Original vs Cover

Generally speaking do you feel that cover versions improve or destroy original songs?

On the one had you have things like Metallica covering Thin Lizzy covering an Irish Folk song with Whisky in the Jar. All of those were improvements.

On the other you have Westlife covering Billy Joel's uptown Girl and countless other "dance" reinventions of classics which really annoy me.

I can't decide...........

Depends on the song/artist. There are a few songs that destroy the originals:

Graveworm - Fear of the Dark
Children of Bodom - Aces High

PS - Metallica's "Wisky in the Jar" is terrible...what the hell were they thinking.

[ February 09, 2004, 11:28 PM: Message edited by: Ihsahn ]

metallica`s cover of whisky in the jar is great and the best version of it.

usually it depends the artist covering it.
five killed queens we will rock you
i`ve also heard a dance version of the cult`s she sells sanctury.
but some covers are good
i prefer alien ant farms version of smooth criminal but i still like the original

yeah it does depend. Some artists improve the song whilst others can trash fab songs [img]graemlins/shake.gif[/img]

[SilverSpoon]

Most of the covers I've heard I kind of like more than the original. Iced Earth's Maiden covers were fantastic (Number of the Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Transylvania). I like Dream Theater's version of Metallica's Orion. The keyboards are a nice touch.

there's only one name you need to know: Me First & the Gimme Gimmes.

i mean sh*t, they can make a wizard of oz song sound badass (somewhere over the rainbow). they also do a cool version of billy joel's 'uptown girl,' the beatles 'all my loving,' simon & garfunkel's 'me & julio down by the schoolyard,' etc. do not download thses guys songs, buy their frickin cd's cuz it's just that good.

but yeah, on some compilation cd's the bands covering them just do a horrible job, maryiln manson's version of highway to hell comes to mind [img]graemlins/wacked.gif[/img]

I liked Nada Surf's cover of "If You Leave" and HIM's "Wicked Games" is good too.

ps- me first and the gimme gimmes are not badass, but they ARE fun!

yep, it depends. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ March 12, 2004, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: rosalie ]

Originally posted by Ihsahn:
Depends on the song/artist.

Exactly...Metallica did an excellent job.

And so did HIM...with all of their covers. =D