Different songs, same title

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: mg
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 09:20 PM

Life in the Finnish Woods

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Rowan
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 08:18 PM

"Polly on the shore"

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: oldhippie
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 08:03 PM

"Agent Orange" - Kate Wolf and
"Agent Orange (My Country Tis Of Thee)" - Larry Long

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Bernard
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 06:57 PM

Hmmm... Guest Jim, seems like you've got the makings of a new thread, there!

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 02:19 PM

"Diamond Joe" ~ two different songs in the DT, the one I know and some other one.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 30 Oct 07 - 02:12 PM

Bernard said,"It's also worth mentioning that many traditional songs are known by more than one title. Some people prefer to use the first line of the song, some use the first line of the chorus, others pick up a phrase from somewhere else in the song... and there's a song called 'As I Roved Out' which doesn't have that phrase in it anywhere!"

This is even more common with fiddle tunes. Red Haired Boy, Old Soldier With A Wooden Leg, Little Beggerman, Gilderoy, Old Ragadoo, and many other titles have been given to a common fiddle tune in A.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Leadbelly
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 03:05 PM

Something from the past: a jazz ditty with some lyrics recorded by great Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five on the 8th Dec. 1927 was entitled "The last time". I just listend to this title.
Naturally, it wasn't the song performed by The Rolling Stones around 4 decades later.

Subject: Lyr Add: LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS (R. Copp)
From: oldhippie
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 01:13 PM

Here are the lyrics to the lesser known "Ladies Love Outlaws" - see my above post of Oct 24.

Lyrics Add:

Ladies Love Outlaws
R. Copp BMI (1979)

Ladies, they love outlaws
They'll pick one just about every time
Well, they don't always shave
And they sometimes misbehave
And figurin' out where they're at
Ain't worth the time

They'll take you places
That you ain't been
And they'll love you up and down
And sideways with a big old grin
And he'll turn you on like wildfire
And they'll love the state you're in
And they'll bring you down so hard and easy
And get you wild again

Ladies, they love outlaws
They'll pick one just about every time
And nothin' in the world
Can make a lady feel so fine
As an easy ridin' outlaw man
With lovin' on his mind

Cowboys ridin' Harleys
And dusty roads and soft summer nights
Runnin' from the law
On a Harley "74"
And all you can hear is
The rumble and the roar

And some damn fool singing….

Ladies, they love outlaws
They'll pick one just about every time
They don't always shave
And they sometimes misbehave
And figurin' out where they're at, honey
Figurin' out where they're at
Ain't worth the time.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Bernard
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 05:55 AM

Whoops! Blackbird was a trad song - I was thinking of Beeswing, and Richard recorded on the Blackbird label... sorreee!

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Bernard
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 05:52 AM

Blackbird - Richard Thompson and Lennon/McCartney.
Country Life - Trad (Watersons) and Steve Knightley

It's also worth mentioning that many traditional songs are known by more than one title. Some people prefer to use the first line of the song, some use the first line of the chorus, others pick up a phrase from somewhere else in the song... and there's a song called 'As I Roved Out' which doesn't have that phrase in it anywhere!

Even contemporary songs suffer - Pete St. John's 'Rare Ould Times' is often referred to as 'Ring a Ring a Rosie' (from the first line of the chorus), which confuses it with a nursery rhyme!

I'd say the 'correct' title of a version of trad song depends a lot upon who collected it, and what their source called it, but a contemporary song should keep the title the writer gave it!

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: eddie1
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 04:24 AM

Then there's "The Runaway Train" by Vernon Delhart that those of us in the UK, of a certain age, remember from "Uncle Mac's Children's Favourites" and a song with the same title by Kasey Chambers.

Eddie

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 09:09 PM

thats a great idea. if the title was lucky for someone else - it might be lucky for you. Plus you might get someone else's royalty cheque by mistake.

   Don't cry for me Argentina (words and music by Big Al Whittle)

I've been a wild gaucho for many a year
Dancing the tango and catching diarrhoea
I've been swinging me bolas, and wearing me chaps
But I didn't wash me hands after taking a crap

And its don't cry for me Argentina
No Nay never no more
If I'd have been a bit cleaner
Me bum wouldn't be so sore

The tune's traditonal.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title (Dirty Old Man)
From: Mysha
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 05:38 PM

It occurred to me, that if it were possible to search the DT titles for "(2)", we'd find quite a lot of the titles Gerry is looking for.

Unfortunately, if this is in fact possible it's beyond me, as my searches evaluate to "2", which is not as efficient. Among the numerous hits of the search, I did notice two songs called "Dirty Old Man", though, mostly because additionally there's a Three Degrees song with that title.


Jim, I couldn't resist putting in that "u", trawling for a comment like yours. I'm Frisian from the Netherlands. We're mostly taught British here, but get a lot of entertainment in American. For songs in English and other foreign tongues I try to make the pronunciation match the origin of the song, but it'll always be an approximation, of course.

                                                             Mysha

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 04:36 PM

Two very different fiddle tunes known as "Blackberry Blossom".

