In other, happier thoughts...

[rhivolution]

That question on LJ about covers that surpass the originals totally intersects with my idea for a mix, but I can't really upload at the moment. So, a list of ten personal covers that I think surpass the originals, 'cause I am an unabashed dork:

Antigone Rising - Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen)
The Boy Least Likely To - Faith (George Michael)
Far - Pony (Ginuwine)
John Mellencamp - Wild Nights (Van Morrison)
Leo Kottke - World Turning (Fleetwood Mac)
Matchbox Twenty - Never Going Back Again (Fleetwood Mac)
Matthew Sweet - Magnet and Steel (Walter Egan)*
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - For You (Bruce Springsteen)
Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
10000 Maniacs - Because the Night (Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith)

And ten covers I just really like:

Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Bruce Cockburn)
Concrete Blonde - Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith)
Indigo Girls - Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel) [h/t rhi_silverflame]
Joan Osbourne - Man in the Long Black Coat (Bob Dylan) [h/t frogmajick]
John Barrowman - She's Always A Woman (Billy Joel)
Lindsey Buckingham - This Nearly Was Mine (various, Rodgers & Hammerstein)
Patty Smyth - Call to Heaven (Magnum's 'Les Morts Dansant')
Sarah McLachlan - Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel)
Stevie Nicks - Free Fallin' (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
Teddy Thompson - The Future (Leonard Cohen) [h/t unholynotions]

If you wanna hear some of these, I collected them in a Grooveshark playlist, except World Turning and Call to Heaven, which didn't work there.
ETA: This Nearly Was Mine isn't working and isn't in album form on YouTube, so I ULed it here for completeness.

EDIT AGAIN: I forgot about Michael Hedges, who was...probably one of the best guitarists ever, lost early. Those of you who've been subjected to 'All Along the Watchtower' know him already, but here are a couple more...
Come Together (The Beatles)
A Love Bizarre (Prince)

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I think the t.A.T.u. cover of the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" surpasses the original, which I know means I'm going to burn in some kind of hell somewhere.

[rhivolution]

That reminded me of The Craft, and that reminded me that I like Letters to Cleo's version of Dangerous Type better than The Cars. SPECIAL HELL.

ETA: No, actually, I go to the special hell for thinking Rufus Wainwright's cover of Hallelujah is better than Jeff Buckley's. Sorry, I just...yeah.

[owlectomy]

I am REALLY HAPPY TO KNOW that there is a Barenaked Ladies cover of Lovers in a Dangerous Time, and an Indigo Girls cover of Mrs. Robinson, and I am going to go download some things.

(I am equally fond of the Leonard Cohen Hallelujah and the Rufus Wainwright, or I was until that awful scene in Watchmen...)

[rhivolution]

Apparently the BNL cover is from some early 90s Cockburn tribute album in Canada. I stumbled across it randomly. As for Watchmen...oh, god, they didn't use it there, did they?

...and now I've forgotten my favourite cover ever! Time to edit this.

[jesse_the_k]

A Covers album I spent US$25 for in early 1990s. (Cockburn fan = "human" = me.) Turnabout is fair play: I like grandpa Bruce's cover of the Monty Python song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life...

I <3 COVERS

[raanve]

That TBLLT cover of "Faith" is so so so great.

I don't think I've heard the Sweet cover of "Magnet & Steel", but as soon as I read it I was like OMG That is the perfect song for Matthew Sweet to cover!! (Though many of Sweet's covers are kind of hit & miss, he does turn out some fucking great ones. His cover of The Carpenters "Let Me Be the One" makes me all wiggly inside.)

P.S. You are also fully correct about "Because the Night".