Kirsty MacColl's take on Billy Bragg's A New England.

Ska cover of Neil Diamond's undistinguished original version of Red Red Wine.

Also Manfred Mann's The Mighty Quinn, as they gave it a melody that was somewhat lacking in Bob's original.

the Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 version of Scarborough Fair. A reimagining like no other.

While I'm a big fan of Tommy James & the Shondells Crimson and Clover, Joan Jett's version rocks.

Kenny Rogers' Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town knocks the original by Johnny Darrell into a cocked hat.

And it must be said Blancmange's Abba cover The Day Before You Came revitalises what is essentially a rather plodding dirge and makes it both fun and moving at the same time.

I'm not sure if Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" was recorded before or after the Robert Wyatt version, but RW made a particularly lovely silk purse from EC's typically overwrought sow's ear.

Stiff Little Fingers version of Bob Marley's 'Johnny Was'.
Change of tempo, military-style drumming, and a relocation to Belfast.

Apart from (some of) the lyric, the two versions bear no resemblence

by The Flying Lizards may irk the purists. But it's ace.

by The Flying Lizards may irk the purists. But it's ace.

Cyndi Lauper must be kicking herslef that she didn't record "Time After Time" as a 13-minute jazz number, as it subsequently became...

Double post

the most covered song of them all "Louie Louie".
The original version is nice enough but hasn't got the sheer attack of the Kingsmen or indeed the sonics and certainly wouldn't be the State song of Seattle etc. if left to Richard Berry.

Ponderous soundtrack to a war film made completely brilliant by The Skatalites.

The Zutons' wonky stalk-rock transformed by Ronson & Winehouse into the greatest white Motown lesbian love song there never was.

All Along The Watchtower

Once you've heard Fatboy Slim's version of Cornershop's "Brimful Of Asha"...

....it's very difficult to go back to their original.

Almost any version is better than the Richard Berry original, check out the Stooges, the Clash, Motörhead.

With a Little Help From My Friends.

The winner, surely ?

The Dame's plodding shuffle Let's Dance transformed into a dancehall stomper by Nile Rodgers.

Rod Stewart's take on Tim Hardin's wishy-washy original

Leonard Cohen's original is an eighties mess; all dodgy synths, drum machine and terrible female vocals. The simple, plaintive piano and vocal of John Cale's version is exquisiteness personified. Still unsullied by Satan Cowell's grubby cloven hooves.

To take the minimal, ponderous original of Sing It Back and reimagine it as a modern house anthem was inspired and also introduced the wonderful voice of Roisin Murphy to a deservedly wider audience:

by Tori Amos is spine-tinglingly wonderful.

an amiable if unremarkable plod by Argent is suitably transformed into a glam pomp monster of rock ridiculousness, by The Songs From The Elder Hitmakers

'...As she betrayed me, I watched and went out of my mind...'

Brings that necessary insanity that Tom Jones missed.

For me they made two records that I think are only okay, OK Computer and Dark Side Of the Moon, into the fantastic Dub Side Of The Moon and Radiodread. Great live too.

Dubber Side Of The Moon and their go at Sgt. Pepper's are also aces.

The Isleys' version is so much better than the original...

Marvin Gaye - superlative and possibly the finest single ever released?

Creedence - 12 minutes or so of tremendous chooglin

The Slits - spiky dubby punky

I'd also throw in The Beatles version of Twist & Shout.

The overall sound of 'Wrecking Ball' unified the songs and, to me at least, made almost every track sound like the recording the original could have been. (It helps that I would listen to EH singing her shopping list.)

But a key change and a bit more production really lifts Elvis Costello's Girls Talk once Dave Edmunds gets his hands on it.

As another former early 90's Goth who refuses to pay good beer tokens just to watch the bunch of T-shirt salesmen play their greatest hits show for the 15th year running, I would like to mention -

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter from 1983's Temple Of Love (12")

...and Hot Chocolate - Emma from 1988's Dominion (12")

Although personally i'm very fond of 'the Stones' version.

Oh, did I say 'Goth', sorry I meant 'Industrialist' :-)

As re-engineered by Scissor Sisters? The purists may huff and puff but Jake Shears and friends know their way around a melody and are fine musicians. I think they did it great credit, albeit with tongues gently in cheeks. In any which way you wish to twist the metaphor.

And what about Vic Reeves' version of "I'm A Believer"?

