favorite cover songs

[wiscodevil]

here are some of mine. would love to add to my collection...

"I Believe" Sinead O'Connor (Bob Dylan)

"Helpless" k.d. lang (Neil Young)

"Wonderwall" Ryan Adams (Oasis)

"Hallelujah" Jeff Buckley (Leonard Cohen)

"Jolene" the Mindy Smith (Dolly Parton)

"Something" Paul McCartney (The Beatles)

"In My Life" Johnny Cash (The Beatles)

"Hurt" Johnny Cash (Nine Inch Nails)

"I Will Survive" Cake (Gloria Gaynor)

"A Murder Of One" Allison Crowe (Counting Crows)

"You're The One That I Want" Leah Joy (Olivia Newton John/John Travolta/Grease)

"I'm On Fire" Bat For Lashes (Bruce Springsteen)

"Born In The U.S.A." Ballboy (Bruce Springsteen)

"Don't Stop Believin'" Petra Haden (Journey)

I'm pretty sure just about all of these are available on iTunes, if you're interested.

[mpj96]

Was just listening to Neil Young singing "Imagine". That was a pretty good cover. Also, "Day Tripper" by Jimi Hendrix is probably even better than the original.

[hc5duke]

Ditto on "I Will Survive" Cake (Gloria Gaynor)

Others I like:
Puff Daddy "I'll Be Missing You" (The Police "Every Breath You Take")
Run DMC "Walk This Way" (Aerosmith, though it's pretty much the same song)

[rthomas]

Word Up - Willis
Stella Blue - Willie Nelson
Smoke on the Water - Judith Owen

[snowdenscold]

Because The Night - 10000 Manicas (Springsteen / Smith)
When You Say Nothing At All - Ronan Keating (Overstreet / Schlitz / Whitley)
Gladiator Soundtrack (Wagner / Holst)

[allenmurray]

All Along the Wtachtower - Jimi Hendrix (Bob Dylan). Hendrix simply owned that song. Even Dylan said "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

[mpj96]

Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson "Ghost Riders in the Sky"

[GDT]

A few more (I could write on this for hours):

Gloria, Patti Smith (Van Morrison)
Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough, The Embarassment (Michael Jackson)
The Drum, Bongwater (Slapp Happy)
Wayfaring Stranger/You Got Me Running, Tim Buckley (Traditional/Jimmy Reed)
Photograph, Camper Van Beethoven (Ringo Starr)
I Saw the Light, Lori Carson (Todd Rundgren)
Long Black Veil, Nick Cave (The Band)
Which Will, Lucinda Williams (Nick Drake)
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Leo Kottke (Bach?)
Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Television (Bob Dylan)
Bonnie & Clyde, (Serge Gainsborough)
End of the Rainbow, Barbara Manning (Richard Thompson)
I Love You, You Big Dummy, Magazine (Captain Beefheart)
Tears of a Clown, English Beat (Smoky Robinson)
St. Elmo's Fire, Portastatic (Brian Eno)
Sex Beat, Alejandro Escovedo (The Gun Club)
Percy's Song, Fairport Convention (Bob Dylan)
Victoria, The Fall (The Kinks)
What Goes on, The Feelies (velvet Underground)
Out of this World, Freakwater (Loudon Wainwright)
Motel Blues, Alex Chilton (Loudon Wainwright)
Listen the Sky is Falling, Galaxie 500 (Yoko Ono)
Hey Jude, Wilson Pickett (The Beatles)
Glory Box, John Martyn (Portishead)
Cosmic Slop, Material (Funkadelic?)
Dead Dog's Eyeball (album), Kathy McCarty (Daniel Johnson)
Makes No Difference, The Mekons (The Band)
Dear Darling, Sue Garner (Mary Margaret O'Hara)
Slip Inside This House, Primal Scream (13th Floor Elevators)
Satisfaction, Otis Redding (the Rolling Stones)
Cold Turkey, Soft Boys (John Lennon)
Soft Picasso, Kelly Hogan (Vic Chesnutt)
Eight Miles High, Husker Du (The Byrds)
Ohio/Machine Gun, The Isley Bros. (Neil Young/Jimi Hendrix)
David Watts, The Jam (The Kinks)
The James Bond Theme, John Zorn (Jerry Goldsmith)
and Yo La Tengo's Fakebook in its entirety.

