gmanca

The entire Labour of Love album was a cover album and it's also the only UB40 album I own, go figure.

ScissorPuppy

Another interesting fact is that Elvis was going to record the song and release it before Dolly. She was glad to let Elvis use her song, but Col. Parker demanded she give Elvis 50% of the song profits and she balked at the idea.

BKenn01

QR also covered "Mama weer all crazy now" from Slade. At around the same time the Mama's Boys covered it. Me and a friend of mine got into a big argument over whether it was Mama's Boys or Quiet Riot who sang the song. Turned out we were both right and never knew it was a cover.

story

I didn't know "Such Great Heights," performed by Iron+Wine on the Garden State soundtrack, is a Postal Service song until my then-girlfriend / now-wife brought her iPod into the car on our second date and put the original song on.

I didn't know either of these factoids until I read your post, Decker!

The Baker Street cover is okay, but what I really love is the cover they did of "Stairway to Heaven" on Craig Kilborn years ago:

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SeekOnce

Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe

On my list of all-time favorite songs. So it was a bit odd to find out later that he didn't actually write the tune.

wm lopez

great white / twice bitten twice shy

Scrumtrulescent

I didn't realize "When You Were Mine" by Cyndi Lauper was actually a Prince song.

Also didn't realize that "All That Heaven Will Allow" by The Mavericks was a Springsteen song.

boc4ever

Gonna Get Close to You - Queensryche

Originally done by Dalbello

cungar

I've seen guys at dorm parties do better versions than that.

macnorton

Does "All The Young Dudes" count? It was written by Bowie for Mott the Hoople and then later (can't remember if it was studio, live, or both) covered by Bowie.

And speaking of Gary Numan, Fear Factory did "Cars" both with Numan on vocals through the whole song and another version with Numan and Burton.

Mayoman

The performance was a joke. It was meant to say that people shouldn't cover "Stairway" because they usually screw it up.

7Keys

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" has been my favorite Ramones song for a long time. I never knew it was a Tom Waits song until it came up in the hall of fame thread. I like the lyrics, but I don't care for the original song because of Waits "singing".

story

That's part of the point; it's an ironic performance.

HUG-H

Any song The Beatles covered, including "Long Tall Sally", "Anna", "Honey Don't", etc. I was very young.

"Young Man Blues", The Who (Wasn't until I saw it was M. Allison credited)

"Move It On Over", George Thorogood

Chrisedge

And in the movie, the first time Whitney hears it, it's being played on a jukebox being sung by John Doe of X!

movieking

Fight The Power - Public Enemy (Isley Brothers)
Hard To Handle - Black Crowes (Otis Redding)
It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday - Boyz II Men (G.C. Cameron)

Garth Brooks "Friends In Low Places" might have been originally recorded and released by Mark Chesnutt, depending on whose timeline you believe.

lewisb73

Yeah... it was done by Dash Rip Rock before... but... since Fred Le Blanc wrote it (and he was part of both groups), its less to think of it as a surprise

Rocketdog2000

There's also an exceptional cover of it by Mitch Ryder, from his Never Kick a Sleeping Dog album, which came out a year before Lauper's take. The whole album was produced by John Mellencamp, and his band is pretty much the backing band on it, too. I prefer his version over Prince's original, too.

Giantrobo

From gibson.com (The guitar maker)

Under the Covers: Top 10 Covers That Beat the Original

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyl...ers-0112-2011/

atlantamoi

I haven't seen that flick so I never knew this. Interesting. My favorite part of that soundtrack is just knowing that Nick Lowe hit a huge payday by having someone cover "What So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding".

LiquidSky

The Bangles Going Down to Liverpool

Randy Miller III

NO!

The Righteous Brothers.

atlantamoi

Nice. Most people have no clue that Katrina And The Waves were more than just "Walking On Sunshine" and that Kimberley Rew wrote and was involved with some really good music (hello Soft Boys).

Hiro11

I wasn't aware that either was covered effectively. The originals are two of my favorite songs by the respective artists.

Prince had a habit for a while of giving hit songs to people. The Bangles "Manic Monday", Sinead O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2 U", Morris Day and Sheena Easton's entire careers and a bunch of others. The guy was a hit maker with room to spare in the 80s. Springsteen also did this with "Because the Night" for Patti Smith and all of the other unused "Darkness on the Edge of Town" stuff that he gave to other people.

gmanca

I do agree with your premise about Prince, but in regards to Sheena Easton, she was doing pretty well on her own before Prince collaborated with her on A Private Heaven.