When you hear the lyrics, "I fought the law and the law won," which artist comes to mind? If you're musically inclined, a certain English punk-rock band likely pops into your head. And the crunchy guitar riffs and raw power of "American Woman" probably conjure the image of a flashy rock star and his Flying V guitar.

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A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to our weekly music trivia night at a local restaurant-pub. Every week, we get together with friends, enjoy a good meal, enjoy some laughs and get super competitive over a game of name that tune and artist. Every once in a while, a category comes up during the game that gets the room really talking and excited. I felt pretty confident.
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The best cover versions can truly reinvent a song — sometimes so much so that they become the definitive recordings. One of the greatest modern-day soul ballads, as written by… Black Sabbath? Sure enough, the Ozzy ballad proved the perfect vehicle for the soul singer Charles Bradley to eulogise his mother and generally pour his heart out. It would later be used to convey a different kind of change, on the animated TV series about puberty, Big Mouth. Nobody gave more soul to this oft-recorded Jackson Browne tune than Gregg Allman on his solo debut album, Laid Back. In turn, Browne gave Allman all the world-weariness he ever needed from a lyric. For their self-titled debut album, Chrissie Hynde and producer Nick Lowe give a great Kinks obscurity the Spector-type treatment it deserved in the first place. Plenty of people fell in love with both the cover and Hynde herself, including Ray Davies. Los Lobos gave it a personalised touch by adding the traditional Mexican flourish at the end. The sheer unlikelihood makes it hilarious, but The Wailers actually make a pretty great groove out of it.
Cover versions can be a delicate task. Do you simply copy a song or make it totally your own? Every artist has attempted a cover version of some kind during their career, and we've picked the times where they arguably improved up on the original:.