Best 21st century cover of a '60s song?
 

What's your best example of a modern cover of a 1960s song?

Covers of older songs tend to be "updates" in a modern style. A lot of the time that loses the spirit of the song. But once in a while you hear one where the performer really understands the material.

For me, the best such example is Sid & Susie's 2006 cover of "Different Drum."



Sid is Matthew Sweet, and Susie is Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. They've released three albums together of covers from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, all excellent, all showing great love and respect for the songs, but to me this track is the standout. It starts from the Stone Poneys version (thankfully ignoring the Mike Nesmith version) and adds beautiful harmonies that are right in tune with its time.

What's yours?

This one pops up a lot in these types of threads.

This was probably off being 2000 or later by a few months, but I find it hauntingly beautiful and pleasing to the ear (and yes, the eyes!;))

Maybe not "the best" but it's the one that came to mind.

Thankfully ignoring the guy who wrote it's version?

Yes. That's why I didn't say "original version" when talking about the Stone Poneys. Nesmith deserves credit for writing the song, but his version is just bleh.

There's always this one::D

That one clearly starts from Nesmith's read rather than Ronstadt's. It's still better than his, but neither one is the pop confection the song is famous for being.

I still don't really know what I think of that. Sometimes I think it goes too far over the top, and sometimes I think the song really benefits from that treatment.

At the risk of hijacking my own thread: There's a young lady, Malinda Kathleen Reese, who does videos where well known songs have had their lyrics mangled by sending them through several languages in Google Translate. Here is her version of that song:



The translations are pieced together, line by funny line, from the Google Translate efforts of her Patreon supporters. (Two lines from my own effort made it in: "with regard to training" and "and a funny voice.")

The Sweet/Hoffs stuff is just great, and I think you might have picked the best of theirs to kick this off.

I hoped I had. There's hardly a false note anywhere on those three albums. They clearly love these songs and treat them beautifully. The '60s collection is the strongest, though.

Here's another great one from the same collection:

I think Disturbed nailed it with that rendition...

Not exactly sure what that was supposed to be, but it became too annoying to watch...

Comedy. :)

Are parodies allowed?

Heart’s version of Stairway to Heaven comes to mind although, the song having been released in 1971, is, technically speaking, not a ‘60s song.

These guys do fantastic Beatle covers. Here's one of my faves!
Dig those bass lines!!