Pop songs I did not know were covers

Subject: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 04:28 AM

I only found out recently that "Silence is Golden" by The Tremeloes was originally by The Four Seasons. Listening to the two back to back they are very similar.

What surprised me more though was that Blondie's "Denis" was a cover of Randy and the Rainbows' "Denise". I prefer Blondie's version.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 05:22 AM

Interesting what the experience is on both sides of the pond. I first heard Silence Is Golden from the Four Seasons, probably shortly after the 1964 recording as the "B" side of "Rag Doll." And yeah, I heard Denise from Randy and the Rainbows* in about 1963. Never heard the Blondie recording until today.

At the Mudcat Singaround today, somebody sang "Pack Up Your Sorrows," which I learned from the 1966 Peter, Paul and Mary album. The song was written in 1964 by Richard Fariña and Pauline Marden (the third Baez sister). I didn't hear the Richard & Mimi recording until long after the PP&M recording became popular.

*Not to be confused with the delightfully clever https://www.randyrainbow.com/

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 06:39 AM

"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" is a song written by the English folk-rock singer and songwriter Sandy Denny. People commonly think that the recording by Fairport Convention is the original one.

1967 Sandy Denny recorded the song with voice and guitar as a demo.
1967 Later that year, she briefly joined the folk band The Strawbs and re-recorded the song, again with only her voice and guitar. This was eventually released on the album All Our Own Work in 1973.
1968 Judy Collins heard a tape of the original demo recording and decided to cover the song. She released the first version with vocal, two guitars, and bass on the B-side of "Both Sides Now" (released October 1968).
A second version appeared on the album Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (released November 1968). The first verse is the same take as the first version, but with everything remixed to the left channel, then crossfading to a different recording with a larger arrangement, modulated to different key. Acoustic Guitar – Judy Collins; Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Steven Stills; Drums – James Gordon; Electric Bass – Chris Ethridge; Piano – Michael Sahl. This was the first widely available recording of the song.
1968 Sandy Denny joined the folk-rock band Fairport Convention.
1969 She recorded the song on her second album with the band, Unhalfbricking. Recorded: January–April 1969. Released: 3 July 1969. This version had more of a rock influence.
2007 The Unhalfbricking version was voted "Favourite Folk Track Of All Time" by listeners of BBC Radio 2.
Information from Wikipedia and Discogs.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 11:39 AM

I can think of a few that surprised me but led me down some interesting rabbit holes-

Mystery Train by Elvis (original by Junior Parker)
Hound Dog by Elvis (Big Mama Thorton)
Long Black Veil by The Band (Lefty Frizell)
If You've Got the Money Honey by Willie Nelson (also Lefty Frizell)
Time is on My Side by the Rolling Stones (Irma Thomas)
It's All Over Now by the Rolling stones (Bobby Womack)
You Were On My Mind by (don't remember) (Ian and Sylvia, written by Sylvia)

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Acorn4
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 11:53 AM

"Silence is Golden" was on the flipside of their hit "Rag Doll" - The Tremoloes version is an almost exact copy.

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by Tight Fit (possibly named after their underpants?) was an almost replica of an original version by US group The Tokens.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 12:11 PM

Gillymor,

"We Five."

Don

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GerryM
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 07:02 PM

Joe, I learned Pack Up Your Sorrows from Judy Collins Fifth Album, released in 1965, with Richard Fariña on dulcimer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-daUqL1fwk

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Sol
Date: 03 Aug 22 - 10:58 AM

A few covers that come to mind.

"I've Told Ever Little Star - Linda Scott 1961
(Original - Jack Denny Orchestra 1932)
I've Told Every Little Star - Jack Denny Orchestra

"Pease Stay" - The Cryin Shames 1966
(Original - The Drifters 1961)
Please Stay - Drifters

"Bye Bye Baby" - Bay City Rollers 1975
(Original - The Four Seasons 1965)
Bye Bye Baby - Four Seasons

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Ross
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 05:36 AM

As a child in the early sixties I heard ‘With God on Our Side’ on a Manfred Mann EP not realising I was being indoctrinated by Dylan

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 05:51 AM

Manfred Mann also covered "The Mighty Quinn" which I was surprised to learn was written by Dylan and was from the basement tapes.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Sol
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 09:21 AM

Not sure if this is true but, the inspiration for Mighty Quinn was after Dylan saw a movie in which Anthony Hopkins played an Eskimo (apologies, Inuit these days).

