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For me, it’s got my mind set on you by George Harrison, from the Beatles, I know there’s some context to this cover, but I just forgot that it was a cover until I saw a video about covers vs originals. Same with girls just wanna have fun by Cyndi Lauper, it was by a guy originally, and then she took it and made it about partying with your girl buddies. What was yours?
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Black Magic Woman by Santana is a Fleetwood Mac song.
And that song predates Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham. Stevie Nicks didn’t even know Fleetwood Mac wrote that song until they were preparing for their last tour.
(Judas Priest’s) The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) is a Fleetwood Mac song also.
And the instrumental coda (if the DJ doesn’t amputate it) is Gypsy Queen by the great Gabor Szabo
Oya Coma Va is also a cover
1985 by Bowling for Soup is a cover
Yup, sr71
“THE RUBBER BROKE!”
TIL
Boy Named Sue was originally written and sang by Shel Silverstein.
Johnny Cash had him on his variety show to sing it himself. Cash had a lot of respect for Shel Silverstein.
https://youtu.be/Dmt7wo0Tnr8?si=nKUUSAMq8muUBCTX
That singing voice though!
He sounds like he used to perform with "The Electric Mayhem"!
That guy had a very interesting life. He was a cartoonist for Playboy, wrote a bunch of songs, was the primary writer for Dr Hook and the Medicine Show and tons of other artists, all kinds of stuff. His Wikipedia page is definitely worth a read.
https://crazcowboy.tripod.com/Silverstein/markham.htm let me tell you, if you're into Shel and you can spare a half hour, his epic poem abput the devil, and a deadbeat, is better than Hamlet.
Woah this was totally worth the read
Wow. That was quite a ride. Thanks for sharing!
I read this in college for the first time. My jaw. Would not. Stop dropping
That makes so much more sense now.
Recently, Torn by Natalie Imbruglia.
EDIT: Good Lord guys. The question is "What song were you surprised was a cover." And I said recently, as in I recently discovered that Torn was a cover. It doesn't mean I recently heard the song or thought it came out recently. How are some of you so bad at inferring information based on context?
But Natalie is so much better.
Nah that original cut by Ednaswap is so good.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3Ko0HG4tuWVE7Q9do59z4m?si=uiPpDGNqRZyadqZhQ0FuuQ
Hooked On A Feeling by Blue Swede
Actually derives heavily from the Vanhouten classic Can I Borrow A Feeling
But his new "girlfriend" at the time,Starla, stole his car and tossed his demo tape onto the street. So, we only have some studio sessions that demonstrate the genius of the Vanhouten Experience
Can you give me the car keys, lover? I feel like changing wigs.
Kirk - go ahead homer, laugh at me… everyone else does…
Homer confused “I just DID”
I realized after hearing the original that I kinda hate the Blue Swede version
That's my just opinion, if you like it more power to ya, but I'll take the cool electric sitar over "ooga chaka" anyway
I knew that version first and I agree completely
Bj Thomas bb
OOGA SHAHAKA
OOGA OOGA OOGA SHAHAKA
Shahaka?
When the walls fell.
Darmok and jalad at tanagra!!
I did not know that
I thought Red, Red Wine was the one original UB-40 song that I knew. Nope.
My Limewire imported Red, Red Wine to my iTunes saying Bob Marley was the artist. Spent my teen years thinking it was by him lol
Limewire lol. Brings me back. Many times guessing which crappy download was best
Try "pink_floyd.exe"
Pink Floyd.exe... hilarious. Limewire, Napster etc was the wild West of what song you going to get compared to its title.
I downloaded some song that was rare unreleased Metallica song, years later up realized it was some garage band just fucking around. Still it was pretty good lol
As someone whose mother played Neil Diamond a lot growing up, it always surprises me when people don't know his songs.
Girl, you'll be a woman soon is one of them too.
He has *so many* songs that people know, but don't know it's by him.
