Cover Versions that are better than the Originals

[REM]

The ultimate version of that has to be Christine Perfect/Chicken Shack.

CLICKY

[Beechwoods]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-for-4.95.html

[Barry]

The ultimate version of that has to be Christine Perfect/Chicken Shack.

I'd agree with you there.

Regards

[steveinspain]

The ultimate version of that has to be Christine Perfect/Chicken Shack.


Never heard that one, and sadly, as my internet is so slow, I still cannot - just spent over an hour trying to get the page to open with no joy..!

[Prince of Darkness]

Stan Webb still does a good version with the current Chicken Shack line up.

[Jeremy Marchant]

Surely any song originally recorded by Bob Dylan will sound better in a cover, whoever makes it! (Same goes for Leonard Cohen.)

[Barry]

Surely any song originally recorded by Bob Dylan will sound better in a cover, whoever makes it! (Same goes for Leonard Cohen.)

I might agree with you on covers of Dylan's compositions, but not so sure about Cohen. Apart from the Jeff Buckley cover of 'Hallelujah', which is a better version, I can't think of any other covers. Can you give some examples?

Regards

[The Grand Wazoo]

There's a truly, truly great album of Laughin' Len covers called 'I'm Your Fan'

"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" – Ian McCulloch
"I Can't Forget" – Pixies
"Stories of the Street" – That Petrol Emotion
"Bird on the Wire" – The Lilac Time
"Suzanne" – Geoffrey Oryema
"So Long, Marianne" – James
"Avalanche IV" – Jean-Louis Murat
"Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On" – David McComb & Adam Peters
"First We Take Manhattan" – R.E.M.
"Chelsea Hotel" – Lloyd Cole
"Tower of Song" – Robert Forster
"Take This Longing" – Peter Astor
"True Love Leaves No Traces" – Dead Famous People
"I'm Your Man" – Bill Pritchard
"A Singer Must Die" – Fatima Mansions
"Tower of Song" – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
"Hallelujah" – John Cale

Also, Jennifer Warnes did an album - 'Famous Blue Raincoat' (sometimes called 'Jenny Sings Lenny') which is pretty good (if you can get past her slightly nasal tone)

1. First We Take Manhattan
2. Bird On The Wire
3. Famous Blue Raincoat
4. Joan Of Arc
5. Ain't No Cure For Love
6. Coming Back To You
7. Song Of Bernadette
8. Singer Must Die
9. Came So Far For Beauty

Those are the big ones I know & like, but there are also a few tracks covered within albums etc.

There is in fact a database of Cohen covers which lists over 1500 of them(!!!!)

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/coverlist.php

[The Grand Wazoo]

I love cover versions - they've led me in all sorts of new directions in music.
But I hate covers that add nothing to the original. They don't have to be better, that's not really the point to me, but a cloying clonal copy of the original is a waste of everyone's time and money. I'd rather hear a completely different but inferior version than a mindless excercise in painting by numbers.

If you're interested in covers, you really have to look at The Covers Project. It's a database of cover versions. Type in a band & it tells you what they covered & what songs of theirs were covered by others.
http://www.coversproject.com/

[Jeremy Marchant]

Apart from the Jeff Buckley cover of 'Hallelujah', which is a better version, I can't think of any other covers. Can you give some examples?

Not being a Cohen fan, my ability to respond is light but, even in my CD collection, there's kd lang's Hymns of the 49th Parallel which includes both Jericho and Bird on a wire.

Doing some research I find www.cohencovers.com which is "a compilation of Leonard Cohen covers you can listen to on iTunes Store. It features 513 covers by 391 artists." Surely an embarrassment of riches.

Included are covers of Hey that's no way to say goodbye sung by the London Pro musica choir, and Suzanne by the Bonzo dog doodah band.