Robert Wyatt.
Genius.

Like A Prayer by Marc Almond is pop genius. The choir joining in at the end is ace.

A Perfect Circle (from the eMotive album; also contains great versions of Imagine, (What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding)

I'd also go for this:

Sandie's album Reviewing The Situation is chock full of great covers: Love Me Do, Lay Lady Lay, Led Zep's Your Time Is Gonna Come and the maddest version of Sympathy For The Devil, played at about twice the speed of the original!

Check out The Supremes' A Bit Of Liverpool lp from about 1964 as well. It's not great by any means, but there's some interesting versions of British invasion tunes, including a cracking version of House Of The Rising Sun.

Kevin's skull makes a nice sound

This one's pretty hard to beat, Cassandra Wilson doing the '2's "Love Is Blindness"

I love cover versions, but many fail thru' neither being either the same enough or different enough.....
This contradiction is allowed as, by and large, a cover version should have sufficient new to say or sound so as to render it different from the old and remembered, or be such a good song as to carry, irrespective. I think there are fewer of the latter than the former. New in sound can be as simple as the sex of the singer, which is often a lazy approach, again usually failing unless the song is an absolute stunner, as After the Goldrush, whether Neil, Harris/Ronstadt/Parton, k.d.lang or Prelude . The speed can be altered,(Modern Girl, Sheena Easton versus Camera Obscura, the style (Let's Dance, David Bowie versus M. Ward) and genre (Hotel California, Eagles versus Gypsy Kings)can be altered, as can the instrumentation, which is not always the same (Cortez the Killer, neil Young versus Carrie Rodrigues). Some have made it their career, others just throw in an occasional.
O, and the novelty cover, usually a clunker, unless done very very well.
Here are some examples, some well known, others less.
Walking in Memphis is best known either as a Cher song, unless you know Marc Cohns original, in which case that one. They are virtually identical, even to the vocal sound, but, both work well, presumably thru similarity rather than despite. This normally fails, as so very, very many of Joe Cockers covers fail, adding nowt to the original. However, compare his "Don't let me be misunderstood" with some of the other versions, Elvis Costello and John Legend, say, or with the (probbaly not) original, Nina Simone, where it adds just enough to change Ninas sparse yet effective template. Elvis adds not enough, whereas John Legend swamps it.
Sticking with Elvis, and picking a strong song again, Dark End of the Street is seldom messed with, so as to maintain the strong country and/or soul sound of it. (Trust me on this, most of soul transposes to country with little more than a change of instruments, from brass to steel often being enough)So the James Carr original differs little from Percy Sledge or Aretha, but add some twang and you have Dan Penn, who wrote it, the Burritos, Linda Ronstadt. Or even Richard and Linda Thompson. Eels, Frank Black and the aforementioned Elvis all play it roughly down the middle, with their differeing inflections.
Even rough and ready songs like Alone Again Naturally, even tho' much loved by Gilbertophiles, it really is a pretty plink plonk song, transcending into a thing of poignant beauty by Lori Cullen. Or a dirge of abject misery by Michael Weston King.
Straight out of Compton rightly gets a mention above: Ben Folds does similar to Bitches Ain't shit; like all his covers, it sounds a little like Jackson Browne meets Elton, but the words, the words.
I'm going on too much, so a brief spin on novelty covers, from Senor and the Coconuts' Riders on the Storm to the whole of Hayseed Dixie or Richard Cheese.Can be funny the first time. Or first few times. Do Susanna and the Magic Orchestra count in this category, I wonder, with their nordic gloomfest covers? Or Nouvelle Vague withy their gallic cool covers, often becoming much the same, really.

