Side discussion: Covers that are BETTER than the originals?

Laibach's Sympathy For The Devil, Club Nouveau's Lean On Me, The Happy Mondays' Step On, and, though I'll get killed for this, Friendship Seven's There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. Plus Annie Lennox's Keep Young And Beautiful, which, like the Quixote of Pierre Menard, owes its startling effect to its utter fidelity to the original.

The bloke who does the afternoon show on BBC Radio 6 apparently has a regular feature of covers better than the originals, but I don't have digital radio so have never heard it.

A few months ago, I saw a video of Marylin Manson doing a cover of an old 80's tune (don't remember which tune) and thinking it really rocked. But perhaps it only "worked" because I had the context of the original song to go from?

If you're thinking of Tainted Love, then I thought exactly the same things. The Inspiral Carpets' version was good, too.

Peter