neatMCsammer

The Black Keys - Act Nice and Gentle (originally by the Kinks)

chinolofus

better yet i fought the law by the dead kennedys...though did change up the lyrics a bit.

Ezekiel 25:17

"Baby Don't Go" by Sonny & Cher played on the radio this evening, and it reminded me of what a great job Dwight Yoakam & Sheryl Crow did covering it.

Daniel-A

Smashing Pumpkins - Landslide

mapasu

Morrissey's cover of Redondo Beach (Patti Smith)

Late afternoon, dreaming hotel
We just had the quarrel that sent you away.
I was looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Called you on the phone, another dimension.
Well, you never returned, oh you know what I mean.
I went looking for you, are you gone, gone ?

Down by the ocean it was so dismal,
Women all standing with a shock on their faces.
Sad description, oh I was looking for you.

Everyone was singing, girl is washed up
On redondo beach and everyone is so sad.
I was looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Pretty little girl, everyone cried.
She was the victim of sweet suicide.
I went looking for you, are you gone gone ?

Down by the ocean it was so dismal,
Women all standing with shock on their faces.
Sad description, oh I was looking for you.

Desk clerk told me girl was washed up,
Was small, an angel with apple blonde hair, now.
I went looking for you, are you gone gone ?
Picked up my key, didn’t reply.
Went to my room, started to cry.
You were small, an angel, are you gone gone ?

Down by the ocean it was so dismal.
I was just standing with shock on my face.
The hearse pulled away, and the girl that had died, it was you.
You’ll never return into my arms ’cause you were gone gone.
Never return into my arms ’cause you were gone gone.
Gone gone, gone gone, good-bye.

Jack Straw

Gloritone - "I'm not in love" (10CC)

Miyazaki

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but my absolute favorite cover ever is Fiona Apple's cover of Across the Universe by the Beatles. It's great, I think I even prefer it to the original.

dhmac

Bumping this great thread.

Has anyone bought this album? Sounds like a great selection of covers.

Nevermind the Originals, Here's the Covers
Disc: 1
1. Tainted Love - Living End
2. You Spin Me 'Round (Like a Record) - Dope
3. Take on Me - Reel Big Fish
4. Video Killed the Radio Star [Album Version] - Presidents of the United States of America
5. Mrs. Robinson - The Lemonheads
6. I Ran - Jebediah
7. Pump It Up - Automatic
8. Harpoon - Something For Kate
9. Bizarre Love Triangle - Frente!
10. Girls Talk - Ben Lee
11. Antmusic - Robbie Williams
12. Cum on Feel the Noize - Oasis
13. Hells Bells - The Dandy Warhols
14. Johnny and Mary - Placebo
15. Step On - Happy Mondays
16. Don't You Want Me - The Farm
17. Beat Goes On - The All Seeing I

Disc: 2
1. Blue Monday - Orgy
2. Lay Lady Lay - Ministry
3. New Race - Silverchair
4. My Way - Sid Vicious
5. People Are Strange - Echo & the Bunnymen
6. Fuel My Fire - The Prodigy
7. Cars - Fear Factory
8. Super Trouper - Headless Chickens
9. Homosapien - Lavish
10. 99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger
11. Come on Eileen - Save Ferris
12. Hurdy Gurdy Man - Butthole Surfers
13. Wired for Sound - B(if) Tek
14. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? - Violent Femmes
15. Substitute - The Ramones
16. Message in a Bottle - Machine Head
17. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

JeffDoeXXX

Joan Jett-Crimson & Clover (Tommy James)

Buttmunker

Motorbreath, a Metallica cover, by Mu330.

This is a great rendition of the classic metal song - given a ska treatment.

chess

This is the most hauntingly beautiful song I've ever heard of any variety...cover or otherwise. Prepare to be blown away.

