1y ago

Songs you later found out were covers.

Had a revelation this morning while listening to a HonkyTonk playlist on Spotify that Jerry Reed originally made Amos Moses. For YEARS I just thought it was a Primus song as it has that vibe Les Claypool puts out.

Another for me was Astronomy Domine by Pink Floyd. I originally heard it on Headbangers Ball by Voivod and had no idea it was a cover. A few years later I discovered that it was a cover and to this day Pink Floyd and Voivod are two of my favorite bands.

So, What songs did you surprisingly find out were covers some time after hearing the song by the cover artist?

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"I Put a Spell on You" is commonly attributed to CCR since they covered it on their debut album, but it's actually a Screamin' Jay Hawkins original.
The now infamous Billy Ray Cyrus debut single, "Achey Brakey Heart", was actually a cover of The Marcy Brothers' "Don't Tell My Heart". They were released within a year of each other but the Cyrus cover exploded in popularity in Australia (yes, Australia), and the rest is history.
Cyndi Lauper's biggest hit, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", was a Robert Hazard cover.
Elvis Presley had a really bad habit of ripping off lesser known (black) blues artists. As in, of the 24 songs off his first 2 albums, 20 of them were covers, bad.
There's so many more I can think of off the top of my head, like Johny Cash's cover of NIN's "Hurt" getting Trent Reznor to say it "wasn't my song anymore" after seeing the video, but I think that'll do for now.

I once did an entire 2 hour radio show on this very subject.
There were some genuine surprises to me when I was doing the research for this one.
- This is great. Me and a buddy are gonna sit down and listen to it this evening.
  
  Thank you for saying so! I enjoyed doing that show.

Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower, originally Bob Dylan

On Disturb's album 10,000 Fist is a song called Land of Confusion. First listened to the album way back in the mid 2000's.
Around 2006 or so I heard the same song being played on the speakers at the Ikea I worked at but it was a lot softer than I expected. Turns out it was originally done by a band called Genesis.
Both version slap but in different ways.
- The video for Land of Confusion was straight nightmare fuel for children everywhere.
- I think this is a great example of a cover capturing the spirit of the song more than the original. The Genesis version is good, but the lyrics and theme I think are projected better when Disturbed covered it.
- a band called Genesis.
  Man, this made me feel old, and also I had to laugh. Yeah, little band called Genesis. 😂
  When I was young Genesis was everywhere. You couldn't listen to the radio for more than 30 minutes without hearing a Genesis song. Since you seem to not know of them, allow me to introduce you: Phil Collins (vocals/drums), Mike Rutherford (bass/guitar), and Tony Banks (keyboards) is the lineup that most people know. They were the three left over after Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel left the band in the 1970s. In the 70s, they were a prog-rock band, but in the 80s the three remaining members shifted from prog-rock to pop, and the rest is history.
  I adore their old stuff, and there is so much to potentially introduce you to, but let's go with this performance of Abacab from '87. The song was released in 1981, and is still in their 'transition' period from a prog band to a pop band. They were absolute powerhouses onstage. Phil Collins in particular is an incredible performer. This song sounds like the 1980s squeezed into pure music, but really, Genesis didn't sound like 80s pop music. 80s pop music sounded like Genesis. Have a listen.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvOms5JXDXY
  
  Thanks for the recommendation!
  The funny thing (or sad thing depending on how you look at it) is that at the age of 37 I'm not that young, but there's a lot of music out there I have little to no exposure to. Music hasn't been a huge part of my upbringing despite all of my brothers being musicians; I was always a movie/tv/game kid. These days I trend towards heavy metal and some rap (depending on the artist).
  You're right though, that video is the most 80's thing I've ever seen. I can see a montage of 80's music flowing through my head when I was listening to it.

The Mad World version by Gary Jules is actually a cover of Tears For Fears' original:
Gary Jules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4
Tears For Fears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg
- @Speiser0 I like them both and heard the Tears For Fears version first.

Nirvana's Where Did You Sleep Last Night is the cover of a Leadbelly song
- It's weird you didn't know that because in their only recording of it, Kurt says "this is a Leadbelly song" before it starts
  
  Most people experienced the song through CD or radio play of the Unplugged in New York album version, which cut right to the start of the song.
  But in a topical twist, Kurt Cobain didn't realize Leadbelly was doing a cover as well, LOL.

Police On My Back by The Clash was originally done by a group called The Equals.

