Best Cover Versions

[Crowle Rover]

Having just heard the abomination that is charity version of  Everybody Hurts (worthy cause,crap version of a good song) it got me thinking about best ever cover versions
I'd go for
Issac Hayes-Walk On By (full 12 minute version)
Jimi Hendrix-All Along The Watchtower
The Slits-I Heard It Through The Grapevine
The Byrds-Mr Tambourine Man
The Clash-I Fought The Law

Everyone a winner.

Prediction for today 2-1 to the Rovers

[Barmby Rover]

Blockbuster- The Damned
Helter Skelter- Siouxsie and the Banshees
You've lost that loving feeling - Human League
The man who sold the world - Lulu
This flight tonight - Nazareth
Money - The Flying Lizards
Summertime Blues - TFL

Lots more!  

Rovers 1 Forest 0 A long punt in from the wing which the keeper drops in his net. (memory lane!;))

[BillyStubbsTears]

Although I'd willingly punch him and his toss pot of a son into a bloody pulp, Bryan Ferry's Jealous Guy is a wonderful cover.

The Associates \"Love Hangover\". Takes Diana Ross's smooth original and turns it ito an edgy fraught classic.

Dinosaur Jr \"Just Like Heaven\". The original is achingly beautiful. This is fcuking barmy.

The whole of the \"Hanky Panky\" album by The The - modern re-workings of Hank Williams's classics of love and loss on Skid Row that show that true soul music is independent of time or style. It's the feeling that counts.

\"Wild Horses\" by The Sundays. The Sundays should have been the biggest thing in 80s/90s indie pop. Harriet Wheeler's voice is one of the lost talents of English pop and this brings a fragile feminine beauty to a classic.


Possibly the worst cover ever was The Christians' mauling of Harvest for the World. Roland Isley's voice in the original is like double cream being poured into a cup of coffee. Like having your ears massaged in warm baby oil. Garry Christian's cover version vocal by contrast sounds like a scouse brickie in need of a Fisherman's Friend.

EIDT: Scrap that worst one. I'd forgotten that crime against humanity that was Tin Tin Out's version of \"Here's Where the Story Ends\" by the Sundays. Take a stripped down, searingly simple emotional classic, with a beautifully fragile and scarred vocal, add a gormless funky beat, the obligatory strings (to, hey, show this is a meaningful song, yeah?) and a lumpen MOR vocal sung by some grinning sub-Dido (and you can't get much sub-er than that) non-entity and voila! You'll sell ten times as many as the original. But you'll lie in bed every night knowing that you are a carbuncle on the face of the human race.

I'm going today. 0-0 stuck on.

[MrFrost]

I am the walrus - oasis

[redbrez]

not the covers the smc use  

[Barmby Rover]

Agreed BST The Sundays were a great little band, but if you want a brilliant femle voice how about Song to the Siren by The Cocteau Twins. Really ethereal music and much better than Tim Buckley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUmdR69nbM

[MrFrost]

The Sundays? Are they a Saturdays cover band?

[Barmby Rover]

If you think the Saturdays are a \"band\" then you are sadly deluded. A bunch of no talent tarts designed to catch the eye of adolescents and little girl wannabees!

[Joy Division Oven Gloves]

The version of Song to the Siren was a cracker. Think it was This Mortal Coil, which included some Cocteaus

I'd add
Wedding Present  Its Not Unusual
Half Man Half Biscuit   Transmission
Cud   Lola
The Smiths   His Latest Flame
The Fall  Ghost in my House

[Sandy Lane]

Been thinking about this a bit --

Take Me to the River - Talking Heads
any thing Jimi did as he made it his own

Knocking on Heavens Door - Warren Zevon (sadly as he was dying)

[MrFrost]

Barmby Rover wrote:

If you think the Saturdays are a \"band\" then you are sadly deluded. A bunch of no talent tarts designed to catch the eye of adolescents and little girl wannabees!

Yeah but they look good.

[BillyStubbsTears]

MrFrost wrote:

Barmby Rover wrote:

If you think the Saturdays are a \"band\" then you are sadly deluded. A bunch of no talent tarts designed to catch the eye of adolescents and little girl wannabees!

Yeah but they look good.

Actually spadger, you'd be welcome to them. Airbrushed vacuous non-entities.

Harrier Wheeler from The Sundays had that demure exterior with the glint in the eye that meant you just knew she'd bang like a shithouse door in the wind. And she'd have been able to talk about more than OK magazine afterwards. Or before. Or even during.

[BillyStubbsTears]

MrFrost wrote:

Barmby Rover wrote:

If you think the Saturdays are a \"band\" then you are sadly deluded. A bunch of no talent tarts designed to catch the eye of adolescents and little girl wannabees!

Yeah but they look good.

Actually spadger, you'd be welcome to them. Airbrushed vacuous non-entities.

Harrier Wheeler from The Sundays had that demure exterior with the glint in the eye that meant you just knew she'd bang like a shithouse door in the wind. And she was clever enough to have been able to talk about more than this week's OK magazine afterwards. Or before. Or even during.

[MrFrost]

Dont get me wrong. I'm not a fan of the Saturday's.

[nightporter]

BillyStubbsTears wrote:

EIDT: Scrap that worst one. I'd forgotten that crime against humanity that was Tin Tin Out's version of \"Here's Where the Story Ends\" by the Sundays. Take a stripped down, searingly simple emotional classic, with a beautifully fragile and scarred vocal, add a gormless funky beat, the obligatory strings (to, hey, show this is a meaningful song, yeah?) and a lumpen MOR vocal sung by some grinning sub-Dido (and you can't get much sub-er than that) non-entity and voila! You'll sell ten times as many as the original. But you'll lie in bed every night knowing that you are a carbuncle on the face of the human race.

