Sebadoh's "Pink Moon" and REM's "Strange" for me too. Nick Drake and (early) Wire seemed impossibly obscure when I were a lad, pre-internet.
One 'original' I only just heard last night was Elton's John's "Step into Christmas". I made of point of finally looking it up after seeing a snippet of Gavin & Stacey characters singing it. I've known it was a John/Taupin thing since shortly after the Wedding Present covered in 1992, but the latter was somehow the only rendition I'd ever knowingly been exposed to.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 19 December 2019 08:21 (four years ago) link
Heard Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends" before the Beatles version when I watched The Wonder Years as a kid. Bet that one goes for a lot of people.
― musically, samedi 12 septembre 2009 03:49 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink
Yeah, I think I only "discovered" the Beatles original years later as a teenager !
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 19 December 2019 12:08 (four years ago) link
Does that count as being less famous than the original though?
There's a lot of these on the Residents' "Third Reich and Roll" but the Rascals' "Good Lovin'" is the one that springs most readily to mind.
― Soup on my lanyard (Tom D.), Thursday, 19 December 2019 12:47 (four years ago) link
... was always great to hear the original songs because they were uniformly so good.
― Soup on my lanyard (Tom D.), Thursday, 19 December 2019 12:48 (four years ago) link
Ah, I just thought of 2 pretty embarrassing ones :Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes's "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and Simply Red's 89 cover version (surely Harold Melvin's is considered the classic version, right !?)And again, H. Melvin's "Don't Leave Me This Way" and The Communards' 86 cover version.
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 3 March 2020 12:56 (four years ago) link
The Communards version was more a cover of Thelma Houston’s m/l contemporary discofied cover version of HM&BN’s Philly soul original.
― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 3 March 2020 13:51 (four years ago) link
The Psychedelic Furs' version of 'How Soon is Now' that was the theme from Charmed (or some other show?)
I don't think I'd heard any Smiths stuff outside of 'the Queen is Dead', I knew one of their major songs was called 'How Soon is Now' and I knew the song from that cover version but had no idea that's what it was.
There was a band called Dark Star who had a single out 'I am the Sun' around that same time, so I figured it was that.
― Adoration of the Mogwai (Deflatormouse), Friday, 26 February 2021 07:39 (three years ago) link
Not that I've familiarized myself with the Smiths' discography all that much since...
― Adoration of the Mogwai (Deflatormouse), Friday, 26 February 2021 07:56 (three years ago) link
that was on The Craft soundtrack too.
― kinder, Friday, 26 February 2021 08:22 (three years ago) link
I was really into Motley Crue as a kid. When I first heard U2's cover of "Helter Skelter," my first thought was, "Hey, it's a Motley Crue song!" Shortly after that, I got a hold of the <i>White Album</i>.
― Ex Slacker, Monday, 1 March 2021 04:55 (three years ago) link
One time my high school girlfriend referenced 'Dear Prudence' and I was all like '(smirks knowingly, buffs nails on shirt front) o you mean the Siouxsie and the Banshees song? yes, I'm that cool'. And I was.
― Chokeslamming A Memory (Old Lunch), Monday, 1 March 2021 05:38 (three years ago) link
I knew the Beach Boys’ version of The Times They Are A-Changin’ years before I heard a note of Dylan.All the cover songs (mostly? all? by Los Lobos) on the La Bamba soundtrack. Is Camper Van Beethoven’s version of Pictures of Matchstick Men more or less famous than the Status Quo’s? I’ve heard CVB’s version in the wild, but the only reason I’ve ever heard the original is because I sought it out when Napster became a thing. This might be a North America vs UK thing?
― Guys don’t @ me because I tazed my own balls alright? (hardcore dilettante), Monday, 1 March 2021 14:10 (three years ago) link
The first version of “You Don’t Own Me” I remember hearing is the Blow Monkeys’.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 1 March 2021 14:10 (three years ago) link
Alan Jackson's "Summertime Blues"
― eisimpleir (crüt), Monday, 1 March 2021 14:29 (three years ago) link
Is Camper Van Beethoven’s version of Pictures of Matchstick Men more or less famous than the Status Quo’s? I’ve heard CVB’s version in the wild, but the only reason I’ve ever heard the original is because I sought it out when Napster became a thing. This might be a North America vs UK thing?
