Post-1960 Songs of Which There Are At Least Three 5-star, All-Time, Stone-Cold Classic Recorded Versions

‘Head On”

JAMC
Pixies
Ducks LTD/Illuminati Hotties

Oh, and…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BlCKwpDX54

Is there a third good version of Shipbuilding?

There's gotta be three for "Mr. Tambourine Man" (even if you don't count Shatner).

The Beau Brummels had neat version that used the Byrds' arrangement, but using only the verses they cut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScjQKEOPkTA

I think "People Get Ready" has potential (Impressions, Dylan, Marley, Eva Cassidy)

"Angel From Montgomery" has been covered to death but I'll go with:

John Prine
Bonnie Raitt
Tanya Tucker

“When You Were Mine”

Prince
Cyndi Lauper
Dump

― JoeStork, Friday, 20 May 2022 22:37 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Also love the Cristina version

niche but I like all of these:

Lucio Battisti - Ancora Tu
Justine and the Victorian Punks - Still You
Róisín Murphy - Ancora Tu

“To Love Somebody”:

Nina Simone
Bee Gees
The Flying Burrito Brothers

'don't let me be misunderstood':

nina simone
animals
santa esmeralda
elvis costello
etc. etc.

“To Love Somebody”:

Nina Simone
Bee Gees
The Flying Burrito Brothers

“That’s How I Got to Memphis”
Tom T. Hall
Bobby Bare
Karl Blau
(and some more, I think)

Scott Walker and Joe Pernice, for starters.

Never heard either of those, thanks. Can’t even locate the Scott Walker one. But did find this:
https://americana-uk.com/versions-thats-how-i-got-to-memphis

Website mentions the Solomon Burke version which I had on my list as well but wanted to listen again before posting.

I still like the Sid Selvidge version as well. Might have been the first one I paid attention to.

Roseanne Cash version with her dad is fine but maybe not as must hear as some others.

Slim Slow Slider:

Van M
Peter Laughner
Sandy Dirt (The Pastels + Al Larsen of Some Velvet Sidewalk) - a very liberal interpretation, but it’s good and I needed a third

^good one!

Hang on, David Hasselhof did a Jesus and Mary Chain cover?

Gosh...

"Ball of Confusion"

Temptations
Tina Turner
Love and Rockets

"I Second that Emotion"
The Miracles
Diana Ross & The Supremes with The Temptations
Japan

"It's Too Late"

Carole King
The Isley Brothers
The Stylistics

"A Thin Line Between Love & Hate"

The Persuaders
The Pretenders
H-Town

Feel like there’s probably a bunch more with The Isleys, given the amount of covers they did.

"Whatever You Like"

T.I.
Anya Marina
Joan As Police Woman

"If I Were a Carpenter"

Tim Hardin
Four Tops
Bobby Darin
Johnny Cash & June Carter

(and a half dozen other contenders)

Tim Hardin also did a stone-cold classic rendition of "Moonshiner", a song mentioned upthread.

david hasselhoff, apply directly to the forehead

This thread premise but written post-1980, when the notion of a unified pop songbook really breaks down? I can think of lots of great covers but not a lot of third versions, especially when singing contest hackery makes “Hallelujah” harder to stomach in any interpretation.

― bendy

you know what music has sort of a unified songbook, video game music, pretty much all of which is post-1980. a lot of people grew up with this music and there's a pretty solid "canon" of songs that people remember as being exceptional, from songs everybody knows (koji kondo) to songs that were mainly done for shitty video games but are all-time bangers (tim follin). this does straddle the line i guess between "cover" and "remix" but a lot of them are flat-out covers. and a lot of them are shitty "metal" versions but there are some _really_ good people working in the field and so you can hear some pretty fantastic versions of songs from games as recent as, say, fez or shovel knight - disasterpeace and jake kaufman being particularly well-loved game composers.

‘Different Drum’, Stone Poneys, Lemonheads, Susanna Hoffs & Matthew Sweet.

Fascinating point rushomancy! I know very little about video game music, never having put in the time to acquire the ear worms.

Also complicating this is the rise of hip hop and dancehall and dance music, where a beat or a feel is providing the familiar point for the reinterpretation but the point is to create unique top line words or melody. It reverses the old notion of a cover where the rhythm and genre conventions provide the shift.

Umbrella: the Rihanna original, the Seamus Haji remix (huge hit in its own right & doesn’t share anything with the original), and the cover by The Baseballs (also a big hit).

Bring The Noise had three hit covers with the same vocals: the Public Enemy original, the remake with Anthrax, and the Grammy-winning Benny Benassi remix.

Xpost

I don’t think the Cat Power version is quite 5 stars but Rihanna’s original of ‘Stay’ and Low’s cover definitely are.

xps Pastels version of "Different Drum" is 5 star for me

"Diamonds and Rust": Joan Baez, Judas Priest, Ritchie Blackmore's Night

(cheating with the last, which is good but not 5 star good)

James Carr too!

Wow, NO idea why I’ve never heard this version before. And now I have a new favorite recording of “To Love Somebody.”

"Human Fly"
The Cramps
Nouvelle Vague
The Horse Flies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVQQfTE2FHY

How to describe...bluegrass meets Steve Reich?

Halo of Flies did it too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxii5GbQQ_o

bob hund did a pretty good version of human fly live too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilfm8xQl3mg

"Landslide"

Fleetwood Mac
Smashing Pumpkins
The Dixie Chicks

“You’re No Good” (1961)

Dee Dee Warwick
Betty Everett
Linda Ronstadt

^^Also: Van Halen

“Cry to Me” (1962)

Solomon Burke
Betty Harris
Freddie Scott