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[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/great-covers ]This thread[/url] got me thinking; there's several tunes I've listened to and enjoyed without realising they're covers, but then discovering the original and actually being blown away, as well as discovering very good older artists and bands in the process.
Two examples the come to mind are [i]Metro[/i] by Berlin (covered by Alkaline Trio) and [i]Son of a Gun[/i] by The Vaselines (covered by Nirvana).
What else is there out there?
(And if you say [i]One Way or Another[/i] by One Direction I may be forced to find you and set fire to your underwear drawer)
The Saturdays - "Just Can't Get Enough" 😀
Seeeeriously though - I discovered Pigeonhed through Lo-Fidelity Allstars cover of Battleflag.
Got The Time by Anthrax. Not bad
Original by Joe Jackson. Much better
Jealous Guy: cover by Brian Ferry/Roxy Music, original by John Lennon. I prefer the cover.
All Along the Watchtower: cover by Jimi Hendrix, original by Bob Dylan. Dylan liked the cover so much he covered it!
Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder: I heard the excellent cover by the Red Hot Chili Pepper first. The original is superb as well.
And All Along the Watchtower by Hendrix IS the definitive version of that song, IMO. I'm not even sure I made it through the whole of the original, when I heard it.
Jealous Guy: cover by Brian Ferry/Roxy Music, original by John Lennon. I prefer the cover.
+1 on that
I only heard this great song...
After this cracking cover...
Original by Joe Jackson. Much better
Wow - that's another another to add to the list.
Nothing compares2U. The Prince version of his song, particularly live with Rosie Gaines, smashes that mental skin-heads version.
[i] that mental skin-head[/i]
Hmm. How jolly unkind. 🙁
Nothing compares2U. The Prince version of his song, particularly live with Rosie Gaines, smashes that mental skin-heads version.
Always nice when people's mental health difficulties are used to stigmatise them, isn't it?
Or indeed, their haircuts.
I first heard Wonderwall performed by Oasis but the Mike Flowers Pops original was far superior...
Anyway, without feeling the need to insult any artists, I rather shamefully first encountered Marlena Shaw's "Woman of the Ghetto" via the extensive sampling on Blueboy's "Remember Me"
as sampled in
Anyway.. was surprised to see M Nesmith on the label when I bought this back then.
Gorgeous song. Mike's original is a bit of a country thing, but still nice. Was he a bonkers one, or was that Mickey Dolenz? Evan Dando was a junkie long-haired hippy I know that!
[quote=Pimpmaster Jazz ]
Wow - that's another another to add to the list.
*feel quietly proud to have enriched someone's life to a small extent*
That Galaxie 500 cover sounds like what it would have been had Joy Division created the original.
This is obviously going to turn into a covers better than the original thread, so I'll throw a few in :-
It's All Too Much - Steve Hillage rather than The Beatles.
Absolutely Sweet Maria - Jason and the Scorchers rather than Dylan.
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin totally eclipsing the Rolf Harris original.
Shipbuilding by Wyatt (orig. Costello)
Green Manalishi - Judas Priest (originally Fleetwood Mac)
^ nice job, kcal - came here to post that.
Only recently found out that Costello's "I can't stand up (for falling foe )" was a cover of a Sam & Dave original.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RzU10C5dNpg
Ohh, another - She - Elvis Costello (originally that French bloke)
Nothing compares2U. The Prince version of his song, particularly live with Rosie Gaines, smashes that mental skin-heads version.
"Always nice when people's mental health difficulties are used to stigmatise them, isn't it?"
Erm sorry, didn't realise she had mental health issues - I was referring to the pro IRA type stuff!
Apologies if anyone took offence.
Green Manalishi - Judas Priest (originally Fleetwood Mac)
Really? Priest just add their generic (fair play to them, they created the genre!) chug-chug-chug and strip out all the menace of Greeny's acid-trip based paranoia.
Having always been into hip hop, sampled music and funk and soul there's a lot of crossover.... I wouldn't even know where to start 😀
nobody mentioned 'Hurt' yet?
the classic for me is tainted love. obvs heard soft cell version first but gloria jones' original destroys it.
and on Marlena Shaw and remember me - she used the ging ging ga ging bit in liberation conversation as well.
