Cover Songs Better Than The Original Version

The 1968 classic "All Along the Watchtower" is today remembered as Jimi Hendrix's signature tune, a performance that showcased his unprecedented guitar abilities, his perfect affinity with the psychedelic movement of the 1960s, and his singularly charismatic vocals. But though the opening bars of "All Along the Watchtower" scream "Hendrix," the original wasn't by him at all, but was written by the countercultural icon Bob Dylan for his eighth album, "John Wesley Harding."

Per Ultimate Classic Rock, Hendrix, a huge Dylan fan, managed to get hold of a copy of "John Wesley Harding" before general release, and was in the studio recording his classic cover just two months after Dylan had recorded the original. Imbuing the song with a new sense of power and swagger, Hendrix's version outperformed Dylan's by charting at No. 20, whereas Dylan's single had failed to chart the previous year.

Dylan has been effusive in his admiration for Hendrix's cover. "It overwhelmed me," Dylan told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel in 1995, admitting that Hendrix had "probably improved" on the original version. Dylan's appreciation for Hendrix's reworking is palpable in his live shows, as Dylan claims: "I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day." In the liner notes to his 1985 retrospective boxset "Biograph," Dylan wrote about the experience of following Hendrix's lead, stating: "Strange how when I sing it I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way" (via Ultimate Classic Rock).

It's hard to hear the words "Twist and Shout" without the image of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr collectively shaking their mop-tops. The Beatles' version of the song, first released on their debut British studio album "Please Please Me" in 1963, gained its raucous energy through a series of happy accidents. Per All Music, "Twist and Shout" was the last song the band recorded at the end of a marathon session in which they cut 10 of their debut album's 14 tracks, by which point Lennon's vocals were so shredded that he could only perform his lead part in the gravel-voiced manner that made the final record (he was apparently unable to complete a second take). Creative decisions around the record were apparently made just minutes before recording started and the track was pulled together almost instinctively. "Twist & Shout" eventually charted at No. 2 in the U.K. later that year. However, "Twist & Shout" was recorded twice by other artists before The Beatles made their definitive version. 

Written by Bert Berns and Phil Medley and originally titled "Shake It Up, Baby," it was first put to wax with a Latin swing by The Top Notes in 1961, as a single produced by Phil Spector (who, by coincidence, would go on to produce The Beatles). But the single was not a success, and bears few of the hallmarks of the song as it is remembered today.

The Beatles' version was closely modeled on an earlier single by The Isley Brothers, who in 1962 had introduced the song's infectious "woops."

In her tragically short career, British singer Amy Winehouse established herself as a hugely talented songwriter across numerous genres including soul, jazz, and R'n'B. But the London native was also an exceptional interpreter of other people's songs, as was immediately apparent on her debut album, 2003's "Frank," which included stellar renditions of two jazz classics: Eddie Jefferson's "Moody's Mood For Love," and "(There Is) No Greater Love," written by Isham Jones and Marty Symes. And as People notes, in live sessions Winehouse cast her net wider, covering everyone from The Rolling Stones to The Specials.

But Winehouse's finest cover arguably came with her as a feature artist, when she provided guest vocals on Mick Ronson's version of "Valerie," a cover of a 2006 single by Liverpool indie rockers The Zutons. Though the single was originally a Top 10 hit for The Zutons on release, Winehouse's version the following year got to No. 2, and thereafter became one of her signature songs. As Zuton's songwriter Dave McCabe told Manchester Evening News in 2019, though many Winehouse fans may today be unaware that the song is a cover, the singer certainly made it her own. "It's the biggest compliment in the world to have Amy Winehouse cover your song and for it to become massive," McCabe said. "She was an unbelievable talent. Some people have said to us, 'oh but they stole your song'. The honest answer is, I love it. Amy absolutely nailed it."

In 1956, a little-known singer-songwriter named Jay Hawkins was grappling with a difficult song, a forlorn love ballad that he had written and recorded the year before, but which just didn't seem to work. According to Gaslight Records, Hawkins returned to the studio, eager to record a new take of "I Put A Spell On You" – only this time, he was drunk to the point of later being unable to recall the session. Rather than play it safe, Hawkins delivered an incendiary performance of grunts, snarls, and howls, which earned him a new monicker: Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Though the single failed to chart, it would go down as a classic, and be covered by a bevy of artists from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Annie Lennox, with varying degrees of commercial success.

The musician who has become most closely associated with Hawkins' song, however, is Nina Simone, who recorded a version for her 1965 album of the same name. Simone's version replace's Hawkins' monstrous ravings and brash horns with a simmering vocal performance and sultry strings, becoming as seductive as the song's title implies. So closely did the singer associate the song with her public persona that she also recycled the title for her autobiography, while her rendition would later become known to audiences as the soundtrack to various classy TV commercials for brands such as Dior.

There aren't many No. 1 transatlantic smash hits that are played in the time signature of a waltz, but then again almost everything about The Animals' 1964 classic "House of the Rising Sun" is unusual. Such as the fact that such a flawless song was recorded in one take, according to Ultimate Classic Rock, or that, initially, the song's producer, Mickie Most, thought it was trash, but was so convinced by the band's studio performance that he insisted the recording didn't require a single edit.

