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Once again, I am falling in love with music. It's one of those evenings where I'm just doing nothing but sitting around and watching music videos on YouTube from bands and artists as diverse as Lynyrd Skynyrd, New Order and… ABBA.

Anyway, instead of a meaningless introduction to transition from that to what I'm going to talk about next, I'm just going to get right to it: this is a list of my most favourite cover versions of songs that were better than the original.

“Light My Fire” — José Feliciano (originally by the Doors)

The blind, Puerto-Rican guitar master José Feliciano took the Doors most popular hit and beautifully reduced it to a mellow, candlelight-mood song… in keeping with the theme of the song.

“All Along The Watchtower” — Jimi Hendrix (originally by Bob Dylan)

While Bob Dylan's singing is indeed an acquired taste, undeniably, he is one of the twentieth-century's best composers if not the best. His song “All Along The Watchtower” has been covered by many bands — too many to count: U2, the Grateful Dead and Dave Matthews Band have all performed the song live on their tours. In the case of Dave Matthews Band, it acts as one of the highlights of their concerts. However, no one (not even Dave Matthews or even Bob Dylan himself) can do better than the person whom Rolling Stone declared as the best guitarist ever: Jimi Hendrix. Indeed, after Jimi Hendrix covered the song, Dylan changed his performance in his concerts to match that of Hendrix's.

“Helter Skelter” — U2 (originally by the Beatles)

Charles Manson stole this song from the Beatles. U2 stole it back.

“With A Little Help From My Friends” — Joe Cocker (originally by The Beatles)

Joe Cocker's career mostly consisted of covering Beatles songs. Fortunately, he was good at it. Cocker took Ringo's track off of Sgt. Pepper's and made very generous changes to the song making it quite possibly his most famous work.

“Sweet Jane” — Cowboy Junkies (originally by Velvet Underground)

If Velvet Underground sang this song drugged up on speed, Cowboy Junkies redid it on a sleepy heroin trip.

“Mad World” — Gary Jules (originally by Tears For Fears)

Gary Jules masterfully took a sad, depressing song and, somehow, made it even more depressing… in a good, raw way.

“It's My Life” — No Doubt (originally by Talk Talk)

Many people are unaware that this song is even a cover as it was one of No Doubt's bit hits. Turn up the subwoofer to get the baseline in this song.

“Hurt” — Johnny Cash (originally by Nine Inch Nails)

Recorded near the very end of his life, Johnny Cash outright stole this song from Trent Reznor who stated that he would no longer sing it as it had become “Johnny's song”.

“Just Like Heaven” — Katie Melua (originally by The Cure)

I'm biased with this one as Katie Melua is pretty much my new crush these days filling the hole that Norah Jones once filled. It also comes in a radio version that rivals her album version.

“Mr. Tambourine Man” — The Byrds (originally by Bob Dylan)

Some of my friends have probably branded me as a heretic for even entertaining the thought that the Byrds did a better job than Dylan himself on this song. Sorry, but I kind of like the electric that the Byrds provide and Dylan doesn't.