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Thread: "Cover versions you did not know were cover versions"

  1. #1
    Pendulumswingingdoomsday Rune Blackwings's Avatar
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    "Cover versions you did not know were cover versions"

    "Alienated-so alien I go!"

  2. #2
    Pendulumswingingdoomsday Rune Blackwings's Avatar
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    A few of these I already knew, such as Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" and Whitney Houton's "I Will Always Love You". A HUGE miss: "Nilsson's "Without You" was originally a Badfinger song.
    "Alienated-so alien I go!"

  3. #3
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Seriously? People didn't know these were covers?

  4. #4
    The Sundays Wild Horses.. had no idea it was originally a Rolling Stones song (like the Sundays version better).
    "She said you are the air I breathe
    The life I love, the dream I weave."


    Unevensong - Camel

  5. #5
    A few of those songs I've never heard of, period, but I guess that's my fault for being "out of touch with today's music". Tainted Love, I Love Rock N Roll, and Crazy I knew were covers, but for a long time I didn't (I didn't know Willie Nelson wrote Crazy until VH-1 did a Behind The Music on him about 10 years ago). I never knew Girls Just Want To Have was a cover (though I actually do remember Robert Hazard from his song Escalator Of Life, which I remember from the early MTV days).

    And I most definitely knew that Big Mama Thornton recorded the original Hound Dog.

    And how could anyone not know that The Clash version of I Fought The Law was a cover?! If you said you didn't know the Bobby Fuller Four version was a cover (I didn't, until just recently) I could maybe see that, but c'mon, this is 2013, not 1979.

    And just because a cover is a hit doesn't mean it was better than the original. It just means more people bought the cover than the original (or the original wasn't released as a single, or was "just the B-side" or whatever).

  6. #6
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    Another one along the same line as Badfinger's "Without You" which is so heavily associated with Harry Nilsson to the extent that 99% of people aren't aware he wasn't the original artist, is Crazy Horse's "I Don't Want To Talk About It" written by Danny Whitten, again 99% of people if asked about the original artist would say Rod Stewart.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    Seriously? People didn't know these were covers?
    Many people don't know who the Vice President is.

  8. #8
    Member davis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wisdomview View Post
    Many people don't know who the Vice President is.
    and he thinks he's on the Gong Show

    I've heard lots of people refer to 'Brand New Cadillac' as a Clash song. it was actually a B-side for Vince Taylor in '59

    Last edited by davis; 09-11-2013 at 01:19 PM.

  9. #9
    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
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    I didn't realize that I Don't Need No Doctor by Humble Pie was a cover until I got a copy of Rockin' the Fillmore and saw the credits.

  10. #10
    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by UnephenStephen View Post
    The Sundays Wild Horses.. had no idea it was originally a Rolling Stones song (like the Sundays version better).
    Whoever The Sundays are. Must be a generational thing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave (in MA) View Post
    Whoever The Sundays are. Must be a generational thing.

    Really? You've never heard of The Sundays, late 80s English band, jangly guitar indie-pop? You've probaby heard the single off their 1990 debut album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq9x-ff0fXs

  12. #12
    Parrots Ripped My Flesh Dave (in MA)'s Avatar
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    I've heard OF them, but I have no idea what they sound like. (Clicks on that YT link) that may or may not sound familiar. It sounds like something they'd play in the background when there was some emotional drama going on during pretty much any chick flick or dramatic TV show made in the past 15 years or so.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by PeterG View Post
    Another one along the same line as Badfinger's "Without You" which is so heavily associated with Harry Nilsson to the extent that 99% of people aren't aware he wasn't the original artist, is Crazy Horse's "I Don't Want To Talk About It" written by Danny Whitten, again 99% of people if asked about the original artist would say Rod Stewart.
    Harry Nilsson was known as a songwriter, so at least in my mind, I think that's why I thought the Badfinger version was the cover, until someone set me straight on that point later.

    And speaking of Rod The Mod, I didn't know at first that Downtown Train was actually a Tom Waits song.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Wisdomview View Post
    Many people don't know who the Vice President is.
    Oh, there's all kinds of things people don't know. Try asking a random person on the street which countries participated in the American Revolution. You'd be surprised how few of them can get even one of those countries (and this is in the United States!).

  15. #15
    'Everybody's Talkin'' which is another tune made popular by Harry Nilsson, is also a cover.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Oh, there's all kinds of things people don't know. Try asking a random person on the street which countries participated in the American Revolution. You'd be surprised how few of them can get even one of those countries (and this is in the United States!).

