Cover songs versus the original track, which ones are better?

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Hornbein said:
Orig

I liked this song when I was a kid (1966). Still do. The AEON department stores in Japan play songs from this era over their PA systems, a nice bonus.



Cover


Same composer and this is a cover of a song he wrote for Hermans hermits.

 
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Parrot covers Sultans of Swing.

 
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pinball1970 said:
Same composer and this is a cover of a song he wrote for Hermens hermits.


A propos Herman's Hermits. My absolute favorite song by them is "Into Something Good," mainly because I sometimes use it as an antidepressant. It has zero side effects, and I'm not a Tibetan monk who could possibly manage his moods by self-control.

So I looked for interesting covers. Interesting means to me that the cover must change something, not just replay the original with even the same arrangement like The Gypsy Queens & Peter Noone did. That's boring and usually worse than the original. So I found these, which are really interesting ...

... for changing the rhythm ...


... for focusing on the vocals and solving the problem that most males struggle to sing the high tones and not fall into a helpless queeking whispering ...


... and finally learned that Herman's Hermits' version itself was already a cover, which explains the mentioned struggles ...
 
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Mina and Yoyoka cover the Red Hot Chili Peppers

 
fresh_42 said:
A propos Herman's Hermits. My absolute favorite song by them is "Into Something Good," mainly because I sometimes use it as an antidepressant. It has zero side effects, and I'm not a Tibetan monk who could possibly manage his moods by self-control
It's funny, as I read your post I am sat in a bar in Manchester, they are playing 1990s music everywhere including Oasis because of the gigs here.
A track came on and it totally sent me under, memories, nice ones, they can be worse than bad ones. Thirty years, my brain has still not healed and I don't have a time machine, so I have to take these moments of extreme sadness and find something uplifting instead.
 
pinball1970 said:
It's funny, as I read your post I am sat in a bar in Manchester, they are playing 1990s music everywhere including Oasis because of the gigs here.
A track came on and it totally sent me under, memories, nice ones, they can be worse than bad ones. Thirty years, my brain has still not healed and I don't have a time machine, so I have to take these moments of extreme sadness and find something uplifting instead.
I remember when I once sat in a cocktail bar in the 90s, at a time when many cover songs came up. The youngsters often didn't know that they were covers. Anyway. I found myself and the guy next to me singing along when he said to me: "You must be careful these days what you sing along. It reveals our age."
 
The Yardbirds made it famous. Not sure why there are two versions, one with Jeff Beck and a mimed version with Jimmy Page.



 
Orig Reincarnation Apple. Make sure to hit the CC button to get the lyrics.



Cover by a real band. I think the ebass player is terrific.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Woman_(Crow_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow_(band)

(1969) 1969 HITS ARCHIVE: Evil Woman Don’t Play Your Games With Me - Crow (mono 45)
"Dave Wagner (aka Waggoner) on lead vocal for the Minneapolis group’s most successful single.
Pop Chart Peaks: Cash Box 16, Record World 18, Billboard 19
Transferred from mono 45 single Amaret 112 - Evil Woman Don’t Play Your Games With Me (Wiegand-Wiegand-Waggoner) by Crow, produced by Bob Monaco"



(1970) Black Sabbath - Evil Woman/Wicked World - Fontana TF 1067 UK Single
"The masterings of Evil Woman & Wicked World that were pressed on the Fontana TF 1067 7" Single. Mono. They're not much different except for the guitar EQ's & Ozzy's vocals
Trident Studios: Nov 10 1969 / Jan 9 1970"

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Woman_(Crow_song)#Black_Sabbath_version

Covered in 1969 by Black Sabbath and released in England as the band's first single on 2 January 1970, the song also appeared on the original version of the band's self-titled debut album, although it was replaced by its B-side, "Wicked World", on the later, American versions of the album. When the band's debut album started to become successful in the UK, the single was re-released on 26 March 1970.
 
Reason to show this one is that soloist classic type instruments can be great ways to demonstrate great music which is typically expressed using overpowered rock/metal/heavy-metal band instruments.

 
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Larkin Poe covering Stayin' Alive in their own style.

My ear is terrible, but I think those two young ladies had to transpose it down a tone or two.
 
Orig


The new remixes of The Beatles version are inferior. Stick with the orig vinyl.

Cover
 
Van Halen's Why Can't This Be Love? Cover

 
Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah was largely ignored until Jeff Buckley's rendition was largely ignored until his untimely death.. Cohen took five years to write the lyrics. Buckley's version is not Cohen's but John Cale's a musician and producer who was given all of Cohen's attempts to his final version.

Cohen original


Buckley


You can listen to "Hallelujah's" evolution in Malcolm Gladwell's podcast, Revisionist History. starting at 12:38, although the whole podcast is worth listening to. Gladwell compares Elvis Costello's development of Deportee to Hallelujah's.
 
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In such circumstances. I like this one, although I'm usually not a fan of contralto.


 
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Really good vocals in this live performance, they are two talented girls:

Guy TIPPED $100 for this PERFORMANCE!! ABBA - S.O.S. | Allie Sherlock cover & Zoe Clarke
 
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Drum cover of Led Zep IV

 
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Hornbein said:
Drum cover of Led Zep IV


Wow! I will catch up with this one for sure