best cover song

what's the greatest cover song?

Hendrix: All Along the Watch Tower

followed by, in close second,

Guns N' Roses: Knocking on Heaven's Door


NOTICE: They're both Dylan songs

How about "This Flight Tonight" from Nazzareth, written by Joni Mitchell? :D

Or "Woodstock" from Crosby, Stills & Nash, also written by Joni Mitchell? :cool:

Or "Lady Marmalade" from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, originally by Patti Labelle? :)

Going the other way, how about covers that suck so bad, the original leaves it in the dust? Like...

"American Woman" trashed by Lenny Kravitz, originally by The Guess Who? :(

Or one that makes me grind my teeth: "Rock On" desecrated by some recent travesty that shall evermore remain nameless, blown away by the original David Essex. :mad:

Lately I saw Chris Whitley live and he played some songs from his new album. A few covers ,i don't remember the name at this time. But he gave them a very personal touch. So that's the main thing if you cover a song.
There are many songs covered the wrong way, take All along the watchtower by instance, basically a very simple song, U2 called it three chords and the truth also adding some interesting lyrics about a red guitar, . This U2 version is one of the worst and that's the %^&%^%^& truth.
Only Jimmy Hendrix took this song to a high level mainly of his relaxed vocals and solo work.

Nowadays there are covers to see on TMF and MTV turned into the R&B thing. Mostly very taistless versions. Only the kids don't know the originals. When i try to make them listen to the original they are not interested.
Maybe one of these days Stairway to Heaven gets an R&B touch with a rapped solo, ha ha.

Has anyone ever heard of "Dread Zeppelin"? They're a reggae group, who only cover Led Zep. I heard a ragga version of Stairway to Heaven, and it was pretty cool.

Also, "Dream On" by Ronnie James Dio and Yngwie is really good, too, from the Aerosmith tribute album.

I definitely recommend that everyone check these songs out.

Whisky In The Jar by Thin Lizzy - originely a traditional arrangement, ruined by Metallica.

Derek & The Dominoes - Have You Ever Loved A Woman

Gary Moore - Sky Is Crying (SRV Cover)

Thin Lizzy - Rosalie(Bob Seegar Cover)

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Call Me The Breeze

SRV - Little Wing
Bad Covers

Sheryl Crow - Sweet Child O Mine
GNR - Live And Let Die(it was just terrible)
Madonna - American Pie
Tom Jones - Too Many to name
The Corrs - Old Town(Phil Lynott),Little Wing(Hendrix),Long & Winding Road(Beatles)

And of course the mother of all ****ups:

Metallica - Whisky In The Jar

I never knew these two had worked together, tho i had always thought it'd be good if they did.

Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower, and Hey Joe.
He did a few more good covers of Dylan songs, Dylan once said that whenever he played Watchtower it became a tribute to Jimi, which is funny.
Brian Ferry's version of Dylan's "It's a hard rain's a gonna fall" is the worst cover of all time, I cried the first time I heard it. He took everything good about the songa nd made it bad, grr.
And Dylan can sing.

Shout 2000 by Disturbed, written by Tears and Fears or something like that.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what they did together?

Originally posted by Bardsley
Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower, and Hey Joe.
He did a few more good covers of Dylan songs, Dylan once said that whenever he played Watchtower it became a tribute to Jimi, which is funny.
Brian Ferry's version of Dylan's "It's a hard rain's a gonna fall" is the worst cover of all time, I cried the first time I heard it. He took everything good about the songa nd made it bad, grr.
And Dylan can sing.

Speaking of Brian Ferry, Roxy Musics cover of Jealous Guy by John Lennon was pretty terrible aswell.

Can't that I am over impressed with covers. Well that was until I heard the Tax man ( the beatles) re done by SRV, fantastic!

If you do a search for "aerosmith tribute album" or something like that, you'll see a tribute album that was made for Aerosmith. One of the tracks is "Dream On" by Dio & Malmsteen.

I have the mp3 (sort of, it's on a friend's computer), it rocks!

Ta. will do.

Call Me THe Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Cocaine by Eric Clapton
Nobody Knows You When Yor Down and Out by John Lennon
Stand By Me by John Lennon(Ben E King original is still better though)

I can't believe no one mentioned Manfred Mann's cover of Springsteen's "Blinded By the Light". awesome tune! there is a rare acoustic cover of "All Along the Watchtower" by Michael Hedges on "Live from the Double Planet" that is worth mentioning... it will undoubtedly piss off the metalheads but it is very original and innovative. Derek and the Dominos version of "Little Wing" is completely different (though not as good as SRV's). Oh, and I thought U2's cover (Watchtower) was a decent tribute but not for it's technical merit. How about there answer to John Lennon's "God" called "God Pt. 2"? not exactly a cover but a great song! I also saw Sting do a cover of "Little Wing" during a live show in the late 80's. it was a bit jazzy and worked well live, though it paled in comparison to Hendrix and SRV.
All time worst cover... gee, where do I begin? How about Will to Power's "Freebird/Baby I Love Your Way"! and in 2nd place, everything else they ever did! there was a disco version of Stairway To Heaven floating around in the mid-80's as well that bordered on blasphemy. Eddy Vetter's Dylan cover on the Tribute album was awful but his Door's stuff is pretty good.
BTW, Edie Brickel's "A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall", The Bangles "Hazy Shade of Winter" are both decent, and Tori Amos' covers (Led Zep's "Thank You" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit") are great examples of covers that sound like completely different songs! I like them both, you can actually hear the WORDS in the Nirvana tune. Tori's version of the Stones' "Angie" is amazing, too. But beware, they are truly "different."

Dave Matthews Band-All Along the Watchtower
Guns and Roses-Knocking on Heaven Doors
Disturbed-Shout 2000

I forgot one: Deadsy; Tom Sawyer.

How about Metallica's version of Turn the page?

Yea, thats right I forgot Metallica's Turn the Page. Great tune.