When a cover song is better than the original.

[Hepcat]

People Get Ready by the Impressions reached #14 on the Billboard charts after being released in 1965:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l04yM7-BWbg

I hated it both then and now.

I really like the 1985 cover by Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart guesting on vocals though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC_j_dzkaVE

[Hepcat]

Ruler of My Heart was a song written by Allen Toussaint that was first recorded by Irma Thomas and released in May 1963:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqkVqEEl8jU

Pain in My Heart by Otis Redding was released on 26 September 1963:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=158fwCG27zE

Given that Otis Redding was also credited as the songwriter, Toussaint's management team quickly objected.

The Rolling Stones then covered Pain in My Heart and included it in their Rolling Stones, Now LP released 13 February 1965:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WrlFLJ47eE

[Hepcat]

A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon & Garfunkel was released as a single on 22 October 1966 and peaked at #13 on the Billboard charts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnZdlhUDEJo#

The Bangles' cover was released in November 1987 and got to #2 on the charts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cNeXWpTVlo#

And here they are performing it live in 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19d2aolIx0E#

Check out Susanna Hoffs above! She truly did get better with age.

[Doh!]

Hey now!

The Bangles did a really good job covering this.

[Hepcat]

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash was released 19 April 1963:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIBTg7q9oNc

Blondie then did a terrific cover for the 1980 movie Roadie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z16RL14SiiU

[Hepcat]

Here's a great song by the Exciters from 1962:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnJXggvdaI8

And here's the great cover by Vonda Shepard released 5 May 1998:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYtDX-vNncs

[Hepcat]

Bertolt Brecht's lyrics for the Alabama Song were set to music by Kurt Weill for use in the 1927 play Little Mahagonny where it was sung by Lotte Lenya. It was reused for Brecht and Weill's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Here it is by Lotte Lenya:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-5ata4jDyk#

The Doors included a truly excellent cover entitled Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) on their self-titled debut album which was released on 4 January 1967:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAK5blgfKWM#

[Hepcat]

George Gershwin wrote the aria Summertime in 1934 for the opera Porgy and Bess which hit the stage in 1935. Most of the early recorded versions of the song were dreadful. Here's the first recording with Abbey Mitchell on vocals and Gershwin himself on piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQsX7VTfd_c

Here's the much touted version from 1957 by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnXLVTi_m_M

Ho, hum (at best).

The song was finally given justice and brought to full flower by Big Brother & the Holding Company on the LP Cheap Thrills released on 12 August 1968:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24JZkgvNv4

[Hepcat]

Eddie Cochrane's rockabilly classic Summertime Blues was released on 21 June 1958:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In7z7B87Puc#

While it peaked at only #8 on the Billboard charts, it was nonetheless ranked #73 in Rolling Stone's March 2005 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

In 1967 the Who recorded a pretty good cover in the studio but it wasn't released until the remastered edition of Odds and Sods hit store shelves in 1998:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ1i278NJsk#

Blue Cheer's excellent cover was released in 1968 and was arguably the first heavy metal song to ever make the pop charts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRFw5U2VhIo#

[Mord]

 I was wondering when you would get to that one. All three are excellent, but I have great fondness for the reckless abandon of the Blue Cheer version.

[Hepcat]

Had I taken some time to do any advanced planning, I would have ordered my posts by date of a song's initial release (assuming of course that I thought of all the really good covers in the first place which I doubt). I currently still have a bunch on my plate to post over the next few weeks.

[Hepcat]

The Righteous Brothers had several great hits. But this one released in May 1963 isn't among their very best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyOQShpyCW4#

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels though took the song to where it truly belonged in 1966:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEGS-pAEvCA#

[Hepcat]

Baby I Need Your Loving by the Four Tops was released on 10 July 1964 and made it to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOntQocGWk

Johnny Rivers' cover was released in 1967 and got to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd1HzEEsJ6g

Rivers' version was slower in tempo. Both excellent but I'm giving the nod to Johnny Rivers.

[Hepcat]

He's So Fine by the Chiffons was released in January 1963 and got to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart where it stayed for four weeks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A#

George Harrison then nicked the tune for his My Sweet Lord track released as a single on 23 November 1970:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP9wms6oEMo#

Harrison protested his innocence but the judge said "Son, you better pay up or else you go to jail."

[Mord]

Harrison was my least favorite Beatle. All that Hare Krishna sitar crap bored me stiff.