[Bostondevil]

Elvis Costello's album of country covers, Almost Blue, is one of my favorites. I also love his cover of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.

Others:

(I'm not your)Stepping Stone - Swinging Richards (covering the Monkees)

First Cut is the Deepest - Sheryl Crow (covering Rod Stewart, I have the Stewart version on a 45 that I bought in the '70s, it was always my favorite Rod Stewart song, thanks Sheryl!)

[DevilAlumna]

Gin & Juice by Phish is pretty amusing, especially if you're more familiar with Snoop Dogg's original.

[Highlander]

Gin & Juice by Phish is pretty amusing, especially if you're more familiar with Snoop Dogg's original.

It's actually by the Gourds, although I've seen Phish mistakenly get credit for it before. I credit that version for teaching me the words

If you like covers that are different from the originals, how about these?
Smooth Criminal - Adam Ant (Michael Jackson)
Hard Luck Woman - Garth Brooks (Kiss)
Summertime Blues - Rush (but who hasn't done this cover)
You Really Got Me - Van Halen (the Romantics)
Ice Cream Man - Van Halen (John Brim)

and, I'll hate myself for this one in the morning...
Your momma don't dance - Poison (Loggins and Messina)

The entire second disk of Garage, inc. by Metallica is awesome. The Poison cover album... not so much.

[rthomas]

Gin & Juice by Phish is pretty amusing, especially if you're more familiar with Snoop Dogg's original.

I love the Gourds version of G&J. Awesome.

[captmojo]

Yellow Submarine by Mrs. Miller

[duke74]

Because The Night - 10000 Manicas (Springsteen / Smith)
When You Say Nothing At All - Ronan Keating (Overstreet / Schlitz / Whitley)
Gladiator Soundtrack (Wagner / Holst)

When you say...also a great version by Alison Krauss (Keating's is on the Notting Hill Soundtrack, BTW)

[snowdenscold]

When you say...also a great version by Alison Krauss (Keating's is on the Notting Hill Soundtrack, BTW)

Yup that was actually the first time I heard the song - in the movie. I like his version better than Alison's.

[snowdenscold]

It's actually by the Gourds, although I've seen Phish mistakenly get credit for it before. I credit that version for teaching me the words
...
You Really Got Me - Van Halen (the Romantics)

Speaking of miscredits - I think you meant the Kinks, not Romantics?

[duke74]

Yup that was actually the first time I heard the song - in the movie. I like his version better than Alison's.

So do I. (I believe he was a member of some Boy Band).

The song was written by Keith Whitley. Krauss's version was included in a tribute album to his memory (died too young from acute alcoholism, I believe). His version grabs you...

[merry]

Ditto on "I Will Survive" Cake (Gloria Gaynor)

Others I like:
Puff Daddy "I'll Be Missing You" (The Police "Every Breath You Take")
Run DMC "Walk This Way" (Aerosmith, though it's pretty much the same song)

Double ditto on "I Will Survive" by Cake. I like "Walk this Way" by Run DMC as well as "All Along the Watchtower" by Hendrix that allenmurray mentioned. All of those were better as covers than as originals.

Yesterday I was listening to "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" by White Stripes and thinking how brilliant that was. I'm not sure who to credit with the original version as I think a lot of people have recorded it (it's a Bacharach and David song).

[snowdenscold]

So do I. (I believe he was a member of some Boy Band).

The song was written by Keith Whitley. Krauss's version was included in a tribute album to his memory (died too young from acute alcoholism, I believe). His version grabs you...

Well to be accurate, it was written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz. Keith Whitley heard it soon thereafter, liked it, and was the first to perform.


(Sorry, one of my pet peeves is the fact that songwriters pretty much get absolutely no credit in the music industry - at least to the general public - since about 1950. I think they're just as important as the performing artist)

[wilson]

Emmylou Harris-"Lodi" (Fogerty/CCR original)
Johnny Cash-"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" (Dylan)
Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard-"Pancho and Lefty" (Townes van Zant)