Cover Songs Featuring Highly Skilled Musicians

[Ddseddse]

The original


The most well known probably



A whole other take

It is my considered opinion that you missed the best one, Shawn Colvin's version:


From her exceptional album Cover Girl where she does a ton of great covers:
Track No Song title Songwriter/composer(s) Length
1 "Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic" Sting 3:17
2 "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" [live] Tom Waits 3:36
3 "One Cool Remove" (feat. Mary Chapin Carpenter) Greg Brown 3:19
4 "Satin Sheets" [live] Willis Alan Ramsey 3:10
5 "There's a Rugged Road" Judee Sill 3:43
6 "Killing the Blues" [live] Roly Salley 3:47
7 "Window to the World" Tom Littlefield 5:15
8 "Someday" Steve Earle 4:09
9 "Twilight" [live] Robbie Robertson 2:56
10 "If These Walls Could Speak" Jimmy Webb 3:06
11 "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" David Byrne, Chris Frantz,
Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth. 4:01
12 "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" [live] Bob Dylan 4:10
13 (hidden) "Ol' 55" [live] Tom Waits

 

[Ddseddse]

 

[doctor_octopus]

It is my considered opinion that you missed the best one, Shawn Colvin's version:


From her exceptional album Cover Girl where she does a ton of great covers:
Track No Song title Songwriter/composer(s) Length
1 "Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic" Sting 3:17
2 "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" [live] Tom Waits 3:36
3 "One Cool Remove" (feat. Mary Chapin Carpenter) Greg Brown 3:19
4 "Satin Sheets" [live] Willis Alan Ramsey 3:10
5 "There's a Rugged Road" Judee Sill 3:43
6 "Killing the Blues" [live] Roly Salley 3:47
7 "Window to the World" Tom Littlefield 5:15
8 "Someday" Steve Earle 4:09
9 "Twilight" [live] Robbie Robertson 2:56
10 "If These Walls Could Speak" Jimmy Webb 3:06
11 "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" David Byrne, Chris Frantz,
Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth. 4:01
12 "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" [live] Bob Dylan 4:10
13 (hidden) "Ol' 55" [live] Tom Waits

I've seen her live twice, and she puts on a strong show.

 

[Ddseddse]

Also The Zevon tribute album has some of the best covers ever done IMO...

Here's Springsteen's version of "My Ride Is Here":


And the Pixies doing "Ain't That Pretty At All":

 

[LeoBloom]

 

[Centerpiece]

This is one of the coolest covers ever IMHO. Johnny Nash and his estate approves. Starts with the double bass/vocal duet, with that Montuno bass line and Holly's silky voice. Then the grand piano comes in... followed by the full, orchestral arrangements.

It's been covered by many artists, Jimmy Cliff for example made a hit out of it in 1993 in the movie Cool Runnings. Nash's original recording vaulted to #1 in 1972. I "try" to do this one on my solo gigs. Operative word being "try".

 

[Gmonet]

 

[altoheel]

Eva Cassidy - somewhere over the rainbow and fields of gold
Yes- America
Sting - little wing

Eva Cassidy's cover of Time After Time is also phenomenal.

 

[Centerpiece]

Eva Cassidy's cover of Time After Time is also phenomenal.

Do you live in WNC alto? Do you sing jazz? How about a spot in an Episcopal Church choir? Mmmmh?

 

[Centerpiece]

Or do you play sax?

 

[altoheel]

Or do you play sax?

Only at a marching band level

 

[fsclark1]

These guys to Chicago songs at least as good - if not better - than Chicago. But they're just freaking great at 70's material in general.

 

[Ddseddse]

No list of great covers is complete without Neil Diamond covering Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song...

 

[hedge]

My favorite:

Love me some Jonathan..

 

[05C40]

Eva Cassidy - somewhere over the rainbow and fields of gold
Yes- America
Sting - little wing

Eva Cassidy - In addition to your two, Wayfaring Stranger and Danny Boy.

 

[heelinhell]

 

[Heels0312]

First of all, thank you to everyone that has posted in this. Love hearing new stuff.

This is a band that posts covers every so often. I have been to a couple of their shows and love hearing their guitarist play.

 

[Ddseddse]

There's a cover of that song in here as well.

Is covering your own music fair game? Todd Rundgren redid a number if his own songs as Bossa Nova tunes.

(I like the arrangement on "I Saw The Light" better, but can't find it on YouTube. I'm convinced I'm one of maybe 100 people who own this album.)

 

[ChileG]

Is covering your own music fair game? Todd Rundgren redid a number if his own songs as Bossa Nova tunes.

(I like the arrangement on "I Saw The Light" better, but can't find it on YouTube. I'm convinced I'm one of maybe 100 people who own this album.)

On the current Pixies tour, they do two different versions of the same song (Where is My Mind) during the same show.
I don’t think I have ever seen that before.

 

[gregh1]

I like covers that cross genres.

Red hot chili pepper's cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground is pretty awesome if you like their music, probably my fav cover.

I saw Molly Tuttle (bluegrass) live and she did "Zero", originally by the yeah yeah yeahs, it isn't great via youtube but gave me goosebumps live.

Lots of people dislike Jam Bands, but Goose is a really talented group who always does pretty cool covers in their shows. A really random assortment too. Sometimes they'll kinda funk-it-up, other times they'll do a fairly decent rendition then add something super "jammy" in the middle.
Weird fishes (radiohead)

I'm sure you've all heard it, but i'll link it anyway