When there are several versions, it’s so personal which one anyone prefers. But I’ll offer
June Tabor and Oysterband’s cover of Joy Division’s Love will tear us apart,
The Unthanks’ cover of King of Rome with the Brighouse and Rastrick Band. This packs a big emotional clout, though June Tabor’s version is pretty good, too.
Roger
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Rocket Man - Kate Bush
Song To The Siren - This Mortal Coil
Ziggy Stardust -Bauhaus
The Bauhaus version of Ziggy is one of their finer moments IMHO, and I am sure it was fun live, but better than the original?
Song to the Siren is a lot closer for me. I am not sure it’s actually better than Tim Buckley, but I can see the point - I played the TMC version on Saturday.
Most people would probably disagree with me on the Ziggy one but I just love the energy of the Bauhaus version.
As for Song For The Siren, Elizabeth Fraser’s voice makes the song for me. Hauntingly beautiful.
A few more:
Nobody’s Fault But Mine - Led Zeppelin
Rockin’ at Midnight - The Honeydrippers
‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers - Jeff Beck
Each of these are better than the originals IMHO.
At the risk of being controversial:
The Sound of Silence - Disturbed.
Is it better than the original by Simon and Garfunkel? Debatable. Is it a different take? Certainly.
Ziggy - I vaguely recall reading that Bowie really liked their version, but didn’t really understand why they wanted to do it, not least because of their own songwriting.
Elizabeth Fraser - can’t argue much.
If judging solely on which version of a song I like more, Zeppelin should have just over 20 entries, but I agree Nobody’s Fault is a corker. Of course, I don’t actually have Blind Willie Johnson’s original to compare…
Rockin’ At Midnight & 'Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers - yes, quite right, but of course Beck has a lot of candidates too. Jailhouse Rock?
Miles Davis’ versions of Human Nature and Time after Time are special.
A very nice topic which I hope will run and run. Particular praise should go to the correspondent who highlighted the always wonderful Bonnie Raitt. To me, cover versions work best when they make the listener hear the song in a different, and sometimes radical, way. For some reason, I find that female artists are better at this than male ones so here, for what they are worth, are some tracks which always go down well in this household. No particular order.
Right Down The Line (Bonnie Raitt)
Tom Thumb’s Blues (Judy Collins)
The Hallelujah Chorus (The Roches)
Land Of Confusion (Katzenjammer)
Mad World (Renee Fleming - yes, really)
The Air That I Breathe (k.d. lang)
Making Plans For Nigel (Nouvelle Vague)
You’ll Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Madeleine Peyroux)
Shakin’ All Over (Eilen Jewell)
All Tomorrow’s Parties (June Tabor / Oyster Band)
…and one bloke…
Stand By Your Man (Lyall Lovett)
Somewhere ( West Side Story ) by Tom Waits on Blue Valentine. …brilliant cover…not quite as Bernstein and Sondheim intended.
Cheating a little here. Technically, this is a cover, as it came after the West End production of the show. But it is not nearly as well known as subsequent covers.
Actually for a really different take, search out those cases where an artist covers a whole album.
Recent ones include Angelique Kidjo’s cover of Talking Head’s Remain in Light; Tedeschi Trucks cover of Derek & the Dominoes Layla. Classics include Beck’s version of the Velvet Underground and Nico; Laibach’s Let it Be; the Smithereens Tommy and the Easy All Stars’ Dub Side of the Moon. Even Philip Glass got into it with his Low and his Heroes Symphonies. Phish are notorious for this with a lot of Beatles and Pink Floyd albums. One of my favs is the Nau Ensemble - Eternal, variations on Joy Division for choir and Chamber orchestra - one single 60 minute track.
Morgan James - The White Album
Petra Haden - The Who Sell Out
A few years ago a group formed called The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.
I proudly put forward their cover of It’s A Heartache for consideration:
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