Cover Versions2

[WaldoMcFroog]

Okay, Andy's mentioned the covers that make him go postal, but which covers are an improvement/ as good as the orginal? I'll nominate Muse's version of 'Feeling Good', Hendrix's 'All along the Watchtower' & 'Hey Joe' and Tori Amos' cover of 'Smells like Teen Spirit'!

[simon_says]

Pet Shop Boys "Always on my Mind". Anything is an improvement on the must successful club singer in history!

[smorodina]

I suppose Nillson's version of Badfinger's 'Without You' is pretty good, and to add another to the bad category, Maria Carey's is the pits. I guess Joe Cocker did the definitive cover 'With a little help from my friends'...

[Waterwolf]

Well, I was going to nominate Undercover's version of 'Baker Street' as a rare dance cover that respects the original, but I see that smorodina has already submitted it as a 'worst cover version'. So I will offer four songs: Soft Cell's cover of 'Tainted Love'; Gun's version of 'Word Up'; The Flaming Lips' cover of 'Can't Get You Out of My Head'; and Kirsty MacColl's version of 'Days'.

[number8]

The Christians Harvest for the World & Respect by Wheatus

[Miss Zippy]

Alien Ant Farm's version of 'Smooth Criminal' and The Sisters of Mercy version of 'Jolene' are good covers I can think of.

[jenstar]

Rozalla's version of "Losing My Religion", especially the Love To Infinity mix. She so much makes the song her own that it makes REM's original sound like they'd done a miserable rock version just to be wacky!

[sft42]

Natalie Imbruglia's version of Torn (Ednaswap).....Toploader's Dancin' in the moonlight (King Harvest).....Corr's No Frontiers & Christy Moore's Ride On (both by Jimmy McCarthy).

[WaldoMcFroog]

Wheatus's version of 'Respect' just proved what a good song it was under all of the production, to my mind! I don't think 'Smooth Criminal' was particularly great, to be honest - it seemed to me that it was a continuation of the (now very tired) trend for punk bands to cover pop songs - stick Punk Cover Version in to a file sharing program and you'll see what I mean. But it wasn't awful either! Sisters of Mercy however - Yes - they've done some great covers in their time - Kylie's Confide In Me, He's Got the Whole World In His Hands...

Other good covers that come to mind; Nirvana doing 'Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam' and 'The Man who sold the world'. Oh, and a little plug for the H Band, which is Steve Hogarth from Marillion, Dave Gregory from XTC, Richard Barbieri from Japan and Porcupine Tree, Aziz Ibrahim from the Stone Roses II/ Ian Brown plus a few other groovy people. They do a great 'See Emily Play', 'Life on Mars', 'Life's a Long Song', 'The Old Wild Men', 'The Loving' and 'I Don't Remember'! And I'm seeing them play tonight! :-)

[Miss Zippy]

Carter USM's version of 'Rent' (Pet Shop Boys) is another goodie in my opinion. Oh and the Sisters of Mercy and Guns N Roses versions of 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'.

[coggles]

Living Doll with 'The Young with Cliff Richard. It

[coggles]

Oops, don't know what happened there! I meant 'The Young Ones'. Also, both the Hendrix and Clapton versions of 'Little Wing' are brilliant.

[smorodina]

After reading waterwolf's comment I wondered if that was the group I was thinking of that massacred 'Baker Street' A bit of research confirmed it was, thus showing how mucha matter of taste it all is. Anyway the article that confirmed it is here:http://www.tuppenceworth.ie/Music/tyranny.htm a
nd I really couldn't have put it better...

[Kit]

Just about anything by UB40. (And I'd like to put in a vote for Rolf Harris and "Stairway to Heaven". I liked it, even if I'm in the minority!)

[andy hughes]

You're not the minority Kit - I loved it too. By way of explanation - an Australian quiz show producer had the idea of asking every musical artist who came on his show to cover 'Stairway' and they were queuing up! Rolf's was only one of 22 on an accompanying CD named after the show - 'The Money Or The Gun' and it is fabulous! John Paul Young does it like it's 'Love Is In The Air', The Beatniks do it like 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' - the list goes on, but it shows just how many ways you can record a great song. Rolf went on to do an entire cover version of rock classics, inclduing Lou Reed's 'Walk On The Wild Side' - althogether now ...."And the coloured girls go do do do do do didgery do do do do......"

[Waterwolf]

Now I think of it, I must add 'I Want a Little Puppy' by the Smurfs. I'm serious: the Technohead original was awful. Actually, there are grounds for arguing that 'Smurfing Party' was better than the Whigfield song it was based on. But these are records that people really don't want to be reminded of...