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 04:29 PM

Thanks Mysha. I'm guessing, from your spelling of FAVOURITE, that you're not an American. Am I right?

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Nick E
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 04:27 PM

The Banks of Newfoundland, three distinct traditional songs, all different tunes I have heard by that name.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title (Have I Told You )
From: Mysha
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 02:52 PM

Hi Jim,

Your aunt's favourite is from 1945, by Scotty Wiseman, sung by Lulu Belle en Scotty. The version from 1989 is by Van Morrison, though it was a bigger hit for Rod Stewart.

                                                                  Mysha

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 12:06 PM

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You is an old standard, my 95 year old aunt's favourite song, but Rod Stewart also sang (Wrote?) an entirely different song with the same title.

Loudon Wainwright and Donovan both wrote songs called COLOURS.
Donovan:"Blue is the colour of the sky,
         In the mornin', when I rise.
         That's the time, (That's the time)
         That's the time, (That's the time)
         I love the best."

Loudon:"The shit on the streets of our town,
       Comes in various colours of brown..."

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 27 Oct 07 - 11:53 AM

Okay, Grab - fair cop.
I'd forgotten that Frankie goes to Hollywood did a Power of Love.
Another song is Anything Goes.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 06:01 PM

The title "Toys in the Attic," of course, predates both henryclem's and Bon Jovi's songs ~ it's the title of a Lillian Hellman play.

Once a catchy phrase like enters the public arena, it's likely to inspire a song, and the songwriter might very well appropriate the title without conscious knowledge of where the phrase came from, how it entered his/her head.

That's probably one way that new songs come to be named with previously-used titles.

The song titles that I find most intriguing are those composed of words that appear nowhere in the lyrics. Dylan did that pretty frequently, especially in the late 60s: "It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," "Temporary Like Achilles," etc. Weird off-the-wall titles like that are very unlikely to be used again by other songwriters...

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title (Foggy Dew)
From: Mysha
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 05:16 PM

Hi,

Several Foggy Dews:
- One English, stemming from a bugbear song: "for fear of the foggy dew (dew, dew)" or "the foggy, foggy dew". Several centuries old; has lots of variations.
- One Irish, "to Shannon's side I returned".
- One Irish, "a-down the hill", start of the 20th century.
= An Irish revolution song stemming from that last one, "down the glen one Easter morn".
= The Ireland divided version stemming from that last one, "through Portadown in North Armagh".

                                                             Mysha

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: henryclem
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 03:27 PM

When 2 (or more) writers come up with the same title, it isn't because there's any conscious copying. Sometimes the title of a work might inspire a very different song and using that original title could be seen as acknowledging its source and inspiration. Other times it's probably just coincidence.

Once the songs are written though, and being performed, how aware are the writers of each other's works? There is probably a pretty big imbalance ... I had a song and album called "Toys in the Attic" a long time before Bon Jovi did but it's an absolute certainty they still haven't heard of mine.

In the folk context though I do have another song which shares its title with another written by Richard Thompson and whereas (thanks to Tom Bliss) my song gets a good airing around the clubs and festivals I am sure many more people overall are bound to associate the title with RT. I wouldn't think of renaming my song to avoid confusion - the title, both literally and metaphorically, fits too well for that.

For all that, there's a lot more songs with this same title (I did a PRS search) and I bet we most of us thought it unique to start with !

Henry

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 05:08 PM

Valerie - Stevie Winwood
Valerie - The Zutons

D.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Rumncoke
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 04:10 PM

I have two songs called Rolling Home in my repertoire.

I think it is the only double - but the memory does not improve.

I was looking for the song with the chorus beginning

Take your time my lovely old lad

the other day and it took me some time to find it under 'no reason to worry' after seeking it under several other letters of the alphabet.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: open mike
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 12:47 PM

we could probably do another thread on same song, different title...

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Grab
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:46 AM

Dan, I assume you also know about the Scorpions "Wind of change" which was #1 back in the 80s/early-90s (can't remember exactly).

Geoff, the other "Power of love" is the Frankie Goes to Hollywood one.

Steve Knightley wrote "Widecombe Fair" as an alternative take on the traditional Uncle-Tom-Cobbley-and-all version with the same name.

There are several songs called "Fire in my soul", one of which is the Davey Graham version of "Nobody's fault but mine" where he misheard "If I don't read it (and) my soul be lost" as "Fire in my soul oh Lord".

And I'll raise you different songs with the same name by the *same author*. Chris Rea wrote two completely different songs, both called "Texas". (Neither was very good, BTW.) And Leonard Cohen did two very different versions of "Chelsea Hotel" and "Hallelujah".

Graham.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 06:35 AM

Don't recall 3 "The power of love" songs in the charts. There was Jennifer Rush (pop Power Ballad) and there was Huey Lewis (As featured in Back to the Future?). Don't recall a third.
A few years before (round about 1981?) there were 3 songs entitled "Sarah" in the UK charts at the same time. Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mack and Thin Lizzy.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Stephen
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 09:35 PM

"Pretty Polly"--there's the love-murder ballad, the Child ballad (both often called "Pretty Polly"), and at least a half-dozen other songs one or two versions of which are given that name. See the Roud Index for particulars.

