Cardiff Giant11

So usually I'm pretty on the ball with knowing when songs are covers. Recently, I heard Joe Jackson's "Got The Time" and without knowing that the Anthrax version was a cover. It wasn't until I saw it was on an album that pre-dated the Anthrax album that I finally put two and two together. I'm almost embarrassed by the fact that I didn't realize it before. I always liked the Anthrax version but in the past few years I've gotten more into Joe Jackson and I love the original version now way more than the Anthrax cover.

Drexl

It really seemed like the sort of thing They Might Be Giants would write:



I also didn't realize "Sloop John B" was a traditional folk song.

Cardiff Giant11

Ha that's a new one to me as well, thought it was an original by TMBG as well.

islandclaws

I didn't know Vanilla Ice covered David Bowie's "Under Pressure" until I got into Bowie a while back.

Also, being a younger kid when they came out, I never knew that Guns N' Roses "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" were covers.

chris_sc77

Nine Inch Nails- "Dead Souls". Didnt realize this was a JOy Division cover until about 4 or 5 months ago.

wishbone

I remember seeing a clip of Vanilla Ice explaining how "Ice Ice Baby" was different because he added a note.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(music)

Rypro 525

^theres goes (hums tune) mine goes (hums same note adding a beat) its not the same, one itty bitty ching, you see not the same!

Decker

Bonnie Raitt's big hit "Thing Called Love" is a fine song, but it's a cover of the even more wonderful John Hiatt version. Most people have never heard the original with its extra verse.

Tscott

Speaking of John Hiatt, Suzy Bogguss' "Drive South" was an early song that started me on the road to accepting country music as a genre. I never knew until years later that it was a cover.

Similarly, Mary Chapin Carpenter had a hit with "Passionate Kisses". I later found the Lucinda Williams album with the original song and got it and loved it. Thus, I was primed and ready for when "Car Wheels" came out a few years later and made her huge with the critics.

cactusoly

Tesla "Little Suzie" I only found out about it a couple years ago when VH1 had a special playing the 1st videos on MTV in order and that song was second or third by some crappy band I never heard of

Michael Corvin

Wow... I love Tesla and didn't know that about Little Suzie.

Hank Ringworm

Took a while for me to find out that David Gray's "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" was originally done by some crappy 80s British synth duo. Took longer to accept it.

Speaking of covers, I thought it was hilarious that Tom Waits's VH1 Storytellers featured him playing "Downtown Train" (famously sung by Rod Stewart), "Jersey Girl" (famously sung by Bruce Springsteen), "Ol' '55" (famously sung by The Eagles), and another I can't think of right now. Talk about the original performer of famous covers getting a fair shake.

Hank Ringworm

Man, and the guys who originally did "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" also did the famous version of "Tainted Love," which I did not know was a cover.

Rocketdog2000

I actually own the album of that crappy band you've never heard of. They were called Ph.D., and their original version of the song was titled "Little Suzi's On The Up". Tesla just shortened the name, but infinitely improved upon the song for theirs.

Decker

As a child of the 80's, I never knew that "Always Something There To Remind Me" was an old Burt Barchacrach song.

But then again, up until that previous post, I never knew Tainted Love was recorded prior to the famous Soft Cell version!

JP5683

what about Mr. Bojangles? Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was not the original artist.

Josh-da-man

I had no idea Tesla's "Little Suzie" was a cover until I read this thread, so that's one. (Never hugely into Tesla; don't think I ever had that particular album.)

Also, at the time I didn't know that "I Ain't Superstitious" from Megadeth's "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying" album was a cover of an old blues song. (Hey, I was, what, twelve? thirteen?)

Didn't know that Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" was a cover for quite a while. (I sort of remember that song from way back in the 80s, forgot about it, and then, about ten years ago, someone used it in a commercial, and that's when I found out it was a cover.)

Josh-da-man

Oh... and "Cum on Feel the Noize" by Quiet Riot. I was maybe nine or ten when I first heard it and didn't immediately know it was a cover. A while later I found out it was originally recorded by Slade, and had no idea who the fuck they were.

rw2516

Never knew Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" was a cover till I heard the original by Betty Everett from 1963-64.

If a songwriter gives a new song to another artist and lets them record and release it first is it a cover?
For example, The Stones gave Johnny Winter "Silver Train" and his version was released some months before the Stones version on Goats Head Soup.

k_lodge

Just found out the other day that "Don't Look Back" by Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger was a cover of a song originally done by the Temptations

Cardiff Giant11

Yep that would be Soft Cell. I just pulled up a sample of the NIN cover of Dead Souls, being a fan of Joy Division I was probably going to vastly prefer the original anyway and listening to the clip proved me right

Michael Corvin

Probably won't come as a surprise to most here but nearly 100% of people I run into never know that Shameless by Garth Brooks is actually a Billy Joel tune.

dom56

Didn't know that the classic '60 rock Wild Thing sung by The Troggs was originally recorded first by The Wild Ones in 1965. The Troggs recorded the song in 1966 and it went number one on the U.S. Billboard chart on that year. The song writer Chip Taylor is the brother of actor Jon Voight.

DeanoBKN

I'm sure i'll be jumped on for this one, but I never knew Disturbed's "Fade to Black" from their "Music as a Weapon" tour was a Metallica cover until a couple months ago.

Decker

That's just sad.