Blancmange's superior version of Abba's The Day Before You Came

Japan's All Tomorrow's Parties

Teenage Fanclub "Here Comes Your Man" (Pixies)

Pogues "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" (Willie Nelson)

Nick Cave "Disco 2000" (brilliant Waltz version - Pulp)

Jimi Hendrix "All Along The Watchtower" (Bob Dylan)

Having just downloaded (thanks, e-music) a bluegrass version of Don't Fear the Reaper by(?) Songs from the Blue House, this sits admirably alongside an excellent electro version by Heaven 17 and the country pop of the Beauutiful South, the least successful version of a fabulous original, the best Byrds song never written or performed by the Byrds, and Blue Oysster Cults finest moment. Proves how good the original was.

Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds doing Careless Whisper is quite nice

Common People. This, to me, is a genuiunly excellent cover version. I put it on in the morning if I need to kick start the day. Absolutly brilliant.

Only Love Can Break Your Heart - St Etienne version of Neil Young

Cake - I Will Survive, loose, funky, laid-back rock version

Stranglers - Walk On By

Television - Satisfaction and Knockin' On Heavens Door - from the live on Blow-Up album in their own particular style

All these are great songs you can take liberties with I guess.

Actually, I think that Marvin Gaye's version of Heard It Through The Grapevine (released in 1968) is a pretty good cover of the orignial Glady Knight & the Pips release from 1967 (which is also one of my favourite Motown singles!)

Actually, what I was going to nominate were a couple of Nanci Griffith recordings of John Prine's "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" and Ralph McTell's "From Clare to Here".

Also rather keen on Amy Grant's "If these walls could speak" (by Jimmy Webb), Kate Rusby's "Village Green Preservation Society" (by... I'm not going to insult your intelligence) and Siobahn Maher-Kennedy's "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" (see above comment...)

Does anyone else own this rather excellent compilation of Elektra artists covering songs from the label's back catalogue? I've been listening to it in the car recently and there's some great covers on it.

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" by Them:

The Sonic Youth track is from the "If I Were a Carpenter.." album, which a mixed bag... Sheryl Crow's version of "Solitaire", American Music Club's "Goodbye to Love" and Shonen Knife's "Top of the World" are worth seeking out, but then you get dross like 4 Non Blondes "Bless the Beasts and the Children", a lumpen mauling of a cover version...

Somebody brought Maria McKee into the bass players thread. Lone Justice did a cracking version of Sweet Jane live. The Cowboy Junkies version is superb as well.

And talking of Velvets Covers:

Bowie doing White Light White Heat

Edwyn Collins and Paul Quinn doing Pale Blue Eyes....

I have never heard a bad version of Through The Grapevine. Marvin Gaye, The Slits and Creedence Clearwater Revival all did highly individual and brilliant covers.

Now, as to other covers, I'm a little suprised nobody has yet mentioned Hayseed Dixie. I first heard them doing The Darkness' "I believe in a thing called love" on Radio 2. A perfect WTF moment if ever there was. For pure class, though, listen to their bluegrass take on "Ace Of Spades" - or you can watch this clip of them doing Green Day's "Holiday"

Another act that could do good was The Beautiful South; they even managed to come up with that rarest of beasts, a half decent covers album. It was a hell of a varied selection, taking in The Ramones (Blitzkreig Bop), Lush (Ciao!) ELO (Livin' Thing - a straight cover, sadly) and, bizarrely, a down-tempo shot at S Club 7's "Don't Stop".
They did a similar trick to "You're the one that I want" from Grease...

By The Leningrad Cowboys & The Red Army Choir !

by Rik Waller
who would have thought that anyone could top Whitney?

You know I'm kidding dontcha? Every time some dribbling wannabe says to Simon Cowell "I'm gonna do 'I will always love you' by Whitney Houston" the red mist descends.

so he's a likely cover star in more ways than one. This is a folky version of Hey Ya and it works a treat.

The Jesus and Mary Chain's 'Head On' was given the treatment by The Pixies and what a wonderful job they did too!

