Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/1407:12 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
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/1408:30 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 !
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/1409:31 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.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/1409:43 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)
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/01/1410:30 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.... - 04/01/1410:41 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.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1412:30 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....
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1401:48 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.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1407:02 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:
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1408:01 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:
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1408:12 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.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1409:40 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.... - 04/02/1411:42 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.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1412:20 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.
Black Crowes did a memorable cover of an Otis Redding tune that I thought was an original.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/02/1404:58 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!
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/03/1401:41 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.
Re: Songs that you didn't know were covers at first.... - 04/05/1412:58 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.