    That was my point, but I distilled it down to one generality. People do need help.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Wisdomview View Post
    'Everybody's Talkin'' which is another tune made popular by Harry Nilsson, is also a cover.
    See, now that's another one I didn't know was a cover. I always heard Harry Nilsson referred to as a "singer/songwriter" so I guess I always assumed the songs associated with him were his own compositions, and not having owned any of his records, I never had a chance to check the bylines. (shrug)

    I still don't understand how anyone today could think The Clash's version of I Fought The Law was the original version.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    See, now that's another one I didn't know was a cover. I always heard Harry Nilsson referred to as a "singer/songwriter" so I guess I always assumed the songs associated with him were his own compositions, and not having owned any of his records, I never had a chance to check the bylines. (shrug)
    It's ironic isn't it? I was shocked about Everybody's Talkin' when I heard it to be true. Ironically again, he was a great songwriter and one of his most well known songs, 'One' was made famous by Three Dog Night. I prefer Nilsson's version though.


  19. #19
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    There've been some commercials that used songs that I didn't know weren't written for the commercials until decades later:

    - the Heinz ketchup ads with the song "Anticipation"
    - the instant coffee ads with the song "Ooh Child (Things are Gonna Get Easier)"

    I have a feeling a lot of people don't know Leavin' on a Jet Plane was written by John Denver and covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary.

  20. #20
    Member Digital_Man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by UnephenStephen View Post
    The Sundays Wild Horses.. had no idea it was originally a Rolling Stones song (like the Sundays version better).

    Please tell me you are kidding. If you are under 25 then you are forgiven. If not then no excuse.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    There've been some commercials that used songs that I didn't know weren't written for the commercials until decades later:

    - the Heinz ketchup ads with the song "Anticipation"
    - the instant coffee ads with the song "Ooh Child (Things are Gonna Get Easier)"

    I have a feeling a lot of people don't know Leavin' on a Jet Plane was written by John Denver and covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary.
    Speaking of Ooh Child, for years, the only version of that song I knew was the 1977 recording by Valerie Carter, which I knew from the soundtrack to a movie called Over The Edge. It's only relatively recently that I found out that the original recording had been done in 1970 by a group called The Five Stairsteps.

    When I was a kid, there was a Clairol commercial that used a song from South Pacific, and an ad for Windex that used one from Bye Bye Birdie. To this day, whenever I hear either song in their respective original context, I still think of those products, even though the ads haven't been on TV in something like 30 years.

    Another one like that was the theme from the TV show Golden Girls, which was a song called Thank You For Being A Friend. I actually heard the original version of the song, by a singer/songwriter named Andrew Gold, on the radio probably back in the late 80's or early 90's, but at the time, I thought that was the cover. I didn't know until the advent of VH-1 Classic, circa 2003, that not only was the Andrew Gold version the original recording, but it predated it's use as a TV show theme by something like 7 years!

    And as a side note, another theme song that I didn't know wasn't written as a theme song was the old HBO satirical program Not Necessarily The News. They had really cool uptempo instrumental with this sweet slide guitar riff. I found a few years later it was actually Eric Clapton's version of Motherless Children, from his 461 Ocean Boulevard album!

  22. #22
    Member Digital_Man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    There've been some commercials that used songs that I didn't know weren't written for the commercials until decades later:

    - the Heinz ketchup ads with the song "Anticipation"
    - the instant coffee ads with the song "Ooh Child (Things are Gonna Get Easier)"

    I have a feeling a lot of people don't know Leavin' on a Jet Plane was written by John Denver and covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary.


    Yep. I didn't know that either about "leaving on a Jet plane." I am learning a lot from this thread. Just when I thought I knew a lot about music. It's very humbling but without the pie.

    There's a lot of songs that I later found out were covers. It seems that about half of them were written by Bob Dylan.

    I first found out about the "thank you for being a friend" thing because back in the early 90's or so I bought a few singles of songs I always liked. One of them was "lonely boy" by Andrew Gold which I thought was a bit proggy because of the synth in the middle section. Anyway, I flipped it over(which is what all serious music fans do )and was surprised to learn that "thank you for being a friend" was the b side. I immediately recognized it and then realized he did the original version.

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Digital_Man View Post
    Please tell me you are kidding. If you are under 25 then you are forgiven. If not then no excuse.
    nope, just never liked the Stones and as far as i know WH wasn't on the radio like Brown Sugar, Start me Up, etc were.
    "She said you are the air I breathe
    The life I love, the dream I weave."


    Unevensong - Camel

  24. #24
    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    I've met quite a few people who thought that Diamonds & Rust and Green Manalishi were original Judas Priest songs.

  25. #25
    Member zravkapt's Avatar
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    Until I found out otherwise, I just assumed Nazareth wrote 'Love Hurts', 'My White Bicycle' and 'This Flight Tonight'.
    The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off

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