The original got to number 7 in the uk charts and was just one of their 50 (!!) top 40 hits.
― ledge, Monday, 1 March 2021 14:35 (three years ago) link
sorry, 57 top 40 hits, the search was cutting off after 50 results.
― ledge, Monday, 1 March 2021 14:41 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D53v84sXluw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVrELhxOFnM
― xzanfar, Monday, 1 March 2021 14:51 (three years ago) link
^ The Naked Eyes version was actually a much bigger hit in the US
I definitely knew The Go-Go's "Cool Jerk" (not a US single) before ever hearing The Capitols' hit version from 1966
― Josefa, Monday, 1 March 2021 15:21 (three years ago) link
I heard Bauhaus's Ziggy Stardust before I heard Bowie's
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 1 March 2021 16:15 (three years ago) link
First version I heard was Joan Jett. Is the Lesley Gore original pretty well known? I really only knew her for "It's My Party" at that time.
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Monday, 1 March 2021 16:22 (three years ago) link
I heard the Minutemen version of Dr Wu about 30 years before I ever heard the original. I knew it was a steely dan cover, but back then you couldn't really have it both ways... you were on one side or the other.
― enochroot, Monday, 1 March 2021 17:43 (three years ago) link
I heard Sublime's version of Dr. Wu before I heard Steely Dan's. I had already heard Steely Dan by this point, but not Katy Lied. Brad Nowell was probably more influenced by the Minutemen.
― peace, man, Monday, 1 March 2021 18:02 (three years ago) link
I knew "To the left to the left" from Lil Wayne before realising he was quoting a very famous Beyonce song
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Monday, 1 March 2021 19:00 (three years ago) link
lol i am just now learning that.
I love "Comfortable"
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Monday, 1 March 2021 19:30 (three years ago) link
I think I outed my own ignorance on ILM of all places and got a good dressing down for it too
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Monday, 1 March 2021 19:33 (three years ago) link
I knew Scissor Sisters' Comfortably Numb first. Still think it bangs?
― imago, Monday, 1 March 2021 19:38 (three years ago) link
did hearing the Beyonce version undermine the primacy of the Lil Wayne track in your mind, or was it......... impossible to supplant?
― honkin' on bobo, honkin' with my feet ten feet off of beale (Doctor Casino), Monday, 1 March 2021 19:39 (three years ago) link
Lana Del Rey's cover of Sublime's "Doin' Time" rewrite of Summertime
― grab bag cum trash bag (sic), Monday, 1 March 2021 20:29 (three years ago) link
Is Camper Van Beethoven’s version of Pictures of Matchstick Men more or less famous than the Status Quo’s?
I would say less because it hit #12 on the US charts and was played a lot on rock radio when I was a kid; I knew the CvB version was a cover from the get-go.
― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Monday, 1 March 2021 20:33 (three years ago) link
Here's one: David Bowie's version of "God Only Knows" on Tonight. I knew of the original, and remember thinking incredulously, "isn't this supposed to be one of the greatest songs ever?"
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 1 March 2021 21:48 (three years ago) link
"Pictures of Matchstick Men" seems like one of those Sixties songs along with "For Your Love" and "We Gotta Get Out of this Place" that didn't make the jump from 80s AOR playlists to 90s-onward classic rock radio. CBVs cover came right in the transition, and was a label suggestion to get them on the radio, IIRC.
― Citole Country (bendy), Monday, 1 March 2021 21:55 (three years ago) link
One time as a kid I was listening to the Naked Eyes version of "Always Something There", and my dad came by and said, "this was the first song I heard after coming to America in the 60s" and for years it gave me a very mistaken impression of how old the Naked Eyes version was
I also used to like the Howard Jones cover of "I.G.Y." a lot until I realized it was a cover, and a very lazy one at that. Basically it's the original with Jones trying to sound like Fagan and crappy synth horns in place of real ones
― Vinnie, Monday, 1 March 2021 23:27 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-bgiiTxhzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfFDTPPlaM
― xzanfar, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 00:22 (three years ago) link
Is the Love reworking of My Little Red Book now the familiar version as in the better known one.Not sure to what extent they were aware of teh Mannfred Mann version which features in What's Up Pussycat. Must be several recordings where a set up like that has happened where the once lesser known cover is now the known one.
