As before try to pick 5 and explain why.

Do these songs 'better' the originals?

If you don't like them, why? :devil2:

Did they try to improve on the original, and fail? Why do you think this?

FYI...

Baby I Love You - The Ramones ... I don't like the vocal much on this, but I love the strings and it does work better than the version by The Ronettes for me.

Our Lips Are Sealed ... the moody and haunting version by Fun Boy Three is brilliant, but so too is the original pop version by The Go-Go's (and Terry Hall did co-write it with Jane Wiedlin too).

Winterlong by The Pixies. Personally I prefer Neil Young's version...I think the
Pixies version is overrated, but then Frank Black once said is the best thing The Pixies ever did, and I've also read Neil Young's original described as 'boring'. Certainly the live versions had more bite than his studio version.

Crying by Don MacLean....possibly a little soppy for some but I think it's beautiful :girl2: , much more than Roy Orbison's seemingly (by his standards) dashed off original...in that he didn't take it at the comparitive snail's pace of some of his (in my opinion) better performances.

Lord of the Reedy River by Kate Bush is a haunting cover of Donovan's originally jazzy 'The Swan'.

Re If I Were A Carpenter, I forsake picking Bobby Darin's version - great though it is - as it's so close to Tim Hardin's original.

Also re Tim Hardin ... I am aware Marianne Faithful did a beautiful atmospheric version of Reason To Believe, Glen Campbell covered it too. Rod Stewart's version is arguably one which brought the song to a larger audience.

Why the Rod Stewart choices, some Fall fans might ask?...as Nick Hornby argued (in the 'Idol Worship' book put together by Chris Roberts - which before you drift off features a chapter by MES :) ) he is a great interpretor.

The other Rod Stewart pick - Handbags and Gladrags...I did *not* want to put the massacre of this by Stereophonics in this poll :devil2: :finger: . Chris Farlowe first had a minor hit with it...I am aware Mike D'Abo wrote it but his demo has still never surfaced.

Re The Fall and Telephone Thing, as many of you will know this was first recorded as 'My Telephone' by Coldcut and Lisa Stansfield. I am well aware of MES' opinions on the original; I actually like both.

Love Hurts ... I'm thinking of doing a new poll for that alone! I don't like the Everlys version (the first reasonably well known version, they didn't write it tho, did they?) - it is weak. But the Gram Parsons, Jim Capaldi and Nazareth versions all have their own individual merits.

Suspicion as sung by Terry Stafford ...I feel his version has more atmosphere, those cooing female backing vocals, aside from the fact that Terry was a would be Elvis sound alike and he didn't choose one of the 'obvious' Elvis songs like Hound Dog or Love Me Tender.

Stop Your Sobbing by The Pretenders ... there's is a Spectoresque of the Kinks song, I like both :).

Get voting...suggestions welcomed for a further poll, could make this a series. :D

:)

Tony Tribe's version of Red Red Wine is far better than the UB40 or Neil Diamond versions

Red Red Wine by UB40 is one of those songs that I feel a definite lowering in my mood the moment I hear that whiney voice.
I sink.

I voted Stop Your Sobbing. Those guitars send me man.

I don't know why, but the song Handbags & Gladrags, any version, is top of my all-time hate list, tied with Come On Eileen. If it's on anywhere, I have to leave the room.

Much as I love them, Ramones' cover of Baby I Love You felt like a bit of a misfire - largely thanks to the plodding bass-line which feels like Dee Dee snuck on after everyone had gone to the pub/shooting range.

Seeing Stephen's 'Hallelujah' poll got me thinking about my 'Love Hurts' poll idea.

There are a lot of versions, as I suspected...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Hurts

Even The Who did it! :o

Maybe that's where Nazareth got the idea? :unsure: I would've thought Roger Daltrey's singing on their live versions would not have been dissimilar, and I guess it's quite possible one of Nazareth might have seen a Who gig when growing up?

Anyway, if anyone fancies fashioning a poll from that wiki entry... :rolleyes:

Im sorry stranger but about what I think of most of this list--well--
'My lips are sealed'

Are you saying that Elvis had the original of Suspicion? I thought it was the other way around; glad to find out the truth. I liked the Bonzo Dog band's version anyway.
I voted for Little Red Rooster because I like it and haven't heard the original.
The Kinks' Stop Your Sobbing was not a good effort by them, imo, so the cover wins, partly by default. Reason to Believe by Rod is a song I've always enjoyed. I think the arranger made this song.
The Ramones had their moments but not here. The Ramones often said they were content being four dumb guys from Queens and that pretty much sums them up to me...a few really great songs and a lot of tedium[hey watch where you throw those dornicks, you hosers :lol: ]

I went for both the Four Tops' efforts 'cos they're both totally different from the originals and both totally brilliant.

