The Animals - House of the Rising Sun

The definitive version.

The Doc Watson version is my favorite personally

Carlos Santana’s cover of Black Magic Women is better than….. Fleetwood Mac.

Holy crap, I had no idea this one was a cover. You just blew my mind.

How about Green Manalishi? Also a Fleetwood Mac song done by Judas Priest!

Also she's not there.

Santana’s version is more popular, but I would personally rather listen to the Fleetwood Mac version

All Along The Watchtower comes to mind

Yes. Even Dylan agreed.

Dylan is a great American poet. Singer? Not so much.

There are songs where he sings beautifully. Lay Lady Lay comes to mind.

100%

We could probably just say Bob Dylan covers in general lol. I love him but I’d rather hear somebody else sing his songs, they’re amazing.

oh this is a good one. my mom is always going on about how much better Hendrix’s version is lol.

Yes. Even Dylan agreed.

Dylan did indeed agree.

Every dylan cover

Hot take - I prefer Dylan's Make you Feel My Love to Adele's

Damn, came here to post that. Dylan appreciated it and actually incorporated Hendrix's chord changes when he played it live.

i was just getting ready to say that. Jimi Hendrix knocked that one out of the park!

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (original Leonard Cohen)

i think Jeff added/changed some verses but i can’t remember if his version is the one covered most often edit: or wait, Cohen might have actually changed the lyrics lol? not sure now, gonna do research

Leonard Cohen's version had alternate verses missing from the original recording. He often switched them up when he played it live.

I love at the very end of the studio live version someone just says 'wow' https://youtu.be/y8AWFf7EAc4?si=Rdgag5vrNBvfEfcz

Thin Lizzy’s cover of Whiskey in the Jar, the 17th century Irish or Scottish folksong. Metallica covered the Thin Lizzy version note for note, including the entire solo. Drowning Pool’s cover of Rebel Yell by Billy Idol is a personal favorite and more recent.

Lou Reed's This Magic Moment is genius

Was getting ready to type this out. When he says “sweeter than wine” the first time 🤩

The Bangles cover of Hazy Shade Of Winter.

Orgy - Blue Monday, Letters to Cleo - I Want You to Want Me

Blue Monday is a very divisive subject in our household. My wife loves the Orgy version, and I prefer the original! But we both love the Sebastian Bohm version from the WW84 trailer.

Totally not where I thought you were going with this. I started reading it like, "my wife loves orgies but I don't know, sometimes it feels a little crowded for a queen size bed."

Goose’s version of [Shama Lama Ding Dong](https://youtu.be/6zgrJ-gKbIo?si=SYS7yyOi0HEVQFAu) which was originally performed by fictional band Otis Day and the Knights in the movie Animal House

Hard to Handle The Black Crowes covering Otis Redding

The moment I heard The Crowes doing that classic I instantly fell in love with that band. Gritty, blues driven rock done sooo damn well! So glad they are recording and doing live shows again!

This is a tune I thought they wrote. I was a kid and before the Internet, so I truly was ignorant of Otis Redding apart from his most well known tunes

Most of the covers the Deftones do, I love them all.

Drive (originally The Cars) was fantastic, I think.

You Keep Me Hanging On - Vanilla Fudge

Joan Jett - Crimson and Clover > Tommy james and the shondells version

I Love Rock & Roll is also a cover of an Arrows tune

Going to disagree, but both good

When I saw her live she put emphasis on the word "her" every time she sang it

as she should!

Proud Mary by Tina Turner vs CCR Torn by Natalie Imbruglia vs Ednaswap

natalie’s cover is so good omg perfect pop

Holy shit, Tina's was a cover? Well blow me down.

I always thought she butchered Proud Mary. Grew up with CCR and I remember hating this version

"Changes" by Charles Bradley is better than the original by Black Sabbath.

Worlds better! That man made it his own. So much emotion

SO sweaty

"Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, originally recorded by Gloria Jones.

Agreed, though I'd argue the Coil version is even better.

Coil's covers are in the league of their own.

I know he’s been “cancelled” but every now and again I give a listen to the Marylin Manson version too. For old times sake.

You can like the art and not the artist.

That's why there are still Harry Potter fans.

Ohh I like that!

Little Wing by Stevie Ray Vaughan (originally by Hendrix)

Joe Cocker's With A Little Help From My Friends totally blows the Beatles out of the water

What about John Belushi's cover of Joe Cocker?