Stiff Little Fingers cover of The Specials 'Doesn't Make It Alright' is a gem

The Clash 'I Fought The Law' was superb

The Ramones always did good covers....California Sun, Let's Dance Surfin' Bird etc

These ones just tickle me;

To Love Somebody - Slobberbone
All Apologies - Kathryn Williams
Can´t Get You Out Of My Head - The Flaming Lips
In Between Days - Ben Folds
Straight to Hell - Josh Rouse
Let Down - Toots and The Maytalls

We threw up some insane cover versions here:
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/quite-possibly-very-insane-cover-v...
Not all of them great though. Some have probably never been listened to twice by the same person.

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Tori Amos.

Patti Smith does a good 'un, on her covers LP, altogether a good disc, discounting the odd choice of Everybody wants to rule the world, never a good song in anyones hands.
Tori does a goodish Losing my Religion. She also has a covers LP of songs more commonly attributed to men, including an odd version of Strange Little Girl, the Stranglers song.

The Smithereens - 'Meet The Smithereens'
A blow for blow remake of the 'Meet The Beatles' album.

The Shirley Scott Horns - 'Get Back'
A meltdown belter of the Fabs tune

Norma White - 'I Want Your Love' a Reggae rework of the Chic tune.

Wynder K Frog - 'Green Door'

Merry Clayton - 'Gimme Shelter'
Lungbusting at it's best (Merry was the backing vocalist on the Stones original version of 'Shelter')

Mel Torme - 'Games People Play'

Peggy Lee - ' Everyday People' - yes the Sly Stone tune

And this....

Ananda Shankar - 'Jumping Jack Flash'

Compare, if you will, the versions of 'Son Of A Preacher Man' by Dusty and Aretha, respectfully. Both humdingers, though by more exposure, Dusty's takes the digestive. While on the subject of Aretha, try 'I'm In Love' versus the Wilson Pickett cut. Wilson wins by a neck. We could extend this thread by including Beatles' songs done better. Not many, I agree but surely the aforementioned Joe Cocker's finest hour is 'With A Little Help From My Friends' (Woodstock live version, of course). Any more fab cover favourites?

A brilliant version of Broooooooce's Cover Me and a corking version of The Clash's I'm Not Down. Both on freebie CD's given away with rival publications!

Have a soft spot for The Housemartin's Caravan of Love too...

doing This Corrosion by the Sisters - top notch country-gothic.

Frank Bennett positively swings along with Creep.

The King not quite murdering Come As You Are

http://www.last.fm/music/The+King/_/Come+as+You+Are

This a brilliant thread - any discussion that mentions Japan's sublime version of 'All Tomorrow's Parties' is one of fine vintage - but it got me thinking. At what point do these versions no longer count as covers?

To my mind, a cover is an alternative version of a song that has had a definitive recording at some time whereas some songs enter the lexicon to such a depth that singing them no longer counts as a cover. Some boy band singing a Carpenters song might be a cover, but Matt Monro singing 'Michelle' is not. Old standards like Mack the Knife and Summertime are the obvious candidates but I'd chuck in most Beatles and a lot of Dylan. Could anyone be said to 'cover' 'Blowin' in the Wind'? There are tons of songs that are just too commonplace to count as being eligible to covers.

Like Jacqueline du Pré's performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto, for instance?

BTW, the whole of Shelby Lynne's 'Just A Little Lovin'' album is a sublime cover of Dusty's greatest.

Mike Flowers Pops doing Wonderwall, and Born to be Wild by Ozzy Osbourne and Miss Piggy. No, I'm not joking.

I have bleated the case of The Sisters Of Mercy's cover versions on here, but it seems I'm well outta sync

so here's something else(ish)

The Sisters Of Mercy are nothing but a brand now.
A nostalgia trip, no matter what "young guns" are added.
Mr. E needs his fix of "crowd adoration" that's all.
So, some "fans" got it together to record unreleased (he's famously litigious) tracks by Mr. E .
Some are good, Some are bad, but one shines brightly:
Summer by Ahráyeph
Raf (all will become clear) thought it had potential and he wanted to hear what a finished version might sound like, so he did it himself http://users.telenet.be/ahrayeph/Summer_Demo_242.mp3>Summer
The band are pronounced 'R' 'A' 'F' (geddit?) and the noise is no YouTube pile of arse!