"House of the Rising Sun" proved to be a major phenomenon in popular music, most notable for being the folk-rock tune that finally convinced the previously purist Bob Dylan that he should finally go electric, according to the same source. And perhaps integral to the song's influence on Dylan was the fact that it wasn't an original, but a traditional folk song first recorded by musicians Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster all the way back in 1933, per American Blues Scene.

It may be debatable whether a version of a folk song strictly counts as a "cover," as such songs, in a way, belong to everyone – Ashley claimed he had first learned the song from his grandfather, so maybe it should be Ashley Sr. who gets the credit? But in any case, The Animals recorded the definitive version, which remains a karaoke and open mic night mainstay to this day.

Artists generally have mixed feelings about other artists covering their songs, something Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor openly admitted in a 2008 interview, when he told the U.K.'s tabloid The Sun that his first reaction upon hearing Johnny Cash's 2002 version of his 1995 track "Hurt" was similar to witnessing someone "kissing [my] girlfriend" (via NME).

As noted by The Financial Times, Reznor's original was written as a deeply personal portrait of his own depression, but the song's universal theme of suffering makes it prime material for a cover artist – especially one of Cash's stature. Cash's version was released alongside a music video that revealed the veteran musician's age and frailty, which subsequently gave the song greater resonance and reportedly brought Reznor to tears when he first watched it, according to the same source.

Per NME, Reznor later explained what Cash's cover came to mean to him. "Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that's something that matters to me. It's not so much what other people think but the honor that this guy felt it was worthy of interpreting ... [Cash] said afterwards it was a song that sounds like one he would have written in the '60s and that's wonderful."

It is believed that there are more than 300 versions of Leonard Cohen's mournful ballad "Hallelujah," a song which took Cohen five years to write and was not greeted with great enthusiasm by either his record label or by the listening public on its first release in 1984, according to USA Today.

Today, the song is ubiquitous, having appeared in movies as diverse as 2001's Shrek and 2009's Watchmen, as well as being the material for countless talent show contestants over the years. However, there is one version of "Hallelujah" that can be said to have single-handedly turned the song's fortunes around: that recorded in 1994 by Jeff Buckley, the highpoint of "Grace," the only studio album he released in his lifetime. According to USA Today, Buckley first heard the song as covered by ex-Velvet Underground musician John Cale, on a record he found while catsitting in a friend's New York apartment. He immediately saw new possibilities in the song and reworked it into the form by which it is best known.

The musician Glen Hansard – a close friend of Buckley's who used to live with him in New York – explained the emotional investment that Buckley made in his performance of Cohen's song: "He gave us the version we hoped Leonard would emote, and he wasn't afraid to sing it with absolute reverence. Jeff sang it back to Leonard as a love song to what he achieved, and in doing so, Jeff made it his own" (via The Atlantic).

In 1968 and in one of their earliest incarnations – and long before the chart-topping success of "Rumours" – Fleetwood Mac was looking for a hit, and thanks to a song written by founder member Peter Green, they got a modest one: "Black Magic Woman," a blues-rock workout which climbed to No. 37 on the U.K. album charts, and which remained a staple of Fleetwood Mac live performances long after Green's departure from the band, per Rolling Stone.

Santana put a notable spin on the original, infusing it with Latin rhythms and a new climactic ending thanks to a switch in the final bars to "Gypsy Queen," an instrumental track written by Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó, per NPR. The song was a huge hit for the band, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the charts for a total of 13 weeks, while "Abraxas," the LP from which it was taken, spent six weeks at the top of the album charts and was later inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

In 1998, both Santana and Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With members of both bands attending the ceremony, Fleetwood Mac founder member Peter Green joined Santana on stage for a celebratory rendition of "Black Magic Woman," an era-defining song that was a meaningful hit for both bands (per Rolling Stone).

The pop music industry of the mid-1960s had something of the Wild West about it when it came to the cutthroat business of supplying hot young singers with new potential hit songs, as the recording history of the song "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)," originally written by The Four Seasons' songwriting duo Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe. According to udiscovermusic, the pair originally envisioned the song in the hands of another duo, The Righteous Brothers. However, it was claimed by The Four Seasons' Frankie Valli, who at the time was casting around for a suitable song to release as a solo debut.

Though his performance on the song is admirable, the release was not a success. Per the same source, its writers later speculated that the Four Seasons' record label may have limited distribution of the song to scupper Valli's solo efforts and keep him tied to the group. Within the space of a few months, the song adopted by The Walker Brothers, whose version arguably eclipsed Valli's original in terms of its soaring power, and, as it turned out, its commercial performance.

As a disappointed Gaudio later described: "The Walker Brothers released it with a similar arrangement, but a faster tempo, and that was No. 1 in England. I thought it was fabulous, but I preferred it at our tempo" (via udiscovermusic). The single also performed well in the U.S., hitting a respectable No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 to become an enduring Walker Brothers classic, which in turn has been covered by countless artists since.