What re-recording or variation of a classic song do you believe beats the original?

Disturbed's cover is gentle yet savage, with emotion ripping through the final verse. The first time I heard it, the hairs on my arms stood up. Bought that sucker on iTunes as soon as I got home that day.

Hell, "cover" is underselling it a little, as even the original artists they listed are just the ones with the oldest known recording, we don't know quite how far back it goes. Folk and blues standards can be so interesting with their histories. Copying the "Origin" section of the wikipedia article:

Like many classic folk ballads, "The House of the Rising Sun" is of uncertain authorship. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads, and thematically it has some resemblance to the 16th-century ballad The Unfortunate Rake. According to Alan Lomax, "Rising Sun" was used as the name of a bawdy house in two traditional English songs, and it was also a name for English pubs. He further suggested that the melody might be related to a 17th-century folk song, "Lord Barnard and Little Musgrave", also known as "Matty Groves", but a survey by Bertrand Bronson showed no clear relationship between the two songs. Lomax proposed that the location of the house was then relocated from England to New Orleans by white southern performers. However, Vance Randolph proposed an alternative French origin, the "rising sun" referring to the decorative use of the sunburst insignia dating to the time of Louis XIV, which was brought to North America by French immigrants.

"House of Rising Sun" was said to have been known by miners in 1905. The oldest published version of the lyrics is that printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925, in a column "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" in Adventure magazine.

The oldest known recording of the song, under the title "Rising Sun Blues", is by Appalachian artists Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster, who recorded it 6 Sept 1933 on the Vocalion label (02576). Ashley said he had learned it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley. Roy Acuff, an "early-day friend and apprentice" of Ashley's, learned it from him and recorded it as "Rising Sun" on November 3, 1938. Several older blues recordings of songs with similar titles are unrelated, for example, "Rising Sun Blues" by Ivy Smith (1927) and "The Risin' Sun" by Texas Alexander (1928).

The song was among those collected by folklorist Alan Lomax, who, along with his father, was a curator of the Archive of American Folk Song for the Library of Congress. On an expedition with his wife to eastern Kentucky, Lomax set up his recording equipment in Middlesboro, Kentucky, in the house of the singer and activist Tilman Cadle. In 1937, he recorded a performance by Georgia Turner, the 16-year-old daughter of a local miner. He called it The Rising Sun Blues. Lomax later recorded a different version sung by Bert Martin and a third sung by Daw Henson, both eastern Kentucky singers. In his 1941 songbook Our Singing Country, Lomax credits the lyrics to Turner, with reference to Martin's version.

For a few versions of the song by notable artists predating the version by The Animals:

Leadbelly, another version with Leadbelly on guitar

Woody Guthrie

Bob Dylan

The Prince version of Nothing Compares 2 U that was released last year actually predates the version by The Family, but it wasn't released at the time as it was more of a demo for the Family project. The Family version is still largely a Prince track, as he is playing all instruments (uncredited) save for the saxophone (Eric Leeds) and the string orchestration (Clare Fisher), with St Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin on vocals.

My favourite version of the song is the one included on Prince's 1993 Hits collection, which has a live recording of the song from 1992, with Prince backed by the NPG and Rosie Gaines sharing vocals.

• The Dead Kennedys - Viva Las Vegas by Elvis
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder
• Paul Anka - Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
• Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie
• Peter Sellers - A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles
• Godflesh - For Those About To Rock by AC/DC ... and
• Godflesh - Requiem by Killing Joke
• Hiss & Bigman - Despacito by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee

A few Rolling Stones covers:

• Devo - I can't get no satisfaction
• Laibach - Sympathy for the Devil
• The Sisters Of Mercy - Gimme Shelter

The Sisters Of Mercy did a few surprising goth covers

• The Sisters Of Mercy - Emma by Hot Chocolate
• The Sisters Of Mercy - Gimme Gimme Gimme by ABBA
• The Sisters Of Mercy - Jolene by Dolly Parton

Since we've finished with Dolly, not everyone knows she originally wrote I Will Always Love You after... - well, she explains it best - because the later cover by Whitney massively overshadows the original.

It takes a while to listen to them all but there is still more if you want....