Cover versions shouldn't be direct copies of the originals?

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

They keep playing Sam Smith's new version of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' on Radio 2. What on earth is the point of it? Why did anybody (I think I can guess who) see the need for Sam to go to the trouble of recording and releasing a song that sounds pretty much identical (albeit not as well sung) as the original? Even the instrumentation sounds very much like a direct copy.

Surely a cover version is meant to be a different interpretation of a song, isn't it? At least bring a little something extra or alternative to the table?

Like them or not, I'm thinking of meaningful and well thought-out covers such as:
Cyndi Lauper vs. Roy orbison with 'I Drove All Night'
Dolly Parton vs. Whitney Houston with 'I Will Always Love You'
Dougie MacLean vs. Amy Macdonald with 'Caledonia'.
Prince v.s Sinead O'Connor with 'Nothing Compares To You'

If it's a tribute act/show or local karaoke/soundalike competition, then all well and good; but if it's just a commercially-released song that is available to buy/listen to in exactly the same places as the identical original version??? Is it just me?!

And this Andrew Lloyd Webber medley varies at least slightly from the original versions....

I also love 'Martha' (the Tom Waits song) done by Meat Loaf - completely reinterpreted.

Also, somebody mentioned Carter USM upthread. I think their version of 'The Impossible Dream' is fantastic. What they lacked in technical vocal perfection, they more than made up for with energy.

Oh, and 'In My Life' by Johnny Cash.

ohhh when i used to be in bands we had this argument a lot. If it was just a saturday night pub band identical covers went down well, but if you want credibility you have to make it your own

Oh aren't you clever taking a song that was once fast and then making it slow, such vision.

Don't forget to put on a breathy whiny accent too. [

Yes I remember that Wonderwall cover! Wow blast from the past!

Nirvana's covers were always out of this world, my girl my girl tell me where did you sleep last night....

I might have downloaded Mike Flowers Pops worryingly recently...

The best cover version I've heard in years is Disturbed's cover of Sound of Silence. Now that's how to improve a song
Gives me goosebumps every time it's so haunting.

A cover version should have the artists own stamp on it not just a carbon copy.
Lots of good examples on here of good versions so why just try to do it exactly the same way it's never going yo.be as good.

I agree willow. It's brilliant.
I also like Alien Ant Farm's Smooth Criminal for that reason.

I agree OP, I love a good cover but Sam
Smith’s isn’t one.

Ones I love are:

Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Travis - Hit me baby one more time
Bjorne and PJ Harvey - Leaving on a jet plane
Propellerheads - Hounds of love

Nirvana - Where did you sleep last night
Muse - Feeling good

Bjorne = Bjork...

The best cover vesions are slightly different to the original but not so much as to destroy.
Marilyn Manson - Personal Jesus.
Pet shop boys - Always on My Mind - Go West.
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence.
The Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way.
And of course
Steps - Tragedy

YANBU at all. I love a new arrangement of a song that makes me appreciate the cover and the original. Lots of good ones mentioned here. I love Personsal Jesus by Johnny Cash. Feeling Good by Muse is another good one.

I have never heard a single cover version that was better than the original.
The vast majority absolutely ruin it, and the rest are just pointless meh. Bands should write their own original songs, not copy and spoil other people’s!

Do the two people referring to the Propellorhead's Hounds of Love actually mean the Futureheads? Or is there a breakbeat version out there too?!

Future heads Hounds of Love is great though and I’m a massive fan of Kate Bush.

The Hanging On The Telephone cover by Blondie is better than the original

I tend to agree. If I wanted to listen to the song in the same style as the original I'd listen to the original.

I do love these covers though.
Pennywise - Stand by me (a Ska punk version)
Esoterica - Silence (a rock version of a dance classic)
Marilyn Manson - Tainted love
James Vincent - Wicked Game
Disturbed - sound of silence

@Babdoc Respect - Aretha Franklin probably the best cover ever

Yanbu.I really like ub40 version of I cant help falling in love by Elvis.Totally different genre of music but it works.

@MorganKitten that was a cover version?! How did I not know this!

Robert Wyatt - I'm a Believer, pretty much a straight cover but way better than the Monkees obvs.

On the other end of the scale, I remember my parents always had Joe Cocker doing With a Little Help from my Friends by the Beatles playing - poor Ringo never stood a chance!

Marilyn Manson's version of Tainted Love is a good cover, it makes it a whole new genre, as Soft Cell did before it.

I also like Bowling for Soup's Baby One More Time and Summer of 69.

I think the song that has been, erm, reworked the most is (Let's Get) Physical as done by Revolting Cocks.

I also love the complete rewrite of I Fought The Law by Dead Kennedys, and their own reworking of California Uber Alles in We've Got A Bigger Problem Now.

Faith No More do great cover versions; their version of I Started A Joke is ace, as is their version of the theme to Midnight Cowboy.

I'll have a think in the morning and might post some more that nobody else has thought of yet. :o

I've never understood the denigration of cover artists. Why shouldn't they sing existing songs. If everyone thought like that we'd never hear Mozart or Beethoven again

I like cover versions that are different to the original. First one that springs to mind is Comfortably Numb. The Pink Floyd version is just awful but the Scissor Sisters version is upbeat and has a much better sound to it. The other one I like is the Ramones cover of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World.