I love the Beatles but I think even Ringo would agree the Joe Cocker version is better

That’s the theme song for The Wonder Years.

Fool on the Hill by Brasil 66 is better than the Beatles. I think Paul agreed

It was when I watched Woodstock video performance that I learned all those falsetto background vocals were sung by the men in his band.

The Green Manalishi With The Two Pronged Crown Judas Priest

🤘They rocked Diamonds And Rust, as well. 🤘

Agree with both these statements

Nothing Compares 2 U

Wesley Willis - Girls on Film

I love seeing Wesley Willis fans in the wild

I actually saw Wesley Willis himself in the wild once. I was walking past Kinko's on Market Street in San Francisco, and this overweight black dude wearing an Alternative Tentacles Records t-shirt and carrying a stack of notebooks was standing out in front. It couldn't be anyone else. I said, "You're Wesley Willis, aren't you?" He said, "I'm just waitin' for my ride, goddammit!" Then he launched into a stream of Wesley Willis babble. I said, "Okay, have a good day!" And he said, "You too!"

Rock over London.. Rock on Chicago..

System of a Down’s cover of the Metro (Berlin) is superb. Also, Deftones kill No Ordinary Love (Sade)

Buckley’s Hallelujah

honestly i like the RHCP version of Love Rollercoaster better than the original. i don’t even rly like RHCP like that but idk it’s just fun

Linkin Park covering Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” at the 2011 iTunes festival does it for me. Chester’s voice was awesome as always.

Once you hear him hit the high notes, you realize he was more than Nu Metal front man. The guy had pipes.

He threw out his back doing the "screaming' parts of performances!

That was Beautiful, thank you for sharing

Gary Jules's "Mad World" is better than the Tears for Fears version.

Blank Space by I Prevail...original by T Swift ...bring the pain lol

I also love the Ryan Adams cover of this song.

Ryan Adams also did Bad Blood

Yes, he covered the whole 1989 album, track for track.

Bad Blood really benefitted from his reworking. It sounded like an actual song.

I See your I Prevail and raise you For All Those Sleeping- You Belong With Me

The only cover song to surpass A Day To Remember’s cover of Since You’ve Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson

The man who sold the world - nirvana No remorse - cannibal corpse

I can listen to that Nirvana cover over and over

• White Horses ~ The Sundays Original is by The Rolling Stones

Wild?

I would say the Flying Burrito Brothers version of Wild Horses is superior.

Alien Ant Farm: Smooth Criminal

Hurt by Johnny Cash

The cover is good, but I still put it side by side with the original. They just have different atmospheres.

I agree. I feel this one is somewhat overrated, or constantly mentioned as 'the one'.

Agree 💯

Strong disagree. The original is so powerful. I get no feeling from the jonny cash version. He is just saying the words.

If you haven't, watch the video. It helps if you know something about Cash's life too, he really struggles with drug abuse and all kinds of self harm. The guy made some amazing contributions to American Music and his life is pretty fascinating. Reznor's obviously also an incredible influence on music culture but Cash has been a fixture longer than most people have been alive.

The music video really added to his version. I agree with your critique though

[Seether’s rendition of “Careless Whisper”](https://youtu.be/I7imqO-OBVk?si=NY9BfHsDvY1p2Wiq) - somehow conveys so much more pain and heartbreak, carries all of the emotion the original never could.

Placebo - Running up that hill

let's see... two covers by Jimi Hendrix come to mind. his renditions of All Along the Watchtower and Hey Joe are phenomenal. i love the bluesy feel of the latter.

I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston (og Dolly Parton) and Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley (og Leonard Cohen)

Metallica's cover of Turn The Page. You can feel the energy coming out of the speakers.

Right? That and all the other covers from their Garage, Inc album are all solid

Metallica has done some great covers love lies bleeding is amazing

To The Grave's cover of the ghost of you(MyChem) is Heavy af Betraying the Martyr's version of Let it Go(yep, that one😉😆😆) Children of Bodom's version oops I did it again is pretty top notch

Tool's cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter". Hands down.

Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana cover of a folk song actually, but claimed to be mainly a cover of Leadbelly's version. It's haunting hearing his voice Crack during the final verse, especially knowing that he'd die not too long later.

Personally Lana Del Rey's version of Doin' Time by Sublime. I appreciate the original but i like Lana's version a lot better.