Such as “I’m a Believer” by The Monkees (and Smash Mouth)
UB40 didn't even know it was a Neil Diamond song. An earlier reggae version was the one they knew
Wow, I had no idea. That’s a good one.
Always Something There to Remind Me by Naked Eyes
That’s a cover?!
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach.
"I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan (first on Prince's Prince)
Other notable Prince songs covered by artists who had bigger hits with them: Nothing Compares 2U and Manic Monday.
Manic Monday wasn't a cover really, it was written specifically for the Bangles, and he used a pseudonym for it
Wasn’t nothing compares to you done by the band prince was in before he got big? Then he essentially gave it to her.
Alexander Nevermind was one of his pen names. He used it to write Sugarwalls by Sheena Easton!
Manic Monday kind of gets into nebulous territory, because the Apollonia 6 version was recorded first, but then Prince decided not to release it and gave it to the Bangles who were the first to release it.
Performers who also work as songwriters for other artists get tricky.
See also: I Drove All Night. Recorded first by Roy Orbison in 87, but released first by Cyndi Lauper in 89.
Tainted Love by Soft Cell
The Tide Is High by Blondie
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow
Came looking for this (Tainted Love.) Gloria Jones did the original, and it's one of my favorite bits of music trivia.
The woman who was drinking the Mini in which Marc Bolan (T-Rex) died. They were partners.
Amazing how many Blondie songs were covers tbh, ‘Hanging on the telephone’ and ‘Denis’ were other ones
The original Nerves version of hanging on the telephone is pretty good
Yeah, “Hanging on the Telephone” would have been my answer.
I only figured the Tainted Love one out 2 days ago. Never knew.
When the Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin
Dazed and Confused is also a cover, originally written and recorded by Jake Holmes.
Isn't most of their first album covers?
Edit: 4/9 songs are covers.
There are so many led Zeppelin songs that are covers. (Cough rip-offs).
How Many More Times
Whole Lotta Love
Since I've Been Loving You
Gallows Pole
Black Mountain Side
Dazed and Confused
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
When the Levee Breaks
In My Time of Dying
Nobody's Fault but Mine.. etc
I bought a CD at Tower records in London England of all the originals of the ones I just mentioned. Pretty cool.
Levee is the one they credited (half anyway) to the original artist (Memphis Minnie).
Led Zeppelin, the greatest cover band of all time?
Thing is though, lot of the original version sound very different from LZ’s version. They’re great, but very old and very basic blues songs whereas LZ turned them into blues rock. That said, yeah, they should’ve absolutely given credit to the originals and made it known that they’re covers.
Personally, my favorite LZ songs don’t come along until Houses of the Holy anyway once they matured musically and they didn’t do as many covers.
"Sources of inspiration" great disc. Love bottle up and go off that one
Say sike rn wtf I did not know this.
The engineering of the drums on Zep’s track has defined my ears for drums in a mix. I always mix my drums to sound like When the Levee Breaks.
Dont be too amazed, the originals of many of these are the very very basic blues and sound like they were recorded through rotory telephone that was laying in a metal trash can.
Covers of older American folk and blues songs, more or less public domain songs were common around that time. House of the Rising Sun is a great example of a proper folk song that a variety of artists covered.
Most of the songs on Heart's '80s albums were covers of previously recorded songs by other artists that never got popular.
John Stamos sang “Alone” before Heart did.
Yet another reason that 80s heart is inferior to 70s heart.
I like em both for different reasons. I think they adapted well to the '80s and kept their career going, the '70s classic rock type sound was getting stale and their career wasn't going anywhere sticking to that. I'm a sucker for '80s cheese which I think they pulled off well.
I love Heart too and have always felt more affection for the earlier stuff like "Straight On" and "Magic Man" .
I heard "These Dreams" on the radio recently and it utterly blew me away. It's so beautiful melody, such a smoldery groove, such a cool lyric, and it feels like the 80's sound aesthetic is a big part of why the track works so well.