I just hate the way that Gary Jules version got RE - done by a few dumbass American Idol schmucks, which totally cheapened it... and the fact that it got thrown into nearly every "dramatic" episode of this or that show... it just started to get a bit overdone to the point where I actually WANTED to hear the original...

Gary Jules, is pretty damn good, though i've really only heard his daytrotter session

red red wine by UB40
original by Neil Diamond

twist and shout by the beatles
original by top notes

Easy by Faith NpMore easily betters the original... no disrespect to the Commodores, i just very much prefer the FNM version by a long shot!

What was wrong with the original?

i much prefer placebo's version of running up that hill. no disrespect to kate bush, but it just ain't my bag.

Whiskey In The Jar by Metallica (Covered Thin Lizzy's which covered The Dublins or something like that)

I really like that cover version myself!

jenny does really great pop covers

What is wrong with the Thin Lizzy version?

I agree with this. No insult to Kate Bush's original, but to me Placebo's version is light years better.

Much better than the Kurt Weill Ooompa version.



One of Led Zeppelin's great covers. The Jake Holmes version is much to slow for my taste they really transformed this song into there own.



I never liked Michael Jackson's original version of the song this one sounds much more edgier.

I prefer that Alien Ant Farm version myself.... good call!

I thought the Jack Holmes original of D&C is good but anyone who says its better than Zeps version is just being a pretentious twat I think.

Hell f*cking no, that version is a funny novelty but in the end they took a great pop song and turned it into a generic nu metal thing, blaaaaaaaaaah.

Jackson version wipes the f*cking floor with it.

Heavier =/= Edgier =/= Better

Ehh, nothing really it's just I'm more of a Metallica fan that's all.

RE: Smooth Criminal... I just think they took a pop song and made it into... another pop song. Nothing monumental, just a pop song that appeals to me more than it's orignal.

I'm an avid Simon and Garfunkel fan, but there's no way that I can turn away from Yes's ten minute plus prog version of America.

ha my city is mentioned in America.

also:



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> original songs

Blasphemy. It's a great version, but it's not at all ">>>>>>>>>>>... the original song".

Honestly?

easy:



Maybe it's just because it's done live, but I've always thought this one was more immediate and "real" than the Fleet Foxes version.

Rod Stewart - Downtown Train

And, like an earlier mention elsewhere, I expect most people to call that blasphemy.

Also, Set the Night to Music, by Roberta Flack and Maxi Priest. I prefer rock to R&B, but the original Starship version is lame.

I can think of one. I didn't buy A Thousand Suns but this cover for The Catalyst really owns. :thumb:

I might or might not be alone on this, but I prefer Les Claypools' Fearless Flying Frog Brigade's covers of Pink Floyd's Animals album, from Pigs on the Wing, to Dogs, to Three Different Ones, to Sheep, to Pigs on the Wing 2. It's a live set, but I love it to death. Especially their Dogs.

While I'm on the subject of Les Claypool, here's the Primus songs that are covers that I enjoy more than the originals:

Amos Moses - original by Jerry Reed
Behind My Camel - original by The Police
Hello Skinny - original by The Residents [close one]
Intruder - original by Peter Gabriel
Making Plans for Nigel - original by XTC
Scissor Man - original by XTC
Silly Putty - original by Stanley Clarke [close one]
Sinister Exaggerator - original by The Residents
The Thing That Should Not Be - original by Metallica [This is the only example we have of what it would sound like if Les landed the audition after Cliff passed away]


Tool:

No Quarter - original by Led Zeppelin [close one]
Spasm - original by Peach
You Lied - original by Peach [close one]

CAKE:

Guitar Man - original by Bread
Multiply the Heartache - original by George Jones
I Will Survive - original by Gloria Gaynor [infinitely more enjoyable]
Jolene - original by Dolly Parton
Never Gonna Give You Up - original by Barry White
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - original by Doris Day
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town - original by Kenny Rogers
Sad Songs and Waltzes - original by Willie Nelson
Strangers in the Night - original by Frank Sinatra

More to come

This is a fun thread. I thing always be my baby by David Cook is better compared to the original version of Mariah.

I would say Lady Gaga's You and I song covers are two times better than the real record.

.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Slayer



. . . better than Iron Butterfly.

.

Rage Against The Machine- The Ghost Of Tom Joad(Bruce Springsteen)
Lake Off Fire- Nirvana(meat puppets)
The Man Who Sold The World- Nirvana(david bowie)
Sumertime Blues- Rush(blue cheer)

Nice choices! Rush has some killer ones. The whole Feedback album is excellent!

Rush:

Summertime Blues
Heart Full of Soul** so damn good
For What It's Worth
The Seeker
Crossroads

I actually prefer Frankie goes to Hollywood's version of "Born to Run" to the Springsteen original.
Bruce Spingsteen - Trapped (J. Cliff)
Nirvana - Man who sold the world. (D. Bowie)
Megan Washington - Straight Lines (Silverchair)
Ash Grunwald - Smokestake Lightening (Howlin' Wolf)

Just what I was going to say.

I think even a song like "Oops, I Did it Again" can show its value as a fun pop song when it's given personal interpretation by other artists. All you have to do is surf a bit of youtube to see all the bands who have covered it to realize it's a decent song under all that teenybopper production. (Or maybe I am confused, and it's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" that I mean. . .)

I don't know if someone already posted this, but it probably deserves to be posted twice regardless just because it's that good.

Roberta Flack & Maxi Priest - Set The Night To Music - YouTube
The original, by Starship, is album filler.

I was tempted to cite Downtown Train, but the song is fine except for the vocals.

Leave and never come back.

True Faith = awesome song by an awesome band
Anberlin = no1curr

How bout a bad cover of a good song? LMAO!! Im sorry but this vid cracks me up

Incognito covered by The Lost Fingers originally by Celine Dion.

Lost in the 80s is basically a bunch of good covers of crappy 80s songs.

I know this may seem like a plug for my hero Chris Thile, but he and the Punch Brothers did an absolutely fantastic job on improving an old classic by Jimmy Rogers called "Brakeman's Blues". The original has the merit of being old, respectable and classic, but it pales into insignificance when compared with the 2006 version from Chris and the lads. Jimmy has been outplayed, outclassed and even outyodelled. Of course, Jimmy wrote the song initially, but I think the newer version is phenomenally better.

Here's Jimmy's:



And here's Chris:

Hell yeah.