Good
Pearl Jam-Crazy Mary,Tool-No Quarter,Soundgarden-Come Together.

Bad
Any David Lee Roth song

Good = Pietasters - Same Old Song, Reel Big Fish - Take On Me, Fiona Apple - Across The Universe, Johnny Cash - Rusty Cage, Less Than Jake - I Think I Love You, pretty much everything ever by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Godawful = Wallflowers - Heroes, Primus - Amos Moses, Frankie Valli - Don't Think Twice, every song on the I Am Sam soundtrack.

Good...
Travis-Hit me one more time (britney spears cover) surprisingly good
Manson-Tainted Love
Manson-Sweat Dreams
Jeffrey Gaines-In Your Eyes
Cake-I Will Survive
Pearl Jam-Crazy Mary
Live-Supernatural

now I forget all the others that I have on a compilation cd.

I havern't heard the Tool version of No Quarter, I will have to check it out.

The greatest cover to date, ever, is Jimi Hendrix "All along the Watch Tower". No one can even come close to doing a cover of that caliber. Some other good covers Marilyn Manson's Sweet Dreams. A couple of songs on RATM's "Renegades" are pretty damn good. Les Claypool's Fearless flying Frog Brigade does one of the best cover of Shine on You Crazy Diamond


Bad, bad, bad, covers: RHCP - Rollercoaster
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Lenny Kravits - American Woman
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Orgy - Blue Monday
Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love
Any cover that Phish does.

Afghan Whigs - Creep (TLC cover). Gives the song a whole new meaning.

To pick a song based on two other posts, Rage Against the Machine's cover of Beautiful World (originally by Devo?). Another cover they did of Ghost of Tom Joad (originally by Bruce Springsteen) made the song totally sound like one of their own. That album's pretty damn sweet if you like RATM.

Another cover I enjoy and found a "new" band with was Godhead's cover of "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles. Still had enough of the original sound of the song, but enough of their own style in there to make it different.

I agree with whoever else said "any covers by Metallica", I've always enjoyed their covers.

Someone mentioned Johnny Cash's cover of "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden, which was pretty damn entertaining, but it doesn't beat his newer cover of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails. When viewed with the video they made for it, man is that painful to watch. Quality stuff.

I doubt the Avril Lavigne cover of "Chop Suey" by System of a Down was a serious cover...there are intentionally slurred through lyrics in there, just sounds like a band having fun goofing around. Just one man's opinion.

I guess I should clarify and say that I find all of the above listed covers to be good, not bad.

Any cover of Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made For Walkin'.

Nancy Sinatra is a Goddess!

Suprised no one mentioned it but I liked Nirvana's Man Who Sold the World cover more then the original David Bowie song.

Nice one! I like that one.

How about Type O Neg. - Summer Breeze.

I won't even bother with bad covers, but good ones:

Kronos Quartet - "Marquee Moon"
Teenage Fanclub - "Like A Virgin"
Aztec Camera - "Jump"
XTC - "All Along the Watchtower"
The Byrds - "My Back Pages"
The Beatles - "Rock and Roll Music"
The Beatles - "Lonesome Tears In My Eyes"
The Clash - "Police and Thieves"
The Clash - "Police On My Back"
The Clash - "Pressure Drop"
The Rolling Stones - "Route 66"
The Animals - "Paint It, Black"
Gram Parsons - "Love Hurts"
The Flying Pickets - "Only You"
Husker Du - Eight Miles High"
Husker Du - "Love Is All Around"
The Replacements - "Black Diamond"
Rainy Day - "Flying On the Ground Is Wrong"
The Jam - "David Watts"
Big Star - "Femme Fatale"
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?"
The Pogues - "Dirty Old Town"
Siouxie and the Banshees - "Dear Prudence"
Love - "Hey Joe"
Kirsty MacColl - "A New England"

Good:
Great Big Sea - "The End of the World as We Know It" (R.E.M.)
Jimi Hendrix - "All Along the Watchtower" (Bob Dylan) Duh.
Apocalyptica - anything they do but in particular "One" and "Fade to Black" (Metallica)
Metallica - "Turn the Page" (Bob Seger)
Eric Clapton - "Knocking on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan)
Fountains of Wayne - "Baby One More Time" (Britney Spears)

Some of the best, I think, are on Bryan Ferry's 'These Foolish Things' album.
One of the worst I've heard is tATu's [or however it's capitalized] How Soon Is Now? Come on, when what look like 16 year old, attractive pop stars sing about 'I've already waited too long, and all my hope is gone' it just loses all meaning.

Nearly forgot Janis Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson).