[url=
tube linky[/url]
DezB, that version of the song doesn't come close to being the original version, that's the Stone Poneys version recorded in 1967:
Mike Nesmith, the one wearing the woolly hat in The Monkees, was already an established songwriter, and the TV network bought the rights to his songs so they could be used in the TV series.
It was some time before he covered his own song, I can't track down a date for it as I'm not sure which of his albums it was on, as he also recorded with the First National Band.
The young lady singing is the truly wonderful Linda Ronstadt, posessed of a fabulous voice, and who was the girlfriend for a time of another superb songwriter, John David Souther, co-writer of a number of the Eagles greatest hits.
Who is also a real gentleman in person.
Really? Priest just add their generic (fair play to them, they created the genre!) chug-chug-chug and strip out all the menace of Greeny's acid-trip based paranoia.
But isn't this thread about the original being better?
Another one from the great Peter Green - Black Magic Woman, far better than Santana.
Third uncle, first heard the Bauhaus version thought it was great then heard the original by Eno and that is even better
Valerie - The Zutons
Well I'd actually forgotten it until the Ronson/Winehouse colab came out. Still prefer the original by a country mile
Erm sorry, didn't realise she had mental health issues - I was referring to the pro IRA type stuff!
Apologies if anyone took offence.
Fair play.
[i]DezB, that version of the song doesn't come close to being the original version, [/i]
Interesting! But much prefer the Lemonheads myself. Actually, the Stone Poneys is quite humourously bad 😆
Hanging on the telephone by Blondie, however their cover is better than the original.
[i]Third uncle, first heard the Bauhaus version thought it was great then heard the original by Eno and that is even better[/i]
Ah, yes! that reminds me of a John Cale cover I had and tracked down the original, which is amazing... will have to find it!
Heard Metallica's cover of 'Breadfan' before Budgie's original....it's better too IMHO.
Wasn't Robert Wyatt's Shipbuilding released before any Elvis Costello version, so not really a cover? I oculd be wrong.
But, covers better than original, Elvis Costello, this comes to mind
Ah, of course, this John Cale song was also covered by Bauhaus. Both versions are superb, but the original is amazing just because its so ... original!
Heard this one first -
Extra points for Marylin Manson for having Joy from My Name is Earl in the video
I first heard "Silent House" done by Crowded House.
The Dixie Chicks > Crowded House.
🙂
The Man Who Sold the World - Bowie/Nirvana
Tiffany's version is undoubtedly brilliant...
Of the same band...
Song to the Siren by this Mortal Coil (Tim Buckley) wins again...... 🙂
I always wondered why St Ettiene never released "Only love can break your heart" as a single. For years I thought that the Neil Young original was a different song as they are so unalike. Love both versions though
Pale Blue Eyes by Paul Quinn was always one of my favorite songs, only discovered the original Velvet Underground version a few years after buying the cover version.
Absolutely beautiful song.
There was a great Paul Quinn cover, (great voice that man) on one of the NME tapes years ago. Can't remember which song... wonder if the 'net can uncover that info...
St Etienne is a good one (though I'm not mad on the original).
Made me think of this...
I didn't hear this until years later...
Ah, the Paul Quinn one was Bourgie Bourgie doing Little Red Rooster.. now there's a well covered song! Bourgie Bourgie's version, the fab Jesus & Mary Chain version .. and the Rolling Stones - which I thought was the original ha!
Try:
but there's no doubt versions older than that that I haven't heard 🙂
[i]I always wondered why St Ettiene never released "Only love can break your heart" as a single[/i]
It was their first single:
https://www.discogs.com/Saint-Etienne-Only-Love-Can-Break-Your-Heart/master/22652
Got another - definitely fits the OP's requirements!
I heard this:
Before this:
I think the original just edges it.
I heard this:
After I heard this on the soundtrack to The Crow.
Love both versions.
Heard this in my teens, thought it was quite catchy...
The original absolutely blew me away when I heard it in my 20s, one of the all time greats...
