Cover Songs Better Than The Original Version

What is the secret to performing a great cover? Many musicians have tried to work that out over the years, but, as this list will prove, there is no set formula for giving a great rendition of another artist's song. In some cases, to craft a timeless cover takes hard work and dedication, while in others a classic arises with minimal effort, through a series of happy accidents. So what exactly do great cover songs have in common?

The musician and producer Nick Lowe once remarked in an interview with GQ: "When I find a cover song that I like, I'll work away at it until I kind of believe that I wrote it." Maybe it's a cliché, but to deliver a great cover, an artist must first "own" their material — and none of the artists on this list have failed to do that.

To say one song is "better" than another will always be a little contentious, and it is also true that few artists would ever choose to cover a bad song. Therefore, all the songs on this list are great, covers and originals alike. But in these instances, the later versions have surpassed the originals in some way, whether in terms of critical reception, their importance in the artist's career, or cold, hard sales. Some are obvious, others surprising, while some you might not know as covers at all.

The 1968 classic "All Along the Watchtower" is today remembered as Jimi Hendrix's signature tune, a performance that showcased his unprecedented guitar abilities, his perfect affinity with the psychedelic movement of the 1960s, and his singularly charismatic vocals. But though the opening bars of "All Along the Watchtower" scream "Hendrix," the original wasn't written by him at all — it was the work of countercultural icon Bob Dylan for his eighth album, "John Wesley Harding."

Per Ultimate Classic Rock, Hendrix, a huge Dylan fan, managed to get hold of a copy of "John Wesley Harding" before general release, and he was in the studio recording his classic cover just two months after Dylan had recorded the original. Imbuing the song with a new sense of power and swagger, Hendrix's version outperformed Dylan's by charting at No. 20, whereas Dylan's single had failed to chart the previous year.

Dylan has been effusive in his admiration for Hendrix's cover. "It overwhelmed me," Dylan told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel in 1995, admitting that Hendrix had "probably improved" on the original version. Dylan's appreciation for Hendrix's reworking is palpable in his live shows, as Dylan claims: "I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day." In the liner notes to his 1985 retrospective box set "Biograph," Dylan wrote about the experience of following Hendrix's lead, stating (via Ultimate Classic Rock): "Strange how when I sing it I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

"I Fought the Law" is one of seminal British punk group the Clash's greatest recordings. Released as their first American single in 1979, it is a snappy, radio-friendly anthem reflecting their anti-authoritarian stance and their bearing of the rock 'n' roll torch — even as the genre they promoted threatened to explode all that had gone before. But forgotten in the mists of time by many punk rock fans is the fact that the chart-busting tune wasn't a Clash original by any means. In fact, its roots go all the way back to 1960 with Buddy Holly's clean-cut backing band, the Crickets.

In the wake of Holly leaving the band in 1959 — he tragically died later that year just months into his solo career — the Crickets decided to rock bravely on without their bandleader. In 1960, they released their first record without Holly: "In Style with the Crickets." According to The Financial Times, the album was a moderate success, but "I Fought The Law" — penned by newly recruited Cricket Sonny Curtis, reportedly in less than half an hour — was considered nothing more than an "obscure album track" for more than half a decade. That is, until it was finally covered by the Bobby Fuller Four, whose studio version became a top 10 hit in 1966. Per The Financial Times, it was Fuller's version that the Clash heard on the jukebox of a studio in San Francisco, and the band immediately turned their attention toward recording a live version, which gained them name recognition in the United States.

It's hard to hear the words "Twist and Shout" without the image of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr collectively shaking their mop-tops. The Beatles' version of the song, first released on their debut British studio album "Please Please Me" in 1963, gained its raucous energy through a series of happy accidents. Per AllMusic, "Twist and Shout" was the last song the band recorded at the end of a marathon session in which they cut 10 of their debut album's 14 tracks. By this point, Lennon's vocals were so shredded that he could only perform his lead part in the gravel-voiced manner that made the final record (he was apparently unable to complete a second take). Creative decisions around the record were apparently made just minutes before recording started, and the track was pulled together almost instinctively. "Twist & Shout" eventually charted at No. 2 in the United Kingdom later that year. However, "Twist & Shout" was recorded twice by other artists before the Beatles made their definitive version. 

