Less famous covers that you knew before the more famous originals

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.

Not that I've familiarized myself with the Smiths' discography all that much since...

that was on The Craft soundtrack too.

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>.

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.

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?

The first version of “You Don’t Own Me” I remember hearing is the Blow Monkeys’.

Alan Jackson's "Summertime Blues"

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.

sorry, 57 top 40 hits, the search was cutting off after 50 results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D53v84sXluw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVrELhxOFnM

^ 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

I heard Bauhaus's Ziggy Stardust before I heard Bowie's

The first version of “You Don’t Own Me” I remember hearing is the Blow Monkeys’.

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.

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.

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.

I knew "To the left to the left" from Lil Wayne before realising he was quoting a very famous Beyonce song

lol i am just now learning that.

I love "Comfortable"

I think I outed my own ignorance on ILM of all places and got a good dressing down for it too

I knew Scissor Sisters' Comfortably Numb first. Still think it bangs?

did hearing the Beyonce version undermine the primacy of the Lil Wayne track in your mind, or was it......... impossible to supplant?

Lana Del Rey's cover of Sublime's "Doin' Time" rewrite of Summertime

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.

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?"

"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.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-bgiiTxhzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfFDTPPlaM

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.

Love and Rockets "Ball of Confusion" before The Temptations
Devo "Working in the Coal Mine" before Lee Dorsey
10,000 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"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_ozjAu_vM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxgMGk9JPVA

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)

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

Galaxie 500 – 'Isn't It a Pity'

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

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!

Orgy – 'Blue Monday'

(I was 13 at the time.)

Most of the songs on Cat Power's The Covers Record.

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

Strawberry Fields Forever was BY THE BEATLES AND NOT BY CANDY FLIP!

Holy crap you people are old. xp

lol I tried to say you people are young. I'm a few Belgian Tripels into the evening.

Tbf I'm at the midway point where I'm simultaneously young and old.

I think it's fair to always feel that way.

I guess they qualify more like samples or remixes rather than covers but I knew these hip hop versions from the late 90s before the original ones:

Pras - Ghetto Supastar (interpolation of islands in the stream)
Puff Daddy - I’ll be missing you (The Police)
Pras, Wyclef Jean and Queen - Another Bites the Dust

I guess also every song in the Space Jam soundtrack that was a cover.

Although I think that one is an example of covers being biggest hits than the originals.

People itt hearing Beatles covers before the originals makes me feel either very old or very young depending on what was the cover they heard.