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what’s a song cover that you think is better than the original?

The first ones to come to mind are Whitney’s version of I Will Always Love You and Allen Stone’s Georgia On My Mind but I would love to hear other contributions as well! I feel like there are a lot of songs where a covered version gets more popular than the original and people end up not realizing that it is a cover (ex. i had a friend that genuinely believed the Jonas Brothers wrote Year 3000). so, what‘a a song that was written by one artist but (figuratively) owned by another?

kazana
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,774 posts
 

"I Will Survive" Cake

unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
984 posts
 

@painter24

The Airplane version of Wooden Ships was released 6 months after the CSN version, but they were both recorded in March of 1969.

Furthermore, Paul Kantner co-wrote the song with Crosby and Stills, and the narrative concept is really Paul’s. Lyrically, it has a politically edgy tone to it that CSN lacked until Young joined the trio. The “wooden ship” that the three were sailing on off the coast of Florida - when and where the song was written - belonged to Crosby.

Therefore the Airplane version is not a cover. It’s an original, and arguably THE original. The fact that it is in so many ways a Kantner song may go to why - at least imho - it is the decidedly superior version.

Kantner did not get authorship credit on the CSN version because of some record label or contract thing.

unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
984 posts
 

Just about anything that Eva Cassidy did.
Here is one.
 

 

unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
984 posts
 

Sandy Denny’s version of Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood”.

 

bobbergman
16 posts
 

Hendrix - All along the watchtower

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