It's usually blasphemous to try and take a Beatles song and make it better.
While no artist has ever made a Beatles song better than it's original version, there are those rare songs that came close.
It usually goes down to expanding and experimenting with the material and making it their own. Trying to copy The Beatles and be The Beatles will lead to outright failure.
With that said, here are some covers of Beatles classics that are pretty good actually.
1. "Come Together" - Aerosmith
The 1978 "Sgt. Pepper" movie starring Peter Gabriel and The Bee Gees is AWFUL. I know because I've actually seen it. The one good moment of that movie is Aerosmith (who were somehow the villains of the movie) doing a really solid version of the classic "Come Together."
While Aerosmith is known for their own original classics such as "Dream On" and "Walk This Way," their cover of "Come Together" is still one played regularly on rock radio.
2. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" - Across The Universe
Julie Taymor "Across The Universe" gets mixed reviews to this day as a musical-movie of Beatles songs, but one of the best spins they did on a Beatles classic is "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." Instead of being the typical candy pop-song that it originally was, this cover looks inside the mind of a cheerleader with the desire to be with another girl in her high school.
3. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - Regina Spektor
"Kubo and The Two Strings" is one of my favorite movies of the past five years. At the end credits of this beautifully designed and wonderfully animated masterpiece is a cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" sung by Regina Spektor (singer of the "Orange Is The New Black" theme song as well). What makes the cover of it incredible is the inclusion of Asian instruments to give a fresh new feel to this 50-year-old song. It somehow made a perfect movie even better.
4. "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" - Elton John
Considering that John Lennon and Elton John got along well in the 1970s, it would only be appropriate for Sir Elton to be the one to cover one of the iconic songs of The Beatles catalog. The lyrics of a classic Elton John song are similar to the lyrics of "Lucy" because of their remarkable details and storytelling. They each create a setting and characters like out of a movie. Elton even adds some new features to "Lucy" including a Jamaican guitar.
5. "With A Little Help From My Friends" - Joe Cocker
Arguably his signature hit, Cocker managed to take The Beatles brief and catchy tune from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and expand it to a great rock anthem.
6. "Across The Universe" - Fiona Apple
Featured in the 1998 cult classic "Pleasantville," Fiona Apple offers a more downbeat and fantastical version of John Lennon's beautiful tune.
7. "And I Love Her" - Kurt Cobain
One word: HAUNTING.
8. "Hey Jude" - Wilson Pickett with Duane Allman
"Hey Jude" is like the Michael Jordan of Beatles songs, so it's shocking to say that there's a cover that's actually good. Wilson Pickett and Duane Allman add some soul and rhythm to Paul McCartney's masterpiece.
9. "We Can Work It Out" - Stevie Wonder
There are few voices in history that could take the vocals of a Beatles song and make it better, and that's exactly what Stevie Wonder did with "We Can Work It Out." By adding his signature sounds and style to this Beatles Number 1 hit, it sounds like Stevie wrote the song itself.
10. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - Tom Petty, Prince and Jeff Lynne
We already saw one version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", but this one can't be ignored.
One year to the day of George Harrison's death, his friends and peers paid tribute with a "Concert For George" and the closing song was his greatest masterwork.
Add in the fact that both Prince and Tom Petty have since passed and it's impossible not to cry watching this.