The Good:
Indian Giver by The Ramones (1910 Fruitgum Co.)
Hooked On A Feeling by Blue Swede (B.J. Thomas)
Last Kiss by Pearl Jam (J. Frank Wilson)

A Case Where A Cover Song Sounds the Same As The Original But Nobody Knows Because They Never Heard The Original
I Love Rock And Roll by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (don't know who did it originally)

Quiet Riot's debut album, Metal Health contained their cover versions of Cum On Feel the Noize and Bang Your Head (Metal Health).

So their whole career and fortune was based on someone else's music.

Just like Linda Ronstandt, the Cover Queen

Good choice.

Gov't Mule does great covers:

She Said, She Said - The Beatles
30 Days in the Hole - Humble Pie
Effigy - CCR
Jesus Just Left Chicago - ZZ Top
Mr.Big - FREE
The Hunter - FREE
What is Hip - Tower of Power
Gonna Send You Back to Georgia - Hound Dog Taylor
Catfish Blues - unknown

others:
Grand Funk Railroad - Inside Looking Out (The Animals)
Led Zep - When the Levee Breaks (Memphis Minnie)
Pride & Glory - Come Together (Beatles)
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Call Me the Breeze (JJ Cale)
Clapton - After Midnight & Cocaine (JJ Cale)
Cactus - Evil (Howlin' Wolf)
Cactus - You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover (Willie Dixon)
The Music Machine - Hey Joe
Flying Burrito Band - Wild Horses (Rolling Stones)
J Geils Band - Serves You Right to Suffer (John Lee Hooker)

Just because someone does a lot of covers doesn't mean we should judge them harshly. For example, Dave Edmunds and Bonnie Raitt are two people that have made careers out of interpreting others' work.

Musical performance and songwriting ability do not go hand-in-hand. You have to remember that until recently (pretty much until the Beatles) most musicians performed the work of others generally all of the time. Entire genres of music, like jazz, blues, and folk, have as part of their tradition the concept of "standards", songs that are meant to be interpreted by others.

I don't like when bands just cover a song so they can get exposure on a sound track:

Bad:

Time - Sheryle crow and Steve Earl
Another Brick in the Wall part 2 - Alice in Chains


I just watched the new Heart dvd and they cover Zeppelins Battle of Evermore that sounded great.

Can any one think of a cover that was better than the original? I know there have been a few, just can't think of them now.

oh, I forgot Motley Crue's Anarchy sucked

I despise:

Bowie's "Heroes" covered by the Wallflowers
New Order's "Blue Monday" by Frante!
The La's "There She Goes" by whoever the suckass hell they are
Dexy's "Come On Eileen" by Save Ferris, I think...
Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" by another current musical waste of space and featured in those romantic comedy ads
(in general, any remake of an 80s hit will suck, badly)

I adore:

Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" by The Housemartins (when the HMs cover any old soul tune, it's awesome, actually)
Bowie's cover of "Cactus" (by the Pixies, right?)
Tom Waits's rendition of "Somewhere" from West Side Story
Son House's "Death Letter" by The White Stripes
Wilson's "Surfer Girl" by Pere Ubu

Good:
It's Alright - Huey Lewis & The News
Louie Louie - Paul Revere & The Raiders
Time After Time - Tuck & Patti
Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo`ole
Super Freak - Big Daddy
Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaghan
Ring of Fire - Social Distortion
Kids In America - The Muffs

Bad:
Bohemian Rhapsody - SWV
Rock On - Michael Damian
I Love Rock & Roll - Brittany Spears
American Pie - Madonna
Shining Star - Stryper

I think most people consider the Aretha Franklin cover of "Respect" to be superior to the Otis Redding version. Mr. Redding, after hearing Ms. Franklin's version, reputedly said something along the lines of, "that girl stole my song!".

Personally, I think the Beatles cover of "Rock and Roll Music" is better than the Chuck Berry original.

Not Bad:
Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird (medley) by Will To Power, 1988 (Peter Frampton, 1976/Lynyrd Skynyrd, 197-)

Awful
Venus by Bananarama, 1986 (The Shocking Blue, 1970)

Different
Light My Fire by Jose Fellaciano, 1968 (The Doors, 1967)

Best:

-Pet Shop Boys - "Always on My Mind"

-Dubstar - "St. Swithin's Day"

-Ocean Blue - "There is a Light that Never Goes Out"

-Delgados version of Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" (B-side off of "All You Need is Hate" UK CD single) (hell they even played this as an encore at the Black Cat show I was at a week ago)

Worst:

Luna - "Bonnie and Clyde"

Good call!

Another one I love is Ben Lee's cover of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go".