A cover version/original version rarity

Shit no, it's awesome. It beats the Cat Power version into the ground. Two artsy chicks with great voices tackling this staple....great, great, great.

 

Everclear butchered "Brown-Eyed Girl" as well -- and added lyrics, which was almost enough to make me pop out the CD and frisbee it out the car window.

 

Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon and members of R.E.M.) did a one-time cover album with terrific renditions of Raspberry Berry, Junko Pardner, Mannish Boy and Battleship Chains. Great album to have around.


From Wikipedia:

The American blues band Hindu Love Gods formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1984. The original line-up was Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass), Bill Berry (drums)—all three of them members of R.E.M.—and Warren Zevon (vocals/piano) and Bryan Cook (backing vocals)..........During an all-night (and supposedly drunken) studio session, the four (without Cook) recorded the album Hindu Love Gods, consisting of ten cover songs. The result of this session was released in 1990. The song that received the most attention was a rock version of Prince's 1985 hit "Raspberry Beret," which reached #23 on the Modern Rock charts.

 

Yeah, that one's not that good, but Buffett's version I have to turn off whenever it comes around. Talk about a total white-bread cover.

 

Sirs, Madames,

My favorite cover artist is Jerry Lee Lewis (late-career Cash right up there).

His Live at the Star Club captures vintage JLL doing Your Cheatin' Heart, Hound Dog, What I'd Say and Long Tall Sally among others. Legend covering legend.

Al Green (doing Ray Price) For the Good Times

The Clash (doing Bobby Fuller) I Fought the Law

YHS, etc

 

Very good call. The cover of "Raspberry Beret" is worth the price of that album alone. I have it on cassette. Is it even out on CD?

Mr. Friend O' got to the Clash's "I Fought The Law" before I did, so I'll throw out another one off the Clash's debut: "Police And Thieves".

High-end covers of Beatles songs are hard to find (I'll agree with others about Joe Cocker's great job on "With A Little Help From My Friends") but I'll throw out "Don't Pass Me By" by the late, great Georgia Satellites.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Some people hate Zevon's Knockin' on Heaven's Door. I sorta like it.

Some people laugh at Linda Ronstadt's Tumblin' Dice. For good reason. (She gets the words wrong.)

YHS, etc

 

A few others that get regular spins on the iPod:

"Brand New Cadillac", done originally by British rockabilly legend Vince Taylor, off the Clash's London Calling. (Mr. Friend O' may recall a decidedly substandard version done at the same time by local Toronto heroes Teenage Head.)

The Clash cover of Eddy Grant's "Police On My Back" may be my fave cover of theirs.

Brian Setzer does a very cool big-band version of Stevie Ray's "The House Is Rockin'".

 

Other good covers (with original artist in parenthses):

"Whiskey in a Jar" - Metallica (Thin Lizzy)
"The Loco-Motion" - Grand Funk Railroad/Kylie Minogue (Little Eva)
"Baby Now That I Found You" - Allison Krauss & Union Station (The Foundations)
"Piece of My Heart" - Janis Joplin/Faith Hill (Erma Franklin); Hill heard the Joplin version for the first time after recording her version.
"Norwegian Wood" - Hank Williams Jr. (Beatles)
"Pinball Wizard" - Elton John (The Who)
"How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" - Al Green (Bee Gees)
"Georgia On My Mind" - by many artists, but the versions by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson are the best.
"Unchained Melody" - once again by many artists, but the best version goes to the Righteous Brothers

Rush's "Feedback" album is loaded with great covers. My favorites from that album: "Crossroads," "Mr. Soul," "Heart Full of Soul" and "For What It's Worth."

 

That video is painful to watch; I suspect that's way closer to some people's reality than any of us would like to think.

I like both versions, for different reasons. Seger's is almost mournful; Metallica's is angry. I've never been a rock star, but I do travel way more than I want to in my job, and being on the road often generates either emotion -- or, sometimes, both.

 

It is said by Dylan aficionados that G n' R's version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is Dylan's favorite version.

 

Gone Gone Gone by the Everly Brothers and Robert Plant/Allison Krause. The Plant/Krause version is growing on me.

Edit: That would be Alison Krauss.