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Songs where the famous version is a cover

Started by SteveG1988, October 06, 2014, 12:32:02 PM

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akotchi

Quote from: NJRoadfan on October 06, 2014, 06:39:10 PM
"If You Asked Me To" by Celine Dion was far more popular than the original Patti Labelle version. I didn't even know the latter existed until I heard it play over the credits of "License to Kill".
Celine Dion also covered "Power of Love," which was originally done by Jennifer Rush in 1984.

Phil Collins did "A Groovy Kind of Love," which covered a previous version by The Mindbenders.
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roadman

Carole King's "You've Got a Friend".  For many years after it was released, James Taylor's version got far more air play than the original did.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

Brian556

Quote from atohi:
Quote
Celine Dion also covered "Power of Love," which was originally done by Jennifer Rush in 1984.

Phil Collins did "A Groovy Kind of Love," which covered a previous version by The Mindbenders.

Air Supply also did "The Power of Love".

As for "A Groovy Kind of Love", I like Phil Collins's version, but the Mindbenders version has better rhythm/timing/ect.

1995hoo

"Mr. Tambourine Man" as recorded by the Byrds was certainly a bigger hit and more popular than Bob Dylan's original. Whether it is more "famous" might be debatable.

Same might be true for their version of "My Back Pages," too.
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—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
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agentsteel53

Quote from: SteveG1988 on October 06, 2014, 12:32:02 PM
For example, in the USA the song Gloria is known as a Laura Brannigan hit from 1982

interesting.  when I think of "Gloria", I think of either Them or U2.  don't know if I've ever heard Laura Brannigan's song.
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admtrap

Not sure about relative popularity, but I remember when my younger brother was excited about this song from Limp Bizkit.  After actually realizing what was being screeched, I immediately said "Oh!  Faith.  That's a George Michael cover."  He didn't believe me (or my sister) until he was able to confirm with an internet search.  At the time I recall him being devastated. 

Also relevant:  http://www.vh1.com/music/tuner/2013-04-18/cover-me-20-famous-songs-you-had-no-idea-were-covers/


Pete from Boston

It's interesting that this discussion doesn't dip a lot before 1970.  If it did, there would be no end.  Sometime around then, for reasons not clear to me, there was a lessening of the practice of everyone rerecording everyone else's songs, which previously happened so much that it's hard to know where the sweater stops unraveling.

In any case, two from the fifties:

"Sh-boom," made famous by the Crew Cuts, but originally released by The Chords.  "Hound Dog," immortalized by Elvis Presley, originally recorded several years earlier by Big Mama Thornton.  Predictably for the time, both originals were recorded by blacks, and were rerecorded by whites more marketable to an America not yet comfortable with so-called "race records" (in the case of "Sh-Boom," just months after the original, and with far greater airplay).

Pete from Boston


Quote from: roadman on October 06, 2014, 07:42:13 PM
Carole King's "You've Got a Friend".  For many years after it was released, James Taylor's version got far more air play than the original did.

Carole King, however, wrote so goddamn many hits that everyone knows and don't know are written by her (and Gerry Goffin) that I'm sure she got over it.  "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "The Loco-Motion," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good," and so many more... all recorded by others, with the proceeds hopefully making it back her way.

roadman

Quote from: Pete from Boston on October 06, 2014, 08:32:12 PM

Quote from: roadman on October 06, 2014, 07:42:13 PM
Carole King's "You've Got a Friend".  For many years after it was released, James Taylor's version got far more air play than the original did.

Carole King, however, wrote so goddamn many hits that everyone knows and don't know are written by her (and Gerry Goffin) that I'm sure she got over it.  "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "The Loco-Motion," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good," and so many more... all recorded by others, with the proceeds hopefully making it back her way.
Point very well taken.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

hbelkins

How could I forget "Cum On Feel The Noize" by Quiet Riot, first performed by Slade?

QR didn't find the magic again when they covered "Mama Weer All Crazy Now."

Quote from: DandyDan on October 06, 2014, 04:38:48 PM

Quote from: Brandon on October 06, 2014, 01:44:29 PM
Van Halen's version of "You Really Got Me" is more famous due to a Nissan commercial than anything else, but may be equal in how famous and popular the song is.
I always thought the reason that one was famous was because every radio station played "Eruption"/"You Really Got Me", where it was always played as a medley, even though they are separate songs, like Queen's "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions".

