Cover / Other versions that work better than the original !

[MrGongGong]

I was on a rather long train journey yesterday and was listening to random things on an old MP3 player
struck by the way in which some "cover" versions often work better than the originals ?

So is Mussorgsky's orchestration of Ravel more successful than Ravel's version ?

In more "popular" musics here are a couple of examples that I think work better than the original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vodnI38cNI0

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

and for the folkies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNU1Pxm78ww

(maybe not ?)

[Norfolk Born]

I prefer William Schuman's orchestration of Charles Ives's Variations on 'America' to the latter's version for organ.

[Nick Armstrong]

Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

this is one

this is another


and another

[teamsaint]

I always liked the tourists version a great deal, though to better Dusty is a big ask.

Because of Dylan's singing style and creative genius, there are any number of amazing covers. Hendrix's "all along the Watchtower" stands out.
The same can be said of Springsteen..........Dave Edmunds "from small things Big things come" is a personal fave.

Songs given radical treatments can work: Siouxsie and the Banshees "Dear Prudence" is ace, as is Stiff Little Fingers "Johnny Was" (Bob Marley).

"Twist and shout" was done best by the Beatles.

Will come up with more soon.

But for big scale top class reinterpretation, the last 5(or 6) Johnny Cash albums are out on their own. Truly great music, truly great singing.

[Nick Armstrong]

"Twist and shout" was done best by the Beatles.

By for big scale top class reinterpretation, the last 5(or 6) Johnny Cash albums are out on their own. Truly great music, truly great singing.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts...
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him

[antongould]

The Ella Fitzgerald Song Books

[teamsaint]

Th big question for folkies is ..........Who does the best version of "The World turned upside Down".
Dick Gaughan will be the favourite of many, and its hard to say anything bad about the Oysterband...........but i like Billy Braggs version best. Don't really know why.he just seems to get the anger right.

It should be played on the hour, every hour, on every radio station (except R3 of course), until the politicians and bankers give up their power.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxW5yvpeHg4&feature=related

Just listened again, Its the guitar that makes it stand out for me.

[Byas'd Opinion]

The original William Bell version of the song variously known as "(I forgot) To be your lover" and "To Be a Lover" is very good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkAIAFPegDA
However, I reckon the George Faith / Lee Perry remake is even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW-SED1UoZE
The Billy Idol version, on the other hand, is an abomination.

And I've always had a soft spot for The Slits' version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCr8V5wAroA

[Boilk]

Pip Pyle's highly tongue-in-cheek version of Strawberry Fields (on his album Seven Year Itch) is quite hilarious - and toned down somewhat from a version not acceptable to the Michael Jackson-owned publishing company who had the Beatles catalogue back then.

Also Allan Holdsworth's Norwegian Wood is rather good.

[Lateralthinking1]

"Better than" is generally difficult. "An interesting take on" tends to fare better. Someone mentioned Norwegian Wood. Here Cornershop almost manage to convince us that it was the Beatles who did the cover version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_5V62wxnWY&feature=related

This modest offering is from the Four Tops. It could be the best cover version of any 1911 composition written by a Vice President of the United States. Alas, Joe Biden doesn't appear to have the same songwriting skills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB48ZvBHmxQ

There is that Guilty Pleasures programme. Records that you love but which fly against all the cool boxes. On paper, this sugar laden arrangement of a 1934 song should have had me running for the hills. However, it just happens to be a fabulous rendition of the best popular song ever written. Fact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrl3T8MaX8E

Seu Jorge is not David Bowie. He's Seu Jorge and this is a different Life on Mars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6l8zrsf4LY

[Bryn]

Mention of Norwegian Wood has done it. Zappa's Texas Motel covered that beautifully, as his Louisiana Hooker with Herpes did Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Then there's his classic versions of Stairway to Heaven and, ahem, Bolero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_36-egcJQg

[Lateralthinking1]

The June Tabor version of Natalie Merchant's "Verdi Cries" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s03yz4CRaeg

Mary Coughlan. The only plausible cover version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iORqVxX3928

Nina Simone with Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington's "Wild Is The Wind" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiVDzTT4CbE

Bob and Marcia with Simone's "To Be Young Gifted and Black" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIwLp...eature=related

Four favourite versions of the great early 19th Century song "Shenandoah" -

- Van Morrison and the Chieftains -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayLMkTIx8-E

- Paul Robeson - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gtJkeXAMt0

- Bill Frisell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=limMf...eature=related

- The X-Seamen's Institute - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgsDoxw85-4

[mangerton]

When thinking about Beatles covers, there's this:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLEMncv140s&v=zLEMncv140s&gl=GB

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

link is ?