Covers that 'made' the Original

[Ricky 4000]

Hrm...

Blondie made - The Tide Is High

Righteous Bros made - Unchained Melody

The original version of California Dreamin' was rubbish.

Oh, and being a man of my time, and the UK - The Clash claimed "I fought the law" a lot more convincingly than the Crickets etc.

All IMHO of course.

👍

Edited March 3, 2019 by Ricky 4000

[BreadBin]

13 hours ago, DaveFry said:

" Without You "from the 1970 album No Dice by Badfinger was a later hit for Harry Nillson , and also later for Mariah Carey .

Ken Lee, isn't it?

 

[DaveFry]

Couple of Randy Newman songs :
" You can leave your hat on " was a hit for Joe Cocker and later for Tom Jones .
" I think its going to rain today " was on the first UB40 album and also covered with a superb arrangement by Joe Cocker .

[chris_b]

Delta Lady, Darling Be Home Soon, The Letter. . . . . Joe Cocker

 

[Shaggy]

15 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

any Bob Dylan song sounds better when covered than the original, I'm can never see what good songs they are when I hear his versions.

The one exception for me being the much-covered "Knocking on heavens door" - Dylan's original never bettered.

As has been discussed before; much of Led Zeppelin's "original" material were essentially covers of blues standards

PS I forget 2 gems of popular music 

Mickey - Toni Basil

I love Rock n' roll - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

 

[Paul S]

I thought of someone else whose songs I almost always prefer when other people do them - Chuck Berry.  

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

not heard Hendrix doing it then?

Oh yes. But it's the one well-known song of his where I prefer his version.

One problem perception of Dylan has is that he came from a tradition where attitudes to covering and changing songs was a lot healthier than today's lawsuit culture. Anything more than 20 years old was considered 'trad. arr....

A great example is Masters of War, which is essentially the same song as Fairport's Nottanum Town at the root, but in practice both very different.

The convoluted story of House of the Rising Son is pretty much impossible to untangle.

I rather like this; I've been enjoying a lot of the Chris Cornell covers that have been getting airplay (at least on Planet Rock) since his death. I prefer the originals of many of them but I really enjoy hearing an alternative take.

Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons do a great job of Motorhead songs and take a nice approach of being close to the original but in their more contemporary style (I liked it when, just before the encore, four spots started spinning to make a miini-bomber so we all knew what was coming 😁)

I like covers done in a band's own style (whether big established artist or a pub band) - not to knock tribute bands, but I see the tribute approach as being closer to a blend of classical 'performance of a piece' combined with (at least with the most sophisticated tributes) an element of theatre.

 

One other thought on covers - I was probably the only person who enjoyed Sabbath playing Smoke on the Water at Reading '83 with Gillan :_)

[leftybassman392]

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, covered by lots of people (most notably The Hollies), but first recorded by Kelly Gordon. Strictly speaking this was arguably a cover too since he didn't write the song himself, but he was the first to record it so please yourselves I guess...

As a sort of 'did you know?' addendum, That's Life (made famous by ol' Blue Eyes hisself) was actually written by the self same Kelly Gordon (actually co-written with Dean Kay if we're being picky, but all the same...). In a curious piece of irony, Kelly's recorded version of the song turns out to have been on the 'B' side of his version of 'He Ain't Heavy...'

Edited March 3, 2019 by leftybassman392

[BassTractor]

9 hours ago, BreadBin said:

Ken Lee, isn't it?

🙂 Yup.

[skankdelvar]

9 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

In my humble opinion, both the original by The Family and Prince’s version of the song were far superior.

Any reasonable man would concur with Mr Hackenbacker's position.

[davepb24]

Quo's "Rockin. All Over The World" always sounds far better to me than CCR's original but not sure how many might agree lol...in terms of "making" the original I'd say " In The Army Now" which I only discovered was a cover about two years ago! And although the band themselves might disown it now, All About Eve's take on Cliff's "Devil Woman" is just great.

Then of course there are the This Mortal Coil albums...

[Dood]

Did we mention It's My Life by Talk Talk yet? I always though that No Doubt's version was pretty faithful.

[TrevorR]

Time to post the cover of Duffy’s Mercy by The Third Degree again. This version sounds like it should have been the original and recorded around 1971...

 

PS, that isn’t really the vocalist. The singer on this track is actually a beardy folkie type from Winchester called Jon Allen.

[TrevorR]

And it turns out they’ve done pretty good covers of Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head...

 

And Britney’s Toxic too!

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by TrevorR

[TrevorR]

I never ever realised that I Monster’s sublime Daydream In Blue was a cover. Here’s the original which shows how much better the cover is!

 

 

[dmccombe7]

Steamy Windows covered by Tina Turner. Original Tony Joe White.

Rainy Night In Georgia covered by so many but original again T.J.White

Was ManWho Sold the World single a hit for Bowie or did Lulu have the bigger hit with it.

Hush by Deep Purple originally written by American composer and musician Joe South

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by dmccombe7

[dmccombe7]

33 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Bowie didn’t release it as a single, so fairly safe to say Lulu’s version was a bigger hit.

As we have a female vocal in the band, we now do that version instead of the album version.

Think i've seen a VID clip of you guys doing that song. Excellent. I'm a huge Bowie fan altho more his earlier material and the last album i liked. For some odd reason the last album reminds me of Man Who Sold the World album but not sure why.

Dave

[taunton-hobbit]

56 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Hush by Deep Purple originally written by American composer and musician Joe South

A mate of mine had a version by Kris Ife (1967) - it was on MGM & I thought it was the original - until I checked it out tonight - live & learn, eh guys..........

😎

[Woodinblack]

And:

Which I think is a pretty good version myself

 

[kevin_lindsay]

 

[kevin_lindsay]

This was released in 1968 - although we all know the Morecambe and Wise version as the definitive version. 

[Guest oZZma]

 

[MacDaddy]

IIRC there was a television show called Glee, from which the characters released various cover versions which were swiftly followed into the hit parade by the originals. 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

IIRC there was a television show called Glee, from which the characters released various cover versions which were swiftly followed into the hit parade by the originals. 

That does show the continuing power of TV and film as an 'influencer' .  Did Glee actually 'release' their covers or just perform them as part of their shows? 

Similar point about Shrek and Hallelujah earlier. 

[dave_bass5]

The Commitments film brought a lot of classics to the forefront IMO, inc Mustang Sally 🙂