The Five Greatest Covers of All Time!

Since completing the undertaking of choosing the Five Greatest Songs of All Time, I decided to pick out the Five Greatest Covers of All Time.  The original songs were good, but the covers are great.  Here they are:

5.  "Heartless" by The Fray, originally by Kanye West.  I think that The Fray convey the emotion of the song better than Kanye because the vocals don't sound like they've been passed through auto-tune a couple times. Also, the music video is quite a bit cooler.

4.  "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm, originally by Michael Jackson.  Alien Ant Farm takes Michael Jackson's song and makes it awesome with heavy guitars playing the main riff while still paying homage to his dance moves from a number of music videos:

3.  "I'll Follow You Into the Dark" by Cadillac Sky, originally by Death Cab for Cutie.  I really like the lyrics and the imagery associated with this song and I think that it translates equally well into the bluegrass style played by Cadillac Sky.  I won't say that the cover is better than the original, but it is as good:

2.  "Land of Confusion" by Disturbed, originally by Genesis.  Although I like the song by Genesis, it was intended to be a criticism of Ronald Reagan and I think that Genesis accidentally created a song much more meaningful than the silly criticism of a single politician.  Disturbed takes this song and runs with it:

1.  "Hurt" by Johnny Cash, originally by Nine Inch Nails.  Johnny Cash essentially says good-bye with this song sung just before his death.  It gets extremely intense at the end and the whole song is a powerful expression of emotion:

So there they are.  The Five Greatest Covers Of All Time.  I really enjoy songs that I like being re-framed, allowing me to see them in a new way.  This also fuels my love of mash-ups which will probably fuel another post likely showcasing The Five Greatest Mash-Ups Of All Time.

-Lane

P.S. Another great cover is Gary Allen's version of Vertical Horizon's Best I Ever Had