Suprisingly Good Cover Versions (flip side of the "Bad Cover Tunes" thread)

Let's add some light to the proceedings. The flip side of the "Bad Cover Tunes" thread is "Surprisingly Good Cover Tunes." Find or link some that in you mind shouldn't work at all . . . and yet do.

I thought of this:

 

And maybe even more surprising - this:

 

Yo La Tengo's Little Honda

 

Quite like that one. Here's a link to one playable in Canada: YO LA TENGO - Little Honda (1997) [HD Video Clip]

 

Surprisingly we have a good open thread on this topic
Favorite Cover Songs
Frozen Plasma-I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too), 2006 PSB

 

Marsheaux-Get The Balance Right, 2017 DM

 

Don't like Grand Funk, but I thought this was pretty good...

 

And One-Michael Caine, 1998 Madness

 

Frazier Chorus-Anarchy in The UK, 1989 SP's

 

This isn't half bad. I dare not say how much I like it, not round here...

 

The Pet Shop Boys were asked to contribute a cover of an Elvis Presley song to a UK compilation, so they chose one of his B-sides and made it sound as un-Elvis-like as possible. The huge international hit "Always on My Mind" was the result.

 

Not sure why nobody has posted the obvious Johnny Cash cover of NiN's Hurt.
But I'm not going to do it. Rather, I'm posting Matthew Sweet's cover of the Scooby Doo Theme.

 

Zappa/Whipping Post

 

"Eye in the Sky" Jonatha Brooke

 

"More Than This" Charlie Hunter Quartet with Norah Jones

 

Yes. Although I would certainly expect a good cover from Neal Morse, especially if he is doing prog or 60s or 70s pop.

 

Yup. Would not think of Pet Shop Boys doing Elvis being very good at first blush. But they really made it their own . . . and it IS good.

 

Maybe because you expect Johnny Cash to deliver a good cover version. This is about UNEXPECTEDLY good cover versions.

 

More of a cover version that you probably wouldn't expect, rather than one that shouldn't work but does is Isaac Hayes' great version of the Blue Nile's sublime "Let's Go Out Tonight"…

 

Apoptygma Berzerk-Trash, 2009 Suede

 

Claudia Brucken-Everyone Says 'Hi', 2012 Bowie

 

Hmmm... I saw the cover by Jason and the Scorchers
This would have been my choice for this cover. The Mayalls.........