You may scoff, but who, now, can hear the original without going *bonk* *bonk* *bonk* "OI!" after "I thought love was only true in fairy-tales"?

applied to Blondie's incredibly rough, frankly quite crap demo of Heart of Glass (can't find a 'before and after' on YouTube but see the recent documentary) = one of the best records of all time.

You know it, but here's a clip anyway...

...his versions of 'Hellhound On My Trail' (Robert Johnson) and 'Hummingbird (Leon Russell, I think) - both sides of a 1970-ish single, the latter never on CD and neither on youtube alas - are sublime. Why he was never a superstar is beyond me.

Disagree about Abba's 'The Day Before You Came' being a dirge, though. For me, it was the best thing they ever did - magical.

Otis Redding's sweaty macho posturing becomes one of the greatest records of all time*

*I'm aware this is the second time I've used this phrase in this thread. Stand by it too ;-)

but I'd always dismissed Gloria Gaynor's hit version of I Will Survive as camp, kitch, disposable disco pap.

Then Cake's minimalist cover version appeared and brought home exactly what a great tune it is.

..that follows David's original brief.
"Gimme Shelter"?.."Hellhound on my Trail"?..."Comfortably Numb"?
Even accounting for taste these are not "ordinary" songs.
Otis' respect, while being a gutsty performance isn't a great song, but it was transformed into a classic by Aretha.

A rather controversial example, but 'Dazed and Confused' went from this subdued folk-rock album track to the show stopper we all know.

is rightly hailed as a blues genius, but his original version of Crossroads doesn't even come close to this, an unreleased version by Cream from 1968

Can anyone think of this song without hearing the Soft Celll "duh-duh" noise?

Apparently, Marc Almond could have been a millionaire in 1981 if he had only put one of his own songs on the B-side. Instead, they went with another cover. D'oh!

Bowie's song transformed into a teenage anthem by Mott The Hoople.
No ordinary song perhaps, but certainly transformed by Hunter & Co.

When Ringo sang it, I Wanna Be Your Man was, indeed, a little ordinary. It took the Stones to turn it into an edgy R&B song:

Carolina In My Mind and Mr Tambourine Man. Must be heard to be believed. That gravelly voice brings much pathos and they become even more moving than they already were.

In the context of the brief set by Mr. Hepworth I've struggled to think of "ordinary" songs that have been improved by virtue of the cover artist having the musical epiphany rather than the original artist/song-writer.

The best I can think of is Valerie, originally by The Zutons. Whilst I tend to think of Mark Ronson as a bit of a cock I do like what he does with the song with Amy Winehouse. There's a great coming together of talent that manifests itself where it should: in the song.

Yes, it's a retro and heavily borrowed arrangement but it's so beautifully realised, Amy's voice is wonderful and there is a poignancy to the lyrics that is missing in the original.

Donna Summer turning this Jon & Vangelis track into one of the all time great singles takes some beating in my book.

Mystery Train by Junior Parker. Pretty good bluesy shuffle.
Mystery Train by Elvis. Lightning caught in a bottle.

It's one of those pop moments which makes me shiver with joy.

The Carpenters turned it from a fairly average Beatles song into a thing of beauty. The opening few bars are wonderful.

The Four Seasons original is ordinary.
The Walker Brothers cover is extraordinary.

version of "Rock and Roll Music" usurped the original by a country mile. Throbbed with verve, excitement and pharmaceutical enhancements of the day.

Hendrix doing "Wild Thing" was so much more believable than Reg Presley.

The most emotionally powerful element to most songs is the lyrics, yet many of the great lyrics are "encoded" in the singing (a la Joe Strummer).
Here, Smash Hits used to provide a useful service with its lyrics pages (I recall "There. There, My Dear being a particular eye opener).
The most dramatic example of this transformation I can recall was hearing Radiohead's "Creep" performed by Podge & Rodge (two puppets voiced by the same people the UK massive may know as Zig And Zag).
Hearing, for the first time, a song which I had always heard as
"fkljhslkvb xhadhh Creep, sh;odh lhl;f'as lklan Loser lkxh;ahid; kjf;al'..."
I had a little something in my eye which heretofore had never been there.
I've heard people like Neils Tennant and Hannon say they get accused of sounding "aloof" or "ironic" for enunciating their words. But if you've gone to the trouble of writing something great...
Having said all that it took me 20 years to spot what he did there with the distinctly audible
"By the time I get to PHOENIX
She'll be RISING"
So maybe great lyrics are wasted on me anyway...

