Covers That Are Better Than The Originals

[willaaaaaa]

I love the original "Run" by Snow Patrol, but Leona Lewis's cover is amazing as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqpAgMxhx30

[UniqueScreenname]

HOLY CRAP JESSIE J PWNS RIHANNA!!!!!

[willaaaaaa]

Pretty much any of Mike Tompkins's a capella covers. For example, the song of the summer:

We Are Young - covered by Mike Tompkins

[Pjotr]

Forgot to mention these two before:
Erato's version of Call your Girlfriend (orig. Robyn) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoCEvVL57E
and Walk off the Earth's Somebody that I used to know (orig. Gotye) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

[choginga]

I love how Chiba Matto do strange things to about a girl and black hole sun
I wouldn't say better, but they are certainly works of art and creativity

[KrazyerKate]

Top Five Gotye Covers

Mike Dawes
Pure, unadulterated talent. Entire song played on one guitar by one man

Coheed and Cambria
Metalled up. Manages to totally change the feel of the song for me.

Pentatonix
Acapella version. More harmonies added to the original melody and really dramatic changes in volume.

Walk Off The Earth
Cleverly arranged, one guitar, five people. Also, vocals are also more appealing to the average listener.

The Netherlands Radio Choir
Facial expressions of the choir and the way the camera cuts between the men and the women as if they're facing off really adds meaning to the lyrics.

Honorable Mention:
ALL OF THEM AT ONCE

[UniqueScreenname]

Coheed and Cambria
Metalled up. Manages to totally change the feel of the song for me.

That is some sort of awesome.

[UniqueScreenname]

Florence + the Machine busting out some Drake/Rihanna

[IHateThisNick]

I really enjoy the Dandy Warhols version of Hells Bells.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SYjR-L1Mzk (cover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kjh9lQXLWk (original)

Well, I always found Brian Johnson's voice weird for a band like AC/DC. Thoughts, anyone ?

[Don Calvus]

Johnny Cash, "Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails)

Nine Inch Nails, "Dead Souls" (Joy Division) -- actually not better but equally good as the original (in a different spirit of course, literal covers are useless)

Urge Overkill, "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" (Neil Diamond)

U2, "Dancing Barefoot" (Patti Smith)

Swans, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division) -- not better either, but an excellent cover in a different direction

Johnny Cash, "Personal Jesus" (Depeche Mode)

[KrazyerKate]

ooh, I just found another great Gotye cover to add to my earlier list.

[freakish777]

Placebo - "Running Up That Hill"

[UniqueScreenname]

Placebo - "Running Up That Hill"

Freaking yes. Also, the Within Temptation version, although that heavily relies on taste.

[freakish777]

Orgy - "Blue Monday"

[lord carnifex]

I like the Placebo version of "Running up that Hill", too.

Somebody mentioned Swans, so I should point out Decoded Feedback's version of Swans' "Love Will Save You". Not as stark and minimalist, but still very good.

Cindarella Effect (a side project of BlutEngel) does a cover of Projeckt Pitchfork's "Timekiller" that turns it into a jazzy cabaret piece. But their downtempo, robust version of Covenant's "Call the Ships to Port" gives me chills every time.

Love and Rockets cover of The Temptations "Ball of Confusion" gives it an injection of post-punk that the song badly needed.

but my favorite cover is a hard-to-find live version of "Tainted Love" as done by Front 242 - gives it a strongly creepy vibe.

[Laserdan]

There's Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast", which is metal, which is not bad but not at all my thing.

So I find this cover much better than the original (bite me Iron Maiden fans! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwCijARRSE8

[Giant Speck]

Charlene Soraia's cover of "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling.

[3fj]

System of a Down's cover of Black Sabbath's Snowblind is a pretty amazing take on the original

[Giant Speck]

Within Temptation's been releasing some pretty odd, yet awesome covers lately, one of which is of Coldplay's Paradise.

