Great Song Covers

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Not a favorite but Rock On has been covered by several bands - I have Blondie's recent version. Also was done by Def Leopard, Smashing Pumpkins and a couple lesser known groups. Originally by David Essex in the 60's?.

One I sort of like is Pearl Jam's cover of The Who classic Love Reign O'er Me

All along the Watchtower is another - originally by Dylan, covered by Hendrix and later covered by Dave Matthews then U2 on Rattle & Hum.

Michael Hedges did an absolutely great version of "All Along the Watchtower" on a live album.
 
I was listening to the radio last night and heard for the first time the cover version performed by Disturbed of the Simon & Garfunkel classic, The Sound of Silence. I thought it might be the best cover version of a song I had ever heard. That guy has pretty good vocal range for a heavy metal singer.
Couple of my friends feel the same way but personally, I thought he could've owned it more. To me, it sounds like Disturbed doing a cover of S&G doing SoS instead of Disturbed doing SoS. Don't know if that makes sense to anyone else. Maybe put a bit more of an edge in it?

As for my favorite cover, it'd probably be Molly Hatchet's version of the Allman's "Dreams I'll Never See." Both versions are great on their own but they're such different takes on it that they're almost completely different songs.
 
Hah! My youngest had to do a paper in his Bob Dylan as literature class this last semester and I tried to convince him that Shatner's cover of Mr. Tamborine Man was widely considered the definitive version. Unfortunately, he's pretty wise to me by now and wasn't having any of it.
 
Tin Spirits' cover of Genesis' Back in NYC.
 
Love Guns and Roses cover Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. It has also been a cover for over 95 singers / bands to include Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, The Alarm, Dead Ringers, Youme, etc. Some songs were were just destined to be great.
 
Tom Waits - I put a spell on you (Screaming Jay Hawkins)
Tori Amos - Time (Tom Waits)
Marianne Faithfull - Working Class Hero (John Lennon)
Marianne Faithfull - Ballad of Lucy Jordan (Dr. Hook)
 
Love Guns and Roses cover Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. It has also been a cover for over 95 singers / bands to include Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, The Alarm, Dead Ringers, Youme, etc. Some songs were were just destined to be great.
One of the most poignant coves of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" was by Warren Zevon, who recorded it knowing he would be dead from cancer within a few months.
 
Did y'all know that the Doors' "Alabama song" was written by Kurt Weill? So that's a cover version, too.

Is Bowie's or Iggy's version of "China Girl" the original, and which is the cover version?

Elvis Costello does a darned good version of The Animals' "Don't let me be misunderstood". At least as good as the original.

Patti Smith's version "Gloria", with "In excelsis Deo" beats Van Morrison's original hands down. 'Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine!'

Other good cover versions:
Simple Minds does a pretty decent take of Peter Gabriel's "Biko"
Marianne Faithfull did a pretty good job out of the Stones' "As tears go by"
Both Johnny Cash and Nancy Sinatra had good covers of Bob Dylan's "It ain't me, babe"
Dexy's Midnight Runners: "Jackie Wilson said" (Van Morrison)
Satchmo's verson of "Mack the knife" (Kurt Weill, again)
Baccara did a deliciously bad version of "Light my fire" (The Doors), replacing Ray Manzarek's keyboard solo with a flamenco guitar solo. It's so spectacularly bad that it's good.
Nina Hagen's version of "My way" (Ol' blue eyes) is almost as good as The Sex Pistols' version
Then we have Bob Dylan's "Blind Wille McTell" which really is the old classic "St James Infirmary"
Both Janis' and Miles' versions of "Summertime" (Gilbert & Sullivan) are just great
Softcell's version of "Tainted Love" is at least as good as Gloria Jones' original version and beats Marilyn Manson's version every time.
I can't decide whether Miles' or Eva Cassidy's version of "Time after time" (Cyndi Lauper) is the best. They're both great, though.
Bruce Springsteen's live version of Edwin Starr's "War" is every bit as good as the original
And Jeff Healey does a decent job with The Beatles' (or rather, John Harrison's) "While my guitar gently weeps"

Yes, I'm a music nerd. Why do you ask?
 
The following is posted because I think some musicologists will find the history of the covers interesting.

When Ram Jam came out with its song "Black Betty" (Bam-ba-lam), my local radio station was really big on it, and I liked it. It was not for many years that I learned the nature of this cover.

The most well known previous recording of it was by Hudie Ledbetter (better known as Leadbelly) in 1939, and he has historically been given credit for creating it, even though he never claimed for it himself and there are previous recordings. His version is the one Ram Jam followed. Leadbelly had been in prison for many years (you probably have heard many covers of his version of "Midnight Special" about being released), and all agree that the song was used by prison chain gangs. As Leadbelly explained it, its rhythm was used to time sledge hammer hits.

The meaning of "Black Betty" is disputed, and the phrase appears in writing as much as 300 years ago. It appears to have referred at times to a bottle of liquor. In reading the various explanations, I believe that in terms of its usage with chain gangs, it most likely refers to the bullwhip used to keep prisoners working.

In doing further research on this topic, I learned that prison work groups in the south were used as a substitute for slavery. When a black man committed a crime (or maybe not), even a minor one, he would be sentenced to an inordinately long sentence. Those prisoners were then leased out to work year round (without pay) on different projects, including, yes, picking cotton on the plantations where their fathers and grandfathers had once worked as slaves.
 
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