Second Favorite cover: "Crazy Mary" by Pearl Jam

Redsox'04

Rock On - Def Leppard (?)
Signs - Tesla (5 Man Electric Band)
Mad World - Gary Jules (Tears For Fears)
Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies (Velvet Underground)
Wild Horses - The Sundays (The Stones)
Don't Fear the Reaper - Gus (Blue Oyster Cult)

whitetigeress

I love finding new covers. The best place to find them is on the podcast Coverville. Nothing like finding a Jazz cover of War Pigs.

benedict

David Essex.

duse

Red Red Meat does a fantastic cover as well.

dhmac

I hate to be correcting someone so long after their original post, but "Whiskey in the Jar" is a traditional Irish song that may be over 200 years old. Thin Lizzy's take on it is pretty good, but much better is The Pogues version of the song, which sticks closely to its Irish roots.

creekdipper

Thanks for the great site...have already bookmarked it.

Aside from obvious well-known great covers (Byrds versions of Dylan; Hendrix's "Watchtower" cover; Talking Heads' "Take Me To the River" cover;Cash's "Hurt"), here are some lesser-known good covers (a few already mentioned):

"Solitary Man" by the Sidewinders (defunct 80's group; also covered well by Chris Isaak). Original by Neil Diamond.

"Under My Thumb" by John Batdorf & James Lee Stanley (from the stunning CD ALL WOOD AND STONES featuring an entire album of great accoustic covers of classic Stones tunes. Many other outstanding covers can be found on this disk with fine arrangements and great harmonies).

"Atlantic City" by The Band (the non-Robbie Robertson lineup). Original by Bruce Springsteen.

"Urge For the Going" by Mary Black (also nicely done by Luka Bloom). Original by Joni Mitchell.

"Dimming of the Day" by Bonnie Raitt (also covered by many other artists...a testament to the song's popularity and allure for singers). Original by Richard Thompson.

"Orphan Girl" by Emmylou Harris. Original by Gillian Welch.

"All Shook Up" by Ry Cooder. Original by ?? (Did Elvis do it first?)

"Tumbling Dice" by Linda Ronstadt. Original by Glimmer Twins & friends.

And, of course..."Wild Horses" by The Sundays. Original by ibid.

Actually, there should be a moratorium on Rolling Stones & Beatles covers since they have been done by so many different artists...however, some of these versions are just so gosh darn good! Too many good Beatles covers to even begin listing (of course, there is an equal number of BAD covers...that would be a LONG thread. "Golden Throats", indeed!! Having said that, I gotta go check out the "Across the Universe" cover mentioned by several posters.

thismeansyou

Definitely Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower. Didn't Dylan switch to playing a version that incorporated a lot of Hendrix's after he heard the cover? That says a lot about it...

I also love the Jackson 5's version of Stevie Wonder's Someday At Christmas, and Natalie Cole did a sweet jazz rendition of Carol of the Bells.

B5Erik

5 pages over 4 years and no one has mentioned...

Judas Priest - The Green Manalishi (Fleetwood Mac)
Judas Priest - Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)

Two amazing reworkings that took songs far removed from Metal and made them sound as if they were written specifically as Heavy Metal songs. And both are great!

Another good one...

KISS - 2,000 Man (The Rolling Stones)

Jack Straw

Thanks for the great link.

bryce0lynch

Devo - Satisfaction.

There's a CD called "Punk goes 80's" that's about a year old. It's the best cover CD I've ever listened to. Every cover is great.

Xanager

I've been an avid listener to Coverville for quite some time. They had a great cover of John Lennon's Imagine not too long ago. It was covered by the band Smoke City. I loved it.

Clayman32

Agreed!Another good one on that album is Faster Pussycat's cover of You're So Vain(Carly Simon)
Some more of my favorites:
Psycho Therapy - Skid Row(Ramones)
Cotton Fields - Tesla(CCR)
Tie Your Mother Down - Lynch Mob(Queen)
Helter Skelter - Motley Crue(Beatles)

dhmac

ALL's cover of Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" is worth seeking out.

alphabetsoup

I like Seu Jorge's cover of "Life on Mars" (David Bowie).

It sounds sweet in Portugeuse.