Technically I heard the cover first, but then came across the original courtesy of a SuperSessions 9-2 mixtape:
Love The Clash, but have to admit - prefer Junior's version.
[i]one of the all time greats[/i]
He ain't wrong
Wasn't Robert Wyatt's Shipbuilding released before any Elvis Costello version, so not really a cover? I oculd be wrong.
You're not wrong. Costello's version is technically a cover, as he wrote it for Robert, then recorded it later himself, the same is true of Aimee Mann's 'The Other End Of The Telescope'
There's a whole album of Costello's songs that he wrote for and with other artists, and only later covered himself, called [i]All This Useless Beauty[/i] which is a very fine album indeed.
Interesting! But much prefer the Lemonheads myself. Actually, the Stone Poneys is quite humourously bad
That's the only YouTube version I could find that would play, all other original versions seem to be embargoed, for whatever reason.
I've always loved Linda's version, I first heard it back around the time it was released, and I love her voice; the photos of her on her early albums helped enormously, too... 😉
The cover photo from [i]Hasten Down The Wind[/i]
[img] 
?v=1372024439[/img]
I had no idea Got the Time was a cover!
Frank Turner- The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Actually much prefer the covers of both tbh but this is how I got in the Postal Service.
I only recently made the connection that 'Megablast' by Bomb the Bass (1988) was based on the theme from 'Assault on Precinct 13' by John Carpenter (1976):
Which in turn gave rise to this jaunty little disco number by The Splash Band (1983):
Mazzy Star - Blue Flower
I'd presumed it was an original albeit heavily influenced the the Velvet Underground.
Turns out the original is by Slapp Happy from 1973.
I heard the John Cale version before the LCD Soundsystem original
Caledonia by Dougie MacLean
I'd heard the Frankie Miller version, possibly on that old Tennent's advert and was non-plussed. Sounds like it was trying to cash in on the success of Braveheart or something.
Then I heard Dougie MacLean sing it. I'm a proud Yorkshireman, flat cap, whippet, Hendo's, all that good stuff*, but Dougie's version is so perfect I almost wish I were Scottish when I hear it.
*I actually own neither a flat cap nor a whippet, but I do have an emergency stash of 6 bottles of Hendo's in the cupboard. Just in case.
I only recently made the connection that 'Megablast' by Bomb the Bass (1988) was based on the theme from 'Assault on Precinct 13' by John Carpenter (1976):
Woah!
Thanks for that, and for prompting me to listen to Megablast again - one of my most-played 45s as a youth.
No problemo! Actually, thinking back I'm pretty sure that there was some Bomb the Bass promo material that said 'Hip Hop on Precinct 13' which should have been a bit of a giveaway! 🙂
[i]I've always loved Linda's version, I first heard it back around the time it was released, and I love her voice; the photos of her on her early albums helped enormously,[/i]
Perve!
I get the voice, it was the backing! 🙂
Perve!
I get the voice, it was the backing!
Too old for that sort of thing now... 😉
Yeah, it's not as good as the original studio recording, that's for sure, but, like I said, it's the only version that I was allowed to even play. 🙄
Sadly, she hasn't sung for some years, and now has Parkinson's, so she'll never record again. She did a lot of big band and Spanish language stuff, which I'm not so keen on, but still an amazing voice.
Arthur Russell - this is how we walk on the moon, a mate played Luke Foskey's (Young Edits) version in a DJ set one night which blew my socks off, and sent me off searching down the original, I love both in their own ways
@Coyote thanks for that never heard the original, loved the NIN one though.
Mad World - Gary Jules vs Tears for Fears
-Now someone will tell me that's not the original after all.
Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkle.
First heard the version by The Lemonheads. Still love both.
It was quite some time before I found out this was a cover' although I was familiar with the band who originally wrote and recorded it:
Unfortunately, again I can't find a single available video, or at least one that'll play, of the original by Badfinger.
It's not a patch on Nilsson's version.
Bit obvious and I'll wager for most of those under 45 it worked out you heard this:
before this:
the cover
the covered
CountZero - MemberIt's not a patch on Nilsson's version.
Blasphemer! 😯
😉