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Best Cover Versions Ever Named

added 29 November 2004 at 16.21

A new poll of the Top 50 best cover versions of all time has just been published with Jimi Hendrix's version of Bob Dylan's ‘All Along the Watchtower’ topping the list, while the Top 10 includes The Beatles, Sid Vicious and Scissor Sisters.

The list of the Top 50 cover versions was chosen by Daily Telegraph music critics and includes well known favourites such as Johnny Cash’s version of U2’s ‘One’, Ryan Adams’ reworking of Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ and The Vines’ take on Outkast’s ‘Ms Jackson’.

Topping the list though was ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by The Jimi Hendrix Experience as recorded by the guitar legend in 1968, only one year after Bob Dylan wrote and recorded the original on his album ‘John Wesley Harding’.

Also in the Top 10 were Soft Cell’s legendary ‘Tainted Love’
from 1981, which has totally eclipsed the success of the 1964 Gloria Jones original, The Byrds version of another Dylan song, ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and from this year ‘Comfortably Numb’ by the Scissor Sisters, which turned Pink Floyd’s 1979 ode to isolation and fear into a rather peppy glam disco track.

Many other entries in the Top 50 are far less well-know, though no less interesting sounding, including bearded folky Richard Thompson’s ‘Oops I Did it Again’, Brazilian samba combo Señor Coconut & His Orchestra take on Krafwerk’s ‘The Robots’ and ‘Rock el Casbah’ - Rachid Taha’s version of The Clash classic.

The full top 10 was:

1. ‘All Along the Watchtower’ Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968 (orig. Bob Dylan, 1967)
2. ‘You Were Always On My Mind’ Pet Shop Boys, 1987 (orig. Elvis Presley, 1972  - after Brenda Lee, 1971)
3. ‘My Way’ Sid Vicious, 1979 (orig. Frank Sinatra, 1969 - after Paul Anka, 1969)
4. ‘Hallelujah’ Jeff Buckley, 1993 (orig. Leonard Cohen, 1984)
5. ‘Respect’ Aretha Franklin, 1967 (orig. Otis Redding, 1965)
6. ‘Tainted Love’ Soft Cell, 1981 (orig. Gloria Jones, 1964)
7. ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ The Byrds, 1965 (orig. Bob Dylan, 1964)
8. ‘Twist and Shout’ The Beatles, 1963 (orig. the Isley Brothers, 1960)
9. ‘Comfortably Numb’ Scissor Sisters, 2004 (orig. Pink Floyd, 1979)
10. ‘Mr Bojangles’ Nina Simone, 1971 (orig. Jerry Jeff Walker, 1967)

For the full Top 50 click on the word 'Continue' below.

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