Ooo, yay, I love this question! Seconding This Mortal Coil’s Song to the Siren. I love the Cowboy Junkies’ cover of Powderfinger (even though they’re probably better known for their covers of Sweet Jane and Blue Moon). Also Patti Smith’s cover of When Doves Cry omg.
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So glad that yer diggin’ Failure. They are seriously underrated. Fantastic Planet is an amazing album.
I think you might like this song…
!!! - Even When The Water’s Cold
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Keeping the cover thing alive… I had a bit of a crush on Laura Branigan growing up. I mean, can you blame me?
Anyway, her version of Gloria blows the original away!
Original Song → Umberto Tozzi - Gloria
Laura Branigan - Gloria (Cover)
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Laura Branigan is fantastic.
I’ve been listening to Phosphorescent’s cover of “Ya Hey” by Vampire Weekend a lot lately. Love the original, but the cover sands off the abrasive chirpy edges that annoy my family members.
I never heard Ya Hey before. Sorry to say, but… I’m with your family on this one. I like the cover by Phosphorescent more. 
I posted this one a while ago, but it’s worth repeating. Local H managed to take an annoying Britney Spears song and make it absolutely rock.
Original Song → Britney Spears - Toxic
Local H - Toxic (Cover)
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lol, Local H. I mostly know them as the band with a hilariously massive self-own in the chorus of “High-Fivin’ Motherfucker”: “You got no taste in music and you really love our band”.
Few bands go around saying people with no taste in music really like 'em. 
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I want to play!
I would challenge y’all to name the original band for this one, but someone spoiled it in the comments.
And a few normal ones for anyone who isn’t a musical eccentric like me.
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I like that cover of Creep. Great find! 
However… anything but Cake!
I heard that song on the radio long ago and thought it was the worst cover I had ever heard in my life! I’m so sorry, but the song vexes me… I feel quite vexed.
Now this is a cover of Black Sabbath’s song I can get behind…
Faith No More - War Pigs (Cover)
Edit: I’m still trying to figure out your first song of the three. I won’t cheat though so I’ll give it another listen soon.
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Oh, nah, go for the real Faith No More. Epic and From Out Of Nowhere are worth the try. But Caffeine… Lmao that’s for if you’re getting yourself ready to do something adrenaline-filled and dangerous!
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So, I thought of the obvious example of Devo’s deconstrucción of Rolling’s Satisfaction, or what my fettish band, The Cramps made with Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock (which, I incidentally discovered last summer, was somehow more comercial but clearly inspired in the very experimental and disrupting versión played by James Chance and The Contortions at the CBGB in 1978) or the real cool mix the mexican Moderatto guys made with José Alfredo Jiménez’s classic “El rey” and The Clash “Should I Stay or Should I Go” … but I’m busy at job and literally don’t have the time to link all of them so my choice is…
… this really nice cover the australian band Icehouse made of Velvet Underground classic “All Tomorrow’s Parties” which actually exploits the original’s potential for sounding like a Christmas Carol!
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Someone else mentioned The Divine Comedy in their iceberg.
I mainly listened to the band’s albums when I found them 2014-2015. Mainly the Liberation/ Promenade/Casanova trilogy and a few others. Along with Regeneration and Bang Goes the Knighthood they’re some of my favorite albums.
Anyway, I decided to put on Fin de Siecle the other day. I never really listened to it, and I still don’t like it very much. However, I put on the extended version, and found this:
Maryland Electric Rainstorm
It’s very addictive and more listenable than pretty much anything on the album, apart from “Certainty of Chance” and the upbeat but overrated “National Express.” Maybe it doesn’t fit with the ‘end of the century’ concept, but it’s a pretty loose theme.
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Keeping on the original/cover topic… I’m attending next month to the farewell concert of El Columpio Asesino, a highly loved local indie band from Spain, and couldn’t help remembering their cover of “Vamos” from the Pixies, which is something like… passing the original through a PaulXstrecht filter and then try to make It some… danceable thing… sort of…
Original:
Cover:
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I remember this guy who made a “Celebrity Pixies Tribute” where he imitated what if various bands covered the Pixies. He had Jimi Hendrix cover “Vamos”:
The vocals are surprisingly spot on, LMAO.
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Last night I saw Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets live so I’ve been on a kick of their stuff. It’s very fun to me that in his 70s the guy who wrote Cruel to Be Kind, [(What’s So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding), and I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ‘n’ Roll) hooked up with a band that plays surf rock in luchador masks, toured with them, then they started writing new songs together.
Half a Boy and Half a Man: https://youtu.be/XQ7iXFJHvfY
I Went to a Party: https://youtu.be/3WMon2-5uxo
I had a Divine Comedy compilation album years ago. National Express is the standout, of course. I also always liked this one. They do a good line in narrative songs of romantic intrigue/betrayal (see also their song, Our Mutual Friend):
From the Youtube comment section:
I drove my rental car off a mountain in the rain in Slovenia after getting a bit excited singing along to this! I was fine, the car not so much…
Scott Walker launched his solo career by being the world’s foremost Jacque Brel cover artist, and while Jackie is the most bombastic and perhaps well known of these songs, I really also really enjoy Mathilde (original), which makes the return of a lover sound like the arms-wide embrace of a haunting revenant come to destroy the singer’s life. Truly eldritch:
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I drove my rental car off a mountain in the rain in Slovenia after getting a bit excited singing along to this! I was fine, the car not so much…
Ha, as someone else noted in the comments this is suspiciously similar to a few lines in their other song, “Your Daddy’s Car.” But not exactly the same. Benefit of the doubt, I guess? 
I’ve heard a few songs by Scott Walker (and The Walker Brothers) but find it hard to get into his more ‘out there’ stuff. I do prefer his original “Nite Flights” to the David Bowie cover. I also like “The Seventh Seal,” “Shutout,” and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.”
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Speaking of covers by Scott Walker, I also like his version of the Toni Fisher hit, The Big Hurt. The original had a very pronounced flanging phase effect.
Nowadays Toni Fisher’s music rather reminds one obliquely of the original Sims shopping music:
With some recommendations from people on and off this forum, I’ve curated a playlist of unsettling Halloween songs. Admittedly, it’s mostly rock and Radiohead. But …
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Mostly Radiohead is an understatement XD
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