Written by Bert Berns and Phil Medley and originally titled "Shake It Up, Baby," it was first put to wax with a Latin swing by the Top Notes in 1961. The single was produced by Phil Spector, who, by coincidence, would go on to produce the Beatles. But it wasn't a success, and it bears few of the hallmarks of the song as it is remembered today. The Beatles' version was closely modeled on an earlier single by the Isley Brothers, who in 1962 had introduced the song's infectious "woops."

It's one of the most memorable music video moments of the 1990s: Simply a close-up of Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor's face. As she sings into the camera, she eventually breaks into genuine tears after the line: "All the flowers that you planted mama / In the backyard / All died when you went away."

"Nothing Compares 2 U" was originally written by legendary musician Prince in 1985 for a band known as the Family, which was signed to his Paisley Park record label. In truth, though, the video for O'Connor's version is even more historic than the recording itself, revealing for those who couldn't hear it in her voice how truly she connected with the themes of the song. Sinead O'Connor's mother died while the singer was still a teenager, and as she wrote in her autobiography (per Ultimate Prince): "My cover of Prince's 'Nothing Compares 2 U' was something I was always — and am always — singing to my mother."

Such genuine emotional connection helped transform an otherwise unloved album track into an international smash. Per The Guardian, the Family's Paul Peterson claimed that Prince was jealous of O'Connor's version, which outperformed all of his releases in the U.K. by spending four weeks at the top of the singles chart in 1990. It also challenged the singer's career thus far in the American market, performing better than all of his singles bar "When Doves Cry." However, though he later released his own version under his own name, the Purple One could never soar to the emotional heights of O'Connor's performance.

In her tragically short career, British singer Amy Winehouse established herself as a hugely talented songwriter across numerous genres including soul, jazz, and R&B. But the London native was also an exceptional interpreter of other people's songs. This was immediately apparent on her debut album, 2003's "Frank," which included stellar renditions of two jazz classics: Eddie Jefferson's "Moody's Mood For Love," and "(There Is) No Greater Love," written by Isham Jones and Marty Symes. And as People notes, in live sessions, Winehouse cast her net wider, covering everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Specials.

But Winehouse's finest cover arguably came with her as a feature artist, when she provided guest vocals on Mick Ronson's version of "Valerie," a cover of a 2006 single by Liverpool indie rockers the Zutons. Though the single was a top 10 hit for the group on release, Winehouse's version got to No. 2 the following year, and thereafter it became one of her signature songs. As utons songwriter Dave McCabe told Manchester Evening News in 2019, though many Winehouse fans may be unaware that the song is a cover, the singer certainly made it her own. "It's the biggest compliment in the world to have Amy Winehouse cover your song and for it to become massive," McCabe said. "She was an unbelievable talent. Some people have said to us, 'oh but they stole your song'. The honest answer is, I love it. Amy absolutely nailed it."

Countless punk and new wave bands formed and broke up in the 1960s and 1970s with just a single release to their name, nevertheless going down in the annals of alternative music history for coming out with a bona fide classic. One of these bands was the Nerves, a trio formed in Los Angeles in 1975 whose self-titled EP — released the following year — was their only official release before they eventually parted ways in 1978, per AllMusic.

According to The Independent, Nerves songwriter Jack Lee remembered that at the time of the band's split, he was living at the point of poverty, with his utilities — including the telephone — due to be cut off. Then a call came in from Blondie leader Debbie Harry requesting to cover the Nerves' best song, "Hanging on the Telephone." It proved to be a financial lifeline that allowed Lee to pursue a solo career under his own name. The Guardian argues that it is Debbie Harry's forceful vocal performance and the "louder, brighter, brasher, and tougher" production on the Blondie cover that made their version eclipse the original to become one of the band's biggest hits.

