Whoa-oo-whoa, listen to the music...no, really, LISTEN TO IT.

Vervain — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:30:02 -0800

Cover songs: specifically, cover songs that require you to reevaluate your opinion of the original. The vast universe of cover songs seems to sort itself out into four basic Mendel-diagram-ish categories:

Bad covers of good songs: New Kids on the Block covering the Delfonics' "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" (!!!)
Bad covers of bad songs: Britney Spears covering Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative"
Good covers of good songs: Jimi Hendrix covering Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower"
And, of course, good covers of "bad" songs, which is what I'm looking for.

The backstory: I recently acquired a copy of the Isley Brothers' "3+3", which, apart from being insanely funky, has several covers of songs I would've otherwise dismissed as late 60's/early 70's schlock. Specifically, their versions of "Listen To The Music" (Doobie Brothers!) and "Summer Breeze" (Seals & Crofts!) have forced me to reevaluate how inherently sucky (or not) the originals were. Other, less extreme examples that come to mind: Isaac Hayes' "Walk On By" (a personal favorite), Al Green's "Pretty Woman", the entirety of Ray Charles' "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music," and a huge chunk of Nina Simone's work. It seems to be a reasonably common thread in soul music, though hardly exclusive to it--hell, Johnny Cash made a mint doing the American Music albums.

So, my fellow AskMefites: What covers are so transformative that they turn a bad-to-average song into a great one?

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Whoa-oo-whoa, listen to the music...no, really, LISTEN TO IT.