MUSIC - What is the deepest cover song you know?
By deep I mean with the most obscure original. I am not talking 'all along the watch tower' but things like Fever Ray's cover of Vashti Bunyan's song Here before
Fever Ray is relatively well known while Bunyan had very limited success
Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun was originally Robert Hazard's Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Wow. Again, mind fucking blown
I had no idea. This slaps.
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Gloria Jones originally performed Tainted Love in the ‘60s. It didn’t hit until Soft Cell covered it in ‘81.
Holy shit. Mind blown
Wow, this is why I'm here.
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“Torn,” by Natalie Imbruglia (1997) was originally written by Ednaswap and recorded in 1995—which, imo, is better. However, even though they wrote it, it was first recorded in 1993 by danish band, Lis Sørensen, who titled it “Brændt,” which means “Burned.”
Bonus! "The State I'm In" a song from Ednaswap’s first album, was covered by Sinéad O'Connor for her 2000 album Faith and Courage.
Wild! I didn't know that wasn't done by Sinead
Harry Belafonte's exuberent cover of "Day O (Banana Boat Song)" which was a hit in its time and re-popularized by the dinner scene in Beetlejuice.
The original is Jamaican folk/traditional and the first recording of it Eric Connor - Day O has a totally different tone to it. In the original, labouring on a banana plantation is as tiring and depressing as you'd think.
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Whiskey In The Jar Song by Metallica, original is from the Dubliners in 1969 a traditional Irish song in the 1950s
Metallica might have been more influenced by the Thin Lizzy version. But the song is older than The Dubliners.
The Amen Break is a few seconds sample that became drum and bass. All of drum and bass has roots from that sample.
~18 min explanation on it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
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For only seven seconds worth of drumming the Amen Break’s influence and reach is mind blowing. It literally changed (modern, western) music.
Not sure if this applies, but people still seem to think that Nine Inch Nails covered Hurt by Johnny Cash and not the other way round. That or they haven't even heard the original.
This cover by the Afghan Whigs of the song "Lost in the Supermarket" by The Clash is really good:
Dude, London Calling (the Clash album this song is from) sold over 5 million copies. They are in no way obscure.
For real, they're The Only Band that Matters.
Ah. Sorry.
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Rage Against the Machine's Renegades of Funk was originally written and performed by a band called Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force in 1983.
You want obscure? Here's a cover of a song by Joe Glazer, written in the 1940s by a union coal miner that immigrated to the US
probably The Association's cover of "Windy" by Ruthann Friedman (which she wrote about a guy, btw)
Who's tripping down the streets of the city
God Gave Rock and Roll To You was a hit for Kiss.
Original by Argent: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QsG5V-o6uxY&pp=ygUdZ29kIGdhdmUgcm9jayBhbmQgcm9sbCB0byB5b3U%3D
And I only knew the Wyld Stallyns version!
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Do obscure rap samples count? Because I love these two:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy9nSEYZQzE&si=6x72ueIzb4LvqImv
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4TqyGMjeIpA&si=RkaU_sQJK24G9M9T
To the original question, I would pick RHCP cover of Sly and the Family Stone's song If You Want Me To Stay.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jkzWSL-gEO4&si=l-LP8ose9welAblw
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jsXkP0HTf3w&si=OrswIwjoCLw1jHO
Also Type O's cover of Seals and Croft's song Summer Breeze
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ywL6tMQdG4c&si=9uM1HqkGh1rSwv7V
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uiKzKdLk-iQ&si=pQRsVqWN8iAUzSDn
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https://music.piped.video/watch?v=4TqyGMjeIpA&si=RkaU_sQJK24G9M9T
https://music.piped.video/watch?v=jkzWSL-gEO4&si=l-LP8ose9welAblw
https://music.piped.video/watch?v=jsXkP0HTf3w&si=OrswIwjoCLw1jHO
https://music.piped.video/watch?v=ywL6tMQdG4c&si=9uM1HqkGh1rSwv7V
https://music.piped.video/watch?v=uiKzKdLk-iQ&si=pQRsVqWN8iAUzSDn
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The Louis Prima Orchestra's cover of "Whatta Ya Gonna Do?", by Sunny Skylar. One of my favorite songs, a perfect blend of New Orleans and New York in the 40s. The link above is the only version I can find on the internet, which is instrumental. The version on the record I have has vocals and is cleaner. I hope somebody works to preserve Louis Prima's catalog from the 40s digitally, there's so much old music at risk of being lost!
