Okay, I've been strolling down memory lane with my friend's copy of Metallica's Garage Inc. and I thought of a good question (one that has likely been asked on this board before):

What songs have been covered better than the originals?

From this CD I'd say that Stone Cold Crazy is one of these songs. No offense to Queen, but I think Metallica's version is a bit more to my liking.

My all time favorite song that fits the category is Fleetwood Mac's Landslide by the Smashing Pumkins. I do not like the original, but the cover is hands down one of my favorite SP songs.

I'm assuming every song the Features ever covered will also be listed here, too, so I won't waste my time listing them all.

My friend thinks I'm crazy but I like Ben Harper's cover of Strawberry Fields Forever a lot more then the original. One cover I HATED was Bono's cover of Ryan Adams When the Stars Go Blue. I thought it sucked! But I guess that's a little biast..

Yeah, I gotta go with your friend on this. It's hard to outdo the Beatles.

Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" immediately comes to mind. I'm not a huge Hendrix fan, but his version of that song is just so perfect.

Also...
"I Will Survive" by Cake
"Hush" by Kula Shaker
"Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley

Oh, good one! I must say that I dig the Dave Matthews version as well. At least, I like the one from his EP, not the live 30 minute jam version.

hmmm...

SP's Landslide definitely.
Cake's I Will Survive definitely.
Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower definitely.
DMB's All Along the Watchtower as well (which I love because it is so completely different).

and to add some fresh ones:

Ben Folds Five's She Don't Use Jelly
Ben Folds Five's Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head
Ben Folds Five's Video Killed the Radio Star
Presidents of the USA's Video Killed the Radio Star
Travis' Baby One more Time

and I just heard this one live last night and was blown away...

Elliot Smith's "Say Yes" by Ben Folds

and yes, its tough to outdo the Beatles and its only been done once as far as I'm concerned...

With a Little Help from my Friends by Joe Cocker

and I have to mention what I consider to be the ultimate cover, though it has yet to actually happen... I just think it'd be amazing:

"A Day in the Life" by Radiohead

Will

hallelujah by jeff buckley
famous blue raincoat - tori amos
i will survive - tony clifton from man on the moon
a new found glory - heaven isn't too far away
higher ground - red hot chili peppers
psycho killer - the features
summertime - janis joplin


this is all i can thikn of off the top of my head. i'll be back later with more.

i'm probably going to get crucified for this but i think fiona apple's cover of "across the universe" fits the mood of the song better. talking head's "take me to the river" is a little more subtle than mr. greens. i don't know about cake's "i will survive" being better than the original. i will definitely take the buggles "video killed the radio star" over any cover of it. that song could not possibly be bettered from the original. i like a lot of disco/dance music. while we're on the topic of covers, i haaaaaaaaate it when emo/punk/worthless bands cover hit 80s songs. you can tell they're doing it just to be stupid. i guess what they don't stop to think about is that most of those songs are better than anything they will ever write.

I also enjoy Fiona Apple's "Across The Universe." My favorite covers are all of the ones that Oasis have done, basically...and Travis' "Baby One More Time." They actually make that sound like a good song...

Duh!

The Features doing "Sweet Child O' Mine"

I love when bands take a song from one genre and move it to another (like in this case, moving GnR to New Wave).

Cake doing "I Will Survive" was great.

Ben Folds has nothing on Flaming Lips, doing neither She Don't Use Jelly NOR Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head.

i agree completely, elt.

the jam : "david watts" (an excellent cover, it almost surpasses the original)
galaxie 500: "ceremony" (the best new order/joy division cover, PERIOD)
yo la tengo: "big sky" (excellent version of one of my favorite songs from VGPS)
Erlend Oye (of the kings of covenience): "no train to stockholm" (beautiful cover of a Lee Hazlewood song)

the void by the raincoats covered by hole

he stopped loving her today by george jones covered by my friend carla's band the geraldine fibbers.

man, that's all i can think of right now.