Stephen

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: oldhippie
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 06:28 PM

There are also two different "Ladies Love Outlaws" songs, the Waylon Jennings tune and one by "Gypsy" Bob Copp.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: oldhippie
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 06:25 PM

There are two different "Beam Me Up Scotty" songs; one by Eric Bogle and one by Tom Rush.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: PoppaGator
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 06:12 PM

To expand on fatB****rd's contribution:

The late-great New Orleanian Earl King's composition "Come On," best known in the form of a cover version recorded by Jimi Hendrix, is rarely known by (or even recognized by) its formal title.

The lyrics consist largely of repeating the phrase "Let the good times roll," with the final line of the verse expanded to "Come on baby, let the good times roll." So that's yet another song known as ~ if not, strictly speaking, entitled ~ "Let the Good Times Roll."

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 05:57 PM

Of course, just to complicate things further, most folk songs didn't have names at all until some collector attached one. And, frequently, the title people use isn't the one that tha author originally used.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Shaneo
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:41 PM

Come My Little Son/England's Motorway

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: fat B****rd
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:25 PM

"Let the good times roll" Louis Jordan; Alvin Robinson; Sam Cooke; Shirley and Lee; The Brook Brothers and more...

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: PoppaGator
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:21 PM

"In the Still of the Night"

One highly sophisticated Cole Porter ballad, one doo-wop classic.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 02:09 PM

two versions OF Sailortown,one C foxSmith/Dick Miles,The other by Bill Meek.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 01:29 PM

Several years ago I wrote a song called "The Winds of Change."



A few months later I ended up doing a concert in Minnesiota with a talented musician named Doug Beckon. Doug had also written a song called "The Winds of Change

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Splott Man
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:49 AM

Not folk, but a few years back there were 3 different songs called The Power of Love in the British charts at the same time.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:38 AM

I believe there is no copyright on song titles?

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Declan
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:06 AM

In Ireland most versions of that song (and there are many) are called The Black Velvet Band. There are many similarly called songs which can cause confusion. "As I Roved out" is one such title that comes to mind.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 10:56 PM

Titles, as someone has (probably too often) said, are a snare and a delusion. That's why DigiTrad was set up, from its inception, to permit searching by words and phrases within the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: topical tom
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 09:34 PM

The Blue Velvet Band    Yet another versionBy and old willow tree in the churchyard
On the banks of the old Rio Grande
Lies a loved one who died broken hearted
She was known as the Blue Velvet Band

She was called by the angels up yonder
As the dew kissed the pale summer rose
As we stood there in silence, dishearted
These words to her lover did go

Dear Jack, you mistrusted your darling
You said that my love wasn't true
You've roamed o'er the wide open spaces
But my thoughts, they were always of you

Now, my last wish was once more to see you
But they say you're in some foreign land
You're forgiveness is in this last message
From your heartbroken Blue Velvet Band

Far away o'er the lone western prairie
Her message sped fast o'er the way
To the side of a bed where her cowboy
Was grieving his life fast away

Please grant a last wish, boys, and lay me
Out West on that old Rio Grande
Neath that old willow tree in the churchyard
By my sweetheart, the Blue Velvet Band

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: topical tom
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 09:23 PM

Two versions of "The Blue Velvet Band", one sung by Hank Snow:


          On her cheeks was the first flush of nature,
          Her beauty it seemed to expand
          Her hair hung down in long tresses
          Tied back by a blue velvet band.

          The other by I'm not sure who:

          I was walking one morning in Frisco
          The hour was just about nine
          When I spied a beautiful maiden
          On the corner of 40 and Pine

          We walked down the street together
          In my pocket she placed her small hand
          She planted the evidence on me
          The girl in the blue velvet band.


          I know most if not all of the second version but I will have to look up the lyrics of the first.

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: john f weldon
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 08:37 PM

Sitting on Top of the World
-no relationship between the al Jolson song and the well-known folk-blues song

On the other hand there are songs that go so far astray that they become new songs...

Didn't He Ramble...

...done by various New Orleans Bands, you'd hardly know it was once Darby Ram....

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: john f weldon
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 08:31 PM

Bluebird of Happiness

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 08:29 PM

Two "Galway Bays"

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: The Walrus
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 08:05 PM

How many different songs are there called "The Plains of Waterloo?"

Subject: RE: Different songs, same title
From: Nick E
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 07:56 PM

Only two songs with that name?
The name of the song? it must It must.......not be so good!?

Subject: Different songs, same title
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 07:33 PM

In another thread, there's a discussion of Redwing Blackbird, where it's noted that there are two entirely different songs by this name, one by Billy Edd Wheeler, one by David Francey.

Another Wheeler title, Coal Tattoo, was used a few years ago by a Sydney-area songwriter for an entirely different song she wrote.

There are two very different songs called The Foggy Dew.

I'm sure there are dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of other examples of pairs of songs with the same titles. Maybe it would be useful to collect as many as we can in this thread. Or maybe this has already been done, and someone will be kind enough to tell me where to look.