music_collector

I can think of a couple of songs.

Manfred Man's Blinded by the light is better than the Springsteen original.

While my guitar gently weeps by the Jeff Healey Band is better than George Harrison's original.

I'd also suggest that any Dylan cover is better than the original.

Psy-Fi

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She's a Brick House

Lisnaholic

I thought I'd bump this thread to remind us all that we have a place to talk about the values and virtues of cover versions.
Here's one that has sparked some chat in another thread:-



...and the original:-



My vote goes to YES as the better version; they make an interesting song out of the original. Not altogether surprising that it's a song that's rather overlooked in the Beatles discography: it's sweet enough, but is just cut so short by today's standards.

I haven't seen music_collector around for ages. If you're out there, please be aware that thanks to your comment, I'm not just logging out now - I'm stomping off the forum in disgust and slamming the door loudly !!

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Chula Vista

And in that spirit,





and of course....

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Lisnaholic

^ I'm confused: isn't that the original?
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Despite The Drifters cover version being the best known, this was the originalest recording I could find of On Broadway:



This treatment from Psychedelic Guitar Circus sounds so different that it's difficult to call one "better" than the other, but the PGC version is the one I keep going back to, so by that measure it wins over The Cookies:

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Chula Vista

I'd posted the covers of that and Babe somewhere else.

https://www.musicbanter.com/2223863-post25.html

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

jadis

This certainly is, to me at least


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmhl45B4WP8

Lisnaholic

^ Yes, that gives a whole new dimension to Dylan's song. In fact with her seductive voice, and just the fact that she's a woman, she turns the whole thing upside down, replacing Bob's cynicism with a sincere confessional touch. Nice.

If I were to concede that there was any validity to music_collector's point, I might choose this version of You Angel You - not a stunning song, but an improvement on the original imo:-

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953