Music Remakes That Are Better Than The Classics

It’s a rare thing when a remake of a classic song outdoes the original. The temptation for most artists is to take a hit classic and then “customize” with their own style it to the point where it’s hardly recognizable. It takes a lot of artistic restraint and talent to add just enough to a personal flavor to a song in order to re-energize it in a new and modern way.

Listed below are some of my favorite classic covers by some fantastic bands.

“Come Together” by Aerosmith (originally popularized by The Beatles)

“Life is a Highway” by Rascall Flatts (originally popularized by Tom Cochrane)

“Route 66″ by John Mayer (originally popularized by Chuck Berry or The Rolling Stones)

“Give a Little Bit” by The Goo Goo Dolls (originally popularized by Supertramp)

“American Woman” by Lenny Kravitz (originally popularized by The Guess Who)

“Oh, Pretty Woman” by Van Halen (originally popularized by Roy Orbison)

“20th Century Boy” by Def Leppard (originally popularized by T. Rex)

8 Responses So Far

  • Hal

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    That Life is a Highway song is hands down one of my FAVOURITES EVER DUDE LIKE EVER.

  • Hal

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    Actually, I love all those songs. All of ‘em. You da man. Just totally improved my day at work, eh? Like I said, you da man.

  • MommaBean

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    Too funny. I’ve actually only ever heard the original version of 1! of the songs (pretty woman, of course). I love several of them and the Aerosmith remix from Armageddon is just awesome. Thanks, enjoyed this post greatly…

  • mo

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    good stuff dave .. how about a post where you talk about songs where the remix was better than the original .. test your music knowledge :D

  • Moey

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    I love american woman :P

  • Batoul

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    ahhh good stuff! I like the classic “re-energized”.

  • birddog

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    and now for something totally different — how about the hip hop remake of “The Twist”?

  • richard

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    on my way to work i heard a new country remake of an old folk song 500 miles by a male artist its great! any idea who did it? i didn’t have to pack i have it all here on my back?

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