Favourite cover versions?

Starting with just a couple
Human League - You've lost that loving feeling (Righteous Brothers)
This Mortal Coil - Song to the siren (Tim Buckley)
Converge - Disintegration (The Cure)

 

John Coltrane - "My Favourite Things" from the Sound of Music (I forget who did it on Broadway before the movie), silk purse/sow's ear?

 

24 pages of favorites
Favorite Cover Songs

 

whoops

 

Be Good Tanyas covering Neil Young's For The Turnstiles:

 

This version of Led Zepp's Dancing Days by the Stone Temple Pilots:

 

Eilen Jewell's cover of CCR's Green River.

You can actually hear the lyrics!

 

Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
(Bob Dylan)

Nazareth - Love Hurts
(Boudleaux Bryant)
*first recorded by the Everly Brothers

Ike & Tina Turner - Come Together
(Lennon-McCartney)

Rolling Stones - Mona
(Bo Diddley)

Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away
(Buddy Holly)

 

Crossroads- Cream
Crossroads- Free

 

I love the Stones’ ‘Dead Flowers’, but the New Riders of the Purple Sage’s version, amazingly, managed to top it (at least in my opinion). Skip Batten’s propulsive bassline and the late great Buddy Cage’s fuzzed out pedal steel playing resulted in a version that walks the perfect line between country and rock.

 

'Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile' as interpreted by country legend Ray Lynam

 

I still contend this is the best cover song ever. The fact that you could turn a rap song into an epic bluegrass/country jam melts my brain.

 

For what it's worth, these are the top 10 cover versions of all time, as voted by the listeners of "Off the Record", a program on community radio station RRR FM:

1. Hallelujah (L.Cohen) Jeff Buckley
2. With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
3. All Along The Watchtower (B.Dylan, Electric Ladyland, 1968)Jimi Hendrix
4. Angel From Montgomery (J.Prine, Streetlights, 1974) Bonnie Raitt
5. Eleanor Rigby - The Zoot
6. I Fought The Law (Cost of Living EP, 1979) The Clash
7. Respect (O.Redding) - Aretha Franklin
8. Take Me To The River (A.Green-Mabon. Hodges) (More Songs About Buildings and Food) Talking Heads
9. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (B.Dylan) )Nina Simone
10. Highway 61 Revisited (B.Dylan) Dave Alvin

As you can probably gather, this program attracts a lot of listeners from the "Sixventies" generation.

 

The Beatles ‘Rock and Roll Music’
Elvis Presley ‘Polk Salad Annie’
Joe Cocker ‘Seven Days’
Richard Sinclair ‘For Absent Friends’
Robert Wyatt ‘I’m A Believer’
Japan ‘Ain’t That Peculiar’
The Jam ‘David Watts’
Bryan Ferry ‘The In Crowd’
Sassafras ‘Ohio’
James Taylor ‘You’ve Got A Friend’

 

Good Times Bad Times -- Tony Franklin, Mr. Jimmy, Yoyoka, Paulie Z

 

Two favourites that come to mind

Tomorrow Is A Long Time - Elvis Presley (Dylan)
Jealous Guy - Ferry/Roxy Music (Lennon)

 

Laibach - Life is Life.

Here's a live version.

 

Smak El dumo (cover of Steve Ellis' "El Doomo") 1976

 

Tainted Love has to be one of the best!
Mony mony (live) - billy idol version
Port of Amsterdam - Bowie
Ziggy stardust - Bauhaus

 

Thin Lizzy - Rosalie
The Stranglers- Walk on By

 

This isn't even the best cover version of this song, let alone top 10 all-time.

 

So whose cover do you think is best?

 

This is one that would have made my list:

Gary Shearston - I Get a Kick Out of You (Cole Porter)

I did not even particularly like this song until I heard this version.

 

The Bobby Fuller Four's version was a cover. In fact, their hit version of "I Fought The Law" wasn't even the first time Fuller recorded and released it as a single.