Better than the original.

[Morbius]

This is about cover versions of songs that are actually better than the original versions, by the original artists. I will start with two: probably the most famous, and then a personal favorite.

In 1968 Bob Dylan put out an album exploring themes found in the Bible called John Wesley Harding, and Jimi Hendrix was blown away by it. Jimi tried to cover The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest but he couldn't make it work (a British metal band liked the name Judas Priest and purloined it!). So he did All Along the Watchtower, reworking the arrangement. Dylan admitted the arrangement was superior and used it himself from that point. Today the cover is a classic rock anthem, and the original is almost unheard.

In 1977 Bonnie Raitt put out a cover of Del Shannon's Runaway on her album Sweet Forgiveness. It was not a huge hit, reaching #57 on the charts. But it's a bluesy masterpiece and I find it unforgettable.

So. Do you have a favorite cover that you think blows away the original? Let me hear from you.

[mobeau69]

1. Judy Collins /Someday Soon

[mobeau69]

2. Amy Winehouse - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

[johnp3907]

3. This one for sure:

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[applegrove]

4. "Sweet Jane" the Cowboy Junkies

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[GReedDiamond]

5. Spooky Tooth - I Am the Walrus

[JoseBalow]

6. Whipping Post

https://liveforlivemusic.com/features/frank-zappa-whipping-post/

(5:28)

Written in 1969, ‘The Whipping Post’ is a classic slice of west coast, soul-infused rock. Blending rich organ stabs and soaring, interwoven guitar lines, it’s enough to send even the most tight-collared Wall Street banker into a divine frenzy. Legendary guitarist Frank Zappa didn’t hear the track until 1974, a time when an audience member at the 1974 Helsinki concert that appears on You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2, requested it as an encore in jest.

Nobody expected Zappa to take the suggestion seriously. ‘Whipping Post’ was already something of a cliche, an archetypal encore song that had come to evoke the grandeur of Duane Allman’s (The Allman Brother’s Band) guitar style. What’s more, none of his band members knew the song. Nevertheless, Zappa and his band decided to rise to the challenge, and would go on to play the track as an encore at all of their live shows from then on.

“I’ll tell you how it happened,” Zappa told Guitar World in 1982. “We were playing Helsinki, Finland about six or eight years ago, and in the middle of this very quiet, nice concert hall from the back of the room a voice rings out, ‘Whipping Post’. And I thought, if we only knew it we could blow this guy’s socks off. You know, it would be great to just … sure, fuck you, ‘Whipping Post’… all right, here it is. So, when we got Bobbie Martin in the band I said, “He can sing the shit out of ‘Whipping Post’ and so let’s go for it.”

Six years later, in 1988, Zappa would release an outtake from a live performance of ‘Whipping Post’ entitled ‘For Duane’. This instrumental number from Zappa’s live album Guitar is a gloriously messy freak-out. Underpinned by a concrete blues groove, Zappa shreds away for three and half minutes, never once repeating himself. It’s a testament not only to Zappa’s skill as a guitarist but to the enduring spirit of Duane Allman, who died in 1971 shortly after the release of The Allman Brothers Band’s album At Fillmore East.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/song-frank-zappa-wrote-for-duane-allman/