Live and Let Die, I thought the Guns N' Roses version was the original...
Years later I found out it was Paul McCartney and the Wings.
- Just "Wings." No "the." Although maybe Paul will see this and it'll annoy him a little. In which case, it's "Paul MacHeartnay and the Wings."
  
  You are right it's "Paul McCartney and Wings". As strange as it sounds to me.

Tennessee Ernie Ford - 16 Tons - a cover of a Merle Travis song

Louie Louie was originally by Richard Berry. Unlike the Kingsmen’s more famous cover, this is completely intelligible.

Apparently these are actually pretty well-known covers but I only found out a few years after:
Tina Turner's Proud Mary is originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Judas Priest's The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) is a cover of a Fleetwood Mac song
Whiskey in the Jar is apparently an Irish traditional song, so both Thin Lizzy's and Metallica's (and also the Dubliners') can be said to be covers
- whiskey in the jar was one of mine. another is Natalie imbruglia's cover of "torn" - the original is by a band called Ednaswap, and there are at least a couple of distinct versions by them, fairly radically different from each other.
- I had no idea about the Judas Priest cover! Wow.

I heard Alien Ant Farm's cover of Smooth Criminal way before I ever heard the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl9ZMfj6aE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4
Also, Anthrax's Got the Time turned out to be a Joe Jackson cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be7iNHw8QoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTIPCc1nKYQ
- Greetings fellow 35 year old.

Type O Negative's Summer Breeze is originally a song by Seals and Crofts
- Apparently Peter had much ruder lyrics ready to go but the label told him he couldn't do them. Mr. Bungle sort of covered it on their new live album, too, and took a lot of liberties with the lyrics.
  
  Type O Negative - Summer Girl (Banned Version - Summer Breeze)

A significant portion of Led Zeppelin songs are covers. Lots of old Blues artists. https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/17/covers#nav-entity

When I was in middle school I didn't realize how many of Reel Big Fish's songs were covers until late in high school, obviously that's kind of their shtick but when you don't have access to a big list of nearly every song things slip by you pretty easily, this experience is probably less common these days with streaming etc.
I didn't know primus covered Amos Moses I'm much more familiar with the original track I'll have to check that out seems like a great fit.

"Mad World" is the classic "what do you mean that's a cover?" song... here are some great ones that I haven't seen mentioned yet:
Nine Inch Nails "Dead Souls" (from The Crow soundtrack) is a Joy Division cover.
Guns 'N Roses "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a Bob Dylan cover.
Whitney Houston "I Will Always Love You" is a Dolly Parton cover.
Nirvana's "The Man Who Sold the World" is a David Bowie cover.
Fugees "Killing Me Softly with His Song" is a Roberta Flack cover, but Roberta Flack's version is also a cover, it was initially recorded by Lorie Lieberman.
- Many of the songs Nirvana recorded for MTV Unplugged were covers. Love their rendition of In the Pines.
  And since you brought up Nine Inch Nails, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Johnny Cash's Hurt being a cover. That's the paradigm example for me.
  
  Good one! It was certainly an unexpected cover when it was released, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Johnny Cash version had overshadowed the original in terms of audience familiarity. I'm also fond of Nine Inch Nails' cover of Queen's "Get Down Make Love", it was a rather niche track for both bands - so much so that despite being a Queen fan, I heard the NIN version first.

Kinda going back to that post I did the other day about Ska, but The Clash's cover of Wrong Em Boyo, which was originally by The Rulers.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JNp9ymVrugQ

According to some guy trying to neg me at a party once, my favorite song by a band I like.
- What song was it?
  
  Might have been "Red Right Ankle" by The Decemberists?

I recently learned that Always Something There to Remind Me is not in fact originally by Naked Eyes, but was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and first performed by Dionne Warwick

The Lion Sleeps Tonight has been covered so many times that the Disney version sung by Nathan Lane (Timon) and Ernie Sabella (Pumbaa) in the original Lion King movie is essentially a cover of a cover.
Funily enough, after the movie's release, they released a new version of the cover with the female vocals of Lebo M alongside the other two.
Got sued for the whole thing, but it ended up as you'd expect with Disney.
Another one is Tainted Love by Soft Cell, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in '64. My mind's blowing a little bit because because Soft Cell's version was released in '81, which means it was covered less than 20 years later and their version was released over 40 years ago. Don't know why, but that seems fucking wild to me.
Like, the time between the original and cover compared to how long the cover has been around.
For some reason I thought the original was older.
- Little bit of pop trivia for you.....
  The version that was covered by Tight Fit that was a one hit wonder in the 80s in the UK, was produced by Tim Friese-Greene.
  He also produced "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby and was also a co-writer, producer and player on Talk Talk's final three albums!
- A bit more history: Gloria Jones' version of Tainted Love was big on the Northern Soul underground dance scene in the industrial cities in the north of England in the late 60s/early 70s. Marc Almond knew it from there. Northern Soul DJs sought out overlooked gems and gave new life to a particular style of older songs from northern industrial cities in the US ❤️

i just found out recently that Fuel My Fire by The Prodigy is a cover originally by L7, which L7 took from parts of another punk song

