Amph [Embedded Video Heavy] ITT We Discuss Who Did The Song Better

My wife and I were discussing this very song the other day, and came to the same conclusion; Cash is king.

 

Jeez, kicking it off with the "Hurt" cover debate? This is already harder than Sophie's choice.

 

Easy:
The nurse who loved me - A Perfect Circle vs Failure

Hard:
Hooked on a Feeling - Blue Swede vs B.J. Thomas

Even though Failure wrote the song, I like A Perfect Circle's version better.

Hooked on a Feeling is more a mood thing. Sometimes I don't want the "oooga chaka" of Blue Swede and it gets me pumped up. Sometimes I just want to hear Mr. Thomas's beautiful voice.

 

As much as I adore Dolly Parton, her version of "I will always love you" is pretty mild and fell under the radar.



However, Whitney Houston's version of the song just crushed the Billboard charts. Whitney's big voice and range definitely carried the song to the top of the charts. So much so, that people wanted to be nominated for an Oscar not knowing it was a remake.

 

Speaking of "The Man in Black," his song I Walk the Line is a fun tune. A song you could tap your feet to.



I live the band "Live" cover of Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line much better than the original because of the changes in the arrangements and modern alternative rock take on the song. The spin gives the song a bit more drama and less folksy. Alternative rock is my jam.

 

For me NIN's version of 'Hurt' is great, but Cash's version speaks to me more. A song that Cash didn't write, that originated in a completely different music genre for Cash's spoke more about his life than a lot of the tributes to him that came out after his death. The video only enhances that feeling.

 

Yeah, I think I have to go with the conventional wisdom and say I prefer the Cash version of Hurt. I like Reznor's version too and it plays better as the final song on The Downward Spiral than as a separate song, if that makes any sense; it really fits in with the album and its deliberate anti-climax. But Cash is just so raw and the soundscape Rubin fashions is so bleak and grim.

I like Dolly Parton's version of I Will Always Love You. It's more restrained and the emotion feels more genuine to me. She doesn't have the strength of Whitney Houston, but I just reject this notion that every song needs to be turned into a super-intense arena-epic. Maybe this song is best when it's about a quiet emotion, something Houston never encountered in her whole life apparently. The song is, in my opinion, meant to be bittersweet, not "screaming at the top of my lungs" posturing. I mean, I'll still sing along with the Houston version, but Parton's version is, you know, way more nuanced and emotional.

 

Talk Talk's "It's my life" is definitely a song reflective of the new wave sounds of the 80's with the strong electronic keyboard and somewhat whiny sounding vocals. As such, it's a classic.


No Doubt's modern take on the song was wonderful as they made it their own with more emphasis on the beats of the bass guitar and drums. Additionally, they did a wonderful job giving the original vibes.



In this matchup, I have to say No Doubt did it better. But, I bias towards No Doubt.

 

As soon as I saw this theadt title I thought of Hurt. And yes, Johnny Cash did it better. He had a lifetime of woes, but crucially also then had great years. So he actually knew very well what regret was. Having read both his autobiographies, I know he regretted things from his youth and really would have done things differently if he could start again. He had grown into an incredibly wise man by then.

Honestly, this entire thread could be Johnny Cash vs. someone else's version and I'd pick Cash 9/10 times. Yes he's my favorite artist ever, but this is why. He really understood the stories within each song and made you truly feel them.

Also let's be honest, his Hurt has the best music video of all time. It helps.

Hurt is the song that made me really pay attention to Johnny Cash as a teenager. There's a good reason. Cash all the way on this one.

The minor key soft rock here seems like a pat way to do a reinterpretation of a song, sorry. To me it misses the actual tone and point of the song. It's an earnest song, a song about trying to keep a promise. But it ought to stay earnest in my mind. When it goes dark it frankly loses that meaning, IMHO.



As for "I Will Always Love You", I will definitely side with the Dolly crowd here. I agree it's more authentic. Whitney feels like she's on a grand movie soundtrack, Dolly sounds like she's in a Nashville bar singing this sincerely.

Fun fact, this song isn't about romantic love as written. It was about her longtime business/creative partner, whom she would no longer be working with. To me somehow that makes it more unique and sweet.

 

Oh the Cocker version. Hands down for me. First time I listened to it, it was the theme song for The Wonder Years, and I've loved it ever since. It's similar to Cash and Hurt, where Cocker put all his soul and emotion into that song, despite not being the original artist.

 

I believe I read that the first time Trent Reznor heard Cash's cover of "Hurt" he instantly knew that it wasn't his song anymore. That kinda speaks volumes. That's not to disparage the original though. It's interesting to listen to them back-to-back and compare the same lyrics coming from the mouth of a young man and a man at the end of his life. Changes the entire context.

David Bowie's classic "Heroes" has been remade any number of times. The Wallflowers had the most commercial success of those remakes, and their version has slick commercial appeal (It was used in Roland Emmerich's Godzilla ), but it lacks soul. Bowie contemporary Peter Gabriel did manage to both do it justice and make it his own w/his version (recently featured in S2 of Stranger Things), but for me, nothing beats the original.

 

CCR, by a long shot. They sound like they're singing. Ike and Tina just sound like they're yelling. They do have a lot of energy, but it's not very musical.

 

Proud Mary's one of those where it depends on my mood which version I like to hear.

 

CCR. A solo Tina version and we could talk. But I despise Ike. Also, I don't like his singing.

 

I just posted Voodoo Child in what are you listening to thread recently. As much as I love Jimi Hendrix, I was floored at how great Stevie Ray Vaughn's cover was. I like SRV's better, he plays with such emotion.

Stevie...


Jimi...


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Heroes...will always be David Bowie for me. Though I like the Peter Gabriel cover.

 

I'm a huge Leonard Cohen fan and a fan of his vocals, not just his songwriting. But on Hallelujah, Buckley is just . . . breathtaking. It's a perfect example of taking a song to the next level. Love Cohen, but Buckley's version of Hallelujah is just beyond reproach; it's as near perfect as music gets.

As to Heroes, that's just Bowie's song. Gabriel's version is . . . wow, I actually think it's pretty bad. Bowie's original is just so brain meltingly epic. It's one of those songs that just moves me intensely every time I hear it.

And I have to go with the Ike & Tina version of Proud Mary. I'm usually not a fan of those "let's take a mid-tempo song and just turn it into a riotous meltdown" covers but the last half of Ike & Tina's version is just so visceral. Pure ecstatic frenzy.