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 09:24 AM

I had heard it was about a cop in Woodstock. Both things could be true, or false.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: 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.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 01:20 PM

Gillymor you are indeed song wise. Amateurs steal, the great ones borrow.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 22 - 03:32 PM

Pedant alert !!! It was Anthony Quinn

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 10 Aug 22 - 06:08 PM

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.

Origin: Sloop John B

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.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Aug 22 - 09:38 PM

The movie with Anthony Quinn was The Savage Innocents I watched it in the middle of a New England winter, wondering why movies with so much snow and cold made me feel cozy and warm. I didn't like the movie, though.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Aug 22 - 05:51 AM

A couple of entries from Song Facts re "Quinn", all just speculation I suppose-

The Grateful Dead occasionally played this at their shows. Here's one story that circulated about the song: The Grateful Dead years ago had a wild LSD party in a New York City hotel during a tour visit. Allegedly, one of the party guests was Bob Dylan. One of the other guests at the hotel didn't appreciate the noise and voiced several complaints. It was actor Anthony Quinn who'd played an Eskimo in The Savage Innocents. That could have inspired a partying Dylan to write a strange and funny song like this. >>

One theory is that "The Mighty Quinn" is Sheriff Larry Quinlan, who raided the Castillia Foundation land in Millbrook, New York and arrested Dr. Timothy Leary and his group of hippies. Quinlan confiscated all the LSD and other drugs at the scene. In this scenario, the "pigeons" are informers. >>

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: PHJim
Date: 15 Aug 22 - 05:31 AM

"I Did It My Way" is a Frank Sinatra cover of a Paul Anka song.
"Cover Of The Rolling Stone" is a Dr. Hook cover of a Shel Silverstein song.
"A Boy Named Sue" is a Johnny Cash cover of a Shel Silverstein song.
"First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a Roberta Flack cover of a Ewan MacColl song.
"The Unicorn" is not an Irish folk song and has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day. It was written by a Jewish guy from Chicago, Shel Silverstein.
"Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" was learned by Jimmy Page from a Joan Baez cover of Anne Bredon's song.
"Walk Right In" was made famous by the Rooftop Singers' cover of Gus Cannon's song.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 15 Aug 22 - 05:56 PM

> "I Did It My Way" is a Frank Sinatra cover of a Paul Anka song.

Fading memory suggests it was a translation of something Jacques Brel sang, which would make Sinatra's a cover of a bilingual cover. Doubtless someone will correct me and/or point me (gently, please) to an appropriate thread.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: PHJim
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 12:44 AM

On 02 Aug 22 at 11:39AM, gillymor attributed "Long Black Veil" to Lefty Frizell. It was actually written in 1959 by Danny Dill and Marijon Wilkin. Lefty and many others did fine covers though.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: PHJim
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 12:58 AM

MaJoC the Filk, you are right. Wikipedia tells us:

"My Way" is a song popularized in 1969 by Frank Sinatra set to the music of the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed by Jacques Revaux with lyrics by Gilles Thibaut and Claude François[1][2] and first performed in 1967 by Claude François. Its English lyrics were written by Paul Anka and are unrelated to the original French song.

Comme d'habitude

I like to sing Bob Blue's variation, "I Did It Their Way":


I [C] came brought all my [CMa7] books, lived in [Am] dorms, followed di[A]rections.
I [Dm] worked, I studied [DmMA7] hard, met lots of [Dm6] folks who had con[C]nections.
I crammed, they gave me [C7] grades, and may I [F] say not in a [Fm] fair way.
But [C] more, much more than [G] this, I did it [F] their [C] way.


I learned all sorts of [CMa7] things, although I [Am] know I'll never [A] use them.
The [Dm] courses that I [DmMa7] took were all re[Dm6]quired, I didn't [C] choose them.
You'll find that to sur[C7]vive it's best to [F] act the doctri[Fm]naire way.
And [C] so I buckled [G] down and did it [F] their [C] way.

