Basically EVERY cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is an improvement on the original, which I just heard a couple years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXYPb0rrwbA
But apparently Peggy and Ewan MacColl were especially down on Roberta Flack's definitive take, so fuck 'em.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 11 June 2021 05:13 (two years ago) link
It also applies to “it’s all over now baby blue”, every cover I’ve heard tends to improve on the original.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 11 June 2021 05:36 (two years ago) link
13th floor elevators and Them versions being the peak so far.
Dylan version is so… soulless. You’d never guess it’s one of his best written songs if you went by the original version.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 11 June 2021 05:40 (two years ago) link
Even the Anonhi version which sounds as if recorded on a potato is better.
In a similar vein, does anyone stan for Leonard Cohen's original version of Hallelujah?
― enochroot, Friday, 11 June 2021 11:49 (two years ago) link
Rod Stewart – Tom Traubert's BluesRod Stewart – Downtown TrainBruce Springsteen – Jersey Girl
(hmmm, I see a pattern developing here)
Fairport Convention – Percy's SongNick Cave – Death Is Not the EndMarianne Faithfull – The Ballad of Lucy Jordan10,000 Maniacs – Everyday Is Like Sunday10,000 Maniacs – Hello In ThereTindersticks – If You're Looking for a Way OutThis Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Friday, 11 June 2021 11:59 (two years ago) link
Nina Simone - Feeling Good (the original Broadway musical version ("The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd") of the song is...uhh...fairly unremarkable)
― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Friday, 11 June 2021 12:17 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPdoWp-PHFU
― Maresn3st, Friday, 11 June 2021 12:40 (two years ago) link
Nina Simone also makes the most definitive version of Sinnerman. I wasn’t even aware it was a cover until recently via another thread on ilm.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 11 June 2021 14:50 (two years ago) link
Nina Simone's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" is also the definitive version IMHO.
― raven, Saturday, 12 June 2021 09:21 (two years ago) link
I still love the original but boy is this one smooth take on this songkali uchis - venus as a boyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47oiB_quDf8
― Swanswans, Saturday, 12 June 2021 09:30 (two years ago) link
Nina Simone does a lot of reinventions of very white singer songwriter stuff on the material I have collected as Sugar In My bowl.Have found that an odd companion to black militancy which I thought she was about at the time.BUt the versions are really good from what I've heard of them and I'm really glad to have them
― Stevolende, Saturday, 12 June 2021 11:54 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgZ3B-2q-g
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Saturday, 12 June 2021 15:36 (two years ago) link