In 1956, a little-known singer-songwriter named Jay Hawkins was grappling with a difficult song — a forlorn love ballad he had written and recorded the year before that just didn't seem to work. According to Gaslight Records, Hawkins returned to the studio, eager to record a new take of "I Put a Spell on You," only this time, he was drunk to the point of later being unable to recall the session. Rather than play it safe, Hawkins delivered an incendiary performance of grunts, snarls, and howls, which earned him a new moniker: Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Though the single failed to chart, it would go down as a classic, and it was covered by a bevy of artists from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Annie Lennox, with varying degrees of commercial success.

The musician who has become most closely associated with Hawkins' song, however, is Nina Simone, who recorded a version for her 1965 album of the same name. Simone's version replace's Hawkins' monstrous ravings and brash horns with a simmering vocal performance and sultry strings, becoming as seductive as the song's title implies. So closely did the singer associate the song with her public persona that she also recycled the title for her autobiography. Her rendition later became known to audiences as the soundtrack to various classy TV commercials for brands such as Dior.

David Bowie was just 19 when he wrote the title song of his third solo album, "The Man Who Sold the World," released in 1970. Now considered a vital track in his oeuvre, it sank like a stone on its first release — as did the album — and only became a success years later as the B-side to Bowie's hit single, "Life On Mars?" The song's cult status was solidified, however, in 1993, when premier grunge band Nirvana covered the track as part of their acclaimed "MTV Unplugged in New York" set, which was released as a live album the following year, six months after frontman Kurt Cobain's untimely death. As Classic Rock History notes, the set comprised numerous successful covers, including songs by the Vaselines and blues pioneer Leadbelly, but it was the reworking of the underappreciated Bowie classic that really stole the show. ​​

After Cobain's untimely death in 1994, Bowie spoke highly of Nirvana's version, telling a Dutch interviewer in 1996 (via YouTube): "It's a sad rendition, of course, because it's so tied up with [Cobain's] own life and death. So it takes on all these different shades for me. Because I also remember fairly clearly my own states of mind when I was actually writing it, which I guess was as near to a mystical state that a 19-year-old could get into ... it's interesting that it had two mystical states, the time when I wrote it and recorded it ... and when [Cobain] recorded it."

There aren't many No. 1 transatlantic smash hits that are played in the time signature of a waltz, but then again almost everything about the Animals' 1964 classic "House of the Rising Sun" is unusual. For example, the fact that such a flawless song was recorded in one take, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. Or that, initially, the song's producer, Mickie Most, thought it was trash, but was so convinced by the band's studio performance that he insisted the recording didn't require a single edit.

"House of the Rising Sun" proved to be a major phenomenon in popular music, most notable for being the folk-rock tune that finally convinced the previously purist Bob Dylan that he should finally go electric, according to the same source. And perhaps integral to the song's influence on Dylan was the fact that it wasn't an original, but a traditional folk song first recorded by musicians Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster all the way back in 1933.

It may be debatable whether a version of a folk song strictly counts as a "cover," as such songs, in a way, belong to everyone. Ashley claimed he had first learned the song from his grandfather, so maybe it should be Ashley Sr. who gets the credit? But in any case, the Animals recorded the definitive version, which remains a karaoke and open-mic mainstay to this day.

In a 2022 Guardian interview with British singer-songwriter Labi Siffre, journalist Tim Jonze noted the veteran musician's surprisingly limited public profile considering how many of the songs he wrote in his heyday of the 1970s and 1980s remain famous. As well as being the creator of the anthemic "Something Inside So Strong," a major hit for numerous artists and a staple of sporting event montages, Siffre's discography has been widely sampled by the biggest hip-hop artists in the business. Most notably Dr. Dre, who used Siffre's "I've Got The ..." as the basis for Eminem's platinum-selling single "My Name Is."

Despite becoming known as the creator of songs that become touchstones for other musicians, Siffre is a scintillating performer in his own right, and Jonze is rightly puzzled as to why one of Britain's greatest living singer-songwriters isn't better known. "I would say I'm not very good at selling myself," Siffre told him. However, Jonze quite rightly admits that one Siffre classic, his 1971 romantic gem "It Must Be Love," received its "definitive" recording in 1980. That's when British ska band Madness released it as a single, hitting No. 4 in the U.K. and 33 in the U.S., their second-highest chart placing across the Atlantic.

