Music

Did anyone already mention Johnny Cash's version of Hurt, original by Nine Inch Nails? A marvelous reimagined version, maybe, the best cover ever.

Hurt - Johnny Cash

Cake - I will survive
They have other great covers too

I've always found Faith No More do absolutely spot on cover versions.

Dub Side of the Moon, a reggae cover of Dark Side of the Moon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_Side_of_the_Moon

Joke answer: Disturbed's "The Sound of Science" cover because it's fucking horrid and ruins the point of the original's meaning.

Wanna Be by Spice Girls

Oasis by Wonderwall

Zombie by Cranberries

The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

In The End by Linkin Park

Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye

Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye

Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

All Star by Smash Mouth

Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson

My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion

My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion

Durch den Monsun by Tokio Hotel

Durch den Monsun by Tokio Hotel

Durch den Monsun by Tokio Hotel

99 Luftballons by Nena

I'm surprised nobody's put up The Wiggles cover of Tame Impala's Elephant

Yes, those Wiggles. It's good.

I normally go for parodies, but this would be the place to post the Devil Went Down to Georgia (Washing Machine Cover)

More seriously, 2CELLOS' rendition of Thunderstruck is incredible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3SBzmDxGk

They have a ton of really good ones on their channel, but that one will always be my favorite for how into it they get

Yes -- America (original by Simon and Garfunkel)

Anthony Vincent -- Chop Suey in the style of Ghost (original by System of a Down)

Dr Pez & Marc Papeghin -- The soundtrack of Ocarina of Time, but its a prog rock concept album (not sure it technically counts as a cover)

Brass Against -- The Pot (Original by Tool)

The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- All Along the Watchtower (Original by Bob Dylan)

Also, not sure how widely known this is, but Arethra Franklin's Respect is itself a cover (and certainly one of the best covers of all time, up there with All Along the Watchtower and Johnny Cash's rendition of Hurt)

Two very different examples:

Modest Mussorsky's "Pictures at an exhibition" was originally written for piano (that was all the poor guy had available), and it took Maurice Ravel to turn it into an orchestral version and make it popular world wide. Both versions are great and have their own qualities, but I far prefer Ravel's version (Although Khatia Buniatishvili's rendition here is so really really good).

Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay". The original is... well... it's a Bob Dylan song. There is a really good cover version by Ministry that, althought technically is the same song, takes it to a whole other level. Love it.

Dread Zeppelin - Heartbreaker

I do adore a cover version that brings something new to the song;

Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday

Gotye - Somebody that I used to know - Dutch choir

Not quite a cover, but more of inspiration taken from Paper Planes - 'Paper Plates' by Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

Brass Against cover Sabotage

Lorde - In The Air Tonight

Umbrella - Manic Street Preachers

Aurora - Life On Mars

Faith No More - Easy

Toy Dolls - Nellie The Elephant

Siouxsie And The Banshees - The Passenger and Dear Prudence

Cornershop perform Norwegian Wood

I could go on for ages. Might add some more later. Hope somebody enjoys at least some of these?

Bantamweight's haunting cover of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box is sorely underrated in my opinion.

ERRA's versions of Audioslave's Light My Way and Muse's Stockholm Syndrome.

Art vs Science's psychedelic-funk cover of Enter Sandman featuring a sweet as keytar solo.

Sleep Token's heartwrenching unplugged version of Hey Ya!.

And finally, Denzel Curry's supercharged version of Bulls on Parade. I didn't think the track could sound angrier but he's gone and done it.

Bonus: Andrew Hulshult's Hell March, featuring chainguns as percussion, Master Boot Record's Doom E1M1 metal chiptune remix, and GeoffPlaysGuitar's argent-metalized Halo Overture.

Jazz Sabbath. I had no idea this existed. It was just suggested to me because the algorithms are good at their job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcr708w1HY

A band on TikTok did an emo cover of Rascal Flatts' What Hurts the Most that is pretty good.

It ended up on a compilation album Country Goes Hardcore that has some interesting ones. I like Ever Since Eve's emo cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads.

Florence + The Machine - Just A Girl, for the TV show, Yellowjackets. Makes it so much more haunting. Alternatively.

Postmodern Jukebox ft. Haley Reinhart - Creep (original by Radiohead), jazz/big band style

Novena - Bury a Friend, progressive metal Billie Eilish. Starts out like the original and gets progressively heavier.

STRFKR - Girls Just Want To Have Fun, synthy goodness

Kishi Bashi - This Must Be the Place - more orchestral version of the Talking Heads song

Gorillaz - Crystalized - somber cover of the XX song

Placebo - Running Up That Hill - Running Up That Hill but... a Placebo song. Exactly what it says on the tin

Holding Out for a Hero - Frou Frou.

Funnel Of Love by Wanda Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt7PPidlIvg

Cover by Boris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4T_XNdeRTs

I should be so lucky - Northern Kings

Disturbed’s cover of The Sound Of Silence is so much better than the original.

Holy Holy's cover of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3-yr9xKTcjg

Polysics covering My Sharona by The Knack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXHEVcYTZYQ

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes cover of All My Loving

Viagra Boys and Amy Taylor's cover of In Spite of Ourselves is an interesting take on the original by John Prine and Iris Dement.

The Hu playing “Sad but True” by Metallica (in Mongolian) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpxA_ZxGX_M

I'm sorry, why has nobody mentioned the Jeff Buckley cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah yet? Bunch of heathens 🙂

I'm currently re-ripping my entire CD collection, and when I came to Revelations by Fields of the Nephilim, I realized that one of the tracks is their cover of "In the Year 2525" 🤣 It's not even that bad, either!

I just started the rip of Dimmu Borgir's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant... And the next disk in the stack is Hanson. Yes, that Hanson. I'm not entirely sure if the correct term for my taste is "eclectic" or "insane" 😅

I really like this cover of Take On Me