Acoustic Versions of Songs That Are Better Than The Original

"Everlong" first appeared as a single from Foo Fighters' second album, The Colour and the Shape. The song was a hit, but when Dave Grohl performed an acoustic version on Howard Stern's radio show, that version became a fan-favorite. The band started performing it live, and it even ended up on their greatest hits album.

"Black" appeared on Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten, in 1991. The label wanted the song to be an album, but the band decided it was too personal and refused to make it a single. During their 1992 MTV Unplugged concert, the personal nature of the song yielded an intense live version—a gut-wrenching performance elevated by Eddie Vedder's shaking, pained voice.

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One of Johnny Cash’s final hits, this gut-wrenching cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" is one of the reasons Cash will forever be remembered as a very special kind of legend. Pulling off old age isn't always easy for a legendary badass, but The Man in Black did it with class.

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Oasis' "Wonderwall" is a beautifully written song—a beautifully written, safe, and sterile song. Cat Power’s acoustic cover wasn't ever going to match the success of the original. It's a raw recording from the late '90s that didn't make the cut for her covers album, but BBC Radio 1 played it on air and it's been haunting us ever since.

Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged session was recorded on November 18, 1993. In early April of 1994, Kurt Cobain committed suicide. The Unplugged album was the first Nirvana album to be released after Kurt's death (but not the last). While hearing Nirvana perform some of their more mellow songs like "Dumb," "All Apologies," and "Pennyroyal Tea" was great, some of the best moments of that show came out of the interesting cover choices. One clear standout was their take on David Bowie's "Man Who Sold The World."

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The album version of Lykke Li’s "Tonight" appeared as an international iTunes bonus track for the Swedish singer's debut, Youth Novels. The original is pretty, but the stripped down acoustic take is stunning, and the video for it—shot in one live take by Christian Haag—is so simple and so heartbreaking.

Originally written by Leonard Cohen—a fact that is maybe overlooked by many casual listeners—"Hallelujah" is Jeff Buckley's most successful and recognizable song, even gaining him a posthumous Billboard No. 1 in 2008. The cover was based on John Cale's recording of "Hallelujah" from the Cohen tribute album, I'm Your Fan, and although the original is fantastic (obviously, 'cause it's Leonard Cohen), Buckley's slightly more delicate, angelic voice and spare acoustic instrumentation elevates his cover over the original.

This one is probably going to be controversial—Eric Clapton's "Layla" is a classic. But his Unplugged version in 1992? Even better.

This one appeared on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iTunes deluxe edition. The studio version from the band's It's Blitz! album is a little faster and more heavy-handed, but this slowed down, stripped back version is stunning, and those strings are the kind of things that tears are made of.

Although the production on the original kept fairly low key, a purposeful, meaningful song like this holds even more weight when stripped back the the barest of bones—namely Matthew Santos' simple acoustic guitar accompaniment. Santos kills the chorus on this one, too.

Robyn is a badass. She lays her vocals over the most unlikely of production and kills it every damn time. That being said, between dance-pop hits like "Indestructible" and collaborating with Snoop Dogg, we shouldn't forget that at the basis of Robyn's success is her voice. Her acoustic version of Body Talk's "Hang With Me," with its string section and twinkling piano, is the perfect setting for Robyn's emotive voice to take center stage for a tender ballad that hits harder than the original version.

Bonnie Rait's soft-rock originals (for this cover is a medley of two of her songs) are well-written for sure, but the lounge vibes they give off take away from the pure emotion in the lyrics. Bon Iver's tremulous, angelic falsetto and the simple piano accompaniment give the lyrics all the space they need to shine.

When two of the most recognizable voices in recent indie get together on a cover, the original has to be extremely good not to be immediately outdone. Well, the original was pretty good, but can't get anywhere near Gibbard and Feist's beautiful harmonizing.

The original version of "Saw Red" blends Sublime's punk and reggae stylings like so many other of their songs, but this acoustic version shows a gentler side of Bradley Nowell that made him so special to so many people.