PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Cover songs that are better than the original

Did you ever wonder why philharmonic orchestras playing classical music are never called cover bands/orchestras?

Frank Zappa famously called the American ones, "Musical Mechanics with a Limited Repertoire."



--Mac

I definitely like the Gladys Knight version of Grapevine better.

When Motown was courting us and we got to record in the newer Motown Studios I met the "Funk Brothers" but they weren't called "Funk Brothers" back then. Nice people and very accomplished musicians. Members of the Detroit Symphony used to come in for the string and other parts as well.

Elvis Presley's version of "Fever" is better than the Peggy Lee or the Little Willie John versions.

(disagreement) I like the original Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man" better than James Taylor's and Henry Mancini's version of "Peter Gunn" better than Duane Eddy (although I played the Duane Eddy version a lot) but I guess it comes down to personal taste.

"Dazed & Confused" Led Zeppelin > Jake Holmes

"Unchained Melody" Righteous Brothers > Todd Duncan (movie) and Ah Hibbler (record).

"Harlem Nocturne" Viscounts > Randy Brooks Orchestra

Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton's is IMHO light years better than Elvis' version.

OK, here come the Elvis fans. :>

Later,

Just another example of the dinosaurs liftin' a tune from the swamp mammals in order to sell another million copies, Danny.

It was not even a man's song, y'know...


--Mac

I think Big Mama was first and Elvis did the cover (I could be wrong about that). Anyway I like her version better too.

Notes

I like Dwight Yoakam's version of Suspicious Minds better than Elvis's so I guess I'd better duck and hide as well lol.

And yeal, Joe Cocker had a bad habit of taking a song and making it his own with fantastic results (imo of course).
Here's another good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrv9slgO7Ic

Of course it helps when the whole band is hotter than firecrackers. Stainton is killin' those Leon licks on piano.

Going off topic a little, but speaking of Stainton, this video is worth watching to the end in spite of bad sound just to see him in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hktxYR8dIPg

Elvis fan (more with each passing year) coming out of the woodwork!

I agree with you; Big Mama Thornton's version is light years better than Elvis' version!

Some info that I picked up along the way: (Many sources, but probably initially "Rockabilly Road Trip", a radio show.) Wikipedia has a detailed history of the song. (BTW, Wikipedia calls "Hound Dog" Elvis' biggest seller, ignoring the fact that the flip side was "Don't Be Cruel", which spent more weeks at #1, and was on the charts longer than "Hound Dog".)

"Hound Dog" was written for Big Mama Thornton by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. One can argue that they had an emotional attachment because it was their first big hit.

They hated the Elvis version. Then the royalty checks started coming in. But more importantly they got entre to Elvis, something that worked out great for Elvis and Leiber/Stoller.

Turns out that Elvis didn't really cover Big Mama Thornton, per se.

When Elvis played Las Vegas the first time in 1956 (a massive failure, the older casino crowds weren't ready for him), he saw Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, a group from Philadelphia. He kept going back, many times.

Freddie played a rockabilly version of "Hound Dog"; it was this version that "got covered". Freddie had cleaned up the lyrics for radio. Elvis recorded it almost immediately.

"Hound Dog" Elvis Presley 1956

Cover


"Hound Dog" Freddie Bell and the Bellboys (1956 ???)

This is not Freddie Bell's original recorded version. Included because who knows how they were performing the song in 1956 when Elvis saw them; also for a photo of the group.

Cover


"Hound Dog" Freddie Bell and the Bellboys 1955 single version

Cover


"Hound Dog" Big Mama Thornton 1953 single

This record had been out for 3 (!!!) years when Elvis recorded "Hound Dog". Big Mama Thornton didn't sell less because of Elvis; she sold far more.
Freddie Bell, on the other hand...

Original


Post-mortem (unrelated): I saw an interview with a very old guy, one of the Four Aces.

(The Four Aces had mostly ballad hits, harmonized, in the early 1950's. "Sin", "Stranger In Paradise", "Three Coins In A Fountain", "Melody Of Love", and "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" were each #1 records for them.)