He's no 'JCL' having played live in front of many, and produced several albums, the man has talent.
Click on it, it's free and uses minimal bandwidth.

I suppose a slightly different thread but there are songs where the cover is the first one you heard. So when you discover something that you thought was an original is in fact a cover, it is not one that comes to mind when asked for your favourite cover versions. The big one from my youth would be Tainted Love. I had no idea it was a Northern Soul floor filler, I just thought it was a school disco floor filler. So it's one of my favourite covers without feeling like a cover at all.

Tricky's reworking of Public Enemy's Black Steel is trully amazing.

Otherwise I join the crowd in voting for Hendrix's Watchtower, and the Clash on Police and Thieves.

On her Relations album Kathryn Williams pulls off the remarkable feat of covering several songs, the originals of which are classics, and really making it work.

Another song which I thought was hard to screw up is Song To The Siren. The version by This Mortal Coil of course almost eclipses the orginal, but then The Czars also do a very fine version.

Unfortunately James Yorkston, on the otherwise excellent Roaring The Gospel collection, manages to absolutely kill it.

Someone mentioned Speed Of The Sound of Loneliness - another good version is by Robert Forster, and a right clunker by Alabama 3. (Changing the great line about "coming home curly" to "come home fucked up"?!? No, no no.)

Zoot Woman (aka Stuart Price, aka Jacques Lu Cont, aka Les Rhythmes Digitales) did the most amazing version of Kraftwerk's 'The Model' on their album (Living in a Magazine). It actually makes Kraftwerk's version sound like the cover...

... if you want a really fine cover of The Model, The Balanescu Quartet do a brilliant string instrumental version which really is lovely.

For me the best covers are either the ones done in a spirit of love (John Cale or Jeff Buckley doing Cohen's Hallelujah, Hendrix doing Watchtower) or mischief (Fatima Mansions sampling porn during their cover of Shiny Happy People).

Can I suggest Aretha Franklin as the greatest cover artist ever? Burt Bacharach said somewhere that her version of I Say A Little Prayer is the only time one of his songs was bettered by a later artist and lest we forget Respect was an Otis Redding Cover as well.

Of course Otis did a mean Satisfaction...

Not wanting to sound negative, but Light My Fire has been through the mill a few times. Will Young didn't do it any favours, and Massive Attack's version is just awful - featured singer Horace Andy in fact thought they were doing a Jose Feliciano number.

On one of his solo albums released during the height of his Minder/Sweeney career, Dennis does Stuck In The Middle With You. Not too bad actually.

There's a rich seam of covers in the Muppet Show. Watch this and tell me it doesn't make you smile.

Okay maybe I'm still sleeping but...

Johnny Cash - Hurt, less covering more taking rightful
ownership.
Merry Clayton - Gimmie Shelter, If only the stones were this good.
Willy DeVille - You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory.
A beautiful tribute nuff said.

And a couple that still make me smile,
The Slackers - Wanted Dead Or Alive, The only way I'm listening to Blond Jokie
The Gourds - Gin & Juice (Try some of the live versions found at "internet archive", that'll be an afternoon lost. good for Ryan Adams covering Madonna as well)

Janice Long played The Manic Street Preachers version of Rhianna's Umbrella last night. I've never really seen the point of them, but what an amazing record.

... which haven't been mentioned already:

Siouxsie & Banshees - Helter Skelter (Beatles)

Husker Du - Eight Miles HIgh (Byrds) (I genuinely didn't know this was a cover for months)

Bauhaus - Third Uncle (Father Brian Eno)

and special mention goes to Laibach, who've managed to make half a career just of covers, but demonstrating exactly how to do them. Just listen to the whole album cover version of the Beatles Let It Be, which surely beats the original into a cocked hat.

