For her debut album, Britain's Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle performed a mix of cover songs ranging from Christian hymns to Top 40 hits, and gave them all her own unique interpretation.

The song that made Boyle famous has been previously performed by many artists, but the best-known performance was by Tony and Olivier winner Patti LuPone on the original cast recording of Les Miserables. LuPone sang the song in the role of the tragic Fantine in the West End production of the musical.

Neil Diamond offered his gusty, masculine take on "I Dreamed a Dream" on his 1987 live album, Hot August Night II.

It's a testament to the power of the slow-building rock ballad that its declaration of undying love sounds completely different coming from the somber Boyle, the often-sneering Mick Jagger, and The Sundays, who recorded the song in 1992. Is it forlorn? Hopeful? Desperate? It all depends on the singer, and the listener.

Written for Ella Fitzgerald, the sultry torch song became best-known when performed by smoky-voiced actress and singer Julie London in 1955. It stood out from the rock 'n' roll that filled the soundtrack of the 1956 satire The Girl Can't Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield, and has beautifully endured to make another prominent appearance in the 2006 film V for Vendetta. Julie London

One of the most contemporary songs in Boyle's repertoire, the inspirational 2007 tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., written by singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, gorgeously evokes country and gospel. It was previously performed by Solomon Burke and Kelly Clarkson, with Jeff Beck on guitar, in an "Idol Gives Back" episode of American Idol.

Boyle has said this 1995 Madonna ballad, originally recorded for the album Something to Remember, is her response to the bullies of her childhood. Boyle's interpretation lends new meaning to the song about rebuilding after heartbreak.

Notably more upbeat song than most of Boyle's selections, this Monkees tune gets the melancholy treatment from Boyle, who brings the peppy original's wistfulness to the fore.

Skeeter Davis' stoically plaintive anthem of lost love hauntingly recalls the lost innocence of 1963 — most recently in the Mad Men episode "The Grown Ups," about President Kennedy's assassination.