I’m a fan of cover songs, if done correctly. Sometimes you wonder what they were thinking. I don’t care at all about the ‘why can’t the write there own songs?’ argument, I just like what I find to sound good
Favourite:
The Lunachicks’ version of Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’
Worst:
Dolly Parton version of Led Zepplin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ 
I enjoy cover versions as long as they’re a re-interpretation , not a copy,
My favorite by a long way - “I will Survive” as performed by Cake on the album Fashion Nugget .
Two favorites:
Hearts’ cover of Led Zeppelins “Hall of the Mountain King” This is pure coincidence and is not meant to reflect Sofa and my political differences. 
Earl Scruggs/Billy Bob Thornton’s cover of “Ring of Fire”
Worst:
Leonard Nimoy’s cover of “Proud Mary”
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
Speaking of Spock, CBC played William Shatner’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” a few days ago in honour of it’s placement as one of the worst cover songs of all time.
It is absolutely brutal (but a re-interpretation, yes). There are bad cover songs, and then there are “what the hell is that noise?” cover songs…
Clip of it here:
http://www.pathcom.com/~boby/lsd.htm
Best cover song? I have an album of remakes of old Disney songs …sounds schlocky, but there is a crazy rendition of “Feed the Birds” on a gothic sounding accordian that I quite like. And “Hi Ho” by Tom Waits sounds infinitely more appropriate for dwarves employed in the diamond mining industry than that ludicriously ecstatic whistling featured in Snow White…
True…I was really excited to find out Tool did a cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ but it sounds identical, except for a few electronic noises here and there. Quite dissappointing.
I also like that Cake song
Off the top of my head, the grooviest cover I can think of is Save Ferris doing Build Me Up Buttercup. That is one of not many cover songs I prefer… it seems to have more energy than the original; it sounds like they’re having fun and that’s great.
The worst? Aargh, but there are so many! That too-common feeling of wanting to shout at the radio… “MY GOD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THIS SONG, YOU SWINES!!!”
I think the last time I wanted to beat a band with a complement of large sticks was a fairly recent cover of Duran Duran’s Ordinary World. Eurgh…
<shudder>
Phil
good cover: the Butthole surfers version of American Woman
bad cover: Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Partons “I will always love you”
My favourite cover:
The Electric Light Orchestra (I think) - “A Fifth of Beethoven”
It’s the song I used for my first movie. Unfortunately it lost a lot of it’s charm in the compression process, but it’s still great. It’s a funk version of Beethoven’s Fifth.
Andrew
Speaking of Tom Waits, back in the 70’s he did a nice take on “Somewhere” from West Side Story. It’s on the "Blue Valentines album.
My current favorite is, They Might Be Giants cover of “Yeh, Yeh” on their “Mink Car” CD.
William Shatner did and even more bizarre cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” It was recorded live from a Science fiction awards show he was hosting back in the seventies. It’s on the web somewhere but I don’t have the link right now.
Seeing as you guys are mentioning ‘normal’ William Shatner songs, I’m gonna assume that he didn’t sing YOUR NATIONAL ANTHEM on television! 
Gato Barbieri’s version of Carlos Santana’s “Europa”
The Sunday’s version of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”
Eva Cassidy’s version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time”
Ida’s version of Left Bank’s “Walk Away, Renee”
Eva Cassidy’s version of Sting’s “Fields of Gold”
Linda Ronstadt’s version of Elvis Costello’s “Alison”
Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Leaves’ “Hey, Joe”
Stanley Jordan’s version of Jimi Hendrx’s “Angel”
Tuck and Patty’s version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Castles Made of Sand”
David Bromberg’s version of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles”
Tuck and Patty’s version of Carlos Santana’s “Europa”
Janis Joplin’s version of “Summertime”
Eva Cassidy’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
All of the originals are great, too, except “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Eva Cassidy really lights it up for the first time. Too bad she’s dead.
I’ve got to hear that. Is it anywhere on the web? Did he speak it in that wonderfully emotive style of his? I didn’t think he actually “sang” anything.
I’ve heard that Shatner will be making a new CD with Ben Folds. He really seems to be having fun with his persona these days.
I must admit, I can’t get enough of it. He’s hilarious.
lets trade Rosanne Barrs version of The Star Spangled Banner for Shatners Oh Canada…
OK, I said sang, but if you’ve heard him, you know how it sounded! This was on some TV show, he came out on stage. People actually applauded (although I’m sure they were applauding Star Trek, or being poked with sticks)
I forgot about the Rosanne anthem singing. That one is worse, if I recall, she made it sound awful on purpose (the screeching part). WS actually seemed like he thought he was doing a good job
I wonder if the guy who casts the Anthem singing got fired, like c’mon, Rosanne ?!?
Best —
Nirvana’s cover of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World
Aerosmith’s cover of the Beattle’s Come Together
Worst —
The Class of 2000’s cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2
My fave cover is probably Tori Amos singing Nirvana’s ‘Smells like teen spirit’, although I did enjoy Tatu’s rendition of the Smith’s ‘How soon is now’
Bad covers… pretty much any of the stuff by manufactured boy bands. That really is a waste of time.
as far a reinterprative versions of songs go, u’ll go a long way to beat syd vicious’ version of ‘my way’
kinda bizarre yet unmistakeably something
limp biscuit’s version of george michael’s ‘faith’ must be one of the prettiest things i’ve heard for a while and korn teaming up with vanilla ice to finally bury the legacy of ‘ice ice baby’ was also beautifull
i recently heard a punk version of ‘scotland the brave’ that kinda pleased me
all time fav will probably be nirvana’s unplugged version of leadbelly’s ‘where did u sleep last night’
another one that deserves mention is ‘the australian doors’’ version of ‘stairway to heaven’
they unashamedly set out to record stairway in the style of the doors and as i heard it in a shopping centre for the first time couldn’t believe that there was a doors song i had never heard (i am quite a fan), slowly i started recognising lyrics and eventually realised what was going on
kewl experience
i like most of Goldfinger’s covers, mostly nite club and 99 red balloons.
i would like to say that i think it’s awesome that so many of you like bands like save ferris, and They Might be Giants!
matt
The songs from the last few years’ Red Nose Day spring to mind… horrid covers by whoever is having their 15 minutes of fame at the time.
What happened to the classics like The Stonk? That was great!
Phil
Wierdest cover I’ve heard was a cover of Andy Williams ‘Can’t take my eyes off you’ by muse. Nice relaxing song done by muse in their normal relaxed, calm tone. Quite good though.
The cake song mentioned is also a classic. Foo fighters version of Baker Street is a quality tune as well.
Worst collection of covers, probably the last album by West A Gareth Young.
John