The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #171532 Message #4149949
Posted By: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
10-Aug-22 - 06:08 PM
Thread Name: Pop songs I did not know were covers
Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
GUEST Date: 09 Aug 22 - 01:20 PM: Not a cover in the true sense of the word, but I only recently discovered the Beach Boys' Sloop John B is actually a Bahamian folk song.
Hoist up the John B. Sail was a theme song or 'jingle' for the Bahamian Tourist Board & the Flagler System. Oldest copyright on record (1903) is Boston bandleader Ed Prouty, not a folkie.
Still a cover but... there were a dozen or so versions on already file in the U.S. Library of Congress by the time Alan Lomax recorded the "folk" cover in 1935.
On a different note: Everybody and their cousin covered Hey Joe (Billy Roberts) before The Jimi Hendrix Experience made it a garage band standard.