Songs you belatedly discovered were covers of a very different artist

Ha ha

Devo's "Satisfaction". my parents are from Akron so I was exposed to their music at a very young age.

Soft Cell - Tainted Love. Didn’t know it was a cover until I started listening to more classic soul.

I didn't realize "The Hammond Song" wasn't by The Colourfield until last year (when The Avalanches sampled it and credited The Roches, not Terry Hall)

when I was 12 or 13 I got heavy into Big Beat and "electronica" (whatever that meant in 1998) and I for some reason assumed that all the sounds were originals outside of the obvious stuff. later in life it always threw me for a loop to hear something sampled on those CDs

Yeah, on that note, I think it was ILM that clued me in, quite recently, to Edwin Birdsong... I guess this was technically a sample, but it feels more like a cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3AKrwna2C8

lol yeah I remember watching a video detailing the many many tunes DP lifted giant chunks of and almost showed it to my friends who were huge into them but it almost felt like telling a kid that Santa isn't real

I was a bit surprised at how pretty much every Massive Attack song where Horace Andy sings is a cover of a song of his.

Also found Don’t You Evah by Spoon was a cover almost a decade later, but that one is way too obscure, noone outside of Austin had ever heard the original before.

It was only a couple of years ago that I found out Not So Manic Now by Dubstar was a cover. The original is by a band called Brick Supply who I'd never heard of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpKlwFNMI60

i thought "fly me to the moon" was a song written specifically for the end credits of neon genesis evangelion until i saw elvis costello perform it on an episode of third rock from the sun

I never knew Not So Manic Now was a cover!

my most recent realisation was Minnie Riperton, Les Fleurs. I think maybe I thought it might be a small sample or reworking in there but the 4 Hero version is a direct cover.

Recently discovered that Ha Ha This A Way is by Lead Belly and not a Paul Daniels original.

When I was a naive 20y old, I was allowed backstage at a Primal Scream gig and told Bobby Gillespie that I thought 'Slip Inside This House' was my favourite song of theirs. He was the one who then informed me that it was a cover of 13th Floor Elevators. I felt pretty embarrassed but he was really nice about it, he wrote down the name of the album for me.

Well I just heard a version of 'Sinnerman' recorded a full decade before Nina Simone's version so add that to the list I guess.

Wait what?

I know, right?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinner_Man

i had extreme cognitive dissonance when i first heard wire's version of 'strange' because I didn't understand how they covered an REM song from ten years in the future

Not exactly a very different artist but Henry Thomas' "Bull Doze Blues" surprised the hell out of me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bO0kp4lAPo

not exactly a cover but anyway, first heard this one yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRnFmHm_ANg

LCD Soundsystem's "Jump Into the Fire", which I assumed was just a really great B-side ("of COURSE this fucking hipster would save the best track for the back of some single") - when I heard Nilsson's version I kept bouncing between "this is 30 years ahead of its time" and "LCD really based their entire career on this, huh?"

"LCD really based their entire career on this, huh?"

lol I felt kinda the same when I first heard this old Chuck Prophet track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMvRu3_d50U

glee cover of rebecca black’s friday

That "Turning Black" track, wow. Had never heard that. Pretty strong stuff!

Frank Mills on Hair got me too

This Mortal Coil's three albums, didn't realize they were largely covers until after _Blood_ and discovering The Apartments.

My wife didn't realize that Through the Looking Glass by Siouxsie and the Banshees was all covers, I got to surprise her a lot.

It was only a couple of years ago that I found out Not So Manic Now by Dubstar was a cover. The original is by a band called Brick Supply who I'd never heard of.

many years ago i worked with one of the BS blokes.
he was very angry and bitter re the whole thing re that track (and everything else in life to be fair).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeY7J9kjg0

I know we download and stream everything nowadays so this is now probably the norm.

Back in the day I always read liner notes and credits on LPs and CDs, maybe no one else did idk.

“This flight tonight” a genius choice for Nazareth to cover Joni Mitchell

Reading liner notes wouldn’t always tell you if it was a cover. Eg: Led Zepellin