Really glad builder3 gave some love to Amy’s version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” With so many great versions of the Goffin/King classic, that version stunned me and caused me to consider it equal (or superior) to the Shirelles’ original, or Ms. King’s very-different-but-equally-great version off her masterpiece, “Tapestry.”
This is a really tough one, but one of my favorite music questions.
I try to think of covers that trounce the originals.
This may be nit-picky, but I don’t really consider songs from the ‘20s-‘40s covers. Standards that are meant to be recorded again and again by the greats: Arlen, Gershwins, Berlin, Cahn, Porter, Carmichael, Youmans etc. I don’t count traditional arr. as a cover, either.
Jimi’s “Watchtower” is obvious but really makes the OG seem almost irrelevant, which is no easy task with the great Dylan.
When Harry Nilsson does Randy Newman’s “Living Without You,” I’m putty in Harry’s hands
Another obvious one is the exhaustively overplayed “Hallelujah” by Buckley, but like Jimi’s cover, it makes the cheap-Casio-garish-‘80s-nightmare that is the great Cohen’s original seem, again, almost irrelevant. It’s not Leonard’s nor Jeff’s fault that this masterpiece is so overplayed.
As fine as Otis’ original of “Respect” is, not sure it really compares to Aretha’s.
Scott Walker completely obliterated ”The Big Hurt” by Toni Fisher
Marvin Gaye’s version of “Yesterday” is astounding
Stevie Wonder’s cover of “We Can Work it Out” is even more astounding.
