In the (perceived) purity of my youth, I scoffed at any attempt to remake a song.  I was always sceptical of bands remaking songs that in my opinion didn’t need a remake, indeed to remake some of the classics was blasphemy and cheap money-grubbing. My particular peeve was the appropriation of popular rock songs by “new country” artists that barely made any changes to the song, and what do you know, it goes to the top of the country charts, too!

Fortunately I have mellowed somewhat from this overly militant stance in my old age.  There can be room for interpretation in even the most timeless classic if it’s done well, in my opinion.  Your opinion may vary of course.  Fortunately the Internet provides all and we can now vote ourselves into oblivion on which version of a particular song is better at Cover-vs-Original.  The main attraction here is the ability to browse the songs people have already voted on, see the results and read the comments.  Some results are predictable, some are not:

Britney Spears’ vs The Rolling Stones on (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – do I really need to comment?

Bruce Springsteen vs Bob Dylan on Chimes of Freedom – conflicted on this one, but I think Bruce really sings this the way it deserves to be sung, a sign of my growing maturity…?

Headstones vs The Travelling Wilburys on Tweeter and the Monkeyman – Again a tough call, but I think the Headstones give it a real edge that the Wilbury’s version doesn’t have.

There are many, many, many more.  Any favourites?