Just seen JJ doing a blistering version of Scary Monsters - better than the original I would wager

So... how many versions of the Leonard Cohen song have you got?

I've got:
Alison Crowe, Bono, Jeff Buckly, Imogen Heap, Susanna and the Magic Orchestra, Rufus Wainwright, and Leonard Cohen's original.

I'd be hard-pushed to say which is the best, but Bono's is definitely the oddest in a way which I initially found disappointing but now just see as different.

For several more. Alison Crowe I haven't got, nor Imogen Heap, but I can sort of imagine them. And probably wil go no further.

Not a big fan, but the i-pod threw up Aimee Manns thoroughly pleasant "Scientist". Almost made me want to compare agaiin against the original. Almost.

1) Jersey Girl: Bruce Springsteen 2) Time: Tori Amos 3) Alice: Jane Birkin 4) (Looking for) the Heart of Saturday Night: Madeleine Peyroux 5) Innocent when you dream: Spiers & Boden 6) Downtown Train: Rod Stewart (yeah go on) 7) Heart Attack & Vine: Screamin Jay Hawkins 8) Picture in a Frame: Willie Nelson

The excellent Holly Cole, canuck jazzy chantoozy, does a whole CD thereof. Knocks Scarletts pants off.(Now theres a thought to hold on to...)Its called Temptation.

I love it when these guys are mentioned in the blogs!

They also did a swell version of 'Aint that Peculiar' by Smokey Robinson, and who can forget (if you know them that is) the cover of 'Dont Rain on my Parade' originally by Barbera Streisand of all people!!

Surely WORD must be looking into a retrospective of Japan and Mr Sylvian (well I wish they would), long long overdue i feel!

Her gorgeous voice can be heard singing a very nice version of Sexual Healing....does she cover other songs??

I'd forgotten that curates egg of an album, quite an early version of the the now common "tribute" album. Sacrifice, as performed by Sinead O'Connor, is nothing short of stunning. Mind you, Miss O'C could sing the phone book and make it sound fantastic. Her reggae album is much better than reviews would have you believe, as is the trad one ahead of it.
Talking of tribute LPs, an odd one is Burning London: the songs of, yes, you got it, the Clash. Yes, it isn't great, bar a fabulous version of White Riot, done Hayseed Dixie style by Cracker, but at a country lollop rather than the original thrash.

with the Jackson Browne version of Stay that is tagged onto the end of his own song which i cant remember the name of...The load out???

Also Indigo girls Romeo and Juliet and Paul Wellers i'd rather go blind.
Eels also do some stunning covers including Can't help falling in love with you with E solo at the piano.

Just got Nils lofgrens new album of Neil Young covers which has some great versions of old classics.

Ryan Adams - Wonderwall; Ben Folds - In Between Days; Gary Jules - Mad World; Kathryn Williams - Thirteen

Take on Queens Of The Stone Age's No One Knows:

my iPod remined me of aretha Franklins cover of The Weight, great voice, brilliant song, oh and if that not enough, duane allman on guitar!

without a mention of the mighty Nouvelle Vague.

Their versions of "Ever Fallen In Love With Someone" "I Melt With You" "Just Can't Get Enough" etc. are crackers. They get used a lot in adverts (think mobile phones and fruitjuices). Apparently (and I might even have read this in Word) their name means both "bossa nova" and "new wave", so never let it be said they didn't give you a clue. And, getting male on your collective asses, there's definitely a frisson to hearing a French girl singing "Too Drunk To Fuck" in what is clearly not her mother tongue. Or maybe that's just me.

Lea Delaria's "Double Standards" has got some belter's on it. Voice and piano only "Black Hole Sun", vibraphone driven "Call Me" (Blondie rather than Montez), "Dancing Barefoot" etc.

