1. Covers that change the melody or just don’t sound like the original
Wild Side of Life Charlie Feathers
Groovin’ Aretha Franklin
People Get Ready Aretha Franklin
It Was a Very Good Year Shirley Bassey
Pride of Man Quicksilver
2. Covers where there is something (melodic, instrumental part) added that wasn’t in the original
Summertime Janis Joplin (Big Brother)
For You Manfred Mann
Well Alright Blind Faith
3. Cover of a cover – better if it seems like the third artist isn’t aware that the song they’re covering was itself a cover
Red Red Wine UB40
You Don’t Miss Your Water Red, Red Meat
Cherry Oh Baby Rolling Stones
Don't follow this link for my comments on this category
4. Covers of lame songs by people who don’t seem to grasp that they’re lame
Angel of the Morning Shaggy (? -- I'm guessing that this is what I'm thinking of)
5. People don’t know or might be surprised that it’s a cover
Black Betty Ram Jam
Black Betty Odetta
I don't have the Leadbelly. Please don't write me (not on this at least)
6. Self-covers: Early versions
Questions Steve Stills
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
I Am a Child Neil Young
Sugar Mountain Neil Young
These two are from Buffalo Springfield, from Last Time Around
Long May You Run Neil Young
Harvest Neil Young
Ivory Bob Seger System
Hollywood Knights Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
“Ivory”: “You were born with a face / That would let you get your way” “Hollywood Knights”: “She had been born with a face / That wouldn’t let her get away / He saw that face and he lost all control”
Tobacco Road Jefferson Airplane
Cruisin’ Jefferson Starship
Melody is similar, but particularly rhythmic similarity. This is an original, self-rip-off, of a cover
7. Self-covers: Rewrites and retreads
Old Man Down the Road John Fogerty
Run through the Jungle Creedence Clearwater Revival
The famous example of this category
Don't Go Yaz
No Disco Depeche Mode
The Vince Clarke connection
Soul Survivor Rolling Stones (Exile)
Moonlight Mile Rolling Stones (Sticky Fingers)
8. Gratuitous covers: Needless, obvious covers that just shouldn’t have been done
Almost any cover that has charted since sometime beginning around the late '70s. To state an arbitrary beginning, let's say Captain & Tennile's cover of Shop Around by the Miracles
9. Criminal covers: Same as Gratuitous covers, but where someone actually might get hurt
Starting All Over Again Hall & Oates
Covering Mel & Tim. Mel & Tim had only two hits. I haven’t heard their other one (“Backfield in Motion”) on the radio in quite awhile. Their version of “Starting” got (very) limited airplay on Adult Contemporary into the ’90s (it’s too mellow for Oldies). Hall & Oates’s gratuitous, obvious cover threatens to supplant those occasional plays of the Mel & Tim version, and then, because the H&O version is sucky, it will fade from the radio, and neither version will be played.
10. Covers where the new interpretation seems to fail to grasp a subtlety in the original lyrics
Walk on By Isaac Hayes
Hayes sings “broken in two” instead of “broken and blue.” Understandable, since broken in two is a common phrase. He could plead the opposite of what the lameasses misusing common phrases could claim. That is: Bacharach and David should have known that the expression they were using was similar to a common expression and would likely be confused with it.
Tainted Love Gloria Jones
The "if I don't I'll pack my things and go" gets garbled, this time in the original; Marc Almond (not Mark-Almond), straightens it out in the Soft Cell cover
Three versions of “Orange Blossom Special” that speed up at the end
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Country Gentlemen
Doug Kershaw
Other versions “Orange Blossom Special”
Bill Monroe
Cover-like similarities in bluegrass
"Little Maggie" not only shares verses with "Darlin' Corey" in versions of them I have but I think there are musical similarities
Melody of "Battle of New Orleans" Johnny Horton (Jimmie Driftwood, songwriter) is the fiddle tune "Eighth of January," which I assume is Civil War era
"Pappa's Billy Goat" swallowed the "Turkey in the Straw"
Fiddlin' John Carson's Pappa has a section where the melody morphs into "Turkey in the Straw" and adds some words for it, in case one would want to do a vocal version of it. (A guy I know has found words for "Whiskey Before Breakfast" and "Dixie," which are two songs known mostly as instrumentals for decades.)