Best/Worst: Cover/Samples/adaptations of Songs/Scores

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

I find most remakes of songs/score to be an interesting. I like the good hate the bad but nontheless, they always make me have/develop an Appreciation of the original. However as arule for me I tend to think that all remakes, as good as they can be, ultimately pale in comparison to the original.

When I listen to song Re-creations/Remakes, I typically look for a few things.
Being Faithful: In the sense that should resemble the song in it's mood.

Individuality: The Band/artist's Style should come though in the song so it doesn't just sound like a carbon copy.(which isn't always a bad thing)

Talent: Needs no Explanation.

Carbon Copies aren't always Bad: I like them when performed by talented people.

So What are some of the Best Remakes of a Song/score?
Do You think that a Remake can surpass the Predecessor?
What are your general opinions of remakes?

To start My List:
Best:
Songs- (Covers/Samples)
Sympathy for the Devil-Guns and Roses
Blue Monday-Orgy
Walk This Way

Score-(adaptations)
Harry Potter and the Chamer of Secrets-William Ross
Psycho-Danny Elfman

Mixed Feelings:
Jurassic Park 3-Don Davis
Radio Ga Ga-Electric Six

Worst:
Smooth Criminal-Alien Ant Farm
Ice Ice Baby (Queen sample)-Vanilla Ice
Anything by Diddy

Back with some more...

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

*Bump*

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Blue Monday-Orgy

Travesty!!

Anyway, a basic list from me:

BEST:
-Queen of Japan:
"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" (compared to Rod Stewart)
"Fat Bottom Baby" (compared to and based on Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls")
"Physical" (compared to Olivia Newton John; sung much better than ONJ)

In general, I'd actually say that a lot of QoJ's covers are excellent, primarily for the fact that their main vocalist is a great singer with a real sexy voice.

-Mindy Smith: "Jolene" (compared to Dolly Parton, although Parton's version is still excellent)

-Claire: "Fly Me To The Moon" Main ED for Evangelion (compared to Frank Sinatra; I really don't like the Sinatra version at all, but her performance is just perfect)

WORST:

-Madonna: "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (compared to Jullie Covington; as much as I like Madonna in general, her version just lacks the range displayed in Covington's original)

[Sr.mal]

Best.
Tool - No Quarter by Led Zeppelin

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Best.
Tool - No Quarter by Led Zeppelin

They covered Zep's No Quarter!!? ME WANTS PRECIOUSSSSS...

[Kuja]

Those new versions of "Listen to your Heart" and "Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee" on the radio make me want to strangle the girls singing them. Maybe not so much the former, but definately the latter.

Off the other end of the scale, the Kill Bill version of "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" kicks the shit out of the original

[aerius]

Done well they're cool and add something new to the song which can make it better. For instance the Velvet Underground version of "Sweet Jane" is pretty mediocre and you pretty much have to be high on drugs to enjoy it, it was basically a hippie drug song. The Cowboy Junkies take on it on the other hand is a thing of beauty, slowed it down, used sparse acoustic instrumentation, and it has a wonderful slow sensual feel to it. Totally different and improved.

As for other cool song remakes:
Norah Jones - Be Here To Love Me (Townes Van Zandt)
Cowboy Junkies - To Lay Me Down (Grateful Dead)
The Nylons - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (folk tune, redone many times)
Sarah McLachlan - Ol' 55 (Tom Waits)
R.E.M. - All I have to do is Dream (Everly Brothers) The Nylons do a cool version of it too.

Cool remakes that you'll only hear in concerts:
Tori Amos - Daniel, Candle in the Wind (Elton John)
Chantal Kreviazuk - Bring back the Sun (Our Lady Peace)
Cowboy Junkies - Be Here To Love Me (Townes Van Zandt)
Sarah Slean - Julia (Our Lady Peace)

Tori, Chantal, and the Cowboy Junkies all do some really cool covers at their live concerts, and have been known to improvise songs on the spot. Really cool when that happens. They're all darn good at it too.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

For instance the Velvet Underground version of "Sweet Jane" is pretty mediocre

One could say the same thing regarding the Velvet Underground as a whole...

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower crushes the Bob Dylan original into dust.

[aerius]

For instance the Velvet Underground version of "Sweet Jane" is pretty mediocre

One could say the same thing regarding the Velvet Underground as a whole...

I'm not familiar enough with their material to make a statement like that yet, but based on the few songs I've heard to date I'd tend to agree and wonder what the big fuss about them is.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

For instance the Velvet Underground version of "Sweet Jane" is pretty mediocre

One could say the same thing regarding the Velvet Underground as a whole...

I'm not familiar enough with their material to make a statement like that yet, but based on the few songs I've heard to date I'd tend to agree and wonder what the big fuss about them is.

About ten years ago my father checked out from the library the Peel Slowly and See 5-disc CD set, and said that they frankly just weren't worth the effort to listen to. They were never commercially successful.

The "big fuss" about them was that they were fronted by Lou Reed from 1965 to 1970, and more importantly, managed by Andy Warhol from 1965 to 1967, who was responcible for thrusting them into fame for a brief time in the late 60s. Apparently they also had a lot of "influence" on the Rock & Roll scene and the various genres and sub-genres that split off in the late 60s and 70s.

Warhol himself was already infamous for perhaps single-handedly doing the most damage to the field of Avant-Garde art, by introducing the element of celebrity and whoring experimental art out into the realm of pop culture. Warhol would also become the archetype of the individual who is famous soley for being famous...

