Race with The Devil. 4 versions. Best was Black Oak. Original 1968. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvMETCQAf1w&feature=related Priest 76. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtqFrJf7eL0&feature=related Black Oak 1978. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV7uGtbzz3c&feature=related Girlschool. 80's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbnalCFx-dc&feature=related
Enjoy the Silence by Failure > Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode Just my personal controversial opinion though.
One song that often gets brought up is Nirvana's cover of The Man Who Sold the World. Honestly, I love Nirvana's cover, but I think that's an example of a song where the cover is excellent, but not better. However, to keep with David Bowie covers, Beck's cover of Diamond Dogs is great, so I'll recommend that.
I like Word Up by Korn a lot better...along with Istanbul not Constantinople by They Might Be Giants then the original.
That's honestly the first time someone has agreed with me on that. Nirvana's version is great, but I still prefer Bowie's original. I do prefer "Landslide" by Smashing Pumpkins versus the Fleetwood Mac original.
Well, so many covers suck (Satisfaction covered by Brittany Spears, for example) that, when a cover is great, people assume it has to be better than the original.
The definitive cover. After Hendrix' version, everyone does All Along The Watchtower like Hendrix did it, even Dylan. Speaking of Britney, anybody ever heard "...Baby One More Time" by the Fountains of Wayne? It's really good. My favorite cover is Gregg Allman's version of the Jackson Browne song, These Days. He plumbs depths from that song that Jackson has never explored. Interestingly, the Fountains of Wayne also did a passible, solo guitar version of These Days.
Frank Marino did a pretty smooth All Along the Watchtower, but as mentioned above, it was modeled after Jimi's. Sister Change is a better track as is the title track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmcBc-GjeDY Priest did Joan Baez's Diamonds & Rust, & Fleetwood Mac's Green Manalishi better.
Evil Woman by Crow. Pardon the dorky intro guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyoHHb0yAZc & by Sabbath http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF3DpGys8aY Well, you decide. Both good, Crow with horns, Sabs without.
I haven't heard that one, but Local H did a pretty good cover of Toxic. Then again, there's Children of Bodom's cover of Oops I Did it Again, which words can not explain
GNR's cover of the Rolling Stones classic, Sympathy for the Devil was pretty damn good. I won't say it's better but, it is pretty darn good. Also, a local band here in New Orleans called Merry go Drown covered Paint it Black a few years ago. Here's the original from the Stones... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_zp4fsDrNA Here's Merry go Drown's re-imagining... http://media.putfile.com/Merry-Go-Drown---Paint-it-Black Feel free to come to your own conclusions.
Better yet, how about a Metal cover of a modern-day classical tune from a popular movie? Here's a fan video featuring the original piece... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8ZTTsiJupo Here's the Metal Version... http://media.putfile.com/Imperial-March---Metal-Version
Yeah, but there's no Wee-ah-wee-ah in that version. Plus, what's with the random Clash in there? Otherwise, yeah, that's a good version.
I think the random Clash in it is awesome. Check out this version of What you waiting for? by Gwen Stefani performed by Franz Ferdinand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6KYRIlYG0 Disclaimer: It has random Billy Idol in it.
I've always thought Guns N' Roses' version of Live and Let Die took a pretty shitty song and made it quite good. And The Clash did a dynamite cover of I Fought The Law.
Well, I love the Clash, it just caught me by surprise. Thanks for the warning. That's pretty cool too (although I am fortunate enough to not know the original).