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Songs that you didn't know were covers at first....

Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 07:12 PM

What are some songs that you had no idea were covers when you first heard them? The song that first comes to my mind is "Susie Q". For years I thought that was an original song by Creedence Clearwater Revival until one day I was reading some stuff online and discovered that the song was written and recorded by a previous artist. The other song is "All Along the Watchtower". I didn't even know that was a Dylan song until I was in college. lol

Posted By: Johan217

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 07:27 PM

I Love Rock 'n Roll - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (original: The Arrows)
I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany (original Tommy James and the Shondells) blush
Posted By: kaa

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 08:30 PM

I must admit I believed that "The man who sold the world" was genuinely from Nirvana ...when I learned it was composed by David Bowie I eventually understood why I was considering it being undoubtly the best of all Nirvana songs biggrin!
Posted By: Alicatt

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 08:53 PM

Still prefer Deep Purples version of River Deep Mountain High to Tina Turner's

Posted By: arthur666

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 09:03 PM

Any Big Star cover.
Posted By: Snap

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 09:26 PM

I always thought Imagine was a John Lennon tune. Turns out a guy named Jesus wrote it a LONG time ago! Fun fact.
Posted By: Rakov

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 09:31 PM

When I first got into the Grateful Dead, half my favorites were Dylan, "Traditional", Holly, Berry, or some other arrangement of cover work. Proabably still true.
Posted By: Force10

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 09:43 PM

Train kept a rollin by Areosmith


Here's the 1951 original version






The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck did a cover of it for the movie "Blow Up" in 1966. They couldn't get copyright sign off so they changed the lyrics and it's called "Stroll on". (pretty good version IMO)


Posted By: CyBerkut

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 09:50 PM

Peter, Paul & Mary's cover of Bob Dylan's, "Blowin' in the Wind".

If a rearrangement counts, Cream's, "Crossroads" was first Robert Johnson's "Crossroads Blues" (circa 1930's).
Posted By: Nixer

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 10:30 PM

Originally Posted By: CyBerkut
Peter, Paul & Mary's cover of Bob Dylan's, "Blowin' in the Wind".

If a rearrangement counts, Cream's, "Crossroads" was first Robert Johnson's "Crossroads Blues" (circa 1930's).


A WHOLE lot of "British Blues" were covers. The Beatles did a few covers too....and the Stones
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/14 10:41 PM

My memory is bad. But I remember "You are my sunshine" either the Mitchell or Cash version.. probably Anne Murray. Supposedly all three were covers for the original.
Posted By: Skycat

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 12:05 AM

Santana's version of "Black Magic Woman," Elvis' "Hound Dog" and Manfred Mann's "Blinded By The Light" immediately come to my mind.
Posted By: HitchHikingFlatlander

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 12:30 AM

Summertime was not a Janis Joplin tune but its totally different from the original. A lot of rockabilly songs have been covered too (too many to list) that I thought were originals but were really Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins or etc....
Posted By: Clydewinder

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 01:27 AM

Speaking of Janis Joplin...

Posted By: Nixer

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 01:33 AM

Posted By: Smosh

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 01:48 AM

I didn't realised that Love Buzz off Nirvana's Bleach album was a cover of the song by Shocking Blue. Gotta say the cover is a lot better than the original.
Posted By: TychosElk

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 01:54 AM

The original Denise


As for covers of Blondie tracks, the less said the better.
Posted By: PV1

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 06:20 AM

Originally Posted By: Clydewinder
Speaking of Janis Joplin...


Written and presumably first performed by Kris Kristofferson, though.
Posted By: PV1

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 07:02 AM

Originally Posted By: Force10
Train kept a rollin by Areosmith

aerosmith? I thought it was Van Halen who did the cover
in about 1980. Anyway...

Quote:

Here's the 1951 original version




The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck did a cover of it for the movie "Blow Up" in 1966. They couldn't get copyright sign off so they changed the lyrics and it's called "Stroll on". (pretty good version IMO)




Yes, but they weren't just lifting Tiny Bradshaw, this was
an amalgamation. So get a load of this from 1956, and
recall as well Fleetwood Mac's Hi Ho Silver from Kiln House:




Posted By: PV1

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 08:01 AM

I'm afraid for most of the songs mentioned here,
I clearly remember the first version on its
release, as well as the much later covers. Beyond
that, very few songs I didn't have some idea of the
source, many I suspected but didn't know the exact
origin.

Particularly the R&B things from Motown-wannabe labels.
Two I was pretty sure came from there but didn't hear
a confirmation for a few decades were



which came from here (an Isaac Hayes tune but he never
recorded it that I can discover):



Not surprising the original never penetrated my neck o'
the woods, it's a much weaker production than Cold Blood.

and this one



which came from here:



Written by Al Green, but buried as an album cut, the label chose
to release the Syl Johnson single, which didn't make it into my
region, though the Al Green version would have, I'm sure...

