Are there any instances where you hate a song but love the cover versions?

Smooth Criminal
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Cotton Eye Joe
Enjoy the Silence

I’m sure there are some, but in my experience the original is almost always better than the cover.

The original Killing Me Softly was infinitely better than any of the remakes (Fugees, Luther Vandross, all the way back to Perry COmo.

The suck ass original

The cover

The horrible original

The cover

Original.
Cover.

@filmfann I totally agree on Mad World.

I like Hallelujah from Jeff Buckley better than the original from Leonard Cohen.

^^^^But the Smashing Pumpkins version of Hallelujah is better than others!

Speaking of Leonard Cohen, whle I loved him singing Suzanne Joan Baez did it much better

And Joan Baez’s “Any Day Now” collection of covers of early Dylan is magical.

So many but here is one
original
Classic Pearl

An Amazing First and an Amazing cover with a completely different vibe on Smells Like Teen Spirit
Nirvana
Patti Smith

@zenvelo I’ll check that one.

I’m thinking of several covers I prefer to the originals, or like in a different way, though I’m not thinking of originals I hated, nor of especially striking examples. There probably are some.

Oh, there’s this ‘F*ck You’ cover cover by Sara Bareilles (which she flows into her own complementary-themed song, ‘Gonna Get Over You’), and I thought a country version (that I could certainly do without) might’ve been the original? But I see it’s credited to Sam Farrar and most versions YouTube offers seem to be Cee Lo Green, which I don’t mind, but prefer Sara’s. She does many very good covers.

@Zaku Agreed. There are several covers that I prefer to the original. But hard to find any where I hated the original.

Have to admit I felt kind of guilty after submitting my comment, because I’m actually a big Prince fan. :/

I love this version of Frank Zappa’s The Black Page #1. It is a much gentler version of what was originally a drum solo.

There’s one tune with lyrics that I hate, and if any cover repeated those lyrics, I’d still hate it.
The song is “One in a Million”, by Goons & Hosers Guns & Roses.
The lyrics are virulently racist and xenophobic, so I won’t post them here.

Another one has murderously misogynic lyrics, and it’s “Run for Your Life” by the Beatles.

Here are some songs that are meh to me, with my preferred covers:

Hurt- meh

Hurt- Johnny Cash

All Along zee Watchtower- it’s okay, but it’s not in my rotation.

AAzW- Hendrix

You Can Close Your Eyes- It’s okay, but I prefer this version.

The Shat’s covers beat all originals!