Thanks Rob. It seems no great number of people are fussed either way, so I won't labour a point. However, I could certainly enjoy a thread dedicated to "cover versions that are better than the original". Is there such a thing? Or how does one start one. Being a noob here I have no idea how these things work. And you're right about Cocker - but I think a whole thread about Beatles covers could ensue. And then another one about Dylan.

Let me pitch another one: the best moments in all pop featuring any instrument in particular. Now, I know that some categories will be quite controversial and taste might enter the equation. (Your taste that is: I have objective reasoned fact; you have taste - old story.) Anyway, I recognize that a discussion about the very best electric guitar solo ever might go on for some time, so let me get a couple of the obvious ones out of the way right away. These are surely ones no-one could possibly argue with!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the very finest Marimba solo in rock and pop: Moonlight Feels Right by Starbuck. Ker-ching. No arguements, just is.

Sticking to absolute dead certs, next up has to be... the very best bit of tambourine ever committed to vinyl: War by Edwin Starr. What is war good for? Absolutely nothing, you say? Not so. It's good for a sustained assault on an innocent tambourine by someone unconcerned by the tambourine's usual role in the background. On lead tambourine, it's... well, I don't know who it is actually, but there'll be statues of him in his home town, I'll be bound. And an annual parade I should think, with marching bands. Which reminds me, the Salvation Army have long understood the power of the humble tambourine. Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it.

I think I'm on a roll here, so I'll give you just one more uncontentious example. Best demented Bongo in all pop: Oh Carolina - the 1960 original by the Folkes Brothers. It's pretty damned Lo-fi, this record, but no matter. The geezer with the bongo (just the one) is right there are the front, and it sounds like he's having a splendid time.

Anyone got any gem's you'd like to share? Or maybe there's a thread for this topic too, in which case, I'll see you over there.