Best Cover Songs

Just like film remakes, song covers are fairly abundant. However, the latter tend to be more likely to be good than the former.

What are the best song covers, even the ones that you just listen to the most? Maybe even those which you think surpass the original.

I love 311's cover of The Cure's "Lovesong." It's just so much more... emotional.

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Maybe the only cover I like more than the original may be Jimi Hendrix's performance of Bob Dylan's classic "All Along The Watchtower". I don't know what it is, but it just seems to suit Hendrix's style so much better.

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I go down to UCSB a lot and when I was down there in 2002 in my friend Eddie's first year of school, the fraternity he joined attended this massive 40-kegger at a beach house. We got there and some band who I would later come to worship as Save Ferris did a fucking AWESOME cover of Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen".

What can I say? It was better than the original.

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The Hendrix cover owns.

I'm gonna give mention to Johnny Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt". Especially watching it with the video, it's one of the most emotional songs I've ever heard. GTFO emo, make way for THE man in black.

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Originally Posted by Brent

I'm gonna give mention to Johnny Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt".

FUCK. YES!

I had a friend who said, "Why would NIN let some old guy sing his song?"

"Dude... If Johnny Cash had come up to me and asked if he could use one of MY songs to cover I would have bust a nut. You just DO NOT say no to Cash in that situation."

I was speaking idiomatically.

I also really enjoy Metallica's cover of the Blue Oyster Cult classic "Astronomy". Lot more aggressive and rockin' than the original, though I do love BOC.

Type O Negative's Day Tripper Medly is also pretty groovy.

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The worst cover is probably Sheryl Crow's rendition of Sweet Child of Mine.

I mean, I think it's a law somewhere that you can't replace Slash's guitar with a freaking violin! That's just wrong, on so many levels.

That said, I'd have to go with Astronomy as a personal choice (not that I'm biased for Metallica or anything... ). It honestly is there best done song on Garage Inc., although there are a few that come close.

Hurt is also great. Johnny Cash is the man.

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Is it awful I think every song Adam Sandler covered in The Wedding Singer as being better than the originals?

Because Steve Buscemi singing Spandau Ballet during credits was gold.

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The greatest cover with the most emotion? The Minutemen's Cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's " Have you ever seen the rain?". D.Boon's vocals have so much emotion in them and mike watt's slight backing vocals during the chorus add a touch of beauty to it as well as george hurley's extremely consistent and precision filled drum playing. Sadly, D.boon left the world 2 months later.

Here is a link for all of you to take a listen if you want.

The Minutemen - Have you ever seen the Rain?

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No that would be Eva Cassidy's 'Time after Time' by whats her face. She died of cancer only in her 30's. She was a folk/rock/country type singer that had a voice so fuckin amazing. Check it out.

I also like the Smashing Pumpkins Landslide.

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Mostly anything that Mike Patton/ Faith No More singing cover songs is great. From Easy to I Started A Joke to What The World Now Is Love, etc... Oh my Patton

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I downloaded a CD of Weezer covers a while ago, and a lot of them were good, but none of them as good as Mock Orange's cover of "Only In Dreams". It doesn't get much more radical than that. You can dance to it, too. There will be no bosses in this mode.

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Im gonna go with Deftones cover of jawboxes "Savory." Deftones are just such an awesome artisit, it sounds overall, a whole lot better than the original version.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I really like Stevie Ray Vaughn's cover of Hendrix's Little Wing and also the Metallica cover. Franks Zappa's cover of Stairway to Heaven is also a really good cover, I really like the unique Zappa sound to it.

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Originally Posted by Brent

I also really enjoy Metallica's cover of the Blue Oyster Cult classic "Astronomy". Lot more aggressive and rockin' than the original, though I do love BOC.

I didn't know there was a cover of that song! Have you heard the live version by BOC? That certainly does rock hard.

I can't think of a better cover song than Hey Joe by Hendrix, one of the few covers I actually think is worthwhile.

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I liked Tool's cover of No Quarter. Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt was pretty awesome too. The music video for that made me cry.

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I actually really enjoyed Voivod's cover of Pink Floyd's 'astronomy domine'.

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Led Zeppelin's cover of Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie's "When The Levee Breaks" - one of those rare cases where the cover completely overshadows the original. They took a simple blues number from the 20's and turned it into something big fifty years later. They really made the track their own. And after all... who thinks of Memphis Minnie when they hear the song's title?

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My over all favourite cover of a song would have to be when Helloween did Focus' "Hocus Pocus". It might be because i heard the cover first, but when i heard the origional, i just didn't appreciate it as much.

Another one is when Atrocity covered Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". I love how they turned it into a dark, creepy sounding metal song. I just like the way it sounds. And it's way better than Marilyn Manson's cover of that song.

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Originally Posted by Grubdog

I can't think of a better cover song than Hey Joe by Hendrix, one of the few covers I actually think is worthwhile.

Holy shit that was a cover!?

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Eva Cassidy's version of Fields of Gold is amazing. I simply love that version of the song.

I also very much like Novelle Vague's version of I Melt With You, as seen in the T-Mobile adverts in the UK and possibly other places.

On a more jazzy note, Fayray's version of Spooky is possibly the best I've ever heard and was one of the songs that made me totally fall in love with her voice.

I would also recommend the cover of I Won't Last A Day Without You done by Shiina Ringo and Utada Hikaru. Their voices are very different but it works wonderfully.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hmm, the best covers I have heard.

Knorkator - Try Again - Romeo Must Die soundtrack
This band is one of the weirdest bands I think I have ever heard. With a high pitch lead singer, with a dark growling back up singer, in an extremely heavy metal band in which most songs aren't english. The cover of this song is just great to hear, because it's just so unexpecting and odd. It's probably one of the best covers I have heard, if you get passed the vocals.

Dream Theater- covering ANYTHING
Yeah, I am a huge Dream Theater fan and it's annoying to some people. They have done some amazing covers of Queen, Metallica, Iron Maiden (I Think) and many others.

Apocalyptica- Hall of the Mountain King
This cover just kicks serious ass. There is nothing more to be said by me about it. I get really into it each time it's played. I love it

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

As much as I love Queen, Metallica's cover of Stone Cold Crazy is WAY better than the original. The Steel Prophet cover of Iron Maiden's Purgatory is pretty bitchin', too. I also prefer Guns n' Roses' Knockin' on Heaven's Door to the Dylan original.

The Helloween cover of Hocus Pocus was awesome, but then the source material was incredibly cool, too. I'm not really sure which version I prefer.

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Originally Posted by Majin yami

Holy shit that was a cover!?

Bob Dylan wrote the original, I believe. Hendrix covered a lot of Dylan stuff. His version of All Along the Watchtower pissed on Dylan's too...

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Muse does a pretty nifty cover of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". it escapes me who the original writer of that song was though, I just know that a crapload of people have sang it.

also as most have mentioned, Johnny Cash's cover of NIN's "Hurt". it seemed a lot more personal when he sang it.

this'll be an embarassing one, but evanescence does a cover of Korn's "Thoughtless" that isn't too bad. I wouldnt say it's a great cover by any means, but hey anything is an improvement on Korn.

Jam it back in, in the dark.