10 Cover Songs Better Than the Originals
Original Artist: Stevie Wonder
Maybe it's wrong to say the Chili
Peppers did a better job performing 'Higher Ground' than the living
legend who wrote it. But often times, these sorts of preferences are
determined by which version one hears first, and being Gen-Xers, we
happened upon Anthony Kiedis & co.'s 'Mother's Milk' rendition well
before the original. In fact, it wasn't until many years later that we
discovered Stevie Wonder's take, which is slightly slower but no less
funky. It's a close call, but we'll go with the Peppers on this one.
Original Artist: Dolly Parton
Sorry, Dolly fans. Parton certainly
turns in a lovely version of her own song, which appeared on the 1974
disc of the same name, but we're partial to the White Stripes' cover,
which first turned up as the B-side to their 2000 single of 'Hello
Operator,' off the album 'De Stijl,' and was later released as a single
in its own right in live form on 'Under Blackpool Lights.' Both covers
find the Stripes doing a pretty straight-up version of the original,
albeit with a slightly harder and punkier approach. Really, you can't go
wrong with any of them.
Original Artist: New Order
Aussie '90s alt-rock act Frente
take New Order's dance-floor hit and turn it on its ear with a mellow
acoustic rendition that's downright beautiful. The two versions couldn't
be any more different: New Order's original, which appeared on their
1986 album 'Bsotherhood,' was a synth-driven hit that landed in the Top
10 of the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart, while Frente's
stripped-down take -- which features little more than sparse acoustic
guitar finger picking and singer Angie Hart's yearning vocals -- hit the
Top 10 of the Modern Rock tally and even managed to cross over to No.
49 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Original Artist: Joe Jones
Credited to Henry Glover and Morris
Levy and originally recorded by the 35-year-old New Orleans-born
singer-songwriter Joe Jones, 'California Sun' has been covered by
numerous acts over the years -- everyone from Dick Dale and Brian Wilson
to the Replacements and '60s frat rockers the Rivieras, who recorded
the highest-charting and best-known version in 1964. But it was the
Ramones that injected the tune with a previously absent punk energy, as
it appeared on both their 'Leave Home' album and in their classic 1979
film 'Rock 'n' Roll High School.'
Original Artist: The Velvet Underground
Here's another that's sure to be
controversial. Few bands in the history of rock 'n' roll are considered
more influential than the Velvet Underground, so how perfect is it for
them to pass a song titled 'Rock & Roll' down through several
generations to one of the most classic and original bands of '90s
alternative rock? The Velvet's original appeared on the album 'Loaded'
-- recorded by a John Cale-less version of the band that's hardly the
classic lineup -- while the JA stab was from their self-titled 1987
debut, a live album that arrived early in their career, before the band
revealed their less-appealing idiosyncrasies. Make sense?
Original Artist: The Bobby Fuller Four
Written by Sonny Curtis of the
Crickets, 'I Fought the Law' was popularized by the Bobby Fuller Four,
whose 1966 version is itself considered a classic. (It ranked No. 177 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.)
Placing the Clash cover above Fuller's on this list shows just how
legendary their version has become. The Clash cut theirs, which appeared
on the American edition of their self-titled debut album, after hearing
Fuller's on a jukebox in a California recording studio. They stuck
close to the original structure, adding a welcome dash of U.K. punk
aggression.
Original Artist: Creed
If this list measures how much
better a cover songs is than the original, Dave Grohl's version of this
Creed mega-hit should be No. 1. Even with Grohl's annoying vocal
guffaws, we like the Foo Fighters frontman's shortened run-through a
million times more than what, sadly, is one of the biggest rock hits of
the '00s. But hey, maybe that's just us.
Original Artist: Leonard Cohen
Canadian minstrel-poet Leonard
Cohen first released this on his 'Various Positions' album in 1984, and
the tune has since been covered by more than 200 artists in a variety of
languages. The Velvet Underground's John Cale turned in a slightly
different take that was the first to gain broader notice, but it was
Jeff Buckley's soaring and angelic cover -- based on Cale's version and
featured on Buckley's much-loved 'Grace' album -- that has since become
known as the definitive version.
Original Artist: Shocking Blue
Nirvana's covers of David Bowie's
'The Man Who Sold the World' and Leadbelly's 'Where Did You Sleep Last
Night?' from the band's 'MTV Unplugged' live album perhaps are better
known, but it's this up-tempo, fuzzed-out take on Dutch rock act the
Shocking Blue's 'Love Buzz' that makes our list, the reason being that
it's remarkably close to Nirvana's early sound. 'Love Buzz' was
initially released as Nirvana's first-ever single in 1988 as part of the
Sub Pop Singles Club, and it later appeared with a slightly different
mix on their 1989 debut album, 'Bleach.'
Original Artist: Nine Inch Nails
The country legend takes on one of
the darkest, most depressing songs in a Nine Inch Nails catalog full of
doom and gloom, and wouldn't you know it, he turns in an equally
harrowing cover. Johnny Cash surprised the music world when he redid
'Hurt' -- a standout track on NIN's double-album magnum opus 'The
Downward Spiral' -- as an acoustic ballad for his 'American IV: The Man
Comes Around' covers set. As even Reznor admits, the Man In Black made
the song his own. "It was this other person inhabiting my most personal
song ... It felt invasive," Reznor once said. "Cash brings a certain
darkness to the song. It's melancholy and spooky."
source : http://diffuser.fm/10-cover-songs-better-than-the-originals/
source : http://diffuser.fm/10-cover-songs-better-than-the-originals/
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