Speaking of medleys, the album rock station in my area (WKQQ-FM in Lexington) used to play "Livin' Lovin' Maid" and "Ramble On" as a medley back in the vinyl days. When they switched over to CDs, the medley became "Hearbreaker" and "Livin' Lovin' Maid." I always wondered why.


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corco

Chris LeDoux's Cadillac Cowboy, originally written and performed by a little known (but awesome) bar performer named Chuck Pyle

Pete from Boston


Quote from: roadman on October 06, 2014, 08:44:33 PM
Quote from: Pete from Boston on October 06, 2014, 08:32:12 PM

Quote from: roadman on October 06, 2014, 07:42:13 PM
Carole King's "You've Got a Friend".  For many years after it was released, James Taylor's version got far more air play than the original did.

Carole King, however, wrote so goddamn many hits that everyone knows and don't know are written by her (and Gerry Goffin) that I'm sure she got over it.  "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "The Loco-Motion," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good," and so many more... all recorded by others, with the proceeds hopefully making it back her way.
Point very well taken.

Half of my pop-arcana knowledge of this kind comes from Alex McNeil's Friday afternoon (12-2) installment of Lost & Found on WMBR, 88.1 FM.  The man is an encyclopedia.  This thread topic, which he's done many shows on, is a softball for him.  He'll do two hours of things like "Country songs of the 60s by Americans that didn't chart here but were hits in the UK."  Also does a Saturday morning show playing the charts from a single station some particular week in time, showing the long-gone phenomenon of regional pop hits.  God bless those nerds. 

US71

I don't know which songs specifically, but Martha and the Vandellas had a number of songs that were remade as covers and became well known.
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briantroutman

The poster children for this category could very well be the Carpenters. In a sense, they were really a cover group and repackaging outfit–even when it comes to the songs that people identify as being "theirs" .

Relatively unknown versions of "(They Long to Be) Close to You"  were recorded by Dionne Warwick (1963), Richard Chamberlain (1963), Dusty Springfield (1964), and songwriter Burt Bacharach himself (1968)–and a truly awful version sung by Herb Alpert–all before the song became a #1 hit for the Carpenters in 1970.

Their signature song, "We've Only Just Begun" , was recorded by the song's lyricist, Paul Williams, for a Crocker National Bank commercial, which is how Richard Carpenter first heard the song.

"For All We Know" , "Superstar" , "Hurting Each Other" , "It's Going to Take Some Time" , "Sing" , "I Won't Last a Day Without You" –all are best known as Carpenters songs, and all are covers.

roadman65

Old Fashioned Love Song by 3 Dog Night is a cover that Paul Williams (Little Enos on Smokey And The Bandit) wrote and sung originally.

The Show Must Go On by 3 Dog Night uses a traditional song that Ringling Brothers uses in their circus as the verse intros.

Suzanne Vega uses the theme from I Dream Of Jeannie written by Hugo Montenero and Buddy Kaye in one of her songs.

Shaggy made a cover of Juice Newton's Angel of the Morning which also was a cover itself.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

Pete from Boston

You just delved into a fascinating and deep vein in this category by bringing Burt Bacharach (and Hal David) into this.  Their songs will send you chasing versions back through time (which, given their incredible talents, is a fun chase). 

The Carpenters were more part of an older showbiz tradition, I feel.  Their popularity happened during the last days of the "entertainers" on TV–people who would sing a song, any song, chat a bit and sing another song.  There was a blurrier connection between artists and songs in that world (except for signature songs like "Tie a Yellow Ribbon").  The Carpenters took a lot of not-original songs and made something new and good out of them.

Someone once tried to lecture me that there was no point in covering the Beatles and no one should even try.  I dismissed this, because like it or not, when everyone knows (and a lot of people like) songs, they more or less become our folk songs.  And the folk tradition is largely playing songs people know and love, not playing something to necessarily be new and different.

Pete from Boston

Another just came on where I am that illustrates the fact that there's a generational factor here.  "Signs" charted in one era by Five Man Electrical Band, in another by Tesla.  Two generations may never agree which is "the famous one."

roadman65

The same maybe said about two songs from the nineties that were covers.
I Swear by John Michael Montgomery later the same year covered by All 4 One could be considered equally popular by fans.
Then I'll Stand By You which was originally done by The Pretenders and later that decade by Carrie Underwood also has that generation gap as well as genre gap to make it debatable.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

OracleUsr

Someone mentioned Johnny Cash.  Isn't Soundgarden's Rusty Cage also a cover?

