Ask Lemmy

• 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

Cardigans, Burning Down the House with Tom Jones. Of course the original is incredible, but this version slaps.

A Perfect Circle's version of Imagine by John Lennon is my favorite cover song. They add so much groove, atmosphere and melancholy to the song. It's beautiful.

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.

Eric Clapton's unplugged version of Layla is an entirely different experience than the original.

This is the opposite of what you're asking for, sorry, but I find that more people are familiar with the A Perfect Circle version of The Nurse Who Loved Me than they are with the original version by Failure.

Both very good versions song, but the original still blows me away.

Apologies for doing the opposite of what you asked, but this was just the first thing that came to mind.

Judas Priest's "Painkiller" covered by Death is incredible.

If anyone wants to take a chance on a cover I recorded (all instruments and vocals) of Enslaved's "Havenless", check it out at this link (https://youtu.be/b1ByxMMnSfw)

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.

Such Great Heights covered by Streetlight Manifesto. This is one of the songs that makes me think about how much I love my wife.

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

"Every time we touch" by Electric Callboy

Karmastition by Alicia Keys.

Stevie Wonder's original was awesome, but the mash up is just chefs kiss.

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.

Another New World by Punch Brothers

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Shawn Colvin - I'll Be Back

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

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)

Eleanor Rigby by Pain

Obediah Parker – Hey Ya (Originally Outkast)

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

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.

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.

Heartbeats.

Original by The Knife,

cover by José González.

Same words, same melody, completely different universes.

“(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

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.

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

I'm not sure Last Kiss by Pearl Jam is actually better than the original but it definitely deserves honorable mention.

Frog Brigade - Animals

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.

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.)

Pilotredsun "Warsaw" Jazz fusion Cover by poruu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9Mk7DXPcI

The original is great, it takes simple Chiptunes and manages to convey a stunning range of emotion and movement.

This cover is fantastic because it takes what's at the core of the original and explores it even more, with varying loudness, instruments, ect.

It feels like the last warm august evening before going back to school.

It sounds like moving to a far away place in the search of opportunities.

It conveys the nostalgia of remembering your childhood friends with happiness, but also realizing that there's a great and unknown road ahead of you.

It gives you the comfort of knowing that every moment will pass, so you should enjoy it while it lasts and be hopeful for the future.

It's change, it's movement, it's nostalgia, it's hope, it's happiness, it's a bitter sweet end and a fresh beginning.

This cover gave me a lot of comfort and peace during difficult moments in my life and I can say with confidence that it far surpassed the original.