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have you ever heard this great song then after finding out it was a cover tried to find the original? after finding and listening to have you ever thought to yourself 'wow this sucks so much, i like the cover better'?

i have had this happen a few times, namly the song 'what's going on' by four non blondws, the cover was great it was fun and upbeat and rediculous and just over-all awesome but the original song was so ...bad i couldn't even finish it

what about you guys? have a song like that? what was it called and who were the singers

I think you might have mistakenly gotten the wrong song. I looked it up on wikipedia and it said that the 4 Non Blondes song "What's Up?" was often mistakenly titled "What's Going On?", which is a famous and wonderful song by the great Marvin Gaye.

"What's Up" was never a cover song.

so they are a cover too?

it was parodied, the version i have it the 'he man says hey' version

I preferred the Limb Bizkit version of "Behind Blue Eyes" when I first heard it. I didn't realize it was a cover until I heard the song on the radio that turned out to also be a cover. The original was sung by "The Who" I believe and it just felt odd to hear their pacing in the song versus what I was used to from hearing Limb Bizkit.

Another cover that I'm fond of is Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt." He changes it a little compared to the original by Nine Inch Nails but I think he does a good job. I wouldn't say the original sucks at all, but the tone is different. NIN's version sounds more raunchy and the mood comes off as more sinister or desperate, while Cash's version seems more nostalgic and resigned. I heard someone say it was a fitting song for him to sing given his past.

Another cover which I've heard dozens of times is "Hallalujah." The first time I heard it was in Shrek which I think is the Rufus Wainright version. I really like it then. After learning it was a cover I searched out some of the other artists. The original was Leonard Cohen, and he has a very drawn out, sort of quirky way of singing it that makes the song take sages. I like it though. Of the ones I've heard, I'd say I prefer Jeff Buckly's the best since it's more melodic than Cohen's but is closer to his version than those by Wainright and K.D. Lang. I think Lang did a great job singing it but some of the lyrics shifted and I'm not as fond of the changes.

Apparently The Fugee's "Killing me Softly" is a cover but I've never heard the original.

Hurt is definitely a cover for me that's ten times better than the original...not that the original is a bad song, it's just...Cash brings a lot more gravitas to the song, makes it a little more solid than the NIN version...at least for me, it resonates more. It's just beautiful.
Trent Reznor said it wasn't his song anymore either, haha. That was really an awesome thing.

Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You was ten times more popular than the original (Dolly Parton sang that one) ...although I personally didn't really enjoy either >u> But that was one that was way bigger.

what I love is thinking a song belongs to a certain artist and then learning it's actually a cover, and it ends up being like one of their most well known songs...
Like did you know Along the Watchtower ws a Bob Dylan song first? I DID NOT. I was like oh yea that's Jimi Hendrix's song all the way

I ah ...
I also like the Alien Ant Farm version of Smooth Criminal |D;;; [/brick'd]

I like the video, mostly because of the kid. ;). The light-up squares also came from MJ's video for "Billy Jean." I think I still like Jackson's version of "Smooth Criminal" better than AAF though, but then it might also be that I'm used to his vocals or prefer them to AAF.

A cover I do prefer is one of Eleanor Rigby (though I can't remember who did it) over the Beatles version, which may also be a cover for all I know. Apparently they have a few.

the Beatles only did old rock and roll covers in the beginning of their career. I believe the last album that featured covers was "Beatles For Sale" in 1964. "Eleanor Rigby" certainly was not a cover song.


for the record, I think much of the "covers versus originals" opinion has more to do with which song a person hears first rather than which song is legitimately, musically better.

killing me softly is a cover? huh, never new, wainwrite's ver is the only one i like hahaha

don't think i've heard 'along the watch tower' though i don't like either of those artists so i suppose it make sense

johnny has a point very few of the songs i hear first sound worse than the second or third version

I have found a son that I thought the cover was better then then original. I don't think the original sucks, though. It's just hard to beat Johnny Cash for the feeling that man can put into his music.

The song it Hurt, which was originally done by Nine Inch Nails.

Here is the cover Johnny Cash did shortly before he died:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho

Here is the original by NIN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0bZtf5MCzY

someone else liked it too


what are those pants sweetie? they look neat

'Chronological preference' I call that. I think that has much to do with it too, in most cases. I think it's that way with "Behind Blue Eyes" but I genuinely prefer the other versions of "Hallaluja" despite hearing Wainright's first.

I've had incidents where I liked the original more.

And ones where I liked them both the same-Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson and Alien Ant Farm.

I very seldom like covers better than the original. I generally don't much listen to covers, but Greta (from The Hush Sound)'s new band Gold Motel, did a cover of Hellogoodbye's "Here in Your Arms"...SO good.

I've heard a quite a few really good covers.
But I generally prefer the original.

That in most cases, Holly?

I find it hard to imagine avoiding covers since one would need to know what is a cover in the first place. Not everyone knows that. I've met people who don't realize that "Halleluja" by anyone other than Leonard Cohen (I believe) is a cover, or that American Pie was Don Mclean before it was Madonna (again, I think). The cover is only a few years old.

I find I prefer it when there is something different added to cover with the new artist than if it's pretty much the same. "Hurt" is a good example of that with the intruments and tempo being different in both songs with changes the mood a fair bit. On the other hand, ther versions of "Paint it Black" that I've heard all tend to sound more or less the same.

I really don't think it's possible for anyone to say "I always prefer the original over the cover" or "I always prefer the cover over the original"

I think Madonna's cover of "American Pie" is a travesty, an assault on mankind and good taste, and no one could ever convince me otherwise.

John Cale's cover of "Hallelujah" - and, in fact, many of the covers of that song, which is so beautiful that I think it actually transcends whatever artist sings it - is as good as the original, though I prefer Leonard Cohen's strange poetry-singing for some reason (I should note, I heard John Cale's version before Cohen's).

Limp Bizkit's cover of "Behind Blue Eyes"? Another horrible, horrible thing.

Richie Havens's cover of "Here Comes The Sun"? Beautiful. I actually prefer it over the original Beatles version, and I am probably the biggest Beatles fan anyone on this site will talk to.

I agree with Quiet Man Cometh: the good covers are the ones that add something new to the song. A new emotion, a new stanza of lyrics (in the case of "Hallelujah", which tends to get a different stanza for each cover, as there are something like nineteen official stanzas written by Leonard Cohen) or even a new tempo is good. When people just make cheap, sickening covers to cash in on an old classic, that's when the cover upsets me.