[Ford Prefect]

Off the other end of the scale, the Kill Bill version of "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" kicks the shit out of the original

Oh hell yes. You've suddenly made me want to get it off of my CD and put it onto my computer. I'll think I'll go do just that.

I have to say, I've always liked the Willie Nelson version of What a Wonderful World. And the Israel Kaminov (spelling?) version, which has Over the Rainbow in it.

[Darth Fanboy]

Good: Reel Big Fish-Take On Me, Mustardplug-The Freshmen, Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa-Hit me Baby One More Time,

Bad: anything that's ever been played on MTV

[Tsyroc]

Type O Negative Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young)

Mötley Crüe Helter Skelter (The Beatles)

Queensryche Scarborough Fair (Simon and Garfunkel)

-------

The Scorpions I Can't Explain (The Who)

Van Halen You Really Got Me (The Kinks)

Lenny Kravitz American Woman (The Guess Who)

Gary Hoey Linus & Lucy (aka the Peanuts Theme)

Doctor Demento Dirty Deads Done with Sheap (parody of AC/DC's Dirty Deads


About the only G-N-R cover tune that I think is as good as the original or better is Knocking on Heaven's Door. Sympathy for the Devil is okay, but Live & Let Die and Hair of the Dog suck. Especially HotD.

Of course there are a shitload of Dylan songs that are great when they are done by someone other than Bob Dylan. More than half the time they suck when he does them himself.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Blue Monday-Orgy

Travesty!!

What!?!?

It was a Good take on New Orders Song. It was faithful but it had the group's signature in it. They weren't a bad gorup.

[Lord Pounder]

I've said it before and i'll say it again but Travis do a Godlike cover of Britney's Baby One More Time live.

Other top class covers includes:

Johnny Cash - Hurt
The Ataris - The Boys of Summer
Faith No More - Glorybox
LL Cool J - Ain't Nobody
Muse - Feeling Good

[Zac Naloen]

I've said it before and i'll say it again but Travis do a Godlike cover of Britney's Baby One More Time live.

Other top class covers includes:

Johnny Cash - Hurt
The Ataris - The Boys of Summer
Faith No More - Glorybox
LL Cool J - Ain't Nobody
Muse - Feeling Good

To continue that vain.. Muse : - house of the rising sun and Can't Take my eyes off of you.

That is awesome.

[Sr.mal]

Best.
Tool - No Quarter by Led Zeppelin

They covered Zep's No Quarter!!? ME WANTS PRECIOUSSSSS...

Yup on the Salival album, good luck finding it, its out of print. Just find an mp3 and download it.

[Big Phil]

Best

Metallica - Whiskey in the Jar (great cover of a traditional song)
Cheap Trick - Don't be Cruel

[Alferd Packer]

The best cover album ever done is Rage Against the Machine's Renegades. Of that, "The Ghost of Tom Joad" or "Maggie's Farm" wins for best cover song.

If I had webspace, I'd host clips from the originals and the covers that support my case. If you haven't heard either, I suggest you get all four songs, and see the light. They are:

Rage Against the Machine/Bruce Springsteen - "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
Rage Against the Machine/Bob Dylan - "Maggie's Farm"

[SCRawl]

The best as-yet unmentioned remake I can think of: "Blinded by the Light" -- Manfred Mann did a way better job than Springsteen could have.

[Peregrin Toker]

Warhol himself was already infamous for perhaps single-handedly doing the most damage to the field of Avant-Garde art, by introducing the element of celebrity and whoring experimental art out into the realm of pop culture.

I know this is a threadjack and something I have argued with you before, but I have always gotten the impression that the introduction of the element of celebrity into art was pioneered by Salvador Dalí, not Warhol.

At least that is what this biography of Dalí says:

Dali made good use of paranoiac-critical rationalization, and he slowly transitioned from being a full-time painter who also happened to be a minor celebrity, to being a full-time celebrity who also managed to create the occasional painting.

By the 1950s, Dali was more of a gadabout than a traditional artist. He appeared on TV game shows such as "What's My Line?" where he engaged in good natured, if somewhat bizarre, banter with his fellow guests. He did commercials for Alka Seltzer and designed hats shaped like lobsters. He designed furniture, took up sculpture, created perfumes, wrote PR copy and even briefly worked as a hairdresser.

[Peregrin Toker]

As for the actual topic of this discussion, I would like to mention. Judas Priest's cover of Johnny B. Goode. On one hand, it is much better technically performed than the original. On the other hand, it just strikes me as very awkward and perhaps a bit unintentionally humourous due to Judas Priest just having a different overall vibe than Chuck Berry. Or perhaps it is just because I really have difficulty envisioning anyone else than Berry performing Johnny B. Goode.

Speaking of Judas Priest, their rendition of Joan Baez' Diamonds And Rust would probably probably regarded as the definition of a cover better than the original if it was not for the Hendrixified All Along The Watchtower.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I know this is a threadjack and something I have argued with you before, but I have always gotten the impression that the introduction of the element of celebrity into art was pioneered by Salvador Dalí, not Warhol.

First, I don't think you should really use a source like Rotten.com.

Second, Dali wasn't the first artist to be a celebrity. That had been occuring for hundreds of years. I also specified the Avant-Garde and experimental art.

Warhol's actions did damage to the Avant-Garde, because he reduced it to commercial, popular art. Plus Dali actually had talent, while Warhol was a purposeless appropriating hack.

But whatever. I just hate Warhol's guts and am glad that he's dead. It's only a pitty that his earlier assassination attempt wasn't successful...

[HemlockGrey]

Yeah, because avant-garde art was sooooo incredibly important and not at all a lot of self-important bullshit that popularizing it is a good reason to wish for someone's death.