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What cover songs do you feel are better than the original?

FoxMcChief

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
I've been going down a music rabbit hole and I came across the classic Turn the Page by Bob Seger. Which led me to wanting to listen to Metallica's fantastic cover. I just feel like they improved it 10 fold.



What's a cover song that you feel is better than the original?
 








Honorable mention to Alien Ant Farm's Smooth Criminal. Not better than MJ, but still a total banger.
 
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Lots of versions of this song. But I like this one




This version made Dolly a ton of money. But it is a better version than hers.

 
Also, I love this version of 'Tweeter and the Monkey Man' (Traveling Wilburys) by The Headstones, one of my favourite bands

 
Jaybe said:
I love Guns n' Roses covers, but the standouts to me are 'Live and Let Die' (Wings) and 'Mama Kin' (Aerosmith)



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Good shout. I was at Wembley, London for the use your illusion tour, some of the footage for Live and let die is from that gig.

Good times.
 
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Guns - Kncking on heaven's doors
Limp - Behind blue eyes
Oasis - Cum on feel the noiz
Whitney - I'll always love you
Coolio - Gangsta's paradise
Take That - How deep is your love
 
FoxMcChief said:
Bro, Cash's Hurt is fucking crazy good too.
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Recontextualizing that song to apologize to your audience that you know you're dying and it will literally hurt them really steals the limelight about the original being the end of someone's tortured mindset. Trent even said something like "it was like someone stealing my wife in front of my eyes"
 
this is one of the rare ones where I think that not only is the cover version better, but the original is absolutely hot garbage... sorry Springsteen, but Manfred Mann owns this song and turned it into something you can actually listen to. and not only that, they made it into an actual banger too.



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edit: like listen to this shit... this doesn't even sound like a coherent song. it sounds like someone recorded over another song on a broken cassette recorder, and you still hear the other song in the background...



it's so shit. the only thing you can do listening to this is laugh at how bad it is. it's almost impressive that Manfred Mann took this and fixed it. it's also thanks to the Manfred Mann cover that Springsteen got his first and only billboard number 1 as a songwriter btw.
 
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Audiophile said:
Gotta add in his cover of Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Black Girl/In The Pines) too:



His eyes at 4:49 freak me the hell out too.
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Yeah, that was an amazing song too. That whole setlist was good. People should listen to more Nirvana and not just the big 3 hits, he really had talent and went far too soon
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Another one that I think is just as good as the original
 
I was hugely into Nirvana back in the day, but I find them hard to listen to now. Any time I have my music library on random play and Nirvana comes on, I almost always skip it. Teenage angst, weak lyrics, the fact that I still see their T-shirts everywhere but on nobody older than about 15.

Patti Smith got to the core of their melody here though:

 
a cover version so good that it helped the original band Slade get signed with American record companies. multiple record companies tried to outbid eachother to sign Slade... all due to this cover version of their song:



edit: the music video is apparently age restricted, so as an alternative:
 
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Not sure if this counts since it was his own song, but this one:



This version really stuck out to me over the original when I first heard it on the TV show Scrubs:



It fits more of that 'day by day' tone of work and life that the original was going for, and the type of guitar he uses in this version has more of a lighter feel of 'don't worry, it will be alright' over the original's saxophone.

On a side note, I've seen quite a few doctor-drama TV shows come and go but I truly believe that Scrubs might be the best one of all time. It's just so grounded and relatable on so many levels that even actual medical staff have commented on how Scrubs got so many things right over other medical shows, especially when it comes to the daily grind of it.
 
FoxMcChief said:
I've been going down a music rabbit hole and I came across the classic Turn the Page by Bob Seger. Which led me to wanting to listen to Metallica's fantastic cover. I just feel like they improved it 10 fold.



What's a cover song that you feel is better than the original?
Click to expand...

Funny thing for me is while I love a lot of Metallica's covers…'Whiskey in the Jar' being one:


…I oddly enough prefer the Apocalyptica versions of most of their songs:





It just works so well.
 
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Audiophile said:
Not better but really, really good stripped down... I actually find myself listening to it more often.

Norah Jones - Black Hole Sun



Five days after Cornell died.

Just found it was released on album too:
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I agree. this version is great and I love Jones' performance. it actually reminded me of another cover of the same song.





might not be as good as Jones' but I love it all the same. and also another cover that I like.


 
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