10 Songs That Got To Number One By Two Different Artists
1. Knockin On Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan And Guns N Roses
No other artist has really had their songs picked apart by different artists more than Bob Dylan. While no artist can sing a song quite like its composer, it's practically become a rite of passage for rock bands to cover a Dylan song during their peak years. The Byrds did it in the '60s...Rise Against tried their hand at it in the '00s....but Guns N Roses were one of the few able to strike pure gold on Knockin On Heaven's Door.
It's almost strange that this was the one Dylan song to make it big, with the original being the standout hit from a random Western movie soundtrack about Billy the Kid. Though the original managed to hold onto relevancy throughout the '70s, the hair metal bombast of GNR's version is still one of the most enduring rock songs of the '80s.
Compared to the raw and rugged performance that Dylan himself gave for the movie soundtrack, the unhinged vocals of Axl Rose makes the chorus line sound like a desperate cry for survival, as Slash's guitar puts everything else over the top. While Dylan has always been a bit tightlipped about other people interpreting his song, the royalty checks coming from this song's second life couldn't have hurt his impression of it.