[Scott]

nina simone & david bowie's versions of wild is the wind-
original:written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington and first recored by Johnny Mathis.

nature boy-david bowie with massive attack
original: nat king cole

[Over the Sea]

best-
Hurt - Johnny Cash (originally by Nine Inch Nails)
Man Who Sold the World- Nirvana (originally by David Bowie)
Golden Hair- Slowdive (originally by Syd Barrett)

[Susanna-Cole]

Best:

Into The Mystic by The Swell Season (originally by Van Morrison).

I'll probably think of more later. That's the one that always stands out to me, though.

[dinahgrace]

The best I've heard is Brooke Fraser's live cover of 'The Sound of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel. She sang it so perfectly

[Toccata]

BEST IMPROVEMENT ON THE ORIGINAL:

Blowin' In The Wind | SAM COOKE, original bob dylan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBDdLgBO0Nw

BEST RE-INTERPRETATION OF THE ORIGINAL:

Superlungs | TERRY REID, original donovan
DONOVAN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrG8eg_txJI&feature=fvw
TERRY REID: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajx1Pln0KYQ
Worth a listen, even if you don't know the artists, just to hear the differences.

[auxt]

and a couple of pop covers ...

[Scott]

^there's another fab cover of 'apache' by the 70's/80's electronic band,the killer watts. it's moog and korg laden. quite nice actually.

[marmoset]

A couple I can think of:

Best

Arcade Fire - Guns Of Brixton
Original by The Clash

Tom Hodge - Aerodynamic
Original by Daft Punk

The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain - Dy-na-mi-tee
Original by Ms Dynamite

The Killers - Shadowplay
Original by Joy Division

Jonsi - Time To Pretend
Original by MGMT

Dragonette - The Boys
Original by Calvin Harris

Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love
Original by Candi Staton

Noisettes - When You Were Young
Original by The Killers

Sugababes - Freak Like Me
Original by Adina Howard also heavily samples Gary Numan's 'Are 'Friends' Electric' on that note...

Moloko - Are 'Friends' Electric
Original by Gary Numan

Blondie - The Tide Is High
Original by The Paragons

Maxence Cyrin - Where Is My Mind
Original by Pixies
Maxence Cyrin also does amazing covers of D.A.N.C.E (Justice), Around The World (Daft Punk) and Windowlicker (Aphex Twin).

Finally... The Vines - Ms. Jackson
Original by OutKast

I didn't think I'd end up with this many!
The only bad one I can think of is Razorlight's cover of 'Hey Ya!' by OutKast, it just sounds so messy and is really dull in general. They also used a gospel choir but it didn't add anything, just made it sound worse :/

[marmoset]

Ooh, just thought of two more good ones:

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra which is originally by Cher I think?
And The White Stripes - I Just Don't What To Do With Myself which was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David but has been recorded by so many people. The famous version obviously being Dusty Springfield but Wikipedia is telling me it was first recorded by Tommy Hunt.

[Scott]

^actually both cher and nancy covered versions of the song the same year. it was actually written by sonny bono. to be honest,i prefer the nancy version myself...just so much more melancholic and wrenching.

[marmoset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott ^actually both cher and nancy covered versions of the song the same year. it was actually written by sonny bono. to be honest,i prefer the nancy version myself...just so much more melancholic and wrenching.

ahh okay! ia about the nancy version

[ckgirlbr]

Best
Shadowplay * The Killers
Original by Joy Division


Worst
Last Nite * Adele
Original by The Strokes

[*ana*]

^but Adele's is great compared to Pixie Lott's

One of my favourite recent covers: Week-end à Rome - Vanessa Paradis + Nouvelle Vague (original: Etienne Daho)

[*ana*]

The two best WOTWS covers, for me:

[therethere]

Good:
Therapy? - Isolation (original by Joy Division)
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (original by Leonard Cohen
Patti Smith - Smells like Teenspirit (original by Nirvana)
Tori Amos - Smells like Teenspirit (original by Nirvana)
Editors - Orange Crush (original by R.E.M.)
Johnny Cash - Hurt (original by Nine Inch Nails)
Joan Osborne - Man in the Long Black Coat (original by Bob Dylan)
Placebo - Where is my Mind (original by Pixies)
Nirvana - Where did you Sleep Last Night (original by Mark Lanegan)
Nick Cave - Ramblin' Mind (original by Jeffrey Lee Pierce)
Get Well Soon - Born Slippy (Nux) (original by Underworld)

HORRIBLE:
Avril Lavigne - Chop Suey (original by System of a Down)
Jamie Cullum - High and Dry (original by Radiohead)
Laura Jansen - Use Somebody (original by Kings of Leon)
Lucy Silvas - Nothing Else Matters (original by Metallica)