Yes, there were times I wondered [C7] why I had to [F] crawl when I could fly.
I had my [Dm] doubts, but after [G] all, I clipped my [G7] wings, and learned to [C] crawl.
I had to [F] bend, and in the [G7] end I did it [F] their [C] way


And so, my fine young [CMa7] friends, now that I [Am] am a full pro[A]fessor
Where [Dm] once I was op[DmMa7]pressed, now I've be[Dm6]come the cruel op[C]pressor.
With me you'll learn to [C7] cope, you'll learn to [F] climb life's golden [Fm] stairway.
Like [C] me, you'll see the [G] light, and do it [F] their [C] way


What can I do? What can I [C7] do? Open your [F] books. Read chapter two.
And if it [Dm] seems a bit rou[G]tine, Don't come to [G7] me, go see the [C] dean.
As long as [F] they give me my [G7] pay I'll do it [F] their [C] way.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Acorn4
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 04:21 AM

I seem to remember Roy Bailey doing the Bob Blue parody.

One other "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Eric Burdon and the Animals - previously done my Nina Simone.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 09:36 AM

Yeah, PHJim, I was listing the performers who popularised the song and not the writers.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: PHJim
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 02:51 PM

I guess I'm not sure what people mean by "covers".
If you sing a song that someone else wrote, even if their version wasn't as popular as yours, aren't you still doing a cover?
I don't like or use the word cover very often, since it's so often used as a pejorative.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 06:03 PM

I guess everyone can define it how they please but to me a cover is simply when someone records a previously recorded and released popular song. In some cases I find the cover better than the original.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Sol
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 08:05 PM

I'd prefer to use the word 'version' to 'cover'.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 08:35 PM

Boy, Sol, I sure agree with you on that one. I don't like the word "cover" at all. When I was working on lyrics research for the Rise Again songbook, the "Blues" chapter was my favorite and my most frustrating. A number of the songs came out on records by three or more different performers in the same year, and it was often very difficult to figure out who wrote the song and who first recorded it. And oftentimes every one of the recordings of a song was terrific. It was also very difficult to find out where to get copyright permissions. We did our best, but I'm sure we were wrong at times.
That word "cover" has a negative tone, as if there with something wrong with recording a song that had been recorded before.
In most cases, "version" is a far better word.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 11:04 PM

I don't hear it. Sounds like nitpickery.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 11:23 PM

Me: Still a cover but... there were a dozen or so versions on already file...

In discography, the word “cover” is simply short-hand for “cover version.” All same-same. The only thing that's changed over the decades is the time lag from the original. Transitioning from sheet music to audio has always been a matter of personal preference:

“In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released around the same time as the original in order to compete with it. Now, it refers to any subsequent version performed after the original.” [wiki]

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Aug 22 - 11:24 PM

One of the most famous covers, I don't think it was mentioned above, was Jimi Hendrix' version of All Along the Watch Tower, some folks were surprised to learn that it was written by Dylan. Hendrix just made it his own.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: PHJim
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 01:41 AM

Sol and Joe Offer, I agree that "version" is a better word than "cover".
A "Cover Band" doesn't do their own version of the songs of the band they are covering. They try to sound like the band. Often they even try to look like the band.

Remember the K-Tel (sp?) days when a cover was an exact (as exact as possible) copy of a hit song, complete with every lick and even every mistake.
Musicians like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams and Sarah Vaughan were not called "Cover artists", even though they sang other people's songs, because they didn't try to sound like another artist, they did their own "version".
The same is true of instrumentalists. When Charlie Parker played "Just Friends", or Thelonious Monk played "April In Paris" it wasn't called a cover.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 03:21 AM

The Lion Sleeps Tonight was first recorded in 1948 by Solomon Linda in Zulu, entitled Uyimbube. ("You are a lion") It's haunting, and far more evocative than later covers.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 05:02 AM

The bliss of ignorance, zero difference between not knowing a song is a 'cover' and not knowing a song is a 'version.'

There's only one Stone Poney on the Stone Poneys' cover of the Greenbriar Boys' Different Drummer (Mike Nesmith.) Already covered on TV by the author, in character as a Monkee, playing a country singer. Just another Saturday in L.A.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 07:10 AM

> All Along the Watch Tower [ ... ] Hendrix just made it his own.

