Pomplamoose, "Single Ladies"
― The baby boomers have defined everything once and for all (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 13:03 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4gicHqWzv4
― best beloved george benson (The Reverend), Friday, 28 August 2015 02:07 (eight years ago) link
The Bangles' "September Gurls"...pretty sure.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 20:48 (eight years ago) link
Top of my mind:
Slade - if this world were mineHeard it before the Gaye version and I think I actually like it better.
13th floor elevators - its all over now baby blueMight be that it was my first but it's also my favorite version, love how loose it sounds.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 21:23 (eight years ago) link
Soft Cell's Hendrix Medley (Hey Joe/Purple Haze/Voodoo Child)
― soref, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 21:35 (eight years ago) link
Portastatic cover of 'Boy from School' before Hot Chip original
― kinder, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 22:10 (eight years ago) link
pretty much every Motown song I knew the California RAisins version before I knew the original
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 23:00 (eight years ago) link
^^ oh god, yes, same here. they only made 13 episodes of the cartoon, which seems almost incredible to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJyfpm_NyW8
― soref, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 06:32 (eight years ago) link
Yeah there must be a fair few Motown ones - for starters:
Japan - Ain't That PeculiarKim Wilde - You Keep Me Hangin' OnIncognito - Don't You Worry 'Bout a ThingThe Jam - Heatwave
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 07:08 (eight years ago) link
john cale - hallelujahneko case - never turn your back on mother earthvan halen - (oh) pretty woman, etcall burt bacharach songs
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 07:32 (eight years ago) link
elliott smith - thirteen
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 07:33 (eight years ago) link
Garbage - Thirteen
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 07:40 (eight years ago) link
I didn't know Minor Threat's "12XU" was a Wire cover for many years until I finally picked up Pink Flag and played it.
Metallica introduced me as a teenager to Killing Joke via their version of "The Wait."I think that's the only band/song that can be considered "famous" at least compared to the NWOBHM obscurities that they were doing at the time.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 09:16 (eight years ago) link
I guess this happens more when yr young.
Like for some time, I only knew "Too busy thinkin 'bout my Baby" by Mardi Gras.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 12:15 (eight years ago) link
toots & the maytals - country roads
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 12:27 (eight years ago) link
The Bangles' "September Gurls"...pretty sure.― clemenza, Tuesday, September 1, 2015 4:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― clemenza, Tuesday, September 1, 2015 4:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is a more famous cover of a less famous original though, surely?
― how's life, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 12:30 (eight years ago) link
All the covers on Living Colour's Biscuits were this way for me -- Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothin, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Love and Happiness, Memories Can't Wait
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 14:23 (eight years ago) link
Stone Temple Pilots - "Dancing Days"
no wonder I thought that song was so much better than the rest of their output...
― skip, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 14:39 (eight years ago) link
That's probably one of my least favorite Zep songs
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 14:41 (eight years ago) link
jawbreaker - pack it up
― mookieproof, Friday, 18 September 2015 20:40 (eight years ago) link
an embarrassing amount, but one: tracey thorn's get around to it
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Friday, 18 September 2015 20:51 (eight years ago) link
Minor Threat - Stepping Stone
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 18 September 2015 20:59 (eight years ago) link
Phil Collins "You Can't Hurry Love"
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Friday, 18 September 2015 23:46 (eight years ago) link
Nirvana-The Man Who Sold The World
― The ED, Saturday, 19 September 2015 00:40 (eight years ago) link
Oh huh, I always think of that as the more famous version, like it took what was for most people a real obscurity and put it on this mega-selling album and MTV special.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 19 September 2015 00:53 (eight years ago) link
i had the young marble giants on in the stockroom at this one job and one of my coworkers asked me, 'who are this band covering hole'
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Saturday, 19 September 2015 02:15 (eight years ago) link
The Blues Brothers, "Soul Man."
This abomination was played on Chicago radio at least twice an hour in 1979. Hearing the Sam & Dave original five years later was a monumental revelation.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 19 September 2015 02:53 (eight years ago) link
Pretty sure I heard Alexei Sayle's "Play That Funky Music Jewish Boy" first. The original is definitely more famous.
