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Gonna go retro with this one: Madness' cover of Labi Siffre's It Must Be Love
If I remember rightly, Siffre appears in Madness' music video for the song, so it had his seal of approval too. (I mean, yeah, they wouldn't have done a cover if he hadn't agreed to it, but appearing in the video is a force multiplier on that.)
A Perfect Circle - When the levee breaks.
Extremely far away from Led Zeppelin. But it's just so nice and soothing.
Also, "Peace love and understanding" from the same album, for the same reasons.
Ween's version of All of My Love. Which I've only ever heard through a crappy phone recording of a live event. Despite that, it's still better than the original.
A-ha's acoustic version of Take On Me is wonderful and very different from the original.
While I love the original version, Seethers cover of Careless Whisper is one of my favourite songs ever.
By no means do I think she did it better than Joplin. But Pink's AOL Sessions performance of Me and Bobby McGee has stuck in my head for decades now. (And for what it's worth, both are better than the original from Kristofferson)
Second choice, and another one that I legitimately think is better than the original, *Tweeter and the Monkey Man" by The Headstones.
Edited: Honourable Mention, because no one ever actually tops The Clash. But Captain Tractor did a version of London Calling that is one of my favourites.
Edited: Okay...one last one. Specifically for the Saskies. Captain Tractor's version of the Arrogant Worm's "Last Saskatchewan Pirate".
For a bit of context, back in the 90s, my then girlfriend and I were decent friends with the band. Enough so that whenever they would come to Saskatoon they'd crash at our place and we'd go hang out backstage at their shows. Weird because the reason we knew them in the first place was because the drummer was my girlfriends ex....but hey...it was the 90s.
Just an all around bar-band all about drinking songs. Something young people don't do anymore. Was talking to a buddy of mine the other day about how every bar we used to go to in the 90s has been demolished.
The Lovemongers version of Battle of Evermore catches me the right way sometimes. I prefer the original, but their version is excellent as well
How about a whole album? Billie Joe Armstrong: No Fun Mondays He recorded these and released them on several Mondays back in early lockdown. I love the hell out of this album.
The Z-Trip remix of I Want You Back, which is more of a demix than a remix or cover. It strips away a lot of the production and emphasizes the subtle guitar riff really nicely
Tool's cover of No Quarter by Led Zeppelin. Page was channeling future Adam Jones with those riffs. It's s a shame that the only official release of that song is on Tool's coveted "Salival" album which is notoriously hard to get ahold of for anything even resembling a decent price if you can even find a good copy. Damn, I wish they would re-release that album.
Last Resort by Falling in Reverse. This band has quickly become one of my favorites. Them and I Prevail can really throw down some emotions.
Eleanor Rigby by Pain
Saw that one live in 2002. Amazing show.
I love Avantasia's "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Originally by ABBA). Metal covers can sometimes feel lazy, but this is an excellent rendition. It feels like the perfect coming together of two distinct parts of me: the me that daubs myself in rainbows to dance to ABBA at the gay club; and the metal/punk energy of the majority of my style and music taste. It always goes down well at parties.
Edit: I am having more songs coming to mind, but a weird one I can't help mentioning is Edmund Welles cover of "Hallowed Be Thy Name".. It's a clarinet quartet (+vocals) cover that I didn't know I needed until I heard it. So delightfully weird, and it has no right to go as hard as it does
I prefer Van Halen's versions of Pretty Woman and California Girls - to some this is sacrilege but I like Eddie's guitar work.
Quite a few famous songs people think are the originals were actually covers of songs by musicians who never got famous. Some of Elvis Presley's hits were older blues songs. "I Love Rock & Roll" by Joan Jett was originally done by a group called The Arrows. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was originally recorded by a guy named Robert Hazard. Who?? Yeah, exactly lol.
Muse did a great job of converting Feeling Good. It was a bold choice and they smashed it.
Yeah, its a great version. Almost a completely different song.
Within Temptation's cover of Radioactive by They Might Be Dragons. Much better. That said, nothing can beat the hilarious acid trip that is the original's music video.
Dont you mean imagine giants? 😜
I'm not sure Last Kiss by Pearl Jam is actually better than the original but it definitely deserves honorable mention.