Covers that are better than the originals... or just covers

Primal Fear - Speed King -
- I love the Halford-esque screams of, "Speed King," on this. Comes on an 8 track covers CD that accompanies their greatest hits, includes a version of 2 Minutes to Midnight, which I think is decent, but not as good as the original.

Scorpions - Can't Explain -
- I much prefer this to the Who version.

Living Loud - Tonight -
- I prefer Jimmy Barnes to Ozzy and I'm a huge Steve Morse fan, so this is a great cover for me.

Megadeth - No More Mr Nice Guy -
I do prefer this to the Alice version, probably due to the slightly more modern production. With regards to the 'Deth cover of Paranoid, if nothing else it is great for the ending when Nick forgets to stop playing ...
 
For a moment I thought this was about album cover reissues that are better than the original covers. :p

"Painkiller" - Death - The original Priest song is godly, but Death really took it to the next level. One of the hardest songs to sing. Amazing.
"Hurt" - Johnny Cash - We're allowed to include non-metal tracks, right? I think the best thing someone's said about this is that the original NIN track sounds like an edgy teen singing, whereas Cash's version sounds like someone who's been there, seen it, done it, and knows what he's talking about. Beautiful.
Every cover The Beatles made - Well you can't pick just one, can you now? :p
Every cover Led Zeppelin made - See above.

There's probably more, but these are the ones that come to mind first.
 
Surprised no-one's mentioned this one yet:
And the original (with a bonus for Robin of Sherwood fans!):
I honestly don't know if the cover is better but it is at least as good - I think both versions are great actually. Also the capacity of the song to sound great in two such different versions is an indication of the strength of the song, I think :).
 
I prefer the Gary Moore one, but completely missed the Robin of Sherwood bit. Was that Nazir? I suspect the song owes something to the old traditional/folk song of the same name, too, more in terms of influence than sounding like it.
 
Yes that is indeed Nasir (Mark Ryan) that you see being arrested in the Gary Moore video. I really like the folky elements in the Gary Moore version (but then I'm quite a fan of folk music just generally) and his version also seems much more heartfelt. But the Nightwish version is more dramatic and energetic which also suits the song really well. I honestly can't say which I like best because I like both for different reasons.
 
Such an abbreviated Solo in the Moore video. Unfortunate.
Such a powerful player.
 
mckindog said:
Such an abbreviated Solo in the Moore video. Unfortunate.
Such a powerful player.
Click to expand...
I agree in the sense that I would have like to hear him play for longer, but on the other hand I think that one of the measures of a true musician is knowing when not to play. So if the song only needs three notes to make it sound great, he won't ruin it by playing four. He also gives a lot of space to the other instruments, which makes it much more balanced. He's a powerful player but also an inspired musician.
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
I agree in the sense that I would have like to hear him play for longer, but on the other hand I think that one of the measures of a true musician is knowing when not to play. So if the song only needs three notes to make it sound great, he won't ruin it by playing four. He also gives a lot of space to the other instruments, which makes it much more balanced. He's a powerful player but also an inspired musician.
Click to expand...

These are all good points, that I’d tend to agree with in principle. but I was referring to the fact my CD has two versions of the song, each with different solos than this one - both longer and in my view better.
 
mckindog said:
These are all good points, that I’d tend to agree with in principle. but I was referring to the fact my CD has two versions of the song, each with different solos than this one - both longer and in my view better.
Click to expand...
I was aware that there are two versions on the album but not that the single version (with the video) is neither of them.

I have tended to ignore 12" versions generally since the ones I have heard have tended to just have strung-out introductions or similar, but you are saying that in this case:
  • There are actually three versions of the song,
  • The difference is the length of and/or content of the guitar solo, and
  • All three versions work?

I can see I'm going to need to aquire a copy of this album ...
 
The album version is longer with a better guitar solo.
The 12-inch version is longer with a different but not necessarily better solo - the length is more about gimmicks and twists and turns.
Both of them have some very cool,outro soloing that the video version lacks.

Album also has 12 inch version of Wild Frontier with an extended solo.
Forgot how much I enjoyed Gary’s playing. @Night Prowler hes in the best band contest isn’t he?
 
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