117 thoughts on “Friday Afternoon Jukebox: A Cover That Improves The Original”

      1. “Life ain’t nothing but a funny funny riddle, thank god I was born into a military family and moved around from base to base for the entirety of my youth living in places like Tuscon Arizona and Montgomery Alabama and Fort Worth Texas and yet still seriously claim that I’m a country boy!”Report

        1. Weirdly, when I was living in Germany I found out this song is REALLY popular there, whole bars full of Germans will sing this. I was stunned. I guess John Denver is of German descent, and they have adopted him, plus the lyrics really do have a ‘Volk’ feeling to them, don’t they?Report

          1. I guess John Denver is of German descent,

            His real name was Deutschendorf.

            But then the Germans really love the music of David Hasselhoff, too, so it’s hard to know what to make of them.Report

            1. My roommate in college was American, but not raised in a religious household as I was.

              We were listening to Madness’ ‘Our House’ once and he asked me what a Sunday Vest was (he assumed it was some special piece of religious wear, and I had to explain, no, that’s just a generic ‘Sunday Best’).Report

          1. I’ve never said individuals can’t have preferences. I’ve merely said it is a mistake to think that those preferences are representative of truths about the art itself and not merely the individual expression of subjective tastes.Report

  2. I’ll add three that come to mind:
    Fiona Apple’s cover of “Across the Universe”, Neko Case’s “Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis”, and The Webb Sisters’ “If If Be Your Will”.

    And when I am king, anyone caught covering “Hallelujah” will be attained.Report

  3. this is likely debatable, but i always thought mogwai’s “my father, my king” was a lot more moving than the jewish hymn it takes the melody from. particularly live.Report

  4. The Beatles did this all the time: Twist and Shout, Please Mr. Postman. Words of Love.

    There’s a John Mellencamp cover of Under the Boardwalk I love. The Drifters are great, but for my money too restrained. That’s a song that deserves to have the hell sung out of it.

    For most pointless, The Indigo Girls cover of Dire Strait’s “Romeo and Juliet.” I love me some Girls, but they seem to misunderstand everything that makes that song great. It’s not a down and dirty blues, it’s a portrait of a performance, which makes it even sadder when the love-struck Romeo’s real heartache breaks through.Report

  5. “Lefty and Pancho” with Willie and Merle.
    “Runaway” live version by Bonnie Raitt and that incredible harp player.
    And of course “Me and Bobby Mcgee” by that hippie chick from Texas.Report

    2. My girlfriend’s father was Ray Charles’ valet back in the early 60s, and his manager after that. They were lifetime friends, and he (my girlfriend’s dad) spoke at Charles’ funeral. You should hear some of the stories.Report

  7. I loved the Cat Power cover of Wonderwall, which I had never heard before. It was very reminiscent of Neil Nathan’s cover of the ELO hit Do Ya, which has become a playlist staple in my car drives.

    Report

  8. Emmylou Harris is quite the cover artist — you could argue it’s made (or even BEEN) her career. Not always better, but typically good, and only rarely failures.

    Johnny Cash’s version of Springsteen’s “Further On Up the Road” is better than the original, if only because you’re hearing a man sing while knowing he’s not long for the world.Report

  9. Weirdly, had never heard that Cat Power one (I dig her and it) – did it come out before or after the semi-similar Ryan Adams one that reportedly made Noel Gallagher say in effect ‘it’s his song, now’?:

    http://youtu.be/kzZhtrsbJzsReport

  10. Manfred Man’s cover of Blinded by the Light is totally superior to IMHO the Boss’ . Little known songfact was listening to the MM version was a fireable offense for anyone on the Boss’ crew (and yes, I know someone who got fired, the good news is his next gig was with Led Zeppelin).

    Fun game: How many Mondegreen’s can you come up with from just that one song?Report

    1. Great topic.

      The Bangles, “Hazy Shade of Winter”
      The Beach Boys “California Dreamin”
      The Kingston Trio, “This Land is Your Land” (and a few others)
      Willie Nelson “If you’ve got the money I’ve got the time” (I think they made a beer commercial out of that)
      Billy Idol “Mony mony”Report

      1. Ugh, I HATE ‘Mony Mony’. Nails on a chalkboard.

        What about the Grandaddies of them all, The Byrds’ ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ (Dylan, and the Byrds’ is definitely better)? or Elvis’ ‘Hound Dog’ (first done by Big Mama Thornton I think, but debatable as to which version wins)?Report

        2. No way on Mr. Tambourine Man. The Byrds are good, but the Dylan is sublimely beautiful.

          On the other hand, Dylan’s Chimes of Freedom is a droning snooze. The Byrds found the song waiting to be born from that mess.Report

        1. Not sure about the most-covered song, but I can definitely waste some time on YouTube like you say.

          They should just have a banner at top that says ‘Abandon All Productivity, Ye Who Enter Here.’Report

  11. Maybe slightly obscure to some, and I am not sure it bests the New Order version which is one of my favorite songs ever, but Galaxie 500’s cover of ‘Ceremony’ is at least nearly as good, in a very different way from the original.