Teenage Fanclub did "I Saw The Light" & "Life's A Gas" on one of them there freebie cd's.

Love will tear us apart by Susannah and her Orchestra - much much better than the original.

Also Los Lobos do loads of great covers on Ride this including a pretty good Shoot out the lights.

This is going off on a bit of a tangent but I remember John Peel playing a track from an album of classical music versions of punk/new wave songs. He didn't say which song it was before he played it, just said he was quite taken with it and wondered whether we'd recognise it. Took me about a minute to realise it was 'Teenage Kicks' (done by a string quartet if I remember correctly). Never heard it since and I can still remember their rather lovely take on the opening riff. (I'm also pretty sure he said the rest of the album was utterly dreadful.)

The complete Sgt Pepper album, by Big Daddy (I read the news today, a-whoa boy . . .")
Bonnie Raitt - Love has no pride
Jamie Cullum - Everlasting love + The wind cries Mary + High & dry
Danny Gatton - The Simpsons Theme
Elvis Costello - Please stay
Pat Metheny - Ferry cross the Mersey
Hem - (Angels wanna wear my) Red shoes & Valentine
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere over the rainbow
Eva Cassidy - Fields of gold
Brad Mehldau - Paranoid android
Robert Wyatt - Yesterday man + I'm a believer
Ann Dyer - Rain
Cassandra Wilson - Last train to Clarksville
Vanda Shepherd - Alone again (naturally)
Any Trouble - Baby now that I've found you
Alison Kraus - Baby now that I've found you
Eric Roche - Teen spirit
Beth Rowley - The weight
Staple singers & Marty Stewart - The weight
Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman - Georgia Lee
Thea Gilmore - I dreamed I saw St Augustine
Kathryn Williams - Thirteen
Willy De Ville - Hey Joe
Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe
Nick Cave - Let it be
Warren Zevon - Jesus was a crossmaker
Paul Young - Hey Girl
Colin Blunstone - Say you don't mind
Corduroy - Motorhead
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - Jumpin at shadows + Need your love so bad
Four Pennies - Black girl
Tim Buckley - Dolphins

Dontcha just love lists! I'll stop now.

Having looked at my itunes the following songs came up,
Everybodys Talkin` by The Beautiful South
Song To The Siren by This Mortal Coil
Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees
The Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana
Umbrella by Manic Street Preachers

They all float my boat.

Top cover version ever?

Just Like Heaven -Dinosaur Jr. "YOOOOUUUUUU"

honourable mentions

Redemption Song- Johnny Cash /Joe Strummer (in many ways this is awful, but in the most important way it's great)
Geburt Einer Nation- Laibach(One Vision as a totalitarian marching anthem)
Is That All There Is? -PJ Harvey and John Parish(deadpan perfection - better than Peggy Lee even)
Never Understand- Terry Edwards (horn version of the Mary Chain, complete with brass simulated feedback)

and the Fatima Mansions had a great way with a cover version, witness the massacre of Shiny Happy People, leaving only part of the chorus intact, the Pythoning-up of Lady godiva's operation and the dirty-maccing of Everything I Do. Not to mention two great, much straighter readings of Leonard Cohen - Paper Thin Hotel and A Singer Must Die. Er and Scott Walker on Long About Now and Nite Flights and... erm I'm beginning to wonder if they ever did any songs of their own

Johnny Marr - Don't think twice, its all right
Belly (with Juliana Hatfield) - Hot Burrito #1
Aztec Camera - Jump , guitar solo out does Eddie Van Halen
Blancmange - The Day Before You Came
Golden Smog - Strangers
Wilco - Love and Mercy
Pete Wylie - You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

Wish I'd found this sublime piece of kitsch earlier. Every frame of this cover of Sabbath's magnum opus is a delight, from the gormless audience members to Bert's creepy stare. The lyrics may have been amended to bear some reference to Conan Doyle's Hound Of The Baskervilles.