M.I.A.'s Bad Girls. Covered by thepolifino. Another one where I can’t really say it’s better than the original but the vocal work and delivery are awesome.
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oh, nice. I thought since we talk about hip hop sometimes you meant that it was sampled for something. the whole time I was like “that’s a lot of notes crammed into each bar to make a rap song,” a-doyeeee.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger covered by samuraiguitarist.
Inspired by Here Comes The Sun. Again, not sure it’s better than the original, but seeing him do the song almost exclusively with guitar equipment is pretty amazing.
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I’m breaking the rules:
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Coldplay tribute to MCA. Again, not better but really touching tribute. Even if it does rely on too many comfortable Coldplay musical cliches.
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25 years later and I still can’t believe My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless doesn’t have any synthesizers on it.
I was barbacking a festival a few years ago where Coldplay headlined. Never cared for them before, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t put on a helluva show.
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Yeah. I don’t hate Coldplay. I just have to be in the right mood. And not irritated by their musical tropes. When I’m in the right mood Viva La Vida and X&Y are great albums.
On that note…
Lizzy King covers Fix You. Camera work is a bit distracting (shots when you see kitty and when there’s lens flare) and too much reverb on the vocals. But the vocal work (particularly toward the 3 minute mark) is raw and powerful. And her playing style makes up for the Coldplay tropes I find irritating.
Ok…
I think this one is significantly darker and stronger than the original:
And this one wins out because Joan Jett’s voice makes it more fun:
This is a close call, the original did better in a lot of ways (spatial shifting), but there are spots where the original just stayed kinda flat but this one rises up:
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Speaking of Joan Jett, no one has posted her cover version of Crimson & Clover yet.
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Only 'cuz I had been saving it. 
Also I’m not really sure who she’s covering. Like Jimi Hendrix’s cover of All Along The Watchtower, I think this is the definitive version of the song.
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Tommy James and the Shondells.
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‘The Day is Past and Gone’ as performed by Marion Williams. Given that this is a folk traditional, I don’t know that it qualifies as a ‘cover’ so much as a rendition. There are many great performances of this traditional (see runner-up below), but Williams’ is the only one that regularly induces frisson for me.
Honorable mention: The Spirit of Memphis Quartet
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Tommy James and the Shondelles, if memory serves. or maybe Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels?
[googles]
the former
I like the original, but I love Joan generally, too; including her version
ETA @tropo deeeerrrrrp.
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I’m not familiar with this quote, but I’d bet £50 it’s from his ‘Station to Station’ days as The Thin White Duke.
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It was from 1975-6, so that’s right on - the Quietus had one set of comments from NME:
And there was an interview with Cameron Crow in Playboy around that time too:
It looks like it wasn’t just a single interview, but a couple of them where he was saying this kind of stuff, FWIW.
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The original (yes, I have a very broad definition of pop song):
Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
A cover:
Jeff Beck - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (C. Mingus)
Another cover:
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (C. Mingus)
Another cover:
UZEB - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (C. Mingus)
Another cover:
The Stanley Clarke Band - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (C. Mingus)
Another cover:
Marcus Miller - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (C. Mingus)
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Concrete Blonde, Tomorrow, Wendy.
Better than the original because Andy Prieboy’s voice drives me crazy, and because Concrete Blonde were a massively underrated band. They had an astonishing ability to get their least-impressive songs played to desth on the radio while their better stuff remained obscure.
Make sure to play over headphones or proper speakers; heavy use of panning effects.
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Sol Heilo - Hold On (originally by SBTRKT)
This was the first version of the song I heard, even before I was aware of SBTRKT, and it’s still my favorite version. It’s worth watching the video - she plays the song with stuff she had around the house, ranging from an accordion to a cardboard box.
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Smells Like Teen Spirit by Daniela Andrade. Perfectly recreates that “what the hell are they saying” part of Nirvana but in a more pensive, quieter way.
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I love this dreamy acoustic cover of the classic Lil John ballad Get Low.
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