Categories: Music

All Along the Watchtower and Covers That Are Better Than the Originals

Song covers are an interesting phenomena, as it takes guts to redo an already famous song with the hopes of improving upon it. Most of the time, cover songs are passable, but can’t matchup to the original. On rare occasions however, the cover manages to surpass the original. Great artists cover, and are covered, but only a few songs have become massive successes in their own right.

With A Little Help From My Friends – Joe Cocker 1968

A Beatles song, sung by Ringo Starr under the persona of Billy Shears on 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it was since covered by numerous notable artists. The most memorable of those covers was released by Joe Cocker in 1968. While the lyrics remained essentially intact, the entire style of the song was altered, the tempo slowed, and a new instrumental introduction was added, performed partially by Jimmy Page. Cocker’s version has much more gusto and grandeur than the original, and while both are quality pieces of music, the cover just seems to outshine the original, just barely.

All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix Experience 1968

The Bob Dylan song, released in 1967, became an instant classic and is his most performed song at concerts. Despite being the original artist, Dylan’s version isn’t the best known. That honor belongs to the late great James Marshall Hendrix who covered All Along the Watchtower for his album Electric Ladyland just a year later in 1968. Hendrix’s version stressed his classic guitar riffs while giving it a deeper distorted sound. The solo was rated as the fifth greatest of all time in 2008.

Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen – Carlos Santana – 1970

The Santana classic is actually a pair of covers from the 1960s. Santana’s version paired Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 Black Magic Woman with Gabor Szabo’s 1966 Gypsy Queen. The result was pure magic, while Fleetwood Mac had some success with their version, Santana’s release on 1970’s Abraxas hit number one on the charts and eventually went quadruple platinum. It takes Mac’s seminal lyrics with Santana’s Latin inspired rhythms to create this guitar epic.

I Heard It Through The Grape Vine – Creedence Clearwater Revival 1970

This Motown staple has enjoyed a number of different versions, from Smokey Robinson, to Gladys Knight to Marvin Gaye. Written by songwriting duo Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1966, it was taken in a much different direction by a few talented southern rockers. In 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival released an epic 11 minute version of the song with the lead guitar riff becoming one of the best known in music history. John Fogerty managed to keep a somewhat Motown sound to his own voice, while the instrumentals went completely south, in a good way. Though a bit repetitive at times, the simple yet elegant solo showed how music could crossover given the right ear to it.

Hurt – Johnny Cash 2002

Ask five people and four will tell you that Hurt was a seminal classic of Johnny’s Cash’s career. Though believable, it’s false. Hurt was originally released in 1995 by Nine Inch Nails, in their gritty industrial style. In 2002 Johnny Cash opted to cover song for release on his album American IV: The Man Comes Around. Cash replaced the techno sound with a single deep acoustic guitar sound, paired with his own famous voice. The result was astonishing as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails said “that song isn’t mine anymore”