    For those who can’t stand the singer’s voice (it is, admittedly, an acquired taste), try to stick with the song anyway until it lifts off (you’ll know when).

    There was a sticker on one of the Galaxie 500 LPs exhorting the listener to ‘Come Ride the Fiery Breeze’ and I can think of no better descriptor for this guitar tone. Epic:

    http://youtu.be/4CnAnmnEPcUReport

  13. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across Ray Charles’s cover. Released first on his Live From Japan album, it has never received serious fanfare.

    A bit of context here: Olivia Newton-John’s version was a major hit in Japan, and the song has taken on a life of its own over there.Report

    1. This rule holds up across a broad spectrum of genres and artists.

      All Along The Watchtower
      If You Gotta Go, Go Now
      You’re Going To Make Me Lonesome When You Go
      Hurricane
      Man in the Long Black Coat
      Blowing in the Wind
      Simple Twist of Fate
      Knocking on Heaven’s Door
      If Not For You

      …Oh, the list could go on and on and on. All to Mr. Dylan’s great credit as a masterful songwriter.Report

      2. Dylan is a fine poet and songwriter, a landmark in both skill sets. He’s always assembled wonderful bands. I know it’s just me, but Bob Dylan’s singing voice drives me berserk. I’d rather listen to a hog calling contest.Report

        1. Don’t forget RevCo’s ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’.

          And Faith No More did a surprisingly straightfoward and smooth cover of Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Easy’.Report

      2. Neil Diamond did pretty well with “Lay, Lady, Lay,” but I agree with this assessment. Dylan doesn’t sound like himself in the studio recording of “Lay, Lady, Lay,” he sounds like… well, he sounds like Neil Diamond.

        Similar to K.D. Lang covering “Crying.” She really has a fantastic take and it shows off all her strengths as a performer. But the original by Roy Orbison is just that much better.Report

  20. No one has yet mentioned the iconic example, I’m surprised:

    Aretha’s cover of RESPECT made it absolutely, positively, unquestionably hers forever.Report

  21. I don’t think I buy the general point about covers, but in jazz music (where what is and isn’t a “cover” isn’t always clear) excellent covers and re-interpretations are the norm: Miles Davis’ “Solar” is infinitely better than the piece it covers). And of course almost all orchestral music is in a sense a cover. So, meh. And Charles knows that jazz tradition.

    But in that vein, there are uncountably many _great_ “jazz” covers of pop tunes, so here’s a couple off the top of my head which I find much better than the originals.

    _Everyone_ should agree that Bobby McFerrin’s cover of Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird,” Dave Douglas’ cover of Bjork’s “Unison,” and Cassandra Wilson’s cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” (really her cover of Miles Davis’ cover of it) are ridiculously superior to the originals. If you disagree, sorry, you’re just totally wrongheaded.

    Been listening a lot to Vijay Iyer’s new one which has a great cover of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature.”

    For me personally the definitive cover of “Wonderwall” is Brad Mehldau’s — check out the bass figure on that, how Grenadier drops a beat so he goes in and out of phase. Same album has a cover of “Black Hole Sun” that is beyond belief, and of course Mehldau is known for his many Radiohead covers. His “Knives out” is killing. I think comparing Brad Mehldau to any but a very very select group of musicians is a little unfair, though, so, back to earth….

    Bill Frisell’s cover of Madonna’s “Live to Tell” on “Have a Little Faith” (an album all of covers). I love Bill. I saw him do that song live before the album came out, people in the audience heard the riff and tittered, then he stopped and said, “No, I really like this song, please listen.” And he was right — he heard something there we hadn’t.

    Of course Ethan Iverson first gained fame with the Bad Plus’ covers on its first album: the Aphex Twin piece is the standout, but Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is amazing – Iverson had never heard it and he just rages.

    Staying with Nirvana, I think Charlie Hunter’s best album is “Bing BIng Bing, and it has a great “Come as You Are.”