Artists generally have mixed feelings about other artists covering their songs, something Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor openly admitted in a 2008 interview. As reported by NME, he told the U.K.'s tabloid The Sun that his first reaction upon hearing Johnny Cash's 2002 version of his 1995 track "Hurt" was similar to witnessing someone "kissing [my] girlfriend." As noted by The Financial Times, Reznor's original was written as a deeply personal portrait of his own depression, but the song's universal theme of suffering makes it prime material for a cover artist — especially one of Cash's stature. Cash's version was released alongside a music video that revealed the veteran musician's age and frailty. It gave the song greater resonance and reportedly brought Reznor to tears when he first watched it, according to the same source.

Per NME, Reznor later explained what Cash's cover came to mean to him. "Having Johnny Cash, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, want to cover your song, that's something that matters to me," he said. "It's not so much what other people think but the honor that this guy felt it was worthy of interpreting ... [Cash] said afterwards it was a song that sounds like one he would have written in the '60s and that's wonderful."

It's doubtful that Dolly Parton could have envisioned what a seismic song "I Will Always Love You" would eventually become when she wrote it back in 1973. According to Entertainment Weekly, the track was originally a heartfelt farewell to her creative partner, the country singer Porter Wagoner, and it became one of the highlights of Parton's album "Jolene," which hit No. 6 on the Hot Country chart. ​

But its real impact would only be felt two decades later when it was recorded by Whitney Houston as the lead song for the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard," in which Houston also starred. Imbuing the song with incredible vocal dexterity and power, Houston spent a record 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, making "I Will Always Love You" into one of the best-selling singles of all time (via Vibe). In January 2022, it was reported that 30 years after the world-beating single was first released, Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" had been officially certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), just as the movie soundtrack from which the song was taken had been. The song's sales and streams had exceeded 10 million units, the late singer's fourth release to achieve such an honor, and in doing so it joined the

It is believed that there are more than 300 versions of Leonard Cohen's mournful ballad "Hallelujah." The song took him five years to write and was not greeted with great enthusiasm by either his record label or the listening public on its first release in 1984. Today, the song is ubiquitous, having appeared in movies as diverse as 2001's Shrek and 2009's Watchmen, as well as being the material for countless talent show contestants over the years. However, there is one version of "Hallelujah" that can be said to have single-handedly turned the song's fortunes around. It was recorded in 1994 by Jeff Buckley, the highpoint of "Grace," the only studio album he released in his lifetime. According to USA Today, Buckley first heard the song as covered by ex-Velvet Underground musician John Cale on a record he found while cat-sitting in a friend's New York apartment. He immediately saw new possibilities in the track and reworked it into the form by which it is best known.

The musician Glen Hansard — a close friend of Buckley's who used to live with him in New York—– explained the emotional investment that Buckley made in his performance of Cohen's song " (via The Atlantic): "He gave us the version we hoped Leonard would emote, and he wasn't afraid to sing it with absolute reverence. Jeff sang it back to Leonard as a love song to what he achieved, and in doing so, Jeff made it his own."

Everyone can replicate the infectious four-part vocal melody that follows the words "Tainted Love," first put to record by Gloria Jones in 1964. A catchy, stomping Northern soul romp, the song was only initially released as a B-side and received little airplay amid a disappointing commercial performance, according to uDiscoverMusic. It would later be remembered as a masterpiece of the genre.

However, in 1981, the song took on a very different energy, thanks to a cover by the British synth-pop duo Soft Cell. Per The Guardian, the band's synth player Dave Ball first heard Jones' version from northern soul parties held in his hometown of Blackpool, England, while singer Marc Almond was an admirer of Jones after seeing her perform with glam rockers T-Rex. Looking to smooth out their strange anti-consumerist meanderings with a couple of cover versions, they settled on "Tainted Love." Little did they know the song would go to No. 1 in 17 countries and become an all-time synth-pop party classic.

