Songs you thought were much more recent

[TheHighwayMan3561]

"Basketball"  by Kurtis Blow sounds like something from the mid-to-late 1990s, but came out in 1984. I was surprised to discover this.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

In before Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

[jp the roadgeek]

There is this one song in a Woolite commercial that I thought was relatively new.  Turns out it is a song called My Love For You by ESG, and it came out in 1983.

[Buck87]

Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love"

I was a bit surprised to find out it came out back in 1981

[plain]

"Din Daa Daa" by George Kranz. When I first heard it in the early 90's I thought that's when it came out but it actually came out in late 1983.

[PHLBOS]

Sly and the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music" came out in 1969; but one could easily mistake it for a mid-70s disco tune.  IMHO, that song was several years ahead of its time.

[kevinb1994]

Sly and the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music" came out in 1969; but one could easily mistake it for a mid-70s disco tune.  IMHO, that song was several years ahead of its time.

Same thing with Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again.

[plain]

Sly and the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music" came out in 1969; but one could easily mistake it for a mid-70s disco tune.  IMHO, that song was several years ahead of its time.

Same thing with Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again.

And also "Family Affair" from 1972. It has an 80's-ish drum machine on it.

[formulanone]

Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love"

I was a bit surprised to find out it came out back in 1981

It's a cover of Gloria Davis's song from 1964. However, the electronic keyboard and drum machine were on the more polyphonic side for that era; most electronic keyboards from the early-1980s was rather "twinkly" or "plink-plonky", as it was still a novel instrument. The low bass tones really make it stand out from most pop songs.

Also:

https://youtu.be/iSlO6WhsczY

[PHLBOS]

Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love"

I was a bit surprised to find out it came out back in 1981

It's a cover of Gloria Davis's song from 1964.

You mean Gloria Jones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJKe2j9Wjh4

[kevinb1994]

Sly and the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music" came out in 1969; but one could easily mistake it for a mid-70s disco tune.  IMHO, that song was several years ahead of its time.

Same thing with Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again.

And also "Family Affair" from 1972. It has an 80's-ish drum machine on it.

MFSB covered it and made it an instrumental classic as well.

[mgk920]

For some-odd reason I've always thought that You And I by Rick James was much newer than 1978.

Mike

[roadman65]

I never knew Rita Coolidge's song Your Love Is Lifting Me Higher was not an original in that year she was big on the charts ( circa 1978).  Then when Michael McDonald covered that track, I  was in conversation with a coworker about him covering it from her when he instantly pointed out that it was a Jackie Wilson song from the late 60's. 

[briantroutman]

I always found it surprising that Gustav Holst's The Planets  was composed between 1914-1916 and premiered in 1918. The suite is so cosmically cinematic that it's hard for me to image how it sounded to people living in a time of gas street lamps, hand-cranked autos, and stilted silent movies.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

A hint for the composition date of The Planets is found on the piece itself: Pluto is missing as it hadn't been discovered yet .

[briantroutman]

A hint for the composition date of The Planets is found on the piece itself: Pluto is missing as it hadn't been discovered yet .

I was incredibly disappointed to learn that Holst intended the suite to celebrate the planets in an astrological sense, not an astronomical one.

[roadman65]

I though the Cars song Hello Again was from an earlier album when Heartbeat City came out in 1984. 

[GCrites]

edit: opps, wrong phenomenon