cungar

A rare case of justice in an unfair business.

Supermallet

I didn't realize that was a cover until just now when I read this post! Who did the original?

One of my favorite Prince songs. Ani DiFranco also covered it, but that might only have been during live sets.

I just today discovered that "Love Hurts" was not in fact written by Nazareth when a Roy Orbison version popped up on my iTunes shuffle. I looked it up and discovered it was written in 1960 and The Everly Brothers did the first recording of it. What's weird is that I love Roy Orbison, but somehow managed to never notice he had recorded a version of this song.

I vividly remember buying my first Bowie album (a greatest hits collection) because I recognized the songs "Space Oddity," "Ziggy Stardust," and "The Man Who Sold The World," which I couldn't believe was a cover (having assumed Nirvana wrote it and never listening to Kurt's chatter about it being a Bowie song). Also, speaking of Bowie, I didn't know that "Criminal World" off of the Let's Dance album was a Metro cover for a few years.

atlantamoi

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The Nerves out of Los Angeles. They only released an EP, but boy did that little group venture out. Peter Case moved on to The Plimsouls ("Million Miles Away") and solo. Paul Collins released some great material in The Beat + solo work and Jack Lee has also been at it awhile. Power pop at the top of the heap.

LiquidSky

Very cool! I never knew this was a cover. Love the original as well as Blondie's version.
I remember The Plimsouls too.

Giles

Joan Osbourne's Cathedrals

Pointyskull

Is that the Jump, Little Children song?

Giles

yes it is

Rocketdog2000

I love The Nerves - great band! I prefer the original to Blondie's version. Jack Lee also wrote "Come Back and Stay", which was latter a hit for Paul Young in '83, and I'm sure many folks don't realize that song was a cover, either.

atlantamoi

I didn't know that. Cool info!

Here's the tune.

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RagingBull80

I was amazed when I found out that a Soft Boy wrote "Walking on Sunshine."

I can't remember if this one has been mentioned in the thread or not but I bet most people don't know that Three Dog Night didn't write "One." It's a cover of a Harry Nilsson track.

Supermallet

Yeah, and Nilsson's is way better than TDN, imo.

Michael Corvin

Wow. Mark me down for that one. I had no idea.

nodeerforamonth

Cheap Trick doing "California Man"

atlantamoi

Dang, I didn't know that either! It just sounds like... um, Cheap Trick! So I read that is a B-side from The Move released after the members had already started ELO. Interesting.

Numanoid

Springsteen wrote the song Fire specifically to give to Elvis, who unfortunately had a grabber while trying to take a dump before it could be recorded. The song was later covered by The Pointer Sisters, and became a big hit.

Here's Springsteen doing it Elvis style, as a demo:



and what became the actual hit:

JasonF

Springsteen also wrote Hungry Heart for the Ramones, but after "Because the Night" and "Fire," his manager basically said "You can't keep giving these songs away to other artists"

7Keys

Anthrax's "Antisocial" is also a cover of a Trust song. I've been listening to them and that album since it came out when I was a kid. I only found out a few years ago it was a cover.

brayzie

Killing Me Softly-The Fugees

There's more but I can't think of them now...

Oh yeah, I thought "When You Were Mine" was also an original. Even though I heard Laupers first, I actually like Prince's better.

Robot Rock

Natalie Imbruglia's Torn. Didn't know it was a cover until a couple of years ago.

TheKing

And of course there was Blinded By The Light, Springsteen's first #1 song, though not for him. I mean it was the first track on his first album, but he wasn't a commercial success until Born To Run came out.

I was pretty shocked when I heard Springsteen's version for the first time.

Also, Springsteen's versions of Because The Night and Fire were recently released on "The Promise" and in the Darkness On The Edge Of Town box set.

Buttmunker

Yeah, by a group called Racey, and the track was called "Kitty." I had no idea, either, until I learned of it from a podcast called Coverville.

I also didn't know that Shaun Cassidy's "That's Rock And Roll" was a cover. I knew it was written by Eric Carmen, but didn't know Carmen recorded it on his debut album (the one with All By Myself).

I also didn't realize that When I Need You by Leo Sayer and To All The Girls I've Loved Before by Julio Iglasias and Willie Nelson were covers of Albert Hammond tracks.

cungar

The Move is a great band to explore. Vastly overlooked. They had some great albums including Shazam! and Message from the COuntry.

Buttmunker

I never realized that Blondie's The Tide Is High was a cover. The original was by a reggae group called The Paragons.

Buttmunker

It should be noted that the majority of Three Dog Night hits are covers. For instance, Sammy Davis Jr recorded Black And White in the late 50's, and recorded again by Greyhound in 1971 before Three Dog Night took it to No.1 in 1972.

Buttmunker

I was also surprised to learn that Brother Louie by Stories was a cover. The cover was a No.1 hit in America in 1973, but was a UK hit six months earlier by the group Hot Chocolate.