In 1968 and in one of their earliest incarnations — and long before the chart-topping success of "Rumours" — Fleetwood Mac was looking for a hit. And thanks to a song written by founder member Peter Green, they got a modest one: "Black Magic Woman," a blues-rock workout that climbed to No. 37 on the U.K. album charts. As reported by Rolling Stone, it remained a staple of Fleetwood Mac's live performances long after Green's departure from the band.

Santana put a notable spin on the original, infusing it with Latin rhythms and a new climactic ending thanks to a switch in the final bars to "Gypsy Queen," an instrumental track written by Hungarian jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó, per NPR. The song was a huge hit for the band, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the charts for a total of 13 weeks. "Abraxas," the LP from which it was taken, spent six weeks at the top of the album charts and was later inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. In 1998, both Santana and Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With members of both bands attending the ceremony, Fleetwood Mac founder member Peter Green joined Santana on stage for a celebratory rendition of "Black Magic Woman," an era-defining song that was a meaningful hit for both bands.

"It's Oh So Quiet" was Icelandic singer Bjork's biggest hit to date when it was released to great acclaim in 1994, hitting No. 4 in the U.K. in 1995, where it sold more than 400,000 copies (per Official Charts). The song is playful, unpredictable, and strange — all hallmarks of her discography. But in fact, the song is a cover of an equally playful novelty song released by the American singer Betty Hutton way back in 1951.

By drawing an even greater contrast between both the sonic textures and tempo of the song's two parts, Bjork's version manages to inject the track with even more manic energy. This is topped by her incredible vocal range, switching between sweetly seductive whispers and genuinely earsplitting screams. The song provided a safe entry point to her sophomore album "Post," which, as a departure from her generally accessible debut, opened with grinding electronica in the form of "Army of Me." According to The Guardian, "It's Oh So Quiet" made Bjork a household name around the world.

The pop music industry of the mid-1960s had something of the Wild West about it when it came to the cutthroat business of supplying hot young singers with new potential hit songs. The recording history of the song "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)," originally written by the Four Seasons' songwriting duo Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe, is a perfect example. According to uDiscoverMusic, the pair originally envisioned the song in the hands of another duo, the Righteous Brothers. However, it was claimed by the Four Seasons' Frankie Valli, who at the time was casting around for a suitable song to release as a solo debut.

Though his performance on the song is admirable, the release was not a success. Per the same source, its writers later speculated that the Four Seasons' record label may have limited distribution of the song to ruin Valli's solo efforts and keep him tied to the group. Within the space of a few months, the song was adopted by the Walker Brothers, whose version arguably eclipsed Valli's original in terms of its soaring power, and, as it turned out, commercial performance.

As a disappointed Gaudio later described (via uDiscoverMusic): "The Walker Brothers released it with a similar arrangement, but a faster tempo, and that was No. 1 in England. I thought it was fabulous, but I preferred it at our tempo." The single also performed well in the U.S., hitting a respectable No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 to become an enduring Walker Brothers classic, which in turn has been covered by countless artists since.

The mercurial Mancunian Mark E. Smith of the longrunning art-punk group the Fall was, throughout his 40-year career, a hugely prolific songwriter, with hundreds of credits to his name across a sprawling discography. But he was also somewhat unpredictable when it came to covering other artists, with inspiration often coming from unexpected sources. As noted by Brooklyn Vegan, Smith had a penchant for delivering skewed versions of classic soul, disco, and country tunes, such as Sister Sledge's "Lost in Music" and Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love." Elsewhere he delved into obscure garage and rockabilly to uncover gems that suited the Fall's template perfectly.

One of these was the Fall's much-loved version of "Mr. Pharmacist," a cover of the generally unknown 1966 single by the Other Half, which Smith's group included on their 1986 album "Bend Sinister." Brooklyn Vegan argues that his caustic delivery ramps up the energy in their version, while he himself seemed unusually happy with how the song fit his group's overall aesthetic. The Guardian notes that the song bucked The Fall's policy to perform predominantly new music during live shows by remaining a regular fixture of their setlists right up until Smith's final live appearances in 2017.

