Simple concept, you pick your favourite out of the songs and say why! ( If you don't know a song, just miss it out, as there may be some difference between the British and US charts). My picks are shown by the smily face:

Soft Cell - Tainted Love  :D - Do I really need a reason for this choice!
Marylin Manson - Tainted Love

Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal  :D - Prefer the cover as it has more of a beat to it. I absolutly love it. It's the best song of 2001 IMO.

Erasure - A Little Respect
Wheatus - A Little Respect -  :D Have to say the cover again. Never really liked the original

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl  :D - Definitly original ( I will keep my reasoning to myself as it's embarrassing!)
Westlife - Uptown Girl

The Bangles - Eternal Flame  :D - No question about it. I hate the cover. Hoffs voice is just, well, fantastic!
Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

Go Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed  :D - Love The Go Go's
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are sealed
(Technically not a cover, as Terry Hall co-wrote the song with Jane Weilden - but I just want to know peoples's favourites!)

A-Ha - Take On Me  :D - Original is better
A1 - Take On Me

Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise :D - Original is better, don't like cover v. much
Brandy & Ray J - Another Day In Paradise

INXS - Just Keep Walking
Par-T-One - I'm So Crazy  :D - Good re-mix, like it a lot

Police - Every Breath You Take  :D - No question about it
Puff Daddy & Faith Evans - I'll Be Missing You

Foriegner - Cold As Ice
MOP - Cold As Ice  :D  Hmm, quite tough beacuse I heard the original after - just a good hip hop song IMO

Elaine Page & Barbera Dickinson - I Know Him So Well  :D Love original, although the cover is quite good
Steps - I Know Him So Well

Mel & Kim - Respectable  :D The others covered the song and hardly changed it!
Girls@Play - Respectable

Those are the ones which come to mind at the moment. If there are any more recent-ish covers you can think of, feel free to add to the list.

Personally I think Bjorn Again's version of 'A little respect' is the best !

;D ;D

...but, anyway, going back to the topic. I can't honestly think of song from the 80s that has been done up to (my rigid) standards. A few months ago, I got a double-CD set of Madonna covers. There were some real interesting ones in them, but the only two that stood out from the 24 songs were:

"This Used To Be My Playground" as covered by A Flock Of Seagulls (perhaps one of the best covers I have ever heard - since UB40's version of "Red, Red Wine"). This song came out in 1991, I think. The other is "Material Girl" as covered by KMFDM. This one is waaay psychotic-sounding, but a great cover, IMO. Still, I'd choose Madonna's original rendition of them (pretty much I'd choose the original over the cover hands down with very very few exceptions).

Other notable 80s covers:
-The Symphonic instrumental albums for Madonna and Depeche Mode.
-Erasure's Abbaesque ep and InSoc's cover of "Lay All Your Love On Me."

Tarzan Boy

Talking of Madonna has anyone else heard the original version of 'Like a prayer'? For the life of me I can't remember the blokes name who did it,it's good though,acoustic and a bit folkish.

John Waite--Missing You  :)
Brooks & Dunn--Missing You (Because they leave out the "at all" in the chorus, it makes it hard to sing along to if you remember the original.  Otherwise, a good song.)

Dexy's Midnight Runners--Come On Eileen  :)
Save Ferris--Come On Eileen (Why a ska version?)

Bananarama--Cruel Summer :)
Ace of Base--Cruel Summer (As Beavis once said during a Stakka Bo video, "Ace of Base sucks."  Actually, they don't.)

I don't think it was the original, as the song was written by Madonna and Patrick Leonard. It has to be a cover. There's lots of them, for example, John Wesley Harding covered it the very same year 1989.
http://www.coverinfo.de is always handy, even though it's in german...

Quoting:
Talking of Madonna has anyone else heard the original version of 'Like a prayer'? For the life of me I can't remember the blokes name who did it,it's good though,acoustic and a bit folkish.
End Quote

In most cases listed here, I have not heard the cover version, therefore I cannot fairly have an opinion. With the following exceptions:

"Our Lips Are Sealed"  I like both equally.

"Every Breath You Take/I'll Be Missing You" Puff Daddy's version has changed the words around so much, it's not even the same song to me.  I don't like it.  I prefer the original.

....I almost forgot.  Almost everyone has heard that Kelly Osbourne (Ozzy's teenage daughter) will be covering Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach".

Has it actually been recorded yet? Has anyone heard it?  Can she sing?