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March 28, 2024, 11:18:07 AM

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Songs That People Don't Know Are Covers

Started by lazyhour, June 28, 2020, 11:55:06 AM

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flotemysost

Tainted Love is an obvious one. I bet there was a generation of music snobs who delighted in reprimanding their teenage Marilyn Manson fan offspring by saying the original was better, without realising the Soft Cell version is a cover.

Not a famous/notable song, but I remember being perplexed as a seven or eight-year-old when Witchdoctor by the Cartoons was on Top of the Pops and my mum told me it was a cover version of a track from when she was around my age - I couldn't get my head around the fact that something so ostentatiously hyper and plastic sounding had existed in the grey 50s (obviously I wasn't familiar with Pinky and Perky/any of the millions of other weird 50s novelty pop acts).

lazyhour

Some great ones here so far. The two Tina Turner ones in particular have blown my mind.

Just thought of another one. I would assume everyone thinks Annie Lennox's No More I Love Yous was an original for her. Wrong! It was mid-80s song by The Lover Speaks.

here4glinner

Quote from: flotemysost on June 28, 2020, 06:36:17 PM
Not a famous/notable song ..... Witchdoctor by the Cartoons

You take that back!

Has anyone mentioned that song in the thread about songs with racially insensitive lyrics?


Jockice

Quote from: lazyhour on June 28, 2020, 06:55:15 PM

Just thought of another one. I would assume everyone thinks Annie Lennox's No More I Love Yous was an original for her. Wrong! It was mid-80s song by The Lover Speaks.

Who are mentioned in the lyrics. Although I can't say I'd heard of them until then.

Stoneage Dinosaurs

Dancing In The Moonlight. Took me until this year when I heard the original on a episode of Better Call Saul.

Quote from: Angrew Lloyg Wegger on June 28, 2020, 07:37:01 PM
Dancing In The Moonlight. Took me until this year when I heard the original on a episode of Better Call Saul.

I'll go to the foot of our stairs.

Captain Crunch

Do you mean the Thin Lizzy song or the Toploader effort?

Quote from: Angrew Lloyg Wegger on June 28, 2020, 07:37:01 PM
Dancing In The Moonlight. Took me until this year when I heard the original on a episode of Better Call Saul.

There's quite a chilling story behind this feelgood song.

"It was written by keyboard player/songwriter Sherman Kelly in 1969 after a trip to the Caribbean island of Saint Croix, where he was attacked by natives and left for dead. While he was recovering from his injuries, he wrote this song. "I envisioned an alternate reality," Kelly wrote on this website. "The dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life."


Jockice

Quote from: lazyhour on June 28, 2020, 06:55:15 PM
Just thought of another one. I would assume everyone thinks Annie Lennox's No More I Love Yous was an original for her. Wrong! It was mid-80s song by The Lover Speaks.

She did an album entirely made up of cover versions. Which was (as far as I know anyway) the only LP a friend of a friend has ever bought. Just one of those rare people of my age (I've only ever met one other) who has absolutely no interest in music.

grainger

Quote from: Pearly-Dewdrops Drops on June 28, 2020, 04:38:41 PM
These aren't that obscure but "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley and "Respect" by Aretha Franklin are sort of the signature songs of each artist that many probably couldn't think of anyone else writing.

Buckley covered John Cale's version, and pretty much everyone else covers Buckley's version, or another cover of it in turn. Cohen's original is substantially different. Which brings up a related subject - songs where everyone covers a cover, rather than the original.

Dr Rock

Now YouTube informs me that while Clout were showing their clout over here, a 'substitute' version was topping the aussie charts. By 'Peaches' Not that one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSaroSmyN2s

Keebleman

I found out very soon after first hearing it that Got My Mind Set On You was a cover, but can still remember how disappointed I was by the news.  I was 18 or 19 when it was a hit and had been a Beatles fan for only a couple of years so it was the first time I'd ever taken any notice of new music by George.  I was thrilled that he had released so perfect a pop song, but felt really let down when I learned that it was someone else's tune.

Still a great record though.

purlieu

The Number 1s thread surprised me with 'Unchained Melody' not only not being first performed by the Righteous Brothers, but not sounding even like the same song originally.

My mum has mentioned the aforementioned 'Valarie' by Amy Winehouse, and i always have to mention that not only was it originally by a bunch of Scousers with guitars, but even her version is actually Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse.

Jockice

Will Young's debut single Evergreen, released after he won the first series of Pop Idol in 2002, had originally been a track on the album Westlife had released the previous year. It had been out as a single in the Philippines though.