Elvis also went to see the Four Aces when he was in Las Vegas in 1956. He sat in the front row. He asked if he could sing with them.

Reluctantly they said yes.

This man spoke glowingly of Elvis. He said that Elvis knew every part to every song the Four Aces sang!

Elvis Presley was a musical sponge. He may not have had formal training, but he was an incredible musician nonetheless.

I am an Elvis Presley fan, he was a great natural singer, and did some great songs.

IMHO His "Reconsider Baby" is much better than Lowell Fulson's and he did a lot of other great songs. On the other hand, he did a lot of kitsch too; "Rock-a-hula Baby" will never be on my iPod but "Are You Lonesome Tonight" is. His English derivative take on "O Sole Mio" retitled "It's Now Or Never" is even a very nice cut.

But I tend to prefer the older Elvis cuts.

Bobby Darin turned the corny Tin Pan Alley song, "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby" into a damned decent rock song, and his take on "Mack The Knife" has stood the test of time to become the definitive version of that song.

I still tend to prefer the vast majority of the originals to the covers, but there are many delightful exceptions.

Insights and incites by Notes

Hi, Robb !

Close To You / Warwick/ The Carpenters

Cheers
Dani

Notes,

I agree about the Darin covers of "Mack" and "Baby". I think Bobby Darin also had great covers of "Lazy River" and "Beyond The Sea" ("Le Mer"). I'm probably in a tiny minority, but I prefer Bobby Darin"s cover of Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy", though I love Cole's too.



Yes! Yes! Yes!

Elvis does Peggy Lee's version (I think with one more verse), but the things that make it the Elvis version for me are the amazing percussion (Buddy Harmon, I guess) and the significant improvement in fidelity. The percussion sounds surprising and wonderful, each time, to me.

The Elvis recording was the last one I got. Oddly, I got Little Willie John's version first.


Here's a cover of "Fever" that I also love. It's one of the strangest recordings that I have. Though completely different, to me it is the equal the Elvis record.

Elvis and Peggy Lee have a "cool" fever. Ray Peterson is burning up!

"Fever" was Ray Peterson's first recording. A few years later he had success with "Tell Laura I Love Her", "Corrina, Corrina", and "The Wonder of You". He never showed this vocal capability on those records. (I got a Bear Family CD of him.)

The close of Ray Peterson's version is astonishing to me. I'm probably the only one, but that's OK! I've never heard anything quite like it.

"Fever" Ray Peterson 1957
Cover

I agree about Elvis being an outstanding cover artist!

Here are four that I think are amazing; each is so different from the original that the contrast is startling. The first was mentioned by Notes Norton.

"Reconsider Baby" Elvis Presley 1960

This was a jam session for fun after the session was over, at 5:00 or 6:00 AM. Note that there's no reverb on Elvis (not intended to be a record, but thankfully Bill Porter rolled the tape) and that Elvis is calling the shots.
(One of my all-time favorite recordings.)
Cover

"Reconsider Baby" Lowell Fulsom 1954
Original

"One Night Of Sin" was co-written by Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino's band leader. I have Smiley Lewis' original, Fats' cover, and Elvis' cover. Love the song.

"One Night With You" Elvis Presley 1958
Paradoxically, the Elvis record has cleaned-up lyrics, but compared to the other two, is filthy!
(One of my all-time favorite recordings.)
Cover

"One Night Of Sin" Smiley Lewis 1956
Original

Many songs are performed today (roughly) using Elvis' arrangement. It's unusual to hear "Blue Christmas" done today like Earnest Tubb did it.

"Blue Christmas" Elvis Presley 1957
I love Millie Kirkham's etherial vocal! Interesting info on the Jordanaires arrangement on wikipedia.
Cover

"Blue Christmas" Ernest Tubb 1949
This version popularized the song, but strictly speaking was not the original.
Original

Scads of Chuck Berry covers, deservedly so. Some are excellent. IMO, this one is the best, and the only one that crushes Chuck's original. An absolutely incendiary recording. This record should be played LOUD!