Your friend Carla??? Are you for real? I love that band!

hole covering the raincoats!?! that would anger the hell out of me.

favorite cover songs.....

violent femmes - do you really want to hurt me?
sonic youth - touch me i'm sick
smashing pumpkins - landslide
smashing pumpkins - never let me down again
nirvana - molly's lips
the frogs - vacation
big black - he's a whore
self - what a fool believes
cheap trick - ain't that a shame
flaming lips - death valley '69

the list just goes on and on................cover's are great. but only if they are done right!!

the raincoats do a rendition of "lola" by the kinks. i like it quite a bit.

Somehow I had never heard that cover until they played it before the show last week at the Boro. It was excellent. I mean, I love me some Michael McDonald- I even went to see his free show on the Roundabout last year. But Self's version was far superior.

red house painters - kiss's "shock me
sonic youth - the carpenters' "superstar"
elliott smith - the beatles' "because"
jeff buckley - leonard cohen's "hallelujah"
kula shaker - deep purple's "hush"
will ferrell - neil diamond's "forever in blue jeans"
guns 'n roses - wings' "live and let die"

crap...forgot one...

gary jules - tears for fears' "mad world"

...one instance in which the song totally made the movie. i mean, it was a solid movie without the song, but it worked so well it would be hard to imagine the movie without it. if i werent so lazy, i would start a new thread on the subject of standout soundtracks or song highlights in a movie.

Ooooh, I love the Jam. I found a Japanese 7" of "Going Underground" at Chad's Records in Chattanooga the other day. I was so happy.
As far as covers go, I really like the one Elastica did of "da da da."

my girlfriend got me a signed copy of the "going underground" 7". it is my prized posession.

and i also forgot the cowboy junkies version of "sweet jane".

(Edited by ray davies at 12:27 am on Nov. 24, 2002)

Amen, droog 54. Also, the sequence of the movie that uses that Tears for Fears song, "Head Over Heels" is one of my favorite sequences ever.

"Donnie Darko" just rules. What a great movie.

Amen x 2. Which gives me another opportunity to proclaim my love for Jake Gyllenhaal. Does anyone else think it's possible that the whole thing was a dream/vision of Frank the Bunny versus Frank the Bunny being inside of Donnie's head?

That reminds me, I love the Red House Painters' cover of the Cars' "All Mixed Up."

R.E.M. covered some interesting things back in the day--Mission of Burma's "Academy Fight Song" and Television's "See No Evil." But they are by no means better than the original; I guess it just goes to show you that REM have (has? had?) good taste in music.


Did anyone else find it strange that John Cale's version of "Hallelujah" was in "Shrek" ?

Why the hell was Rufus on the soundtrack, and John Cale in the movie? Damn Rufus Wainwright.

(Edited by Ceeze at 1:39 pm on Nov. 24, 2002)

Wait, he's on Dreamworks, yeah, nevermind.

what's so bad about rufus wainwright being on the soundtrack?

amen X 3. and i'm right there with you on your love for jake, lauren. he only comes second to jack white. i heart frank the bunny. what a great movie.

i indeed found that odd. jeff buckley's verison kicks all their asases though, still.

also, the cover of "you're all I've got tonight" by smashing pumpkins, while not better than the original is still noteworthy.

urge overkill's "girl, you'll be a woman soon"-people should cover more neil diamond
nirvana doing the vaseline's "molly's lips" and devo's "turnaround"
possum dixon's version of "for your love" by the yardbirds
superdrag's cover of "wave of mutilation"
i've also heard a great elliott smith take on "care of cell 44" by the zombies.

urge overkill's "girl, you'll be a woman soon"-people should cover more neil diamond
nirvana doing the vaseline's "molly's lips" and devo's "turnaround"
possum dixon's version of "for your love" by the yardbirds
superdrag's cover of "wave of mutilation"
i've also heard a great elliott smith take on "care of cell 44" by the zombies.

Well, there was a different version in the movie, and I don't particularly adore him in general, or his version of that song in particular. It sounds like he's just sight reading as opposed to having any real emotion behind it.