Dylan is, shall we say, on record as having said he preferred Hendrix's version to his own. His comment was (approximately) "now I know how it should be played".

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 07:59 AM

Otis Redding said of Aretha Franklin and her cover of "Respect" something like,that little girl just took that song away from me, maybe it was at Monterrey Pop, but it seems that Mr. Redding got it from another musician and put his name on it.

I assumed for a long time that Willie Nelson had written "Blues Eyes Crying in the Rain" (still one of the finest vocal performances I've ever heard) but it was written by Fred Rose and originally recorded by Roy Acuff.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 08:03 AM

In answer to an earlier question I have always thought of a cover as a later release of a song made famous by someone else earlier. Regardless of who wrote it. I have been know to be wrong though. Very occasionaly :-)

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 08:09 AM

I agree with that, Dave, I was just running past the finish line a bit.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 08:38 AM

Words have different meanings in different situations. In my younger days in Wisconsin, a "cover band" was expected to replicate the original recording. And they were looked down upon for doing that, but they got gigs. I suppose the word may have a mere definite meaning in a business context. I'll ask my brother the booking agent.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: G-Force
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 08:48 AM

Upon hearing Joan Baez's version of 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down', somebody apparently said to Robbie Robertson 'Hey, she's fucked up your song'.

To which he replied 'Yeah, she's fucked it up all the way to number one'.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 08:51 AM

When someone says George Jones covered The Big Bopper's "White Lightning" and had a hit with it, it doesn't seem disrespectful to either man. As you say, different meanings in different situations.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 03:05 PM

Audiences are unaware of most content. The more distance one can create between the original and the cover the more folks get fooled. Time, genre and/or medium will generally do the trick.

Harry Nilsson's cover of Fred Neil's Everybody's Talkin' (Midnight Cowboy) and Whitney Houston's cover of Linda Ronstadt's cover of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You (The Bodyguard) trip up a lot of audiences. Real country music nerds will hear the John Doe cover on the juke box in the latter's background.

The Rolling Stones were a 'Top 40 cover band' for their first three albums. The Beatles weren't all that different.

At some point the act becomes a 'tribute' and then an outright 'impersonation.' If one mistakes the present day Elvis for the real deal… there are bigger problems than vocabulary.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: PHJim
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 10:01 AM

Leonard Cohen's favourite version of "Hallelujah" was k.d. lang's.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: gillymor
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 07:54 AM

I was playing "Walk on Boy" this morning that I'd first learned off an excellent Doc Watson recording and I remembered being surprised to learn that it was actually written by country star Mel Tillis who recorded it with a big "Nashville Sound" treatment in 1960, completely with strings and ooo waa backup singers. Doc's version is bluesier and more earthy and has sort of become a Bluegrass standard but I always sing a verse that I think Doc ommitted,
"Rich man makes all the money,
Poor man makes all the dirt,
Rich man lives off the money,
Poor man lives off the dirt."

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 01:41 PM

Overhead riding the bus...

Apparently, the mere thought of Tom Jones never falling in love again still drives some ladies to real tears.

Lonnie Donegan... not so much.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 03:33 PM

Some Other Guy by the Big Three from Liverpool is a far better version than the original by Richie Barratt.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 07:09 PM

Sol: For now, the word "Eskimo" does not raise offense in Alaska, but this may change among the younger generation. Pity, because there is no historical offense to the word other than it being associated with pink people. On the other hand, "Inuit", "Yupik", "Inupiaq", all refer to Northern peoples with similar lifestyles, all literally mean 'the people' but are inherently divisive (Alaska has Yupiq and Inupiaq peoples, but no Inuit.

So by giving up use of the word 'Eskimo' we may lose a useful term of union for northern people.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: Sol
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 10:37 AM

Thanks for the info, robomatic. I'd been led to believe that the word 'Eskimo' had somewhat become a derogatory term. It would appear that isn't the case. Every day's a schoolday, as they say.

Subject: RE: Pop songs I did not know were covers
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 04:34 PM

gilymor, I think the verse goes:

rich man makes all the money,while the poor man does the work,

rich man livin' high off the hog, while the poor man's livin' on dirt.