Great Covers of Great Songs

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Selby White
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Great Covers of Great Songs

Post by Selby White »

What Cover versions do you really rate of great songs (almost as good or better than the original) ?

I'll start it off with The Tourists (Annie Lennox) version of the Dusty Springfield classic "I only want to be with you"

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

Post by Deleted User 728 »

Bought that on 7" when it came out :)

Love Dusty's voice, but prefer her later stuff - the In Memphis album being the obvious highlight.
Annie Lennox is amazing, though. A singularly unique vocalist with great presence.

As for the original topic, for me a cover should be different, a lot different, to the original to make it worthwhile, otherwise why bother ?
I say this as the ex-vocalist in a pub rock covers band so believe me : I know what I'm on about :D

Here's one that a recent girlfriend of mine didn't even realise was a cover :

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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

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I can't stand those slowed-down cover versions a la Nouvelle Vague.

It was cool for one summer, but now they're ubiquitous, frequently on adverts and it just grates on me ..

Similarly, the lounge-jazz versions of rock songs were quite good first time round - the Paul Anka album for example - but now everyone plays Lovecats like that ...



Grace Jones is a banger for a great cover version - she made a career out of it, after all - and here's a few off the top of my head, all of which I'd consider to be better than the originals :

LOVE IS THE DRUG (Roxy Music originally)


PRIVATE LIFE (Pretenders)


NIGHTCLUBBING (Iggy Pop)


LIBERTANGO (Astor Piazzolla)
Sniffer
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

Post by Sniffer »

This.
So good that Peter Green started covering this cover of his own song.
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Selby White
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

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Sniffer wrote:This.
So good that Peter Green started covering this cover of his own song.
A couple of Ladies I know went to a Fleetwood Mac tribute night and a couple of days later one of them was complaining that they played other stuff including Santana. Wouldn't believe a word when I pointed out it was a Peter Green song, thought I was winding them up. :crazy:
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

Post by Deleted User 728 »

Saw Peter Green live once at a blues festival down in Devon.

What a classless, miserable git.

He grudgingly played a short set with his (very good) band before - literally - dismissing them from the stage, whereupon he pulled up an old wooden chair and sat down with his National steel guitar, announcing to the audience "Let's play some real music now".

He spent the next half-hour noodling away.

I say "noodling" but masturbating might actually be a more appropriate term.

I don't care who you are, you do not treat fellow musicians (let alone the audience) with contempt like that.

He made Van Morrison look like the life and soul of the party and I've watched him three times and I'm yet to see the man smile ...
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Selby White
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

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Spending my teenage years in the &0's I started the decade with my bedroom wall covered in Leeds Utd posters.

Of course the hormones eventually kicked in and a few pictures of this Lady made the Wall.



And I'll be honest I only found out it was a cover a few years back, it was a 1966 song by Jamaican Group The Paragons.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

Post by Deleted User 728 »

They're a fantastic band.

Their album "The Paragons" from 1981 is a stone cold reggae classic and contains the classic track Man Next Door which - conveniently enough - was covered by Massive Attack on their own masterpiece, Mezzanine.

Just to turn this thread on its head, here's both versions.
To be honest, I can't choose - one is a rocksteady monster while the other just defines trip-hop ..



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Selby White
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

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Great version of this Sam Cooke song by The Animals

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
Emley White
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Re: Great Covers of Great Songs

Post by Emley White »

I think there are several great and better versions of Bob Dylan songs. 'All Along The Watchtower' - Jimi Hendrix, 'If Not For You' - Olivia Newton John, 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' - Manfred Mann and of course quite a few by The Byrds including 'My Back Pages' which I love. People usually only mention 'Mr Tambourine Man' but it's overplayed for me and I tend to avoid it at my gigs. Talking of Blondie I think their versions of 'Denis' a cover of Randy and the Rainbows' 'Denise' and 'Hanging On The Telephone' a cover of Jack Lee and The Nerves original are both fantastic. There are literally hundreds of great covers where a different production can turn it into a hit out of nothing. Check out 'Video Killed The Radio Star', the original is just too fast by Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club, or how about ' What's Love Got To Do With It?', Tina Turner's great cover absolutely kills Bucks Fizz's original version. I've been researching and collecting originals for around 30 years and they're great for putting in Pop Quizzes.
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