Blasphemy! Covers that you like more than the original.

[RustlessPotato]

Amazing how Shatner gives this song so much more emotion than the original.

Other's I would mention have been said (most multiple times)
Jonny Cash - Hurt
AAF - Smooth Criminal
Most of the covers I know from Real Big Fish (Kiss Me Deadly above the others)

Oh my god, THANK YOU ! This is amazing. The mix between Shatner and Joe Jackson is great !

 

[tacotrainwreck]

Iced Earth's cover of Number of the Beast.

Now THAT is blasphemy.

 

[unoleian]

A wonderful live cover of Roygbiv [http://youtu.be/bPxK4Eai7Hw?t=49s], a track originally by Boards of Canada [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlwkOhdE60w]

 

[triggrhappy94]

Under Pressure (origianlly done by Queen) I prefer it done by My Chemical Romance and The Used

EDIT

Oh yeah, and Volare (I believe originally done by Sinatra) and Hotel California (originally done by The Eagles) both done better by the Gipsy Kings.

 

[themyrmidon]

 

[Smeatza]

I collect cover versions so there are a few I can think of.
My favourite would be this though.


To be honest everything off Chris Whitley's Perfect Day album is beautiful.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I thought this was the original for a while, and it is one of the best.

I have some more:


I think better than the Elvis version.


Genesis original, heavier cover, both good.


Say what you will about Nickelback, at least have good songs.

i approve this list.
also
Disturbed usually dose good by they're covers. their version of Shout was really good to

but here's my entry


catchpa :Modern Love
how fitting ....

 

[Elamdri]

My friend believes I'm an idiot for liking this more than the NIN original (he's a huge NIN fan). I mean the original is good, but Johnny Cash just makes this his own.

That's the best song cover in the world. Hell, Trent Reznor AGREES and he wrote the original.

 

[Gomithrus]

Madonna's La Isla Bonita by the Twilight Guardians and Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill by Placebo are both covers that I enjoy to the original.

 

[poundingmetal74]

This is gonna be a long, vastly incomplete list. But here goes:

Turisas - Rasputin (this is a must)
Anything Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix covered were infinitely better than their original counterparts.
Judas Priest - Green Manalishi, Diamonds and Rust
Skid Row - Strength (The Alarm), Little Wing
Dream Evil - My Number One, Let the Killing Begin (Arch Enemy)
Steel Panther - I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys)
Metallica - Almost anything on Garage Inc.
Firewind - Breaking the Law, Believe in Nothing (Nevermore)
Final Stage - Gods of War
Queensryche - Gonna Get Close to You, Scarborough Fair, Syncronity 2 (really like their take on this)
Pink Cream 69 - We Will Rock You, Truth Hits Everybody
Powerglove - Red Wings Over Baron (Final Fantasy 4)
Primal Fear - Metal Gods
Fozzy - Their first 2 albums
Steel Dragon - We All Die Young
Symphonity - Anyplace Anywhere Anytime
Theocracy - Any of their Christmas songs
Gotthard - Hush
Great White - Once Bitten, Twice Shy
GNR - Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Helloween - Eternal Dark
Heaven's Gate - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Animal
Fates Warning - Sign of the Southern Cross

Also, does Beatallica count?

 

[Cry Wolf]

Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watch Tower is many times superior to the original.


Awwwww yeah! Man I love this song.

 

[subtlefuge]

I'm just going to go out and say that Ben Folds is just awesome. So here are three songs that are better than their originals. Largely because none of them were necessarily songs before they were covered.

Spoiler

 

[kickyourass]

Well there's obviously the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt", the original is pretty good, one of NIN's better songs in my opinion (but then I don't really like NIN so that might bias me), but Cash just gives the song a deep sincerity that the original just does not have.

The Marilyn Manson cover of "This is Halloween" give me serious goosebumps ever time.

Gary Jules' "Mad World" is easily one of my favorite songs period

Pretty much hit the nail on the head for me with Hurt. I'm a big fan of the original, but still, Cash made it his own.

My wife recently put me onto a recording of Chester from Linkin Park doing Rollin in the Deep by Adele, far superior if you ask me.

Wow, I'd love to hear a cleaner recording of him singing that, guy has some nice pipes, the hell is he doing in Lincoln Park? He can do WAY better then that.

But I can't think of any others though, most cover songs I come across are a lot like the one this fellow posted.

Because who really likes Boney M?

While quite good in thier own respect, something just seems to get lost in translation. In this example the cover is missing the total sillyness that makes the original as enjoyable as it was. Cause come on, how can anyone hear a line like "Rah rah Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine" and not start laughing?

 

[Craorach]

Wow, I'd love to hear a cleaner recording of him singing that, guy has some nice pipes, the hell is he doing in Lincoln Park? He can do WAY better then that.

Considering I'm a huge fan of Linkin Park and respect pretty much all their work.. I'm not sure how to respond to that.

I will suggest you take a moment to listen to some of their stuff, since there is a huge variety of vocal styles. This really came home to me when I was watching them live at their Thousand Suns concert in Perth, and realised Chester does The Requiem without voice altering software.

 

[Glover09]

I'm back with some more


Somehow, Gary Numan is better in this one than his own.


Really, the Eagles are fair game for covers in general IMO.


Nothing againt Aerosmith, but this just works better.

 

[Pegghead]

The man of impeccable taste, letfireraindown, has already listed the first one I was going to post:

.[/youtube]

Amazing how Shatner gives this song so much more emotion than the original.

And on it I'll just say that by Christ does Shatner put everything he can muster into it. It's less of a song and more giving a guy who knows what he's talking about a microphone (helped immensely by the rest of the soundtrack).

On top of that, while I am a big fan of music from the '50s, the game Stubbs The Zombie had an amazing soundtrack of covers of songs from back in the day by a host of modern, borderline-grungey bands that was just a match made in heaven, check it out:

 

[Zathorius]

 

[Wayneguard]

Oh man I love the Billy Idol version of L.A. Woman so much more than the original. In fact, I don't really like the Doors at all.

 

[MetalDooley]

Opeth's cover of Celtic Frost's "Circle of the Tyrants" is the first thing to come to my mind.

Hmm didn't know Opeth did a version of that.Not bad

I've always preferred Obituary's version to the original though

 

[HHammond]

*sigh*


*Raises flame shield*

I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry.

Fixed the Youtube embedding for you dude, and also good choice, maybe not better than the original but almost as good.

Thanks! My internet had decided it hated me yesterday.