I can see that. I adore rufus , but overall, that cover didnt impress me that much, and besides nothing can compare to jeff buckley's version or leonard cohen's original.

(Edited by ray davies at 10:59 pm on Nov. 24, 2002)

i heard superdrag cover the zombies' "beachwood park". they just happened to change the title to "expanding my mind".

Ohhhhhhhh... that's a burn!

Fuck Donnie Darko. It's easily one of the most overrated movies of all time. Most of the people who loved it were stoners who didn't see the ending coming and then were like "Whoa! Good one." It's almost as bad as the "I see dead people" thing. I've been saying this since I saw it. My roommate was like, "you just didn't get it." But that's just it, there's nothing to not get. It's too easy.

i liked "donnie darko" and the "sixth sense". it's not the endings that made me enjoy the movies though. i know what you mean about people saying, "you don't get it do you?". i hardly ever laugh at jokes and people always seem to be under the assumption that i don't get it. the problem is that the punchlines are usually predictable, stupid, or vulgar. this guy i knew in high school didn't get "a clockwork orange". that one really confused me. i can understand not liking it, but what's not to get? most of my friends got very mad at me for recommending rushmore. they either, "didn't get it", or they, "thought it was dumb and the plot sucked".

(Edited by exliontamer at 1:20 pm on Nov. 25, 2002)

Time for new friends, dude.

Neuboy, it's a movie, not a fucking riddle. It's not about "getting it", in my opinion. No, I didn't see the ending coming, and was pleasantly surprised by it, but that's not the point. Lots of movies are easy to "get." What I like about Donnie Darko is the beauty of the movie itself. I thought it was a really well-written movie, with a decent plot and interesting characters. It was also very visually interesting, and made good use of music.

I think that you just have too many negative associations with the time that you saw it.

Well, I'm a very big Rufus Wainwright fan, and I think he covered the song very well.

Oh, and I really enjoyed Rufus's version of "Across the Universe" that he did at the "Come Together" benefit show. I think it was better than the version on the "I am Sam" soundtrack, but of course, not half as good as the original. I also love Fiona Apple's version, but no one can live up to The Beatles in my mind.

yup. it's the first time i heard an echo & the bunnymen song that hit me. it also made me remember how good tears for fears are.

goddam that's funny. didn't a feature get beat up or something because he brought this up to john davis?

elliott smith does a beautiful cover of "thirteen" by big star....

actually
if you've ever read the liner notes of the rereleased the Raincoats they thank courtney for covering the void.

i've known carla and nels since i was 16. we met when they opened for urge overkill at 328.

Good rebuttal, jc, but you forgot to mention how unbelievably HOT Donnie is. I've likewise had friends who I recommended Rushmore to who hated it. My parents loved it, though, which shed some light on my own tastes.

that doesn't mean i'd like hole's cover of "the void". anyway, the self titled album i have is a burned copy. "odyshape" is the only one i have that's not burned, complete with worthless liner notes by kim gordon.

no, but i heard that john davis looked up from his book and gave him a funny look. i also heard that brandon retorted by saying, "you're not the first person to have said that!". i'm not so sure that's a good thing. by the way, i think "regretfully yours" is an unsung album of the 90s. and back to the covers topic.....komeda does a pretty cool version of can's "mushroom".

Now that would've been a good show. When was that? I've just recently started listening to Exit the Dragon again. Saturation is definitely one of my all-time faves.

95 i believe, or 96. no, 95. it was a great show, but carla thought the urge overkill peeps turned the sound down during their set.
one of my favourite moments of the night was when the violin player at the time (i believe her name was jessie) took me to urge overkill's dressing room and nash kato was in the middle of changing clothes and had no shirt on.

Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. I met him 2 years back when he got screwed out of playing Dancin in the District because of a rain delay. His band was just hanging out near the bridge and my buddy Brian spotted them. We approached them and said we were sorry he wasn't playing. He thanked us and asked if there was anything to eat around there. I couldn't really think of anything, though, cause I didn't want to direct him to the Hard Rock or Planet Hollywood. Okay, not a great story, but he is a cool guy.