The best cover songs I've ever heard were Rev Co. doing Rod Steward's "Do You Think I'm Sexy?"and Gravity Kills version of "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkle.

"Hurt", Johnny Cash's cover of Resner's ode to addiction.

"Blinded by the Light", Manford Man's Earth Band cover of the great Bruce Sprinsteen song.

A quick one off the top of my head... Social Distortion covering the Stones "Under My Thumb..." I don't think i ever really understood the song until i heard Mike Ness growl and seethe his way through it.

Ness knows what he's doing. I still prefer Social D's version of "Ring of Fire" to any previous version. Ditto "Don't Think Twice."

Here's a few more:

Junior Boys doing a modern take on Frank Sinatra's "When No One Cares."

Al Green roughing up The Temptations "Can't Get Next To You"

And a few obvious one's no one's mentioned yet: Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" is a cover of a great soul song, Tifanny's "I Think We're Alone Now," The Animals' Nina Simone covers.

In a category of their own are all covers of Daniel Johnston's music. Is it still a "cover" if the original version is sung by a man whose voice sounds like a cat being killed with a handheld blender - with a lisp?

The Grateful Dead had a huge collection of covers they made their own.

There was a cover album of bands doing GD songs and covers that added a lot to some of them. Elvis Costello doing "Ship of Fools" comes to mind.

The Dead Kennedys doing "Viva Las Vegas" added the necessary evil to that song.

"Proud Mary" has been covered a few times to some success.

"Muddy Water" and "Gloria" have also been covered successfully more than once.

Yo La Tengo's "Little Honda" is pretty good.

Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower.

Aerosmith's Come Together

Carpenters' Ticket to Ride

Kate Bush's Rocketman

Has anyone heard Hayseed Dixie's Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC? Fantastic.

And has anyone heard Dub Side of the Moon by the Easy Star All-Stars. It's the whole Dark Side of the Moon, but reggae. It's brilliant