"Black Magic Woman" was, IIRC, done by Fleetwood Mac before Santana's version became one of their big hits.

As for Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell's part at the end "(high voice) Paved Paradise (low low voice) Put up a parking lot hahahaha" made that original song.
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getemngo

#44
Quote from: Pete from Boston on October 06, 2014, 10:31:20 PM
Another just came on where I am that illustrates the fact that there's a generational factor here.  "Signs" charted in one era by Five Man Electrical Band, in another by Tesla.  Two generations may never agree which is "the famous one."

That's true, and it makes me think of The Loco-Motion (which was already mentioned above). Little Eva's version and the Grand Funk Railroad version both reached #1. That's gotta be rare.


Quote from: SteveG1988 on October 06, 2014, 12:40:00 PM
I wish i could find it again but it has been taken down, the 1979 song Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles is a cover of a 1979 song called Video Killed The Radio Star, by Bruce Wooley and the camera club. Bruce Wooley, and Trevor Horn (Of the buggles) wrote it together. Weird cover story.

That sorta stretches the definition of "cover." A similar example is Do Ya by Electric Light Orchestra, which is technically a cover of Do Ya by The Move. But it was written by ELO lead singer Jeff Lynne, who plays guitar on both versions (but did not sing on the original), Bev Bevan plays drums on both versions, and Richard Tandy plays bass on the original and keyboards on the cover!
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Brian556

Quote from Roadman65:
QuoteI Swear by John Michael Montgomery later the same year covered by All 4 One could be considered equally popular by fans.
You forgot "I Can Love You Like That." This was an interesting instance of an artist taking two songs by another artist in a different genre and remaking them almost as soon as they became popular.

Later in the 90's, Country Artist Mark Wills did this with pop group 98 Degrees' song "I Do (Cherish You)"

roadman65

What is interesting is The Pointer Sisters came with I'm So Excited, but did not get airplay until Showtime made the song part of their advertising slogan: We Make Excitement.  I guess they owe the premium movie network for that one song, even though it might of become popular on its own at a later date.

On Celine Dion's Power of Love, it is to note that Air Supply also did that song as well, but instead of "I am your lady, and you are my man" the line was switched to "You are my lady, and I am your man"

Also Billy Squire also did Loco Motion.

Do not even forget Billy Idiol and his version of Mony Mony which was originally Tommy James and The Schondells.
The three versions of Rock N Roll Music, done by Chuck Berry, and covered both by The Beatles and Beach Boys
    were all popular.

However, I do not see George Harrison's My Sweet Lord as a cover to the Chiffon's He's So Fine as some dumb judge
     says so where George Harrison had to pay out royalties to the writer of He's So Fine before he died.  The two songs
     are somewhat a like, but not exactly as the court system has you believe.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

DandyDan

Quote from: OracleUsr on October 06, 2014, 11:44:07 PM
Someone mentioned Johnny Cash.  Isn't Soundgarden's Rusty Cage also a cover?

Soundgarden did the original on Badmotorfinger.

Another cover I should remember, because I always crank it up when I hear it on SiriusXM Ozzy's Boneyard, is Metallica's cover of "Am I Evil?" by Diamond Head.  I believe they play it at every concert and have for years.
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SteveG1988

There are two versions of Telstar

First performed by The Tornados in 1962 it #1 on the billboard hot 100.






Oddly enough both versions seem to get equal airplay nowadays, it probably comes down to licensing the song, one may be cheaper or easier for a station to get ahold of due to it being a different record company.

Another one would be the Peter Gunn theme, where the definitive version is by Duane Eddy





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Quote from: Brian556 on October 06, 2014, 11:48:57 PM
Quote from Roadman65:
QuoteI Swear by John Michael Montgomery later the same year covered by All 4 One could be considered equally popular by fans.
You forgot "I Can Love You Like That." This was an interesting instance of an artist taking two songs by another artist in a different genre and remaking them almost as soon as they became popular.

Later in the 90's, Country Artist Mark Wills did this with pop group 98 Degrees' song "I Do (Cherish You)"

I think it was a trend for a while for country musicians to do covers of romantic pop songs. I think Alabama did a cover of NSYNC's God Must have spent a little more time on you.




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