    I’ve heard Christian Sands do Kanye West’s “Runaway” and liked it better than the original.

    It would be easy to go on and on and on….Report

    1. Yeah, great point.

      I don’t think of “covers” when I think of jazz. It seems that so much of jazz is wrapped up in what you can do with an already iconic melody or rhythm, that when I see, say, Marsalis doing an Ellington piece I just don’t hear myself saying “He’s covering an Ellington song” they way I would for something in the pop genres.Report

        2. Yeah, that’s what I meant — the concept doesn’t quite work outside of pop/rock, and it only works _in_ pop/rock because _comparatively speaking_ those forms put much less of a premium on originality and composition so there’s a special quality to a “cover” where even that is abandoned and the artist traffics in style and arrangement instead.

          Check out Uri Caine’s “Goldberg Variations.” They sure aren’t Glenn Gould’s! But they are in an odd sense truer to the original.Report

          1. I can’t come up with an interpretation of Tom Van Dyke’s comment here that makes a lot of sense but — that Crouch column got him fired, and got a lot of pushback from everywhere, and it’s not smart to cite it. For one thing it is ridiculously racist. The idea that Dave DOuglas — who was digging up crazy new talent and introducing all kinds of new ideas to the music in the ’90’s and 200’s, and still is — was getting so much critical approbation because he’s _white_ is _beyond stupid_. Saying that instead that approbation should _obviously_ be going to Marsalis — who many jazz musicians, notably Keith Jarrett, hate — is also _stupid_, and to have a columnist who has a financial interest in Wynton Marsalis writing it (but not disclosing that interest) is transparent. To say that _Bill Evans_ was somebody white critics went and found so they could have some white guy to praise instead of black pianists, is _just stupid_. Tom doesn’t know what he’s talking about.Report

        2. Thoughts — (1) I am not a big Stanley Jordan fan, not digging that “Autumn Leaves” (2) “the “jazz purist”? I worked at Yoshi’s, man — and why the hell isn’t Brad Mehldau qualified to say what’s jazz? Or Ethan Iverson? Fact is it’s a continuum, and it’s a much more inclusive form than pop — since the ’90s it’s been totally globalized, most jazz players worth anything can play a raga or a maqam — and that particular list is all players who are just as happy playing post-bop (3) Yeah, “Autumn Leaves” exemplifies why “cover” doesn’t quite apply — I mean, you can reorchestrate or reharmonize, or anything else, and once the thing becomes a standard… Davis’ version is famous but check out the Chick Corea/Bobby McFerrin duets, there’s a couple of them.Report

          1. Yoshi’s…. jeebus, that must have been great.

            Jazz has always waged a continuous war against those who would capture it and try to pin it in a box like some butterfly. In a sense, “Jazz” is nothing but a catch-all, a default case for music which didn’t fit into the other pigeonholes in the record store.

            I particularly like the description of jazz as a continuum. Jazz, like a healthy language, happily absorbs any useful terms it encounters and attaches them to itself.

            At midnight on the Emperor’s pavement flit
            Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit,
            Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame,
            Where blood-begotten spirits come
            And all complexities of fury leave,
            Dying into a dance,
            An agony of trance,
            An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve.
            Astraddle on the dolphin’s mire and blood,
            Spirit after Spirit! The smithies break the flood.
            The golden smithies of the Emperor!
            Marbles of the dancing floor
            Break bitter furies of complexity,
            Those images that yet
            Fresh images beget,
            That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.            Report

    1. I for one don’t like this post one bit. I want to just be able to post a music video and call it a day. Yet here’s the New Guy setting a new standard and crap. Bah!Report

    1. I always picture the Bojangles character as black, but it turns out that he’s based on a guy the songwriter (who is white) met in jail back when Southern jails were segregated.Report

  27. There’s also:

    -Benny Goodman’s cover of Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing”
    -The Righteous Brothers’ cover of “Unchained Melody,” Todd Duncan’s version being the original. Personally, I’m partial to Al Hibbler’s cover, but I’ve been outvoted, it seems.
    -And the Righteous Brothers’ cover of “Ebb Tide.”Report

  28. What about the kickin’ bluegrass covers by Hayseed Dixie. “Highway to Hell”? It is a thing of beauty.Report

  30. The thing about Country Roads is that the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River are both almost entirely in *western* Virginia, not West Virginia. The quip growing up is that he must have wrote that song in Harper’s Ferry.Report

  32. two additions:

    Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” is a cover of Prince

    and Cat Power’s “Fortunate Son.”Report

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