10 Covers of Popular Songs that are Better than the Originals

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Have you ever heard covers of popular songs that are better than the originals? We know it doesn’t seem real, but it is. We’re here to present you with a list of songs performed by a band or artist who actually performed it better than the original songwriter/performer. It happens all the time actually. There are many songs that were not popular, but once given to the correct performer and interpreted differently, turned into musical wonders.

One Hit Wonders of the 90s

Of course, some traditionalist may say that there’s nothing like the original: every song is played the way it was written, how it’s supposed to be. That’s why this usually happens within the pop genre. The rules are different: there are no “do’s” and “don’t’s” in pop. Most of the time, songs are just written with the lyrics and the chords, and then recorded. The score is not often used, and if it is, is not usually published, so people just tend to make their own covers…which sometimes turn out to be even better versions.

Why a song becomes popular is beyond our knowledge. You probably know hundreds of songs that were never in the charts or on the radio, and what’s worse, a lot of awful songs that are loved by everybody and you can’t figure out why. But if we focus on those good songs that could never make it, it might have been because of their political, religious or even social content. Many of them have been banned for that, and if you’re interested in this subject, you can go ahead and read our list of The 10 Most Controversial Songs Of All Time to Hit (and get Banned from) the Airwaves. It is a little bit controversial though…

So how does a song become one of the covers of popular songs that are better than the originals? It might seem subjective, but it’s not just up to us. According to the music charts, these songs reached the top when the originals didn’t. Moreover, you probably didn’t even know they were cover; that’s how popular they’ve become.

Without further ado (and with our without musical accompaniment, that’s up to you), here you have our top ten covers of popular songs that are better than the originals. Enjoy!

10. Manic Monday – The Bangles

The original song was performed by the band Apollonia 6 in 1984, but The Bangles were the ones who made it famous in 1986. Fun fact: it was composed by Prince, under the pseudonym “Christopher”!

9. It’s Oh So Quiet – Björk

Even though the original (“Blow a Fuse” by Betty Hutton) and the cover are pretty similar, you can’t deny that Björk became very well-known because of this song. And that’s why it made it into our number nice position… It’s not so quiet after all!

Do you want to hear more? We have eight more to come in our list of covers of popular songs that are better than the originals!

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