Famous Interpreters Who Were Famously Interpreted: Nilsson Types

i don't know why you'd be bothered by the tightening, zachary (which honestly i meant from the get go) - pitney and de shannon still fit the bill!

whitney's version is the bigger hit but it was already a hit before that (dolly even revived it apropos of nothing in the best little whorehouse in texas). thought bobbie gentry might qualify but she actually had a pretty big hit w/ 'fancy' if nowhere near as huge as reba did.

yeah my second criteria was tighter than croup's, those totally fit.

So I guess Lowe's "Switchboard Susan" cover is deemed "not famous enough"? (I'll buy that, if so; just trying to keep score.)

yeah sorry i meant to mention that - "some airplay in detroit" is a little too low a bar, "shipbuilding" at least was a top 40 hit (rough trade records' first!)

kinda weird that 'shipbuilding' is the best cover of costello candidate by far cuz that is one dude who really has worked to be on this thread

Smokey Robinson wrote tons of hits for other Motown artists of course, and he also had a hit with Holland, Dozier, Holland's "Mickey's Monkey".

Kirsty MacColl - her biggest hit Billy Bragg's "A New England" ; wrote Tracy Ullman's biggest hit "They Don't Know About Us"

wondering if there's enough incidences of 'ppl scoring a hit w/ a cover while somewhat simultaneously someone is scoring a hit w/ a cover of them' or if that's just hall & oates. beatles and stones probably fit here too.

John Phillips might count for Dedicated to the One I Love and Kokomo. Although the original was already famous, and I think there was even a thread here about which one you think of first.

Toni Wine co-wrote "A Groovy Kind of Love," transatlantic smash hit for Wayne Fontana; then as one of The Archies she sang on the number one hit "Sugar Sugar," a song written by Jeff Barry/Andy Kim... although Andy Kim sang on it also.

warren zevon only charted twice, and one of them was his version of allen toussaint's "a certain girl." the most famous version of zevon's "poor poor pitiful me" is linda ronstadt's cover.

Henry Mancini more or less belongs here. His biggest recording ever was "Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet," a Nino Rota composition. (Granted, it had already been heard in the popular film).

Several years earlier he had written "Moon River" for Breakfast at Tiffany's of which it seems Andy Williams' contemporaneous cover seems to be the most famous version.

John Phillips might count for Dedicated to the One I Love and Kokomo. Although the original was already famous, and I think there was even a thread here about which one you think of first.

i thought about this myself (phillips also wrote that "when you go to san francisco wear a flower in your hair" jam) but "dedicated"(a #3 for the shirelles) and all their cover singles were already hits

balls ref'd hall & oates and i'm not sure if they qualify. hall wrote "electric blue" for icehouse (and "every time you go" was a deep cut before paul young found it) but did they have a cover hit other than that motown medley?

oh and the righteous brothers one, but those are all chestnuts

i am horrified to learn that kenny loggins qualifies because while he co-wrote "what a fool believes" HE DID NOT WRITE "DANGER ZONE." wtf i had no idea, the fraud.

I feel as if Barry ("I Write the Songs" but not this one) Manilow and Louis Armstrong belong here too, but I can't prove it. What Manilow song was made famous by someone else first?

actually does it count if you co-wrote a song with the guy who made it famous? supposedly the loggins & messina version of "danny's song" got a lot of play even if anne murray took it up the charts, so i don't want to give it to him for that. in general i've been using whichever version is at the top of a song's wikipedia page as the one that made it famous.

ok apparently loggins & messina's version of "a love song" was released the same year as anne murray's hit version and got far less attention so i guess kenny passes

On the Nesmith question, he never had a lead vocal on one of the hits, but I would argue that "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round" (written by Nesmith's ex-bandmate Michael Martin Murphey and Boomer Castleman) was pretty well known at the time. It was the B-side to "Mary Mary" and got showcased as the only featured song in two episodes of the series (and shared a third episode with "Daydream Believer"); I wouldn't be surprised if it got some airplay because of that.

I think the only Nesmith Monkees hit was "Tapioca Tundra" which inched into the Top 40 as a bside. "Love Is Only Sleeping" was earmarked as a single, but dropped in favor of it's intended flip, "Daydream Beliver". Nez also was respnsible for their final charting items of the '60s: "Good Clean Fun" and "Listen To The Band"

Nah, he wrote Mary Mary too. Which might possibly be better known these days from the Run DMC version I guess.

But those are all songs that Nesmith wrote--"Hangin' 'Round" is the only (semi-)famous one he didn't write. That, plus Linda Rondstadt's hit cover of "Different Drum," makes a pair fit for the thread topic.

