Covers Versions that are outrageously creative/inventive.

I loooove The Guess Who's coffee-house-shuffle treatment of BTO's "Let It Ride" from 2001's Running Back Through Canada.

OH, and by the way, Burton took Randy's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" into the hotel lounge on his second solo LP.

801's live take on "Tomorrow Never Knows".

Alison Krauss/Union Station really smoothed-out Todd's "It Wouldn't've Made Any Difference".

And I've loved Deodato's live, roaring, horn-infused "Do It Again"(Steely Dan) from the day it came out.

 

Not a band that I really listen to, but heard this version and it's definitely a unique twist on a classic.

 

It's really, really bad, but this is certainly a creative and inventive cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (the "fun" begins just after 1:17 of this video):

 

Since NumberEight above threw in a Henry Kaiser, have to put in one from an album of his that I own. The Andy Griffith theme song with lyrics. Try that under the influence...

 

On a more serious note, I've always enjoyed the Pet Shop Boys' take on "Always on My Mind":

 

of course devo: satisfaction!

 

One of the great creative covers of all time took a Tin Pan Alley love song and turned it into a vocal-group classic (and a #1 hit in 1961):

 

Almost everyone who recorded (or records) "Unchained Melody" does it as a ballad. And then there were Vito and the Salutations, who did it like this in 1963:

 

Gloria
Patti Smith

 

That belongs in the 'covers better than the original' thread.

 

While my guitar gently weeps - on ukelele - outrageous - stick with it, the eplaying becomes massive
Jake Shimabukuro

 

Not long after Dinosaur Jr covered the Cure song "Just Like Heaven" in 1987, The Cure began to cover the Dinosaur Jr cover of "Just Like Heaven".

 

Can't post it yet, but Cindy Wilson's forthcoming solo album includes a pop/electronica version of the New Colony Six's "Things I'd Like to Say" that's absolutely gorgeous.

 

Sturgill Simpsons covers Nirvana

 

The Gourds cover Snoop

 

Robert Wyatt's cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free".

 

One of my faves, here's the alt-country band Lambchop doing a slow smoldering late night take on the Sisters of Mercy goth anthem This Corrosion.

 

Elton's cover of Lucy In The Sky and Pinball Wizard....both from 1974!!!

Phenomenal!

 

Loved the original and this 80s cover by Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin:

 

They also do a great cover of The Stones' "Back Street Girl" Lambshop - Backstreet Girl.wmv

 

Molly Hatchet

0:13:17 - Dreams I'll Never See

 

Yup, it's definitive.