Hi,
 
Pinball Wizard - Roger Ruskin Spear.
And its best version EVER! Totally off the charts falsetto and properly done with the original musicians even, except that Roger played the teaspoons or something else. From the album "Unusual", itself a magnificent album worth getting, as good if not better than any of the Bonzo Dog Band albums.

Moshkiae
Hi,
 
Another song:
 
Paul Kantner - Have You Seen the Stars Tonite.  I think this was co-written by David Crosby, but I can not locate him singing this, and I know I heard it once a long time ago.

He probably did, CSN, the Dead, and Airplane were all on Blows Against the Empire. They were all everywhere on it. I haven't listened with that in mind but I bet he was singing backup. They were most all playing on Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name" too, along with a few others like Greg Rollie.
edit> from wiki: David Crosby – vocals and guitar on "A Child Is Coming" and "Have You Seen the Stars Tonite", background vocals on "Starship" http://en.wikipedia.org/w...ows_Against_the_Empire
 
JJ Cale IMO, did his songs better than Clapton.
 
ABB did Statesboro Blues better than Blind Willie.
 
Cream did Crossroads better than Robert Johnson.
 
Camper Van Beethoven did Pictures of Matchstick Men better than Status Quo
 
Manfred Mann did Blinded by the Light better than Springsteen.
 
J (I guess I sorta got it backward.. is that OK?)
 
Who knows who did the best cover of Goin' Down ?

Hi,
 
I'm not gonna list Dream Theater here, because their list of covers is insane, and has Yes, Genesis, ELP, The Who, Led Zeppelin and many other originals.
 
But I did want to mention Transatlantic, and it is now on the tube, where they did side one of Tales From Topographic Oceans with Jon Anderson  and I have to tell you that all of a sudden YES is nothing but a sick, tired old hit band right now.
 
Early days:
YES - America (was an EP of the Simon and Garfunkel song)

> Was the Original song better than the new one?
 
Song:        "Red, Red Wine"
Original:     Neil Diamond
New One:   UB40
 
No. The Original song was NOT better than the excellent UB40 version (IMO).
 

KenB123
> Was the Original song better than the new one?
 
Song:        "Red, Red Wine"
Original:     Neil Diamond
New One:   UB40
 
No. The Original song was NOT better than the excellent UB40 version (IMO).
 

Of course UB40 were actually covering Tony Tribe's 1969 hit reggae cover version. Apparently UB40 were initally unaware it was originally a Neil Dimond song. - My prefrence is for the Tony Tribe version but there is an element of nostalga in that choice.

Beatles covers were almost always better: 
- Twist and Shout
- Mr. Postman
- Till There Was You
- Chains
- Long Tall Sally
-  Roll Over Beethoven
- Slow Down
 
But not always:
- Act Naturally
- Honey Don't
 
And sometimes other people arguably improved on Beatles songs:
- Fiona Apple's "Across the Universe"
- Jeff Beck's "She's a Woman"
- Pat Benatar's "Helter Skelter"
- Cheap Trick's "Magical Mystery Tour"
- Eric Clapton's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
- Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help From My Friends"
- Mamas & Papas "I Call Your Name"
- The Muppets "Octopus' Garden"
 
 

What about all those Forum Monkey covers?
 
That's some classy sh1te!!!
 

I'll trot this one out for the 12,563th time;
 

jamesg1213
I'll trot this one out for the 12,563th time;
 

I'll ignore it for the 12,563th time.

No change there then.