Have you ever attributed a song to the wrong artist? Have you ever had an incorrect song association stay with you for years, maybe even decades? If you have, hopefully your misinformation never came out to haunt you in a social situation.
I was out with some old friends the other night. In the car this song comes on the radio:
Gonna drive a freight train, all the way to Georgia…Blah, blah, blah…Can’t ya see…O, can’t cha see…What that woman…she been doing to me
So lame ass me blurts out, “Cool, some old school Grand Funk Railroad!” Friend A then shoots back, “Hehe, Nah. This is The Marshall Tucker Band” man. Fingolfin slinks down in his chair, while covering his face.
I was lierally in shock about this. I first heard this song when I was probably 10 or 11 and have heard this song probably a good 20-30 times since then (all on the radio). I have ALWAYS thought this song was Grand Funk Railroad!! It’s odd to think that not once did I heard the song ID’d (on radio or via friends) as The Marshall Tucker Band until now! The funny thing is, none of us could remember the name of the song! If anyone knows, please shout it out ok.
We then proceeded to have this long discussion about mis-ID’ing songs. One of my friends thought that Free song was Bad Company; Most people did, didn’t they?! And one of my friends thought that disco song I Believe In Miracles by Hot Chocolate was David Bowie!! OMG, we LOL at that! Although come to think of it, the singer does kinda sound like Bowie.
For years, my sister thought “Let’s Stay Together” was by Tina Turner. Granted, their voices sound slightly similar, but not much. When Tina finally covered “LST” my sister was even more confused, and when she hears that song, always wonders which version she’s hearing- Tina or Al’s.
Fingolfin - the Marshall Tucker Band song is called “Can’t You See.”
My goof came up the other day - I was listening to the oldies station and they played “Bend Me Shape Me” and I said, “Oh, cool… the Buckinghams.” The DJ came on after the song and said, “And that was American Breed, with Bend Me Shape Me.”
Y’know who’s the worst at this? All them young whippersnappers file-sharing their mp3’s … esp. the oldies. They think ALL AS IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE BRITISH INVASION BANDS were the Dave Clark Five.
I’ve seen “5 O’Clock World”* listed as DC5, and “Needles and Pins”, and “Here Comes The Night”*, as well as a few early Beatles rarities (sacrilege!).
*The Vogues, before they went WayTooMellowLoungeAct
**The Searchers
***Them (Geez, didn’t Van Morrison’s voice clue you in?)
Or did the DC5 do covers of some of these that I don’t know about?
For a long time I thought that The Guess Who’s “No Sugar Tonight” was done by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
There’s also a song called “Dancin’ In the Moonlight” (I think). I always thought it was a Van Morrison song, but it turned out to be someone else (I don’t remember who, though).
When I heard a song by Buck Cherry I thought it was AC/DC (both of whom I hate anyway).
It took me some time to realize that Rob Zombie’s “More Human Than Human” wasn’t done by Metallica. It didn’t sound like Metallica’s style of music, but then, Metallica’s own style has changed so much since they started out that anything is possible.
For a long time, I thought that the Commodore’s “Machine Gun” was a Billy Preston tune (it sounded like the kind of soul synthesizer instrumental Preston was known for).
I must’ve heard Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s a Heartache” 30 times before I realized it wasn’t Rod Stewart.
The first time I ever heard Badfinger’s “Come and Get It,” it was playing over the opening credits of the movie “The Magic Christian.” Well, since it SOUNDED like the Beatles, and since Ringo Starr was the star of the movie, I assumed for years that it was the Beatles singing it.
For a long time I thought that “Break my Stride” (you know: “ain’t nothing gonna break my stride/ain’t nothing gonna slow me down/oh, no, I got to keep on movin’”) was by Billy Joel. It doesn’t really sound like him, but nobody heard from the guy who actually did it (Matthew Wilder) before or since, so at least it wasn’t like I was forgetting a household name.
I remembered another mistaken-identity case: I always thought Bruce Sprinsteen’s “Hungry Heart” was Billy Joel. Once I found out it was Springsteen, I can’t believe I didn’t place the voice.