Van Halen's "Jump" re-done, acoustically, by Aztec Camera. Brilliant.

Tears For Fears are all well and good, but Gary Jules sang it as a 1971 Neil Young might; and caught a national mood of disenchantment enough to make it the Christmas number 1 in the year of the invasion of Iraq.

for quite a while I thought XTC's version was the original. Ah youth.

Interesting to see how Steve Winwood et al changed the original

Better than Frank Sinatra?

Yes.

And, if I can be indulged, a 'reverse' example. Terrible covers. Great original

Judith Owen did a lovely jazzy version of this classic tune. I also like her version of Walking on the Moon.

Not a bad original from Stevie Wonder but transformed by Al Kooper.

We've mostly got away from David's original idea of a so-so song becoming a brilliant cover and instead we've been talking about a great (or at least good) song the original recording of which is surpassed by a cover version. But never mind...

Of course I loved the Pretenders version of "Stop You Sobbing" very much, and for years I imagined a transcendent Kinks original, but when I finally heard it I think I actually laughed out loud. Not that it's terribly bad, it's just, kinda dinky.

~ DC

was transformed by SLF.

Also have to say I prefer these versions to the originals:
- Johnny Cash's version of Hurt
- Arctic Monkeys' Love Machine
- Luka Bloom's Dancing Queen

Off topic, I know, but covers that were better than what were already good songs include:
- Waterboys - Sweet thing
- Tom Waits - Somewhere
- Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
- Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine
- Nirvana - Man who sold the world
- Smash Mouth - I'm a believer ('course you know, the one from Shrek)

And am I allowed to say that I prefer the Fugees' version of No Woman No Cry...?

one schmaltzy, overblown Elvis number

Add Pet Shop Boys

Stir in new chord at the bridge

ta-dah! Magic.

Sade's original of By Your Side is dire supperclub jazz, like all her bloodless tunes, but is transformed into a cosmic psych-pop gem by Beachwood Sparks. I never believed the words when she sang them but the Sparks are totally convincing. They were a great band but I have to say that this song is the best thing they ever did.

Picking up the theme of covers of Van Halen songs, I hate poodle metal but the Vatican Cellars have just released a really canny cover of Runnin' With the Devil, which benefits from sounding nothing like the flaccid cockrock of the original. Result!

Sade's original of By Your Side is dire supperclub jazz, like all her bloodless tunes, but is transformed into a cosmic psych-pop gem by Beachwood Sparks. I never believed the words when she sang them but the Sparks are totally convincing. They were a great band but I have to say that this song is the best thing they ever did.

Picking up the theme of covers of Van Halen songs, I hate poodle metal but the Vatican Cellars have just released a really canny cover of Runnin' With the Devil, which benefits from sounding nothing like the flaccid cockrock of the original. Result!

How about Lambchop version of the interminable This Corrosion.
Came with the bonus cd on Is a Woman, I think.
But what a cover Kurts voice made the song his own, it became real.
Left the sisters crying for mercy.

I think it's fair to say that Led Zeppelin reclaimed this from Willie Dixon:

and that The Rolling Stones came up with a song very similar to and yet far more famous than this:

'We've Only Just Begun' apparently began life in a TV advert for a bank. A still worse fate befell it when it caught the ear of Richard Carpenter and The Carpenters recorded it. They did the usual job: slightly insipid vocal, slick production and a catchy arrangement that makes you want to kill all session drummers stone dead. Big hit, naturally, but nothing about it to suggest anything other than a future wedding day favourite for middle management couples.

And then, in 1971, something wonderful happened to the song. On stage with a white-hot, stripped-down clubland combo at the Bitter End in NYC, Curtis Mayfield unleashed a stunning, bitter-sweet version which was, thankfully, preserved for posterity on the fabulous 'Curtis/Live!' album. Nearly 40 years on, its ability to break your heart remains undiminished. Curtis is at the absolute peak of his powers, but knowledge of the singer's own sad fate (and, indeed, that of Karen Carpenter) somehow combines with every moment of failed promise in your own life to deliver an emotional punch way beyond anything writers Paul Williams & Roger Nichols could have dreamed possible as they hacked out a couple of throwaway verses in the shadow of an impending commercial deadline.

As Noel Coward put it: extraordinary how potent cheap music is.

