There is no way that Brian Ferry's cover is better than the original version of Jealous Guy, not even close.
Joe Cocker's cover of With A Little Help.. turns a fairly run of the mill Beatles song into an absolute classic. Hmm, Roxy Music. Even though I liked their early stuff [For Your Pleasure, etc...] I was never 100% convinced by Bryan Ferry's delivery. For me, the original Jealous Guy wins this time. Here's one from the archives... Wild Thing, by The Troggs. Hendrix really does make it go wild.
Another two I forgot "The Green Fields Of France" - The Men They Couldn't Hang..... They give Eric Bogle's affecting anti-war lyrics the sense of anger that they require. "Days" - Kirsty MacColl.......She pitches the song perfectly, which must one of the best break up lyrics ever.
Actually TSS, and this is hard coming from a lad who grew up in Andover, the Troggs didn't write Wild Thing. It was originally recorded by an American Band called the Wild Ones, and was written by Chip Taylor. Reg Presley did, of course, write Love Is All Around and made a vast fortune out of Wet Wet Wet's appalling cover of it for the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. He famously spent all it on research into crop circles. Just how far off-topic can we take this thread?
The thought of it brings bile to my throat. He should be made to make a pilgrimage to Père Lachaise cemetery and apologise in person to Jim Morrison. Then he should go and apologise in person to Robby Krieger who wrote it.
Likewise with Gareth Gates version of "Unchained Melody" The worst kind of syrupy, souless "reality tv" bull****
Aha..! Thought of one at last. Santana's version of Well, All Right, is as good as the original Buddy Holly number. In fact, Santana have done a fair few covers in their time. All good. For example, Black Magic Woman is a Peter Green [original Fleetwood Mac] song.