ever wrote.
One of those ones where few people have ever heard the original.
Pretty much every cover of Tainted Love is a cover of this cover. Well except this one. hah.
Very old song but Ray made it his own.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Can't have a thread like this without the kings of awesome metal covers, Judas Priest:

I also quite like Metallica's cover of The Small Hours. Quite frankly, it kicks the original's ass:


EDIT: Oh, and Korn's cover of Word Up is fantastic too.

 

[revjor]

Personal favorites that I listen to more than the originals.

Funkadelic in full force is something to be reckoned with. Eddie Hazel does magic wizard stuff with guitars.
Holy shit Eddie. Old school Funkadelic was a grimy glorious beast. I would think The Rolling Stones' original is better to most people. But it's a hell of cover though.


Quite a lot of people prefer Iron and Wine's cover to the original. I probably listen to them equally.

 

[Eleuthera]

So much better then Nelly's

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Off of the top of my head, my favorite is Iron Maiden's Transylvania covered by Iced Earth from the Horror Show album.


Other noteworthy titles include...

Gloomy Sunday covered by Sarah Brightman (can't remember the original song writer's name. Look up the song on Cracked though!)


That's all I've got really. I would have put in Nightwish's version of Phantom of the Opera over the film version but the original with Sarah Brightman and, Michael Crawford trump those two and would be considered the original.

 

[StrappingYoungLad]

The only cover I have on my ipod

 

[Jfswift]

Everything by Bob Dylan is better once you remove Bob Dylan. Good writer, horrible singer.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that.

For me, I'd have to say I prefer Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal" over Michael Jackson's version.

 

[Candidus]

I don't listen to a lot of music. I don't like vocal music at all. But it turns out, I can think of a vocal cover better than the original. I give you, Rebecca Black's "Friday" - Cover by Matt Mulholland.

 

[Offworlder_v1legacy]

To break from the norm of the obvious choices:

Original:


Cover:

 

[Weealzabob]

I like Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out but I think that Biffy Clyro improves on it.
http://youtu.be/fLvUsSLWTRc

Goldfinger's version of 99 Red Balloons. I don't know if it's objectively better, but I love the pop punk style.
http://youtu.be/-X5_q4a9HQs

Muse's cover of Feeling Good. Again I don't know that it improves on the original, but the way they turn the song on it's head is excellent.
http://youtu.be/CmwRQqJsegw

Edit: Changed to links because it wasn't embedding properly.

 

[Sewa_Yunga]

A very close match in my opinion, but I like the cover a little better than the original

Spoiler: The Bard's Song

Aaaand what the hell?! I just listened to another original covered by Van Canto... It sounds horrible!

Spoiler: Kings of Metal

 

[Dethenger]

Y'all need to learn to put Youtube videos in spoilers. Just opening this page almost fucked my computer.

Anywho, Manfred Mann's Blinded By The Light is way better than the original, I think by Bruce Springsteen. Dobie Gray's Mad World is better than Tears For Fears. I enjoy Jimi Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower about as much as I like Bob Dylan's, though since it's widely regarded as the superior one, I guess I like Dylan's as much as I like Jimi Hendrix's.

 

[Calcium]

Crivens, this thread took a while to load.

I like Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out but I think that Biffy Clyro improves on it

Biffy covered Take Me Out? The video isn't appearing in your post for me, but the idea of it sounds good to me - will have to check it out.

As for covers... I don't know about 'better than', but for me a good cover should be different. A couple of covers I like:

Placebo - Running up that Hill (Awesome Kate Bush cover)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Immigrant Song (Yes, they somehow were allowed to cover Led Zeppelin but I like this...)

 

[Weealzabob]

Crivens, this thread took a while to load.

I like Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out but I think that Biffy Clyro improves on it

Biffy covered Take Me Out? The video isn't appearing in your post for me, but the idea of it sounds good to me - will have to check it out.

Bugger, I thought the embedding wasn't showing up because my computer was being rubbish.

Here's a link http://youtu.be/fLvUsSLWTRc enjoy.

 

[anthony87]

I find the lack of Shatner in this thread to be disappointing...


Infinitely better than the original.

 

[Daveman]

Well, in the Olympics the Arctic Monkeys (who I hate) did a decent cover of "Come Together" which I almost got annoyed about but then heard Paul McCartney butcher "Hey Jude", a feat I didn't think possible. Does that count?

I also prefer this to the original, but I do admittedly have terrible taste.

snip

You've got to be shitting me. I done got ninja'd?

 

[SpAc3man]

Pretty much everything Nirvana ever covered. Especially on the MTV Unplugged concert/album. Although when they covered the Meat Puppets at the MTV Unplugged show they actually had them playing too. But it still counts.

These are all covers with the originals

Spoiler

Spoiler

Then we have Knowledge by Operation Ivy and the magnificent live cover by Green Day. Both equally good for differing reasons in my opinion

Spoiler

 

[Nightly Rabi]

This. Hands down.