I thought it was too.

I read the Wiki.

Hope I've not stumbled across one of their infamous clangers there. :o :banghead:

I've not heard the original either ... I suspect I would still prefer the Stones version, because of the humid atmosphere they infuse it with :)

good point :)

I know they didn't. :devil2:

I've never seen the appeal much.

I Wanna Be Sedated is a good song but I much preferred Kirsty MacColl's live version - again it's those nasal vocals that do nothing for the Ramones song. Yeah, I know it was deliberate and being 'punk' but it fails on all counts for me, and I do like some badly sung punk.

I saw the Stones do Little Red Rooster on tv and the atmosphere was terrific. Mick sang walking slowly toward the camera and when the harmonica break came, he sneered[or sneered a little more than usual] reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out the harp and blew away....nice touch I thought.
I heard an awful lot of Ramones coming from my daughter's room and often wondered, "Aren't they going to do something different next?" I Wanna Be Sedated is really good but there's too much dumb guy stuff sameness for my taste. I did like their appearance in Rock n' Roll High School though[I hope that's the title]
Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed wrote some of the best blues songs of the 1950s. I am wondering if Willie Dixon recoreded Red Rooster because he did not record a lot on his own...haven't heard it anyway.
Try and give a listen to the Bonzo Dog Band's Suspicion if you haven't heard it: Takes the song to its logical conclusion.

Stop Your Sobbing and Walk Away Renee are both superb!

Incidently, The Pretenders 'I Go To Sleep' was a Ray Davies song that the Kinks never released at the time, but you can get a demo of it now on one of the Kinks reissues and it's beautiful.

Interesting poll but did you forget Aztec Camera with Jump?
Voted for Kirsty, the Fall, Gram Parsons (but would still do it for Nazareth), Pretenders and Fun Boy 3. Couldn't realy put my finger on why I preffered these covers, lets just say its the vibe.

There isn't a single thread on here that I somehow cannot twist to my own purposes: Walk Away Renee - Pink Lady.
Four Tops, Shmour Tops. :lol:

Ah, slight problem here.
These are all records that used to smash my little teenaged heart to pieces when I was 14-16 and falling in love for the first time, then realised I'd thrown my heart over a cliff.
Blub...

Walk Away Renee - Billy Bragg featuring Johnny Marr
Stop Your Sobbing - The Pretenders
Our Lips Are Sealed - Fun Boy Three

Ah...

Time I voted... :o

It's nearly impossible...despite liking some more than others, part of me almost wants to vote for them all. :o :o

They all show, when sometimes it's tempting to dismiss covers, how respectable they can be :)

New England - Kirsty MacColl (Billy Bragg)
- triumphant! Bragg was drawn to announcing "this is my song!" doing it live, presumably slightly annoyed that Kirsty had arguable made it her own. :o

Reason To Believe - Rod Stewart (Tim Hardin)

The remarkable arrangement it what lifts this into my top 5, hard tho it is to whittle it down to 5.

Lord of the Reedy River - Kate Bush (Donovan)

As above...Donovan's original is one of his jazzy things...jazz fans should check out Donovan...he wasn't just a folkie, you know. :) The arrangement is very weird, and very haunting, and Donovan himself was involved.

Our Lips Are Sealed - Fun Boy Three (The Go-Go's)

Another haunting arrangement. The original is fantastic summer pop.

Crying - Don MacLean (Roy Orbison)

This gets in the top 5 because he slows it down and invests in it all the emotion the song deserves. :) :girl2:

Honourable mentions (among many others I missed out) :cry: :cry2: to -

Handbags and Gladrags - Rod Stewart (Chris Farlowe)
Walk Away Renee - The Four Tops (The Left Banke)

Only like 3 of these (of those I've heard)

Four Tops - Renee
Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing - vastly superior to the original
Stones - Little Red Rooster

Bowie's China Girl is nowhere near as good as Iggys but it's still listenable.
Ditto for Kirsty MacColl's New England.

Bother versions of Winterlong are superb, but I prefer the live cut of it on an early bootleg with those fantastic Horse backing vocals

I prefer it live, yes...the one from the recently (about a year ago, before the Massey Hall release) released live album from 1970 is great.