"Promised Land" Elvis Presley 1974
James Burton ("Suzie Q" lick at age 16, Ricky Nelson's guitarist) on guitar.
(One of my all-time favorite recordings.)
Cover

"Promised Land" Chuck Berry 1964
Original

Wow! Chris Stainton's piano solo is long and complicated! (I bought the single of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" (cover of J.J. Cale) when it came out, cause I couldn't wait!)

Here's a cover with piano play that I really like:

For me, easily Johnny River's best, and heck, to me, a perfect record!

"Rockin' Pnemonia and Boogie Woogie Flu" Johnny Rivers 1972 Larry Knechtel, pianist
(One of my all-time favorite recordings.)
Cover
"Rockin" Pnemonia and Boogie Woogie Flu" Huey "Piano" Smith and The Clowns 1959
Original

Here are a couple of Bo Diddley covers that I really like:

"Love Is Strange" Mickey and Sylvia 1956
(One of my all-time favorite recordings.)
Cover

Bo Diddley used his wife's maiden name on the copyright so Leonard Chess would not find out that he gave the song to Mickey and sylvia.

"Love Is Strange" Bo Diddley 1956 (unreleased)
Original

"Before You Accuse Me" Creedance Clearwater Revival 1970
My favorite recording from CCR.
(One of my all-time favorite recordings.)
Cover
"Before You Accuse Me" Bo Diddley 1957
Original

Knechtel was a marvelous example of what a Jazz/Bebop and gospel trained pianist could bring to sessions.

For the Rockin' Pneumonia thang he called up his knowledge of the New Orleans blues piano styles in between the original pianist's hooks and did it so well that it defined that tune, man. Larry added LEFT HAND BOOGIE to it as well...

He is also the guy responsible for Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" hit. The story is that Larry went home and worked out that "gospel church" piano part, which completely changed the thing from a strummed guitar tune that he heard Paul play into the classic in its own right.

Larry Knechtel

A Bad Dude, indeed.


--Mac

Yes, Bobby D was a National Treasure AFAIC.

I always dug his kinda "cakey-pop" version of Nature Boy too, although I also always thought that the female background vox were a bit derived, but then along came Kurt Elling around 2000 and:

Another great Jazz Pianist, Laurence Hobgood, all over the arrangement that he likely had the most hand in creating:



Nature Boy was written by a rather odd egg, one Eden Ahbez, who lived outdoors underneath the big Hollywood sign, among other oddities. It was possibly the only song he ever wrote, certainly the only one to become any sort of hit or make money. Go figure.


--Mac

Anything written by Leonard Cohen - get Jennifer Warned to sing it. As on "Famous Blue Raincoat" album.Awesome!
The Beatles "Hey Jude". A great tune ruined by self-satisfyingly indulgent and stupidly unnecessary long, long, long Outro. Check out The Shadows version. Yeah, I am biased!!

The Johnny Rivers' version of "Rockin' Pneumonia" is indeed better, while preserving the flavor and important piano licks of the original.

I hope I'm not repeating myself:

Stan Getz / Charlie Byrd version of "One Note Samba" is my all time favorite of all the covers.

As much as I love Johnny Smith's guitar playing, the Ventures version of "Walk Don't Run" gets to me better.

"Satisfaction Guaranteed" Mark Murphy > Michael Franks

"Sloop John B" although probably much older than the KT, Beach Boys > Kingston Trio

Later...
Notes

Many times it comes down to which you heard first (and most). I had a guy tell me, after seeing "The Buddy Holly Story", how Buddy did a lot of Linda Ronstadt songs...

I ran into an Eva Cassidy fan who almost wanted to fight because I told him "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" was written by Paul Anka in the 50s. He swore Cassidy wrote it. Meanwhile, the lineage of that song is Anka to Holly to Ronstadt to Cassidy so he heard it 4th generation and just didn't know any better. (I think Ronstadt's version was the best of them. Why? I heard that one first. The original uptempo versions seemed too "choppy" to me after hearing her folkier rendition.)