Gloria Jones. I used to play it a lot when I DJ'd a Northern Soul night...that one was a floorshaker. Another great Nothern Soul tune known better for it's modern remake is the Just Brother's "Sliced Tomatoes" which most people know from Fatboy Slim's sampling.
I'll just repeat some of my faves (and a few others) from the other cover thread: U2-"Everlasting Love" (Carl Carlton, although there was one version even earlier than his, if someone knows who the artist is please tell me) Aretha Franklin-"Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Simon and Garfunkel) Jeff Beck-"Goodbye Porkpie Hat" (Charles Mingus) Jeff Buckley-"Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) Jaco Pastorius-"Dear Prudence" (live cover of The Beatles) Black Crowes-"Time Will Tell" (Bob Marley) Sly and the Family Stone-"Que Sera, Sera" (Doris Day) Fugees-"Killing Me Softly" (Roberta Flack) Jimi Hendrix-"Like a Rolling Stone" (live at Monterrey cover of Bob Dylan) Nirvana-"The Man Who sold The World" (David Bowie)
Jimi Hendrix - all along the watch tower Cake - I will survive Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence Noah - Eye In The Sky Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi ANTONELLA RUGGIERO & SUBSONICA - Cavallo bianco NADA trio - Venezia Istanbul Avion travel - Ma che freddo fa Delta v - un'estate fa
Knocking on Heaven's Door by GNR (the Live at the Ritz version) An interesting resource is The Covers Project http://www.coversproject.com/ put in a song title and it gives all the covers
Back in the days of Napster... One could put Tori Amos's name in the search field and come out with like a good hundred, hundred-twenty covers of hers that all sound the same -- they all sound like her cover of the old Zepplin tune "Thank you". Heavy, heavy left hand, damper pedal down the whole time, like she opened up the cover of her Bösendorfer to full stick, had a few too many and said "Hey, how many other songs do you think I can fit into this formula?" Which does rather prove the thought that pop music, whatever the genre, is essentially pop music, but that's another debate altogether Her "Smells like teen spirit" was the song that got me to like Nirvana. Once I could understand the damned lyrics, the rest of what they were trying to do made so much more sense. It's also one of her more inventive covers. In some live recordings she mingles "american pie" in with "teen spirit" as an homage to Cobain. Tori is an acquired taste, I suppose. Her lyrics are brilliant, too, going way past other diary-lyricists, all the way to "this is why I keep the exacto knife in my purse" songs. But this thread is about cover songs. With all the Freedom Rockers on this thread, no one's mentioned Otis Redding's "Satisfaction"? Joanie Baez singing "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" or "Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands". Soft Cell: "Baby where did our love go?" concur completely with whomever mentioned fugees "killing me softly" and cake's "I will survive". Big Brother and the Holding Company "Ball and Chain". re: that "Love Song" cover that's out now, I'd love to hear an American band do a whole bunch of Cure tunes, but with the thickest American accent they could put on it -- California accent would be best for this. Just imagine Brian Wilson's voice singing: "Yesterrrday I got sew old I felt like I should die", chewing the hell out of the Rs, more emphasis on the second halves of dipthongs than the first... It'd make the hair on the back of your goth friends' necks stand up, which alone would be worth the effort in recording.