Ask Lemmy

Within Temptation's cover of Radioactive by They Might Be Dragons. Much better. That said, nothing can beat the hilarious acid trip that is the original's music video.

I love Avantasia's "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Originally by ABBA). Metal covers can sometimes feel lazy, but this is an excellent rendition. It feels like the perfect coming together of two distinct parts of me: the me that daubs myself in rainbows to dance to ABBA at the gay club; and the metal/punk energy of the majority of my style and music taste. It always goes down well at parties.

Edit: I am having more songs coming to mind, but a weird one I can't help mentioning is Edmund Welles cover of "Hallowed Be Thy Name".. It's a clarinet quartet (+vocals) cover that I didn't know I needed until I heard it. So delightfully weird, and it has no right to go as hard as it does

While I love the original version, Seethers cover of Careless Whisper is one of my favourite songs ever.

• Louie Louie - Toots & The Maytals (originally recorded by Richard Berry, popularized by The Kingsmen) https://youtu.be/BlFGvTtGMBI

• Walk on By - The Stranglers (originally recorded by Dionne Warwick) https://youtu.be/WYkqLm9cM3Y

• Maybe I'm Amazed - Faces (originally recorded by Paul McCartney) https://youtu.be/SLhoLkTyNkM

• Black Steel - Tricky and Martina Topley-Bird (originally recorded by Public Enemy) https://youtu.be/9ZJTM03UByU

• Everything is Everything - Booker T. Jones (originally recorded by Lauren Hill) https://youtu.be/A61c4FgxZz8

• Ohio/Machine Gun - The Isley Brothers (originally recorded by Crosby, Still, Nash & Young) https://youtu.be/XC6qOvfgDJI

Bare Naked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time (original by Bruce Cockburn)

Metallica - Turn the Page (original Bob Seger)

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Shawn Colvin - I'll Be Back

Sonic Youth - Superstar (btw not originally by The Carpenters)

I genuinely prefer Ronan Keating's version of Words

I have the Bee Gees original on vinyl, yet I always go back to Keating.

Tori Amos has an amazing cover album but her rendition of the Eminem song ’97 Bonnie & Clyde is honestly horrifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4-bXS5LJGM

Also her cover of the Boom town rats I don’t like mondays is my favorite version of that song.

Aretha Franklin - Bridge Over Troubled Water (originally by Simon and Garfunkel)

Sly & The Family Stone - Que Sera, Sera (originally Doris Day)

The Isley Brothers - Love The One You're With (originally Steven Stills)

Kind of the opposite but "As the World Caves In". Most people know the cover by Sarah Cothran , but I think the original by Matt Maltese is way, way better.

It's a song about two people together at the end of the world, and while Sarah sings it mourning the loss of everything, Matt sings it as a love song. To me that's the much more powerful message, that when everything is burning down, the only thing that's left and all that really matters is being together with the person you love, and the only thing to mourn is that you won't have more time with them.

Heartbeats.

Original by The Knife,

cover by José González.

Same words, same melody, completely different universes.

Obediah Parker – Hey Ya (Originally Outkast)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=c745E7T_Wvg

“(I can’t get no) Satisfaction” as covered by Cat Power. It completely omits the guitar riff and chorus, and lays bare the song for the empty life that it portrays. You wouldn’t even recognize it for The Rolling Stones.

Devo - Head Like a Hole

Vines' version of MGMT's Kids

Her style is a super stripped-down one with almost all instrumentation just being her voice through a vocoder. This cover includes a bit more traditional instrumentation than usual for her work, but it's still quite stark next to the original. It comes across as very pensive, which I think works nicely with the lyrics

Dave Stewart covering Zombie by The Cranberries https://youtu.be/1iDTYnxCNXM

Eleanor Rigby by Pain

Frog Brigade - Animals

Ween's version of All of My Love. Which I've only ever heard through a crappy phone recording of a live event. Despite that, it's still better than the original.

U2's With or Without You cover by April Meservy and Aaron Edson. It infuses the original with raw emotion - you can feel the pain and exhaustion.

Edited to add: And Marilyn Manson's version of Tainted Love. It sounds sickening and toxic, making the song about much more than a breakup.

Last Resort by Falling in Reverse. This band has quickly become one of my favorites. Them and I Prevail can really throw down some emotions.

A-ha's acoustic version of Take On Me is wonderful and very different from the original.

Gonna go retro with this one: Madness' cover of Labi Siffre's It Must Be Love

If I remember rightly, Siffre appears in Madness' music video for the song, so it had his seal of approval too. (I mean, yeah, they wouldn't have done a cover if he hadn't agreed to it, but appearing in the video is a force multiplier on that.)

Ninja Sex Party's cover of "The Last Unicorn." I think the original is lovely, but their version just clicks with me.

~~Shrek 2's version of "I need a hero."~~

Tool's cover of No Quarter by Led Zeppelin. Page was channeling future Adam Jones with those riffs. It's s a shame that the only official release of that song is on Tool's coveted "Salival" album which is notoriously hard to get ahold of for anything even resembling a decent price if you can even find a good copy. Damn, I wish they would re-release that album.

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

Covering Leonard Cohen. This song is one of two (the other being Grace) that got me obsessed with Jeff Buckley back in my early to mid 20's.

It's just beautiful.

A Perfect Circle - When the levee breaks.

Extremely far away from Led Zeppelin. But it's just so nice and soothing.
Also, "Peace love and understanding" from the same album, for the same reasons.

Electric Callboy - Every Time We Touch