Also seeing way up thread a reference to Season of the Witch , is the Donovan version well known? I think it has been a fav song of mine in the Joolz and Brian Auger version since my early teens. BUt it seems several acts had versions in the late 60s.
Where does First Time Ever i Saw Your Face fit is the Macoll original as well known as Roberta Flack's? I assume her That's No Way To Say Goodbye is less known than Leonard cohen's? sublime anyway.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 00:26 (three years ago) link
Love and Rockets "Ball of Confusion" before The TemptationsDevo "Working in the Coal Mine" before Lee Dorsey10,000 Maniacs "Peace Train" before Cat Stevens (although I'm sure the Cat Stevens version was lodged somewhere in the recesses of my memory)
*I've still never even heard the Macoll original of "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
― Josefa, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 00:53 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_ozjAu_vM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxgMGk9JPVA
― xzanfar, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 00:59 (three years ago) link
Also,
Lush "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" before Middle of the Road or Mac and Katie Kissoon, whichever one considers the most famous version (for quite a while I thought it must have been an ABBA song)
― Josefa, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 00:59 (three years ago) link
I'm the US charts at least, the ATF version did better than the Falco version, and the Quiet Riot version did better than the Slade version.
― enochroot, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:24 (three years ago) link
I'm sure I mentioned but Will to Power's "Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird" was the first time I'd heard either song.....I didn't hear the OG "Freebird" until middle of high school, and Frampton's BILYW only a few years before that.
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:25 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I thought everyone in North America knew the Quiet Riot version of that song before the Slade one. Only big music fans even know it was a Slade song!
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:27 (three years ago) link
I only learned Slade did the original after I played Vice City and heard the Quiet Riot one for the first time in years, and then looked it up.
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:28 (three years ago) link
did hearing the Beyonce version undermine the primacy of the Lil Wayne track in your mind, or was it......... impossible to supplant?― honkin' on bobo, honkin' with my feet ten feet off of beale (Doctor Casino), Monday, March 1, 2021 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
― honkin' on bobo, honkin' with my feet ten feet off of beale (Doctor Casino), Monday, March 1, 2021 7:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
I'm p sure I must have heard the Bey track a few times before, but not really compartmentalised the "To the left" part enough to recognise that that was what LW was referencing. But I was really into "Comfortable". Not sure which one is most prominent in my mind now because I must have heard "Irreplaceable" a lot more times I recent years as it's a work radio staple and also hugely excellent
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:37 (three years ago) link
I knew "Alone Again Or" as an early Boo Radleys song before realising it was a cover of Love.
All those songs on Incesticide, like "Turnaround", I didn't realise were covers. I was really surprised to find out that was a Devo song: it just sounds like something Kurt would write
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:42 (three years ago) link
Galaxie 500 – 'Isn't It a Pity'
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:44 (three years ago) link
There are lots of sections on The Beach Boys "Smile" which I didn't really know were ripped straight out of the Great American Songbook. I like how that record is kind of a mix album in that respect
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:45 (three years ago) link
Something I did know, when I was very young and not familiar with the concept of cover versions, was that Strawberry Fields Forever was BY THE BEATLES AND NOT BY CANDY FLIP! I was so annoyed with Candy Flip for putting the wool over everyone's eyes and convincing them that it was their song when it wasn't. SO ANNOYED!
― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:47 (three years ago) link
Orgy – 'Blue Monday'
(I was 13 at the time.)
Most of the songs on Cat Power's The Covers Record.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:47 (three years ago) link
it was like a year ago when I learned the version of "Dream Weaver" I thought was the original was in fact the SECOND re-recorded version of Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver" from 1992
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:49 (three years ago) link
Strawberry Fields Forever was BY THE BEATLES AND NOT BY CANDY FLIP!
― enochroot, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 03:06 (three years ago) link
Holy crap you people are old. xp
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 03:10 (three years ago) link