So, finally, this claims to be the original version of this song,
and it is certainly the best, sung by the writer, but I'm sure I heard
a creaky old version from the '60s done by his previous local
Toronto band on a radio station back in prehistoric times, however,
not even his Wikipedia page acknowledges that, so perhaps I just
got it confused with one of the covers, by 3 Dog Night, not the Rod
Stewart one, neither of which came close to this one, by one of my all
time favourite bands. And you may have thought one of the covers was
the original, so it sort of fits this thread, but it also just needs
to be heard:



Posted By: PV1

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 08:12 AM

Originally Posted By: oselisan
My memory is bad. But I remember "You are my sunshine" either the Mitchell or Cash version.. probably Anne Murray. Supposedly all three were covers for the original.


That goes back a ways; the first recording, 1939:



and the story of its origin:
http://www.rosemontrecords.com/historical.html
Posted By: Vitesse

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 09:40 AM

I'll offer Bowie's China Girl.

Iggy's original is interesting.
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 11:42 AM

Originally Posted By: PV1
Originally Posted By: oselisan
My memory is bad. But I remember "You are my sunshine" either the Mitchell or Cash version.. probably Anne Murray. Supposedly all three were covers for the original.


That goes back a ways; the first recording, 1939:



and the story of its origin:
http://www.rosemontrecords.com/historical.html


Thanks, it was a good read. It reminded me of the Lego origin story also, sad stories about the original creators.
Posted By: Weasel_Keeper

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 12:20 PM

I got my wife with one of these just last night. She heard Joan Baez singing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" on the radio. I told her how I always liked that song, but I liked The Band's original version better. She was like "No, it's Joan Baez's song...I have the album." Nope, sorry hun. smile




Black Crowes did a memorable cover of an Otis Redding tune that I thought was an original.

Posted By: Clydewinder

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 12:31 PM

Originally Posted By: PV1
Originally Posted By: Clydewinder
Speaking of Janis Joplin...


Written and presumably first performed by Kris Kristofferson, though.


Kristofferson wrote it for Roger Miller. Kristofferson later recorded it himself, followed by Joplin.
Posted By: Clydewinder

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 12:50 PM

Here's a good one:













Posted By: bonchie

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 01:05 PM

There are a couple of Hendrix songs I thought were his at first.
Posted By: Jedi Master

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 04:58 PM

Blue Moon. I thought it was a Marcels song until I saw Cybil Shepherd singing the original version on Moonlighting. I then looked it up (which was harder in the pre-internet 80's than it is now!) and found it was a Rodgers and Hart song from 1934, almost 30 years earlier!



The Jedi Master
Posted By: letterboy1

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 07:57 PM

You Really Got Me originally by The Kinks then covered by Van Halen
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 08:09 PM

Originally Posted By: letterboy1
You Really Got Me originally by The Kinks then covered by Van Halen
Both versions kick ass. That's right, didn't VH also do a cover of "Pretty Woman"?
Posted By: Weasel_Keeper

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 09:06 PM

Originally Posted By: PanzerMeyer
Originally Posted By: letterboy1
You Really Got Me originally by The Kinks then covered by Van Halen
Both versions kick ass. That's right, didn't VH also do a cover of "Pretty Woman"?


Yup! And DLR redid California Girls after he left VH.
Posted By: letterboy1

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/14 11:25 PM

Originally Posted By: Weasel_Keeper
Originally Posted By: PanzerMeyer
Originally Posted By: letterboy1
You Really Got Me originally by The Kinks then covered by Van Halen
Both versions kick ass. That's right, didn't VH also do a cover of "Pretty Woman"?


Yup! And DLR redid California Girls after he left VH.

He sure did! Think what you will, but that version seemed to be a hit!
Posted By: Dervish

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/03/14 12:52 AM

Posted By: Jedi Master

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/03/14 01:41 PM

Many groups started out with a cover or two as their hits.

Just thought of another one, Blue Suede Shoes. I had thought it was an Elvis song for years. I was in college before I heard the original Perkins version.



The Jedi Master
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/03/14 01:43 PM

Originally Posted By: Jedi Master
Many groups started out with a cover or two as their hits.


The Jedi Master
Yup, like Tiffany. In fact her only 2 hits were covers.
Posted By: Top Gun

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/03/14 08:38 PM

Originally Posted By: Skycat
Manfred Mann's "Blinded By The Light" immediately come to my mind.


I was really shocked when I heard this a few years ago. Never liked Springstein so I wouldn't have heard his version anyway...
Posted By: Gille

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/05/14 12:58 AM

One of my favourite tracks by the Black Crowes 'Oh Sweet Nuthin' turned out to be a cover of a Velvet Underground original. Personally I prefer the Crowes version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9-BCix4io&feature=player_detailpage
Posted By: Weasel_Keeper

Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/06/14 08:21 AM

Originally Posted By: Top Gun
Originally Posted By: Skycat
Manfred Mann's "Blinded By The Light" immediately come to my mind.


I was really shocked when I heard this a few years ago. Never liked Springstein so I wouldn't have heard his version anyway...


Springsteen's version blows, even though it is his. Same with "Pink Cadillac" which even though the song sucks, it was better with Natalie Cole.

Never been a Springsteen fan either. smile
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