This one is a bit finicky. Joni Mitchell first wrote "Both Sides, Now" in 1967, still a year or two from becoming the prolific singer-songwriter she is today. However, the song was first recorded by Judy Collins, whose rendition hit No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard charts that same year. To this day, it is arguably still the most well-known version of the song, complete with its rose-tinted keyboard line, sweeping strings, and Collins' bright vocals. However, Mitchell never approved of Collins' version. "[She] sounds like the damsel in the greenroom," the Canadian-American singer chides in David Yaffe's biography, "Reckless Daughter." "There's something la-di-da about her."

Just two years later, Mitchell released her own version of the song on her sophomore album, "Clouds," where she brought the key down to F-sharp and stripped the arrangement down to just her and her guitar. Despite Collins' version, Mitchell's somber, more reflective "cover," if you can even call it that, ranked 171 on Rolling Stone's 2004 "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list, perhaps as a way of paying respect to the original vision. Yet even she knew the song could have many interpretations. In 2000, Mitchell once again recorded the song for a new album of the same name, in which she completely transformed it with a rubato vocal and an orchestra of strings and horns. In 2024, she performed the song live at the Grammys in a similarly virtuosic arrangement that earned her a standing ovation.

"There's something to be said about four skinny white kids from New York finding deep wells of soul and emotion that the Reverend Al Green ... somehow missed," writes Paste Magazine, referring to the Talking Heads' cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River." The soul singer released the original song on 1974's "Al Green Explores Your Mind," an album that, while successful, didn't chart as well as prior hit records. Green soon faded into relative obscurity after becoming a minister and dedicating himself to religious music. This left room for the Talking Heads — whose founding members, David Byrne and Chris Frantz, were fans of Green's music — to reinvent the song for their fanbase.

Byrne did not want to release a cover at first, believing it would outshine his original works. However, the song was so popular at their live shows that it felt wrong not to include it on their second album, 1978's "More Songs About Buildings and Food." Though their live performances of the track were usually upbeat, they decided to slow it down for the recording, accentuating its funky groove with more modern production. The song was their first to make Billboard's Top 30, but their most well-known performance of the work is still the live version captured in their 1984 concert film, "Stop Making Sense." It's a rapturous finale that has the audience fully entranced in Byrne's near-possessed levels of infectious energy.

John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival saw their first major mainstream success with "Proud Mary" when it hit No. 2 on the Billboard 100 in 1969. Mixing white and Black roots music into a bluesy rock hit, the song has been a CCR staple ever since. However, just two years afterward, Ike and Tina Turner rolled on the same river to No. 4 on the same chart with their bombastic cover, which some deem definitive. "CCR's original version might've outperformed the Turners' on the charts," says American Songwriter, "but the ferocity with which Tina Turner adopted the track as her own is inarguable." It's true — Tina's vocals alone make the track her own, giving grit and soul to Fogerty's song about the working man's salvation. However, it's the second half's gospel, brass-fueled energy that transforms the song into an anthem of perseverance.

After splitting from Ike, Tina Turner maintained "Proud Mary" as one of her signature songs. She re-recorded it solo in 1993 and has performed it live numerous times, including with Fogerty himself in 2000. He gave his blessing to Tina's version and dedicated a performance of the song to her memory after she died in 2023. "The John Fogerty-written original is the stuff that classic rock is made of," admits the New York Post, "but once a song has been Tina-fied, you can't get it back."

"Respect" is such an iconic Aretha Franklin song that most people would assume it's hers and her's alone. It turns out that the song was originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, written about wanting respect from his lady when he came home after a long day of work. After hearing it on the radio, Aretha — with her two sisters and backup singers, Carolyn and Erma Franklin — rewrote the song's lyrics to reflect the female experience. Needless to say, it made Redding's version look like a rough draft. "We saw it as something earthier — a woman having no problem discussing her needs" Carolyn said, as quoted in Ray Padgett's book "Cover Me: The Stories Behind The Greatest Cover Songs of All Time."

