Absolutely, this cover blows away the original. There is so much energy and pathos and raw honesty with the tone Shatner brings into it.
I have shown this to roughly 7 people and not one of them prefers the original. They are very different, in that the cover is meant to be in stark contrast to the more dream like tempo and presence of the original, and I do really like the original, but thems the breaks. Shatners versions works a lot better on repeat listens, where as the original takes forever. There are some sublime moments in the song, but the awkward almost signing/talking gets in the way as it trips over the more conversational dialogue (which is where the cover side steps the issue by having Shatner literally talk and Ben Folds belt it out in full song) and never really ends on a proper denouement of the song, it either needs to rip open more or go more subdued, but as it stands the song just feels like it awkwardly draws to a close without much to say for itself.
Pulps Common People is a near miss of a song, and some people may even believe that the Shatner cover is aiming at a lower common denominator, but it executes better than the original ever did.
