Thanks for this. I remembered the title, but not the artist, and PPL came up first in a quick Google search. But somehow, that didn’t seem right to me. Your cite fixes it for me.
Ooops.
Okay, I’m officially discouraged from participating.
The one I came in to mention. links:
The Wild Side of Life - Hank Thompson
It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Kitty Wells
and here’s another:
Talkin’ Bout a Revolution - Tracy Chapman
answered by:
Right Here Right Now - Jesus Jones
A woman on the radio
talks about revolution
but it’s already passed her by
Sorry. Not my intent, but I fall down on the anal side of things like this. And there are people, believe it or not, who are even worse than I am!
Oh, and this one was mentioned in another thread:
Imagine - John Lennon
answered by:
Not Everybody Has to Imagine - Mitch Benn
Mrs.Robinson(Simon & Garfunkel),but you knew that.
George threw inSue Me,Sue You Blues
Serve Somebody-- Bob Dylan
Serve Yourself– John Lennon
Deborah Coleman recorded “I’m a Woman,” a direct answer to Muddy Waters’s “Mannish Boy.”
Would you accept:
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, the fizzy-pop version by Sedaka, and
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, the sad (and giant leaps better) ballad by the same?
“Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling: answer to “Space Oddity” by David Bowie
Looks like I should have just stuck with the Sounds of Silence in this thread.
I’ve always heard that Sting was so shocked by the widespread misinterpreting of Every Breath You Take as a romantic song, that he wrote If you Love Somebody (Set Them Free).
Roger Miller’s *King of the Road *was answered by Jody Miller’s (no relation) Queen of the House.
It goes back a long way: Sir Walter Raleigh wrote “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” in response to Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd, to his Love”. OK, both were originally poems, but they’ve since been set to music.
Also, Jessie Pope’s “Who’s For The Game” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” and Alfred Edward Housman’s “Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries” and Hugh McDiarmid’s “Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries”.
Also also, Salt N’ Pepa’s “Push It” and L’Trimm’s “Grab It.”
Well…
Since they’re both the same song, it’s hard to argue that one “answers” the other. It’s really just a remake with a new arrangement, made that much more unusual because the remake is by the same artist who did the original!
I’m guessing that this is in fact the most successful instance of an original song and remake by the same artist charting twice. The original “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” made it to #1 in 1962; Sedaka’s remake charted at #8 in 1975-76.
Warning…still more anality follows!
When an artist records or performs his/her/their version of a song first released by another artist, it’s commonly called a “cover.” Indeed, bands will often distinguish between “originals” (songs one or more members wrote themselves) and “covers” (songs written by other artists) in their repertoires.
However, when speaking of the chart performance of records, “cover” has a different meaning. In this case, it means a record that was recorded and released contemporaneously with the original recording, in an attempt to “cash in” on the original song’s popularity of the moment (or perhaps even steal its thunder).
This practice is rare nowadays, but was common in the first few years of rock ‘n’ roll. The most famous (or infamous) examples were Pat Boone’s sanitized versions of rock ‘n’ roll or R&B songs originally recorded by black artists (e.g., “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” etc.). The McGuire Sisters’ version of The Moonglows’ “Sincerely” is another example.
In these instances and many others, the white, sanitized covers sold more records than the superior originals – and that was the idea.
Back to definitions – if an artist records his/her/their version of a song that was originally a hit for another artist sometime after the fact – that is, after the original version has run its course and can no longer be considered a contemporary hit – then this is properly called a “remake” rather than a cover.
Examples would be Earth, Wind and Fire’s version of The Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life,” Diana Ross’s version of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and (more recently) Counting Crows’ version of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” Remakes all.
Finally, this is strictly subjective, but I personally would not accept that Neil Sedaka’s ballad remake of his own “Breakin’ Up Is Hard to Do” is “giant leaps better” than the original. I feel quite the opposite.
But that’s just me!
Neil Sedanka’s “Oh Carol!” about his high school girlfriend Carol Klein, who later changed her name to Carol Kin and recorded “Oh Neil!”
Leslie Gore’S "It’s My Party (and I’ll cry if I want to} and “Now it’s Judy’s turn to cry.”
Tom Paxton’s marvelous trilogy “Has Annie Been In Tonight?” “Annie’s Gonna Sing Her Song” and “When Annie Took My Home”
It’s an existential thing.
What about Harry Chapin’s “Taxi” and “Sequel”? “Sequel” does follow along as a continuation of the story in “Taxi,” but it also answers the question of what happened to Harry and Sue.