Redding's version has a strong groove, one he would claim was the best out of all his records. However, Franklin's melting pot of other elements makes it a stronger song overall. She added the chorus ("R-E-S-P-E-C-T"), let her sax player go off on a killer bridge, and added playful backing vocals to give the track's lyrics even more dimension. Led by her sassy and brassy vocals, her version of "Respect" hit No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in 1967, far higher than Redding's version ever did. It also inadvertently became a civil rights anthem during a tumultuous moment for racial tensions in the U.S.

There are few covers as radical as Devo's deconstruction of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and even fewer as formative to the band's success. An experimental performance art group based in Ohio, Devo had yet to break into the big leagues when they first started tinkering with the Stones' hit song as a part of their live set. Then, they released it as a single leading up their debut album and, accompanied by a hit music video and a smash "SNL" performance, it rocketed them into stardom. This, of course, couldn't have happened without Mick Jagger's approval, which he resoundingly granted after hearing it for the first time. Gerald Casale, co-founder of Devo, described Jagger's reaction in an interview with author Ray Padgett for The New Yorker. "He suddenly stood up and started dancing ... [saying] 'I like it, I like it," the vocalist and bass player said.

This might come as a surprise given that Devo's cover is basically unrecognizable. Eschewing Keith Richards' classic guitar riff, the song incorporates its own guitar and bass lines while cranking up the tempo with a displacing drum pattern. If that weren't enough, lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh's stuttering, janky vocals totally transform the song yet also elevate its deceptively disillusioned lyrics about commercialism and fame. "Devo's mechanistic assembly-line construction of the rock 'n' roll standard pulls off the weird trick of sharpening every corner and removing the human soul while maintaining a groove," writes Treble, which ranks the cover as one the best ever.

In another cover that has seemingly surpassed the original, Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' stripped-down version of Tear For Fears' "Mad World" is often more recognizable despite being a far cry from the original. The band's first successful single on the international charts, "Mad World" is a darkly dreamlike synth-pop track that expressed the teenage angst of Tears For Fears' frontmen, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. Though its themes dealt heavily with the duo's depression while growing up fatherless, its infectious beat made it an effective dance earworm.

Nearly two decades later, composer Michael Andrews incorporated a cover of "Mad World" into the somber finale of "Donnie Darko," a dark psychological thriller starring a then-unknown Jake Gyllenhaal. Teaming up with prior bandmate and vocalist Gary Jules, Andrews re-arranged the song for just voice, piano, cello, and vocoder. The result is a far more melancholic recording that imbues the lyrics with explicit sadness and vulnerability, in large part thanks to Jules' more restrained vocals.

Though "Donnie Darko" was a box-office bomb, it found a cult following and prompted an official release of Andrews and Jules' "Mad World" as a single. It landed at No. 1 on the British charts in 2003, higher than the original did in 1982. "That was probably the proudest moment of my career," Orzabal told The Guardian in 2013. "I thought: 'Thank God for the 19-year-old Roland Orzabal. Thank God he got depressed,'" he later added.

Just as the Fab Four covered other artists, thousands have attempted to put their own spin on the Beatles' catalogue. You can probably count on one hand how many covers are even comparable to the original recording, let alone better. However, according to Slate, one stands out. "Stevie Wonder and his cover of 'We Can Work It Out,' [is] not only the best Beatles cover of all time but the only one that is definitively better than the Beatles' original," the outlet wrote. Even the most ardent Beatlemaniac would be hard-pressed to argue. Though Wonder's version never charted quite as high, it did earn him a Grammy nomination, and he has since performed it live several times, including in honor of both Paul McCartney and the Beatles on three separate occasions.

The original song was written by both Paul McCartney and John Lennon, whose contrasting lyrical styles and acoustic arrangement made for a catchy but somewhat conflicted and subdued song. Wonder, on the other hand, cranks up the funk and infuses "We Can Work it Out" with a joyous energy that makes its call for reconciliation resonate beyond the original recording. "Wonder's version is all about hope," writes The A.V. Club, "and his joyous, sizzling funk makes 'We Can Work It Out' a promise, not a plea." Stephen Colbert even argued that Wonder's recording is the best Beatles cover to Paul McCartney's face, to which McCartney politely replied, "Yeah, that is a good one."