― steppenwolf in white van speaker scam (ledge), Saturday, 19 September 2015 16:41 (eight years ago) link
xpost Christ, I'd never seen it until today. friends of a friend used to do this version at karaoke nights, dance choreography and stupid Aykroyd "Soul mahhhhn" vocal. I thought they were just clowning it up but nope. Aykroyd annoys me cos he appears to be making fun of the song with his performance, even though I know he has reverence for it.
― 100 Percent That Grinch (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 17 December 2019 23:04 (four years ago) link
Nancy & lee's version of Jackson. Dopn't think I knew it was a cover for several years after it. Still not sure how often I've heard teh Johnny Cash version.
Gun Club Run ThrouGH The Jungle think I heard a couple of years before the CCR.& I probably picked up on Robert JOhnson after hearing their first lp, which in turn may have been picked up from Son House. Preachin The Blues that is.
THink it toook me years to finally hear Tiny bradshaw's Train Kept A rollin, loved the Johnny BUrnette version for a couple of decades before taht and probably first heard the song in garage punk versions or by the Yardbirds or Led Zeppelin. Garage punk versi8on may have been the Chosen Few.
First came across I'm MOvin On by the Rolling Stones on No Stone Unturned the lp that was supposed to be their bsides and I'm not sure stuck to that model. I later heard it by Ray Charles on a best of him and only after that heard the Hank Snow original.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 17 December 2019 23:16 (four years ago) link
I only know the Lydia Lunch version of Run Through the Jungle... it was years before I even knew it was a CCR song, which I've still never heard.
― visiting, Tuesday, 17 December 2019 23:24 (four years ago) link
Original is on Cosmo's Factory and I think it may be about Vietnam.
Lydia version 8 Eyed Spy?
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 17 December 2019 23:35 (four years ago) link
Yes, 8 Eyed Spy.
― visiting, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 00:37 (four years ago) link
This is probably an opposite example, hearing the original after the more famous cover. Anyway, Dawn Penn's version is wonderful, but so is thishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsJMfYDUNCE
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 15:55 (four years ago) link
Joy Division's version of Sister Ray - put the teenage me off wanting to hear the Velvet Underground for ages
― the woefullest shirker (NickB), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 16:00 (four years ago) link
I was very familiar with 1992's two rocked-out covers of "Pink Moon" (by Walt Mink and Sebadoh) long before I heard the original -- probably in that VW ad.
― I'm off Twitter, and high on life! (morrisp), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 17:24 (four years ago) link
fIREHOSE's live totem pole ep introduced me to böc's 'the red and the black', wire's 'mannequin' and the butthole surfers' 'revolution (part 2)'
r.e.m. introduced me to wire's 'strange'
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 17:54 (four years ago) link
Me too - though my guess is the R.E.M. version is more "famous," in that Document has probably sold more copies / been heard by more ppl than Pink Flag?
― I'm off Twitter, and high on life! (morrisp), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 18:01 (four years ago) link
I never knew about Willie Cobbs' "You Don't Love Me," that's totally amazing!
― A breezy pop-rock feel fairly typical of the mid-'80s (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 20:44 (four years ago) link
Carnivore’s “Manic Depression”
― beard papa, Thursday, 19 December 2019 01:56 (four years ago) link
Not strictly a cover but I heard Evolution Control Committee's Whipped Cream Mixes before Rebel Without a Pause.
― Deflatormouse, Thursday, 19 December 2019 07:12 (four years ago) link
I feel like we may be entering a golden age of people being more familiar with less famous cover versions. Went out to dinner tonight, and the music playing on their stereo was 100% cover versions, with an emphasis on reggae takes of 80s songs. I know people who would tell you their favorite type of music is cover versions.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 07:23 (four years ago) link
...also, "A Child's Introduction to the Beatles" by a group called the Wild Honey Singers with several of the best known Beatles songs before I'd ever heard the Beatles. And Status Quo's Roadhouse Blues before the Doors'.
― Deflatormouse, Thursday, 19 December 2019 07:24 (four years ago) link
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