Nine Artists Who Re-Recorded Their Own Songs: Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and more

Musicians love doing their own interpretations of songs written by other people, but sometimes they make the unusual choice of recording new versions of their own songs. Sometimes this is done to improve on the original, but other times they simply want to take one of their old songs and try it in a different style. Here are nine artists who did just that.

1. Green Day - "Welcome to Paradise"

Green Day's 1994 breakthrough album Dookie isn't exactly a complicated production, but compared to their previous albums, it's a huge step forward sonically. This is most obvious when comparing their two different versions of "Welcome to Paradise"; the Dookie version is much richer and punchier.

2. Bob Dylan - "Girl from the North Country"

Dylan's original version of "Girl from the North Country" from 1963 is a beautifully autumnal folk song, but when he decided to go full-on country for 1969's Nashville Skyline, he opened the album with a re-imagining of the song featuring none other than Johnny Cash.

3. Mike Kinsella - "Never Meant"

Though Mike Kinsella's solo project Owen is basically a musical continuation of his previous band American Football, he almost never plays American Football songs on his own. The exception is his acoustic version of American Football's 'Never Meant", recorded for a split EP with The Rutabega.

4. Jackson Browne - "These Days"

Jackson Browne originally wrote "These Days" back when he was 16, but the first studio version of the song was sung by Nico for her debut solo album Chelsea Girl, featuring Browne on guitar. Browne would eventually record his own countried-up version of the song for his 1973 album For Everyman.

5. Lou Reed - Lou Reed (1972)

While most people think of Transformer as Lou Reed's solo debut, his eponymous debut was actually released the year before, consisting mostly of new versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs. The original versions of these songs would eventually be released as the compilation album VU in 1985.

6. Will Oldham - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music (2004)

Before he reinvented himself as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Will Oldham released four albums of stark Americana under various "Palace" monikers. In 2004, Oldham decided to do slick, upbeat re-recordings of 15 songs from his Palace days with Nashville session musicians, and the results sound so startlingly different that it almost seems like a joke.

7. Radiohead - "Morning Bell"

Because Radiohead's fourth and fifth LPs Kid A and Amnesiac were recorded during the same studio sessions, they're often thought of as two halves of the same album. Along with their similar musical styles, both albums share a song, "Morning Bell". Kid A's version is electronic and tense, while the Amnesiac version (titled "Morning Bell/Amnesiac") drifts along in a psychedelic haze.

8. David Bowie - "China Girl"

When Iggy Pop found himself broke in the early 80s, his friend David Bowie decided to record his own version of the song "China Girl", which the two had written together in 1977 for Pop's debut solo album The Idiot. Bowie's version became a big hit and helped out Iggy financially, just as Bowie planned.

9. John Fogerty - Wrote a Song for Everyone (2013)

Despite the fact that John Fogerty's songs with Creedence Clearwater Revival are widely loved classics, he teamed up last year with a crew of younger musicians (including Dave Grohl and Tom Morello) to record an album of new versions of his old CCR hits, as well as some songs from his solo career. Though Rolling Stone gave the album five stars, I don't think I'm the only one who prefers the rawer original versions.

Tags

Green Day, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, American football, Jackson browne, Nico, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Will Oldham, Bonnie 'prince' billy, Palace brothers, Radiohead, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival