Songs where the famous version is a cover

[KEVIN_224]

Annie Lennox had a big hit in 1995 with "No More I Love You'd". Turns out some obscure British band did it first around 1986. Haven't heard it in ages, but kinda liked their version, too.

[ethanhopkin14]

Rod Stewart's "Downtown Train" is way more popular than songwriter Tom Waits' version.

"Me and Bobby McGee" of Janis Joplin fame, written and performed originally by Kris Kristofferson. 

Everything Guy Clark wrote, Jerry Jeff Walker about covered and made it famous, particularly "L.A. Freeway"

Bonus: "Unchained Melody" is actually a cover of a song from a movie called Unchained, then the Righteous Brothers made it a phenomenal hit and a rock legend. 

[US71]

Pat Benatar's "We Belong" is a cover of a song written by a fairly obscure Los Angeles folk duo. Pat and Neil Giraldo like to pretend publicly that the song was entirely theirs.

Pat made her career off covers. Her version of "You Better Run" was the second song ever played on MTV (some critics called it the first "proper" song, which I interpreted as MTV paying the Bungles Buggles to make "Video Killed the Radio Star").

"Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles dates from 1979, two years before MTV even got on the air.  It was chosen by MTV for a rather obvious reason for their first video.

[Henry]

Another technicality exists with Drift Away, which the late Dobie Gray made a hit in the 1970s. Since Uncle Kracker's cover of the song debuted in 1999, his version is the better-known one, although Gray is still singing on it as well. In this regard, it is similar to Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with George Michael and Elton John's duet outdoing John's original by a long shot).

[SEWIGuy]

Another technicality exists with Drift Away, which the late Dobie Gray made a hit in the 1970s. Since Uncle Kracker's cover of the song debuted in 1999, his version is the better-known one, although Gray is still singing on it as well. In this regard, it is similar to Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with George Michael and Elton John's duet outdoing John's original by a long shot).

The original was a top 10 hit and was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year.

[Stephane Dumas]

G.C. Cameron's song "It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday" who was part of the movie soundtrack of Cooley High got a bigger success when Boyz II Men covered it.

[US71]

Another technicality exists with Drift Away, which the late Dobie Gray made a hit in the 1970s. Since Uncle Kracker's cover of the song debuted in 1999, his version is the better-known one, although Gray is still singing on it as well. In this regard, it is similar to Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with George Michael and Elton John's duet outdoing John's original by a long shot).

I've not heard the cover.

[roadman65]

Now the Toto song Africa  cover that is been out for a while is being played more than original back in the 80's.

[michravera]

Another technicality exists with Drift Away, which the late Dobie Gray made a hit in the 1970s. Since Uncle Kracker's cover of the song debuted in 1999, his version is the better-known one, although Gray is still singing on it as well. In this regard, it is similar to Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with George Michael and Elton John's duet outdoing John's original by a long shot).

I've not heard the cover.

I discard the term "cover" in favor of "remake" anytime anyone who was involved in the production of the original song is in any way involved in the second version. Anything which Paul or John, Ozzy, Brian or Mike, or Pete (or any of the boys or 1Ds) subsequently did on their own or with others or which Elton subsequently did with someone else is a "remake".

You get into a grey area when the voice of a dead person is tracked into a later duet with a latter day star. I've got several karaoke hits of this kind. But, still, I would think of these as "karoke covers".

You also get into a grey area when a writer or singer on the original just plays an instrument on the second version.

[SEWIGuy]

Now the Toto song Africa  cover that is been out for a while is being played more than original back in the 80's.

As a child of the 80s, I seriously doubt that.  It was a number one hit at one point.  On an album that won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

[ethanhopkin14]

I think an off shoot to this topic is "Songs that got popular for one generation that so much time had gone by since the original, no one knew it actually was a cover."

There are lots of examples of that.  The original was a hit, huge hit, then decades went by, then it was covered and no one knew it had been done before.  I would say I good example of this is "Killing me Softly with His Song".  It was a big hit for Roberta Flack, but tell any youngster that only knows the Fugees version and they will be shocked to hear the song is actually an oldie.  Plus songwriter Lori Lieberman had moderate success with that song with her version.  In both situations the hit was a cover.

The ol kids not knowing the stuff they think they created had been done decades before.  Ah, to be young and dumb.

[SEWIGuy]

I think an off shoot to this topic is "Songs that got popular for one generation that so much time had gone by since the original, no one knew it actually was a cover."

There are lots of examples of that.  The original was a hit, huge hit, then decades went by, then it was covered and no one knew it had been done before.  I would say I good example of this is "Killing me Softly with His Song".  It was a big hit for Roberta Flack, but tell any youngster that only knows the Fugees version and they will be shocked to hear the song is actually an oldie.  Plus songwriter Lori Lieberman had moderate success with that song with her version.  In both situations the hit was a cover.

The ol kids not knowing the stuff they think they created had been done decades before.  Ah, to be young and dumb.

Big Yellow Taxi.

When my son heard the original, Joni Mitchell version, he asked if it was a remake of the Counting Crows song.

[formulanone]

Now the Toto song Africa  cover that is been out for a while is being played more than original back in the 80's.

As a child of the 80s, I seriously doubt that.  It was a number one hit at one point.  On an album that won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

In a way, it's true: we have instant nostalgia now. Couple that with a typical cycle of 25-30 year-old stuff a previous generation "missed out on", and the less-notable becomes popular again.

The usual timeline for a hit song is a few weeks or even a few months of airplay, and then it mostly fades into obscurity. Then it gets picked up again 15-20 years later, or sooner with dedicated niche stations, and you can't stop hearing it, because there's so many wells of different tastes and styles to go to now.

That's an example I remember when I was a kid - you didn't hear it much by the time 1986 rolled around, because something else was new and fresh and that's what radio does. There's a vagueness point where a lot of music and taste resides for about 3-15 years because It Isn't Cool Anymore. At some point, it's old enough to have Been Forgotten and then seems fresh again.

[ethanhopkin14]

Now the Toto song Africa  cover that is been out for a while is being played more than original back in the 80's.

As a child of the 80s, I seriously doubt that.  It was a number one hit at one point.  On an album that won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

In a way, it's true: we have instant nostalgia now. Couple that with a typical cycle of 25-30 year-old stuff a previous generation "missed out on", and the less-notable becomes popular again.

The usual timeline for a hit song is a few weeks or even a few months of airplay, and then it mostly fades into obscurity. Then it gets picked up again 15-20 years later, or sooner with dedicated niche stations, and you can't stop hearing it, because there's so many wells of different tastes and styles to go to now.

That's an example I remember when I was a kid - you didn't hear it much by the time 1986 rolled around, because something else was new and fresh and that's what radio does. There's a vagueness point where a lot of music and taste resides for about 3-15 years because It Isn't Cool Anymore. At some point, it's old enough to have Been Forgotten and then seems fresh again.

The syndrome you speak of is "You listen to that song?  It's old and crappy.  Its from 2017"  Yet no one bats an eye playing a Beatles song. 

I have always said a decade comes back into fashion about 20 years after it happened.  That's because the generation that lived through it grew up to the point where listening to older song isn't make fun of worthy, and that generation's kids don't know anything about that decade and is seeing it for the first time, and like history, it's a "(fill in decade)'s greatest hits", so the younger only sees the best that decade has to offer.  Its like it gets discovered again; by the ones that lived it because they are removed enough now to not see it for what it was at the time, and by a generation that doesn't know any better.

Examples:  1. Happy Days in the 70s took place in the 50s-early 60s

2. Dirty Dancing came out in the 80s about the 60s which I think spearheaded a whole bunch of 60s covers reentering the charts (The Bangels covering "Locomotion" and "Hazy Shade of Winter", "There's Always Something There to Remind Me" being covered are examples)

3. The 90s gave us "That 70s Show" and you had George Michael covering "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", Stone Temple Piolots covering Led Zeplin, and Nirvana with "The Man Who Sold the World" cover.  There was a short 60s fascination in the mid 90s when Forrest Gump came out and reintroduced a lot of 60s music, but also Lynard Skynard songs got more airplay in the 90s

4. 2000s, 80s fashion came back at the end of the decade (but again, the better parts of the 80s, not the oversized glasses and bad bad haircuts), and all the now soccer moms started blaring Bon Jovi and Journey around their kids.

5. Now we are into the 90s, but with smartphones.

Yes, things, like music have a limbo period of about 20 years at max where no one wants to touch it after it spent it's days in the charts.  Take anything from 2010, no one wants to admit that stuff even existed now, but were all over it in 2010.

[Stephane Dumas]

"MacArthur Park" written by Jimmy Weeb and performed by Richard Harris ended #2 in 1968 on Biilboard and was eclipsed by the disco cover made by Donna Summer and the parody known as Jurassic Park by Weird Al Yankovic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwYQgk05DY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24jAy_T1U2k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4zvQfDhi0

[kurumi]

One more version of MacArthur Park, from SCTV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JlQNIvIfI

[US71]

You get into a grey area when the voice of a dead person is tracked into a later duet with a latter day star. I've got several karaoke hits of this kind. But, still, I would think of these as "karoke covers".

Like Natalie Cole's "duets" with her father?

[US 89]

Now the Toto song Africa  cover that is been out for a while is being played more than original back in the 80's.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the Weezer cover that I continue to hear on radio stations

[michravera]

You get into a grey area when the voice of a dead person is tracked into a later duet with a latter day star. I've got several karaoke hits of this kind. But, still, I would think of these as "karaoke covers".

Like Natalie Cole's "duets" with her father?

Absolutely!

[sparker]

Cranking up the wayback machine for this one (perhaps into SFW territory):

Andy Williams' cover of John Barry and Don Black's Born Free, released a few months after the original soundtrack, has over the years gotten almost infinitely more air play than the Matt Monro version on the soundtrack itself (and played at the end of the film).  The two singers' vocalizations were markedly similar (although Williams' orchestration was a lot more "lush" and string-filled), so a lot of folks mistakenly assumed Williams had been the original artist.  Of course, Barry & Black won an Oscar for the song, and the sales of the album containing Williams' version reportedly shot up to the roof, while the soundtrack album, though it got a bit of a resultant boost, sold about as well as other Barry scores (except for the Bond films, soundtrack sales of which dwarfed most others in the mid/late '60's). 

[elsmere241]

Pat made her career off covers.

So did Captain and Tenille.  "Love Will Keep Us Together", for instance, was written and originally sung by Neil Sedaka.  The lyrics make more sense from a male perspective.

[zachary_amaryllis]

'Tom's Diner' by suzanne vega, never really got famous until a (british, i think) DJ remixed it into the version you usually hear with the drums and such. You rarely hear the original which iirc has no instruments whatsoever.

[skluth]

3. The 90s gave us "That 70s Show" and you had George Michael covering "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", Stone Temple Piolots covering Led Zeplin, and Nirvana with "The Man Who Sold the World" cover.  There was a short 60s fascination in the mid 90s when Forrest Gump came out and reintroduced a lot of 60s music, but also Lynard Skynard songs got more airplay in the 90s

You mentioned That 70s Show and didn't mention Cheap Trick's cover of In the Street as the show's theme song was originally from Big Star.

Another technicality exists with Drift Away, which the late Dobie Gray made a hit in the 1970s.

Another Dobie Gray hit that had a bigger cover was The In Crowd, a decent hit for Gray but a monster instrumental hit for Ramsey Lewis.

As someone who just discovered this thread, I will have to say the opinions of what is the most well-known version of a song has been interesting. I remember a David Bowie with Nine Inch Nails concert and fans not realizing Bowie's version of The Man Who Sold The World was the original and not a Nirvana cover. It was fun telling them that Bowie wrote it.

[JayhawkCO]

Maneskin has a big hit with "Beggin'"; but, Madcon, a Norwegian rap duo, did it much better if you ask me. Not nearly as popular in the U.S.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

"Valerie" by Amy Winehouse has become one of her more well-known songs in the decade-plus since she died, but the original was done by the Zutons.