Sebastian Cobb

The Brains done Money Changes Everything before Cyndi did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWbp3w2eqM

Then there's of course Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which she turned on its head to be a feminist anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aLNwOxPsjg

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: kngen on June 28, 2020, 04:54:56 PM
Speaking of Blondie, Hangin' on the Telephone was originally recorded by The Nerves. Not as obscure a fact as it used to be, given that Jack Lee is finally getting his due as a power pop genius. (He also wrote Will Anything Happen? on Parallel Lines.)
And "Come Back and Stay" by Paul Young. I presume the resultant royalties from those three songs were a reason he didn't bother with the brief Nerves reunion.

Marner and Me

Not music but film, Scarface is originally out in the 30s. I'm sad enough to correct people about the apparent redo that is in the works.

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on June 28, 2020, 10:39:25 PM
The Brains done Money Changes Everything before Cyndi did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWbp3w2eqM

Then there's of course Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which she turned on its head to be a feminist anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aLNwOxPsjg

I listened to that Cyndi Lauper album a lot growing up, and when I finally heard the original Prince version of "When You Were Mine" I couldn't believe how I had missed how raunchy the song is.

studpuppet

Quote from: Marner and Me on June 28, 2020, 11:05:34 PM
Not music but film, Scarface is originally out in the 30s. I'm sad enough to correct people about the apparent redo that is in the works.

My family and I got a lockdown quiz question wrong because the quizmaster didn't know there have been four versions of A Star Is Born.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Pearly-Dewdrops Drops on June 28, 2020, 11:15:54 PM
I listened to that Cyndi Lauper album a lot growing up, and when I finally heard the original Prince version of "When You Were Mine" I couldn't believe how I had missed how raunchy the song is.

I'll need to have a whack at the Prince version.

I love She's So Unusual.

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on June 28, 2020, 11:19:07 PM
I'll need to have a whack at the Prince version.

One of my favourite early Prince songs!

Though when he sings it's harder to miss the meaning of lyrics like

Just like a train
You let all my friends come over and eat
And you were so strange
You didn't have the decency to change the sheets

Sailing - wee Rod Stewart's syrupy ode to leaving his homeland of Scotland north London to become a tax exile in the US of A.

Originally by the Sutherland Brothers Band in 1972 (notably less syrup and more percussion):

https://youtu.be/poDjuRlaNAg

here4glinner

Not only did Dolly Parton initially write and perform I Will Always Love You - most famously sang by Whitney Houston - but she also wrote it on the same day she wrote Jolene! A great day for music - and for her wallet. She's a very philanthropic person, too - she'll even send free books to your kid every month or so if you sign up for it.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Pearly-Dewdrops Drops on June 28, 2020, 11:26:36 PM
One of my favourite early Prince songs!

Though when he sings it's harder to miss the meaning of lyrics like

Just like a train
You let all my friends come over and eat
And you were so strange
You didn't have the decency to change the sheets


tbh, thinking about it I've almost certainly heard it.

I'm currently listening to the rest of my Brains LP after sticking on Money Changes Everything.

It's a good record. Not available on digital and goes for pennies on discogs, all with deletion marks on the sleeve. Mine says it's a promo copy, I must assume it didn't do well at the promo stage and got pulled.

The first version of I Think We're Alone Now wasn't the famous one by 80s teen star Tiffany. It was two decades earlier, by "Tommy James and the Shondells".

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMFLUXTEwM

A different vibe when dung by a man I'll take the Tiffany version any day.


buzby

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on June 28, 2020, 10:51:58 PM
And "Come Back and Stay" by Paul Young. I presume the resultant royalties from those three songs were a reason he didn't bother with the brief Nerves reunion.
Pretty much every song Young released in his peak No Parlez/Secret Of Association era was a cover - Wherever I Lay My Hat (a 1962 Marvin Gaye B-side), Love Will Tear Us Apart, Love Of The Common People (originally released by the Four Preps in 1967 and also covered by a whole host of other artists in the interim), Everytime You Go Away (a 1980 Hall & Oates album track), and I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (a 1972 Ann Peebles single),

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: buzby on June 29, 2020, 11:08:11 AM
Pretty much every song Young released in his peak No Parlez/Secret Of Association era was a cover
I did look it up and saw Jack Lee contributed two other songs to the perennial charity shop favourite 'No Parlez' album. I'm sure he enjoyed the cheques.

Though Young's greatest cover version crime for me was that attempt at Crowded House's 'Don't Dream It's Over'. At least the Joy Division one had some perverse comedy value.

Quote from: buzby on June 29, 2020, 11:08:11 AMand I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (a 1972 Ann Peebles single),
Always enjoyed Graham Parker and the Rumour's take on that song - plenty of venom in it.

Keebleman

Rockin' All Over The World is so strongly identified with the Quo that I should imagine most people believe they wrote it.  I remember John Fogerty finishing his set at Glastonbury with the song without explaining that he'd written it, thus no doubt bewildering 95% of those present.