I'm going today. 0-0 stuck on.

While I agree its a shit cover the 'sub Dido' Shelly Nelson is beaut. I just turn the sound down.

Sixpence non the richer they win top prize after they murdered crowded houses Dont dream it over and The La's There She goes. :angry:  :angry:

[The Red Baron]

Joy Division Oven Gloves wrote:

The version of Song to the Siren was a cracker. Think it was This Mortal Coil, which included some Cocteaus

I'd add
Wedding Present  Its Not Unusual
Half Man Half Biscuit   Transmission
Cud   Lola
The Smiths   His Latest Flame
The Fall  Ghost in my House

Interesting that you choose \"There's a ghost in my house,\" which was IMO the worst cover the Fall ever did. A massacre of a very good original by R. Dean Taylor.

The Fall did some good covers though- the best of which were \"Victoria,\" \"Rollin' Dany,\" \"I can hear the grass grow\" and (on The Infotainment Scan\") a quite wonderful reading of Sister Sledge's \"Lost in Music.\" Even as a Rogers/Edwards fan who loved the original, I can appreciate that one.

[Mr Brightside]

Here's Spear Of Destiny (SOD)'s cover of Transmission. http://www.we7.com/track/Transmission?trackId=2748734&m=0
 
Joy Division are one of Kirks influences and it's damned good.
 
Carter did a few good covers as B sides my favourite is probably Rent, and Snuff brought out an EP of covers once including the shake n vac, kwik fit and bran flakes adverts ...they're tasty, tasty very very tasty, they're very tasty

[Joy Division Oven Gloves]

The Red Baron wrote:

Joy Division Oven Gloves wrote:

The version of Song to the Siren was a cracker. Think it was This Mortal Coil, which included some Cocteaus

I'd add
Wedding Present  Its Not Unusual
Half Man Half Biscuit   Transmission
Cud   Lola
The Smiths   His Latest Flame
The Fall  Ghost in my House

Interesting that you choose \"There's a ghost in my house,\" which was IMO the worst cover the Fall ever did. A massacre of a very good original by R. Dean Taylor.

The Fall did some good covers though- the best of which were \"Victoria,\" \"Rollin' Dany,\" \"I can hear the grass grow\" and (on The Infotainment Scan\") a quite wonderful reading of Sister Sledge's \"Lost in Music.\" Even as a Rogers/Edwards fan who loved the original, I can appreciate that one.

Sort of agree with you, bit harsh with 'massacre', it was a song which I loved and The Fall covered it. Straight forward cover version, and some of The Falls better covers have been of songs they plucked from nowhere

[Adam]

The Dan Band - Candy Shop.

Sensational.

[Biggles]

The Beatles Across The Universe by The Family Cat, one of the most underatted 90's indie bands.

[Thinwhiteduke]

Barmby Rover wrote:

The man who sold the world - Lulu

How bloody dare you!!  

I am deeply insulted that you give that abomination any credence whatsoever......Id even put the Nirvana version of that Bowie classic ahead of that Lulu mess......and I despise Nirvana.

One of my favourites is Mott The Hooples cover of Bowies 'All The Young Dudes' - not a bad effort.

[jonrover]

I once heard The Foo Fighters do a version on Gerry Rafferty's (I Think?) Baker Street. That was pretty good but my favourite is Elvis Costello's Pump It Up by The Wildhearts.

[Mr Brightside]

Biggles wrote:

The Beatles Across The Universe by The Family Cat, one of the most underatted 90's indie bands.

I've got 'Furthest from the sun' in a box of albums somewhere - no record player now though.

Like you say an underrated band, I wouldn't mind hearing that it's a great song, I do like the Fiona Apple version of it.

[Biggles]

Mr Brightside wrote:

Biggles wrote:

The Beatles Across The Universe by The Family Cat, one of the most underatted 90's indie bands.

I've got 'Furthest from the sun' in a box of albums somewhere - no record player now though.

Like you say an underrated band, I wouldn't mind hearing that it's a great song, I do like the Fiona Apple version of it.

Across The Universe appears on an album of covers by various indie bands, i think it was in aid of amnesty international or some other worthy cause. Its on vinyl so it must have been the early nineties.

Tell Em We're Surfin must be my most played CD of the nineties featuring the finest minute and a half of frenetic guitars with 'Albert Hoffmans Bike'.

[Thinwhiteduke]

jonrover wrote:

I once heard The Foo Fighters do a version on Gerry Rafferty's (I Think?) Baker Street. That was pretty good but my favourite is Elvis Costello's Pump It Up by The Wildhearts.

The Foo Fighters have done a cracking version of Wings' 'Band On The Run'.

[Goldthorperover]

Its raining men by geri halliwell. The video wasnt bad either.

[River Don]

Soft Cell - Tainted Love

Has really become definitive despite the Gloria Jones 60s soul version being very good.

[River Don]

These days most people seem to like the Florence and Machine version of You Got The Love.

Personally I still prefer the Candi Staton and the Source version

[BillyStubbsTears]

These days most people seem to like the Florence and Machine version of You Got The Love.

Personally I still prefer the Candi Station and the Source version

Absolute work of art.

[River Don]

I am the walrus - oasis

Noel Gallagher makes Slade's Merry Christmas sound much cooler