Cover versions

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

Query for Poptimists!

Sometimes - quite often, in fact, I think - cover versions are miles better than the original. I put forth PSB's 'Where the Streets Have No Name'. I like this MUCH better than the U2 version!

Which cover versions do you think surpass the original flavour?

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Tiga's cover of "Hot In Herre", but that's not hard as the original is dreadful. The video's brilliant too.

Good question btw - there are so many! I was actually thinking about cover versions for the iPod meme too.

Hm. Off the top of my head,

The Raincoats - 'Lola'
Rachid Taha - 'Douce France' AND 'Rock The Casbah'
David Bowie - 'Let's Spend The Night Together' & 'Wild Is The Wind' (but nothing else!!)
Laibach - 'One Vision' (also not difficult)
Feeder - 'Can't Stand Losing You' (ditto)

I'm tempted to mention the Soft Cell version of Tainted Love and a *lot* of Marc Almond's covers, but they were all pretty good songs to begin with. I do prefer their version of 'What', though.

Both Katzenjammer Kabarett & Turisaz have done vastly superior versions of 'Rasputin'.

Great question! I shall keep thinking.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The original 'Hot In Herre' is one of the best songs of the decade! I like Tiga a lot but his cover sucks all the life from it, that song was not made for anyone to do deadpan.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I hatehatehate the original. Not just because the lyrics are sooo wanky, but because there's something kind of strange to me about the tempo, can't say what (I guess I haven't listened to it enough!), but it feels as if it's about half a beat too slow? Always bugged me.

I like Tiga in other regards, but I thought he did a very good job improving on the source material, from gently (?) taking the piss out of the overblown lyrics to actually making it a better song to dance to. And I did almost cry with laughter when I saw the puppet video. Ego-puncturing FTW.

I guess we're not going to agree on this one :-)

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Jenny Owen Youngs version of HiH rocks. Seek it out.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Ooh ta.

[oddnumbereven.livejournal.com]

Do we count Marc & Gene covering Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart? Because, as awesome as the original is, that just knocks my socks off. And i wasn't even wearing socks.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Yes, very much so. That's one of his best covers ever, although 'The Days Of Pearly Spencer' is also amazing. His version of 'Strangers In The Night'? Not so much.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Also remembered!

Controversially, I think Monumentum's cover of "Fade To Grey" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ups--V18eEg) (which I acquired from a compilation for Italian record label Palace of Worms) does actually beat the original.

I also think Rosetta Stone's version of "When The Levee Breaks" is better than the original, though I was never that big a Rosetta fan. Good call though, the overblown musical elements really worked better when turned up to 11.