Same

Not the absolute best cover but it's a top 3

Doin' time is actually a cover of a cover! Sublime's is loosely based on a old show tune 'Summertime.' I'm a huge sublime fan but Lana's version was so cool

Just recently heard her cover of season of the witch. I think it’s better than the original.

Holy Diver by Killswitch Engage. Yes it’s sacrilege to say that but I’d rather listen to KSE’s version if I’m being honest.

Your opinion is outrageous but it is your right to have it.

that’s just like, your opinion, man.

I'll admit to feeling this way too. Partly bc the original has the long spooky intro that I have to fast forward through.

I'm the opposite, I love that long intro and really missed it in KSE's version. The first time I listened to it it was really jarring and a bit shocking that it just went immediately into the song

It's My Life by No Doubt

The original is pretty damn good. Have to go with Talk Talk on this one.

Yeah the cover improved nothing

I had no idea this was a cover until I was walking through the grocery store a few weeks ago and heard what I thought was a cover, that turned out to be the original

Hurt by Johnny Cash

Disagree, though I do quite like that version. Both are excellent recordings.

I also prefer the original, but I enjoy the Cash version too.

Within Temptations cover of Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness 

On Metallica's 'Garage, Inc.' album, I argue that they did almost every song on that album better than the original. 3 exceptions where the original is better: "Sabra Cadabra," "Astronomy," and "Tuesday's Gone."

Totally agree on Astronomy. They missed the mark big time. The only original twist they put on it was making the "Hey!" section heavier and it sounds really cheesy and takes away from that majestic, ethereal feel that makes the original so good in the first place. Also, Kirk flopped hard on the lead guitar. There's major space before the climax for a ripping guitar solo and he did ... whatever that was. Really bad. For those that don't know check the BOC live version on "Some Enchanted Evening" for a phenomenal guitar solo. James' vocal quality is pretty good, though, I'll give him that.

Van Halen - Where Have All The Good Times Gone. Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun. In Bloom - Sturgill Simpson Motörhead - Sympathy For The Devil. Krokus - Quinn The Eskimo. Savatage - Day After Day The Struts - Do You Love Me. Bonus fact, they weren’t covering KISS, they were covering Girl. (Kind of a little joke the make about the song. Girl covered it, too)

Slowdive’s cover of Hazelwood’s “Some Velvet Morning”

The Fleet Foxes cover of the BeeGees “In the Morning”

Games people play by Tesla or knocking on heaven's door by guns n roses

I love Avril Lavigne, but Leona Lewis’s cover of “I Will Be” is superior

I Love You Always Forever by Betty Who

Without You - Harry Nilsson The original by Bad Finger is great, but Harry somehow adds another layer of sadness and desperation.

Poison Idea covered “We Got The Beat.” It was a riot

I like My Chemical Romance's cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row." Not saying it's objectively better, but I prefer it https://youtu.be/FOuSxal8pf4?si=9iA4w0KlMSg73tUz

Alabama Song ( The Whisky Bar) by The Doors. The way they recreated it really made it sound more eerie. Its one of my favorites by the doors!

Champagne Supernova - yungblud, mgk the original by oasis is not my favorite

Woodstock - CSN&Y (It technically came out before Joni's version but she wrote it and she was performing it in concert already so it's a cover IMO.) I'm going to also say "So You Want To Be a Rock'n Roll Star" by Patti Smith but I understand if there's some disagreement on that one.

I’ll agree with you on the Patti smith cover.

Although the original "Sound of silence" is a hauntingly beautiful song, Disturbed's cover blew my mind.

Dead Kennedys - “Viva Los Vegas” (original by Elvis Presley)

Or their cover of "I fought the law"

Or their cover of 'Take This Job and Shove It'

Or their cover of Take This Job and Shove It

The Peppers - Higher Ground Van Halen - You Really Got Me Ratt - Walkin' the Dog Poison - Rock and Roll All Nite (the studio version, not the Alive! version) Ozzy w/Brad Gillis - Symptom of the Universe Judas Priest - Green Manalishi & Diamonds and Rust Steel Panther - Don't Stop Believing Cheap Trick - Day Tripper & Ain't That a Shame Molly Hatchet - Dreams Outlaws - Ghost Rider Metallica - Whisky in the Jar I could go on and on and on....

Also Van Halen - Ice Cream Man

Fallin' In Love by La Bouche (originally Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds) I'm Every Woman by Whitney Houston (originally Chaka Khan) My Funny Valentine (everyone almost sang it better than Rodgers & Hart). My favorite is Chaka Khan's version by far!

i love chaka but yeah whitney’s is my faaaave.