Bob's version's on the Witmark demos and it's lovely but this is astounding

but this is also astounding (and edges it from Odetta for me)

Exhibit A: transforming pap Queen song "One Vision" into terrifying stompy anthem with shades of fascism:

and then take by far the Beatles' weakest album and turn it into a masterpiece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=7vzUh_55x2M

But I really prefer Lulus version of The man who sold the world. Sacrilege? Very possibly.
Cat Power transforms Satisfaction into a smouldering torch song.
Patti Smith did the definitive Because the night and Peter Gabriel puts the menace back into The Boy in the bubble that the lyrics demand - the song is so radically different and is an interesting take that reinforces the fact that covers are a valid artform.

Agree with Mr Hepworth re Trapped - phenomenal.

The original 1986 version by Candi Staton is an OK disco soul groover. The Source mashing the acappella with Jamie Principle's Your Love in 1991 created a thing of beauty. Not strictly a cover but a moment of genius.

Edit to add some youtube to illustrate. Original -

Mashup

The Righteous brothers covered Unchained Melody,(originally recorded by Jimmy Young)& transformed it into an absolute classic IMHO

This was the first version I heard, which I guess makes it the defining version in my head. But the elvis version does nothing for me at all.

Roland Gift's voice, and the backing are just terrific.

..reminded me of Al Jolson..not a bad thing perhaps, but not if you're trying to be soulful.
..and the other two Cannibals?..well I just wanted kill them, basically.

better than anyone else. That is he did when he cared, when music mattered more than blondes and money. Not that I'm saying I'm averse to either of those things myself.

Dylan's own version of Mama You've Been On My Mind is pretty tepid and unengaging. Rod's take is wistful, poignant, melancholic but graceful. A great arrangement and perhaps one of the few songs where the use of accordion is justifiable.

For me it's one of The Gravedigger turned Goldfinger's finest vocal performance - understated and soulful and, one of my favourite ever tracks.

Sailing unfortunately became far to familiar to us all but when it was just a cover it was much better than the Sutherland Brothers version.
Ry Cooder does a marvellous accordion drenched 'He'll have to go'.

'Pleasant' was a very lazy adjective to use. And you're right - Crazy 'Bout An Automobile is great stuff.

has to be Robert Plant's cover of Monkey by Low. Adds real mood and soul. I love it.

Also:
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Happy Mondays - Step On
Ella Fitzgerald - Sunshine Of Your Love

Oasis version of I Am The Walrus really takes the song to another level (though it wasn't exactly a shabby version to start with!) Al Green's cover of I Wanna Hold Your Hand improves it massively too.

The Wicked Pickett's version of "Sugar Sugar" has to be the greatest reversal of fortune for which a successful but anemic song could hope. And though many may disagree, Johnny Cash's version of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" has a depressive, desperate beauty that Gahan, Gore and company never imagined.

Who remembers Chris Kenner's original Land Of 1000 Dances? Thought not.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2TC2VLsM00eX3ChFC85iD0

for Cathal Coughlan's 90s assaults/improvements to both ho hum and decent songs.

Even REM acknowledged that Shiny Happy People was begging to be improved, even if only the merest sliver of the original's DNA remained.

And technically he scored a number 1 hit with a perving up of Bryan Adams' Everything I Do.

as for improving the already fine, who can dispute that Lady Godiva's Operation is not gilded by b-movie sound effects and ending in the "whooping llama" style of the Holy Grail credits.

And Release the Bats can only be improved by a lyric change to make it "Release the bats, those furry little creatures. Release those bats, with their Transylvanian features..."

Ryan Adams, for my money, took Wonderwall - which always sounded to me like it was about nothing - and made it sound like it was about something:

Madness:it must be love

The Cardigans:Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Aerosmith and Run DMC: Walk This Way (ok, not strictly a cover)

Kate Rusby: Village Green Preservation Society

The Blind Boys of Alabama's version of "Way down in the Hole" - some The Wire fans think it's the original (because it's the Season 1 theme) but the Tom Waits original is extraordinary in itself.

However, I think the BEF boys and Billy Mackenzie turned this perfectly pleasant, if dull soul hit from Deniece Williams....

Into this ethereal and exquisite sensual number, which I still listen to, to this day.

Extraordinary too. In my book, still one of the finest vocals he ever did.

See also Name of the Game/Any Trouble and Knowing Me, Knowing You/Danny Wilson