Handsome Dick's non-voice and delivery is original. And he - like The Dictators as a whole - epitomizes NYC Boroughs culture to me. It's the (non-)singer, not the song.
Barry McGuire's original rendition was of course great, no argument. It had a compelling urgency to it and it expressed the (angsty) times as iconic songs often do. I haven't heard it bettered by anyone, not by the Pretty Things ...
And not even by P.F. Sloan who originally wrote it (I knew it wasn't a McGuire composition, but was unaware that Sloan was the writer).