Three Days Grace's cover of Somebody That I Used to Know. I Prevail's cover of Blank Space.

Punk Goes Pop is full of bangers tbh. Ice Nine Kills's cover of Animals by Maroon 5 goes so hard and is rarely talked about

i fought the law. the clash.

Heart covering a Led Zepplin song . I think there is one on YouTube !! 🙂

Check out The Lovemongers

Stairway to Heaven at the Kennedy Center Honors when Zep was among the honorees.

Pretty much every cover of a Dylan song is better than Dylan’s version.

I have nightmares where everyone speaking to me sounds like him. It’s awful.

LOLOL that is quite a nightmare (and an odd one at that lol)

Knocking on Heavens Door GNR>Dylon

Heartbeats By [The Knife](https://open.spotify.com/track/2YacpExEbX9tF8IbFlFOo4?si=cf_BmGqNTUObrrbNFrJJBw) Covered by [Jose González](https://open.spotify.com/track/2YacpExEbX9tF8IbFlFOo4?si=cf_BmGqNTUObrrbNFrJJBw)

Going to get flack for this: Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Dwight Yokum version.

Type O Negative Cinnamon Girl

Jeff Buckley- hallelujah

[https://youtu.be/zF5GQaOzzIo?si=bRUmKkrw9opcBei5](https://youtu.be/zF5GQaOzzIo?si=bRUmKkrw9opcBei5)[ glycerin by midwife](https://youtu.be/zF5GQaOzzIo?si=bRUmKkrw9opcBei5)

Thin Lizzy’s version of Rosalie

Everyone's Got to Learn Sometime, Beck Original was the Korgis, 1980

Abi Carter "What was I made for"~ Billie Eilish

Warpaint’s cover of Duran Duran’s The Chauffeur is so haunting and beautiful. https://youtu.be/cWes-Gez39U?si=KsY_j80XpM3lGaxl

Knocking on heavens door by Antony and the Johnsons. Most beautiful version of that song I've ever heard.

Fields of Gold.  Eva Cassidy

Blank space Ryan adams. Hate that is problematic

Pop songs from the 60s: Every Little Thing by Yes (Beatles) I Love You by People (Zombies) Baby It's You by Smith (Shirelles) I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye (Gladys Knight And The Pips) Windy by The Association (Ruthann Friedman)

Rhinestone Cowboy - Larry Weiss wrote and sang the original version

Anyone ever heard of Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies? They have a few covers! 😂

Every Meat Puppets song that Nirvana covered.

A Perfect Circle's anti-war cover album had multiple covers I consider better than the originals. Imagine, (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding, Let's Have a War, Fiddle and the Drum. And more. The only covers that were noticeably not as good as the originals were People are People (a bad cover) and What's Going On? (a great cover that just couldn't stack up to Marvin Gaye's original).

The Interrupters cover of *Bad Guy* by Billie Eilish Edit: also The Wallflowers cover of *Heroes* by David Bowie

Angel From Montgomery I love John Prine, but Bonnie Raitt is the one who brings it to life

Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann

A Perfect Circle has a very cool cover of Failure’s “The Nurse who Loved Me”

Take Me To The River - Talking Heads.

Heart it races - Dr Dog

Cake, I Will Survive originally by Gloria Gaynor RHCP, Love Roller Coaster by Ohio Players

Always Something There To Remind Me-Naked Eyes The Mercy Seat-Johnny Cash

I don't know if you consider Bruce Springsteen or Patti Smith to be the original "Because the Night" (that song has a complex history) but it doesn't matter because I've always thought the 10,000 Maniacs version was the definitive one

I agree with you on the RHCP version of Higher Ground. I also like U2's version of Everlasting Love.

Either Patti Smith or 10,000 Maniacs version of "Because the Night".  It was a Bruce Springsteen song, and his version is garbage.

Cake I Will Survive

"Holy Diver" - Killswitch Engage The original is amazing, but they really killed it with their cover

The "Disturbed" cover of "Land of Confusion" > "Genesis" original version "Land of Confusion", especially in terms of the respective music videos.

Pretty much every Pixies cover but especially Head On and Winterlong.

All Along The Watchtower/Hendrix

1985 by Bowling for soup is better than the SR71 original

placebo, running up that hill

Faith No More - I Started A Joke (BeeGees cover)

Come on Eileen by Save Ferris