JUST TODAY I found out "Long Time Gone" by The Chicks is a cover!
- A woman singing about marrying a woman in a country song wasn't a clue for you?
  
  I thought they were roommates! ;)
  Also, no, it wasn't a clue at all for me

I first heard The Nurse Who Loved Me from A Perfect Circle. I also thought it was the weakest song on the album, but when I saw them live it was awesome. Turns out they played it closer to the original Failure version. Also that entire Failure album is fantastic.
- Yeah, I saw them in the early 2000s (Mars Volta opened, hell of a show) and had a similar experience. They started pretty close to the album and it just kept getting crazier as it went.

@DingoFan@beehaw.org Nothing Compares 2 U. I'd only heard the Sinead O'Connor version for years. Didnt know it was written by Prince for The Family.
- @DingoFan@beehaw.org and then I find out she passed away today 😔
- chris cornell did an amazing cover of the song as well.

Nina Hagen's version of I'm Going To Live The Life I Sing About in My Song
Nina Hagen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdiTFj0WDWc
Mahalia Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYauoAIvfA
- Mahalia ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

One that I was surprised to learn that I like to share is Grace Jones 'Private Life' was originally by The Pretenders.
Hynde is quoted as saying: Like all the other London punks, I wanted to do reggae, and I wrote "Private Life". When I first heard Grace's version I thought 'Now that's how it's supposed to sound!' In fact it was one of the highpoints of my career - what with Sly and Robbie being the masters, and Grace Jones with her scorching delivery.

I didn't know Planet Caravan by Pantera was a a cover of Black Sabbath until my dad pointed it out. I like the original but I think the cover is a bit better.

Tricky's Something In the Way is a Nirvana cover. I was more of a Tricky fan than a Nirvana fan so it took me forever to figure that out.

Betty Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes was a cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPOIS5taqA8
The original was by Jackie Deshannon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQsOJbs-yo

Considering the genres I tend to listen to most frequently (country, jazz, blues, bluegrass) don’t really have a problem with people doing covers, that is a very long list.
The only one that pops to mind currently is Hurt by Johnny Cash. I think it was the better part of a year before I found out about Nine Inch Nails’ original version.

Mad World in Donnie Darko, the original has a very different vibe because they slowed it down quite a bit in the movie.
Original
Donnie Darko

Paint it Black by gob. I think it's funny that I was listening to a relatively small Canadian rock band before I learned about The Rolling Stones.

imma feelin old. i remember well when many of these originals came out 😂

Twist and Shout is not by the Beatles.

Radiohead is just a Muse cover band

You're so vain by Faster Pussycat turned out to be a cover
Cross-Eyed Mary
I also thought Man on the Silver Mountain was by Mago de OZ
- Huh. Didn't know about that cover. Man on the Silver Mountain is one of my favorite Rainbow songs. Actually, one of my favorite songs with Dio on vocals in general.
  Not a bad cover. I like the synths.

82nd All The Way - Amaranthe
I love both versions now.

A twist on the subject for years I thought Guns Of Brixton by The Clash was a cover, but it's an original song.
Jimmy Cliff did an awesome cover though

Our Lips Are Sealed is not exactly a GoGo's song. It was co-written with Fun Boy Three.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVhK-VVeXo

The entire genre of Drum N Bass is a cover of the Amen break.

@DingoFan I must say I've heard the version of Hurt by Johnny Cash way before I knew it was a nine inch nails cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI
(Here's the version from Nine Inch Nails):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oGqIfnIAEA
There was also an artist in my country called Lucia. She made a song called Silence which was a cover after a band called The MOOoD. I always thought her song was the original, and not the other way around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAmuoV1z5k
Edit: here's the original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYp7c9sB86c

Take On Me by Reel Big Fish (but I found out within a day or two.)
A longer episode was Such Great Heights by Iron and Wine. I could have sworn Postal Service was the cover....but I was wrong. So wrong.

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