I don't think I'd argue with the Bowie version being the favourite! I like it better than the original even! And I never thought of it fitting a more metal song but then when you think about it it suits any genre!
Funny, I was talking to my osteo the other day about the Beach Boys (I love my osteo - we talk about travel, surfing, yoga, music etc) because we'd been to the same fish and chip shop that has 50's and 60's tunes on rotation. He got in the car to play Beach Boys songs for his three young girls (all under 9) and then realised that he hadn't remembered how sexist and sexually objective the lyrics were - not something he wanted to play the girls. As I was listening it made me think of all the music I heard as a kid and never really thought about it, but it's one way that culture forms, right? We didn't really know the answer, save that any kind of text from the past is an opportunity to talk about these things with his kids. It certainly was something I hadn't thought about - I mean, Prodigy singing 'smack my bitch up' or Ice T singing about screwing the daughter of the granddaddy of the KKK is one thing, and the Beach Boys another!