Original v. Cover: Higher Ground

[NSL]

Stevie Wonder has a number of classic hits, and sadly, gets forgotten when the greats of all time are mentioned. A few of his songs can be considered among my favorites, but this one wins out. The Red Hot Chili Peppers (or RHCP) are a band that gets a lot of credit for being among the first to mix funk in with rock, and covered this song very early in their careers.

The Original:

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The Cover:

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I love what RHCP did with the song, as they made it their own and rocked with it. They did an excellent cover, and this is probably one of the best songs they've ever done. However, it doesn't beat the original. It takes away a lot of the meaning behind it, but it's still very, very good.

 

[X]

Well hot damn, finally a match up where I can vote for the cover. Higher Ground may just be my all time favorite RHCP song, used to love that song to death when I was like 12 years old. Stevie Wonder is a legend, and his original is a classic song, but I can't enjoy it nearly as much as the cover by RHCP. Probably because of the nostalgia of listening to it, but I still love it after all these years.

 

[Loveless]

Yeah finally we're getting into the good stuff.
I'm taking Stevie Wonder on this. If you're going to cover him, you damn well better try and do something different with his songs because you're not going to beat the master at his own game. RHCP don't, the song is essentially the same. Purely on a creative aspect, Wonder destroys the cover as not only did he write and produce this, he played every instrument on it.

 

[Alex]

It's not often that the cover is more well known than the original but this is one of them. Red Hot Chilli Peppers made this song their own, they changed the beat and gave it a more rock orientated feel. Stevie's is great with the funkiness but the Peppers just have that edge over him