[Thesh]

Everything off of The Director's Cut by Fantômas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OaASobS2eM

[UniqueScreenname]

Within Temptation's been releasing some pretty odd, yet awesome covers lately, one of which is of Coldplay's Paradise.

The Somebody I Used to Know one is absolutely spectacular. I swear I've never heard a version of that song I haven't liked.

[Jesse]

Within Temptation's been releasing some pretty odd, yet awesome covers lately, one of which is of Coldplay's Paradise.

The Somebody I Used to Know one is absolutely spectacular. I swear I've never heard a version of that song I haven't liked.

That is wicked. Love Within Temptation so much.

[Mikeski]

(Pardon me while I necro-reply to 2 years worth of comments.)

For the folks who like Dylan covers more than Dylan, I'll be more controversial. I like Beatles covers more than the Beatles.

Within Temptation covers: woo! Also, Nightwish covers.

I'm on board with "parody covers are better than straight covers". Witness what you can do to Nirvana. (The rest of the album is goofier.)

I also like other radically-different covers, like Nevermore's version of Simon & Garfunkel.

My favorite Hallelujah is this one. By far.

[Oryx]

Jimi hendrix's version of All along the watchtower is pretty awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_L4RtU1iRg

(bob dylan's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YanjY9CsPDQ)

[KrazyerKate]

I really like Adam Lambert's cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. The lyrics are about falling for the temptation of desire, and the cover makes the music match those lyrics by sounding reminiscent of the Dance of the Seven Veils.

[UniqueScreenname]

While we were recently on the topic of Within Temptation's cover, their one of Summertime Sadness by Lana del Ray is rather perfect.

[Giant Speck]

While we were recently on the topic of Within Temptation's cover, their one of Summertime Sadness by Lana del Ray is rather perfect.

Oh wow.

[UniqueScreenname]

I know, right? Giant Speck, you are my music brother.

[Giant Speck]

Maybe. I'm sure we have musical fringes that don't match up. Do you have a Last.fm account?

[UniqueScreenname]

I do not. Should I?

[Giant Speck]

Nah, I was just curious. If you did, we could check our musical compatibility.

[eviloatmeal]

I recently tested a hypothesis that is relevant to this topic:

Hypothesis: There are very few if any covers of the track "Friday" that aren't better or more interesting than the original in some respect.

Test: This medium-sized sample of covers of the track "Friday".

Conclusion: I've yet to find a really truly bad one. They all seem to have something unique and interesting about them.

[Amariel]

I've heard quite a few good covers on Youtube:
- anything produced by Kurt Hugo Schneider (and/or sung by Sam Tsui)
- Justin Robinett & Michael Henry
- Pentatonix

[freakish777]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4lKLfDKGJM

[Giant Speck]

The Lindsey Stirling/Pentatonix cover of "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons is awesome.

[freakish777]

Conclusion: I've yet to find a really truly bad one. They all seem to have something unique and interesting about them.

Still my favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AcYsHkV6n4

[clockworkmonk]

A Motown Tribute to Nickelback

It is seven Nickelback songs done in the Motown sound. Turns out when you take Nickelback's overblown rock anthem style and convert it to motown magic happens. I would recommend starting with How You Remind Me.

[alessandro95]

I prefer the original, but Primus cover of "have a cigar" from Pink Floyd is awesome

[cellocgw]

On a rather different tack, Isao Tomita's version of Holst's The Planets and Stravinsky's Firebird are pretty neat.

Not sure the concept of "covers" really applies to so-called classical music. Or jazz, or blues, for that matter. It's only in Rock & some later genres that artists are for some reason expected to write tons of original music/lyrics.

[Essah]

Toxic (Britney Spears)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPQw6WgwEYQ - Cover by CallmeKat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqKZ_WIK5ms&list=RD02VEpMj-tqixs Cover by Yaël Naïm

Funny how two unrelated artists cover the same track in a very similar fashion. Both of them better than the original.