For Elvis Costello, he did get some airplay on New York FM radio with his cover of Betty Everett's "Getting Mighty Crowded"; the original was not a hit in the U.S., though it may have been in the U.K. And for someone else having the hit with an Elvis song, how about Dave Edmunds' version of "Girls Talk"?

totally meant to mention 'girls talk', somehow forgot. curious to what extent rondstadt's costello covers were big hits ('alison' was a single at the very least) and how well known the originals were at the time.

forgot "girls talk" too! linda's alison only hit #30 on the AC chart (didn't even make the pop chart) so it's hard to really say she made the song famous - at this point i'd say you're at least just as likely to hear Elvis' version at a grocery store if not more

o yeah ec's version definitely more played now, just thinking as huge as ronstadt was that maybe 'alison' might've hit more. plus i always have a tough time gauging just how much mainstream success certain punk or new wave acts actually managed in the late 70s, i know that when 'everyday i write the book' hit it was treated as 'finally elvis costello has a hit!' (and even then it was only #36)('veronica's still his only legitimate hit, though i think 'alison', 'detectives', 'what's so funny' and 'everyday' are more well known now) but at the same time armed forces made the top ten.

obv ppl still have hits w/ songs they didn't write and even have hit written by other artists that have hits as performers in their own right (eg kelly clarkson and katy perry), but unless i'm forgetting some obv stuff (very possible, haven't listened to music on commercial terrestrial radio since the bush admin) it seems like ppl don't really have hits w/ traditional covers that much any more (esp in comparison w/ any other stretch in the past forty years or so) and that the type of artist that was almost an interpreter or standards singer of contemporary rock or pop like nilsson or ronstadt probably died w/ robert palmer.

Going back to Hall and Oates, they had a big hit with "Family man", originally written and recorded by Mike Oldfield, but not generally known to be his. So do they count too? And has Mike Oldfield covered songs too? Apart form "8lue Peter"? Probably afew along the way.

woah, no idea 'family man' was a cover so they totally qualify

Not sure if this counts... Jimi Hendrix. Did the definitive version of "All along the watchtower", and has been interpreted as well - "Little wing" by Derek and the Dominos and "Angel" by Rod Stewart. Yes or no?

xposts re:Nesmith

What I meant was he only wrote AND sang lead on one of the Monkees Top 40 songs. Dolenz handled "Mary Mary" (which had been cut a year prior by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band for an early FM turntable hit).

"All Along The Watchtower" seems iffy - Dylan had released it as a single the year before Jimi's, and while Jimi's was a far bigger chart hit, are we really going to say nobody knew John Wesley Harding when it came out?

jimi definitely made it more famous, but it's not like he found it behind the dumpster

no one's mentioned Scott Walker yet? The ultimate interpreter with his Brel covers and also major influence on a huge swathe of pop.

did someone else make a song scott walker wrote famous?

i dunno, maybe? Marc Almond covered Jackie.

actually does it count if you co-wrote a song with the guy who made it famous?

was this question settled?

if it does count, then george harrison: co-wrote "photograph" for ringo starr (quite possibly ringo's biggest hit) and topped the charts with his cover of rudy clark's "got my mind set on you."

well as the thread-starter who's basically been playing thread-cop (with assists from balls) i'll file it under "eh" because you're not really being interpreted if the interpreter also wrote the song

fair enough.

The Fall covered Victoria, and were covered by Pavement's entire career </90smusicjoke>

Cathy Dennis : covered Touch Me, wrote loads of pop! hits!

did someone else make a song scott walker wrote famous?

― da croupier, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 12:45 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno, maybe? Marc Almond covered Jackie.

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 13:16 (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Go and sit on the stairs!

Was going to mention Jackie De Shannon but somebody beat me to it upthread, damn, you people are good

The Troggs of course. covered Wild Thing. Love is All Around covered by Wet Wet Wet.

Bravo

Maybe Kirsty MacColl? - Covered Days by the Kinks, her song They Don't Know was a hit for Tracey Ullman

oh, and A New England of course.

Love Is All Around was already a hit for the Troggs

updated thread-cop list, with torme removed until someone mentions which song mel torme didn't write mel torme made famous. Nesmith we'll keep for "Hangin' Round" and overall monkeehood.

Chris Brown ("With You"/"Disturbia")
Elvis Costello ("What's So Funny Bout Peace Love & Understanding"/"Girls Talk")
Bobby Darin (a Hardin Cover/a song Hardin covered)
Cathy Dennis ("Touch Me"/"Can't Get You Out Of My Head")
Jackie DeShannon ("What The World Needs Now"/"Bette Davis Eyes")
Neil Diamond ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers Any More"/"I'm A Believer")
Hall & Oates ("Family Man"/"Electric Blue")
Tim Hardin (a Darin cover/a song Darin covered)
Ian Hunter ("All The Young Dudes"/"Ships")
Jagger/Richards ("It's All Over Now"/"As Tears Go By")
Kirsty MacColl ("A New England"/"They Don't Care About Us")
Lennon/McCartney (pick one/"I Wanna Be Your Man")
Kenny Loggings ("Danger Zone"/"A Love Song")
Henry Mancini ("Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet"/"Moon River"
Willie Nelson ("Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain"/"Crazy")
Mike Nesmith ("Hangin' Round"/"Different Drum")
Nilsson ("Everybody's Talkin'"/"One")
Gene Pitney ("The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"/"He's A Rebel")
Smokey Robinson ("Mickey's Monkey"/pick one)
Paul Simon ("Scarborough Fair"/"Red Rubber Ball")
Bruce Springsteen ("Jersey Girl"/"Blinded By The Light")
Warren Zevon ("A Certain Girl"/"Poor Poor Pitiful Me")

some acknowledgements: the original "Family Man" diiiiid go top 30 in canada, based on radio play maccoll's "they don't care about us" probably would have made the chart if not for a strike that kept the physical single from being released(!), Warren hitting #57 doesn't exactly make an Ernie K-Doe song famous, the originals of the mancini-related covers were all in hit movies (suggesting they were already famous) but it's still pretty neat,