Type O's cover is so weird: really turns out on its ear
Well apparently people think Darius Rucker wrote the Old Crow Medicine Show song Rock Me Mama, and what's more, OCMS in their turn credited it (in jest) to Bob Dylan.
Drives me crazy that people don't know Stomp and Holler is a Hayes Carll song, and that Hallelujah is a Leonard Cohen song, and Downtown Train a Tom Waits song, too.
But I don't know if any of these are as obscure as you are looking for. You are looking for songs even music people don't think of as covers?
John Coltrane's versions of Afro Blue. Very different from Mongo Santamaría's original. I like both approaches, but Coltrane's recordings of it were all just so powerful.
Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. Trent came off a bit whiny. Cash... it's his song now.
once upon a band we played "Sister Andrea" by Mahavishnu Orchestra with many precisions and very many clarities ♫♪!! (it sounded pretty close)
Bizarre Love Triangle. The original is some very bad pop music. New Years Day brought it not only to rock, but into being really good too.
Taste aside, some of y'all really need to learn the definition of obscure.
Meh, I saw this as an excuse to talk about something I wanted to
Collective Soul covered the Morphine song You speak my language
Stille Volk’s cover of Iron Maiden’s To Tame A Land:
This would be a perfect fit if it went the other way. Big band covering obscure band
Two that are not at all obscure to but often overshadowed by their covers... i love the Four Seasons version of Beggin - https://youtu.be/d5AfvOk57bE?feature=shared
Same for the Everly Brothers doing Love Hurts - https://youtu.be/hFE2SnliiV0?feature=shared
Edit to add - i didn't know Peace, Love, and Understanding was Nick Lowe's.
There's a kid I know from a few karaoke nights whose go-to song is Beggin. Now it makes more sense why he does that song a bit differently (the first "Beggin" in the chorus he doesn't sing.)
I only grew up with the Madcon version and I didn't know until today that it was a cover.
I also heard a local singer do a really good acoustic cover of that song, where he actually does the rap parts.
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Dax Riggs covering Bonnie Prince Billy's Grand Dark Feeling of Emptiness
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The Breeders "Drivin' on 9" was a cover of song by an obscure band called Ed's Redeeming Qualities. The Breeders version is IMO sweet and meloncholy but the original is rather weird.
Hard to pick one, but murder by death has quite the number of them... But them covering the 90s rnb classic 'creep' was a shock
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This remix of a cover is pretty good
RIP Jeff Beck
The remix:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2fMtXRKJDPtT8Xs4EJkBQh?si=LpUh_H7vT7mlp8vneGCJUA
The cover:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4FsNksWJRgmQvclcW6lbrZ?si=ni3Qw7PsSqqU225zIA4wew
"House of the Rising Sun" has been covered numerous times. The most known version is from The Animals. I was today years old when I learned that this is the original version of the song. However, my personal favourite cover version is from BTO.
Another well-executed cover version is of the song "Johnny B. Goode", covered by Peter Tosh, beause it is tranferred into a different music genre.
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Literally any cover of "Hold Me Closer" by Cornelia Jacobs.
Bowling For Soup covered 1985 as the original came from SR-71
I'm actually gobsmacked to hear 1985 isn't a bowling for soup original, it's a song I associate with them intrinsically
SR-71 ended up being a one hit wonder band and the singer ended up being a songwriter and producer, so I could see the song getting shopped around for a second chance.
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Got My Mind Set on You by George Harrison
Got My Mind Set on You by James Ray
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Probably The Man Who Sold the World covered by Midge Ure, which I find much better than Bowies original or the famous Nirvana cover.
Also really like Renegades cover by 36 Crazyfists.
Good song, but Bowie is not obscure.
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