# Ever Been Shocked By A Song's Year of Release? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671 "2015-08-24T00:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/1 "2015-08-24T00:29:09Z")
I’m sure I’m not the only one who throughout the years thought a particular song was much older or newer than I had imagined. So fellow Dopers ever been left scratching your head when learning about the year a song was released, and it was way off to what you had pictured? Several that come to mind: “Baby Hold On”- Eddie Money. I felt strange finding out this song was from the late seventies, thought it would have been the eighties for sure. “Red Red Wine”-UB40’s famous cover version, was #1 in 1988, and I used to hear often during the nineties as a child, even into the early 2000’s. Some years ago I found that the 1988 was NOT it’s original release date, it was actually 1983:dubious::eek:!! The song does not seem THAT old. A Neil Diamond cover at that. “What I Am” by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. Sounds like mid 90’s song, actually released in the very late 1980’s. Same with “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. Now this does not happen with current songs or songs released since I was a teen onwards. The examples I have listed above were from before I was born or when I was an infant. So am I crazy or ever been puzzled by a song’s date of release? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/2 "2015-08-24T00:35:44Z")
> [@Nema98](#): > > “Red Red Wine”-UB40’s famous cover version, was #1 in 1988, and I used to hear often during the nineties as a child, even into the early 2000’s. Some years ago I found that the 1988 was NOT it’s original release date, it was actually 1983:dubious::eek:!! The song does not seem THAT old. A Neil Diamond cover at that. Sit down. Take a deep breath. Diamond released it in 1968. You’re welcome 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/3 "2015-08-24T00:56:01Z")
Well, the nineties actually [began in 1987](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6m-pwWCDKU). So that may explain a few things. (And, as I’m fond of pointing out, are still going. Late eighties Pixies still sounds contemporary.) Anyway… Listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQMCfqFr4XA&feature=youtu.be&t=28), and don’t look at who wrote it or when. Yup, that sounds like boogie-woogie. So I bet that your first guess wasn’t Beethoven, 1822. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/4 "2015-08-24T01:27:35Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Well, the nineties actually [began in 1987](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6m-pwWCDKU). So that may explain a few things. > > (And, as I’m fond of pointing out, are still going. Late eighties Pixies still sounds contemporary.) Very true. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/5 "2015-08-24T01:56:37Z")
Not “pop” music, but I just realized today that the Patti Lupone/Michael Cerveris production of Sweeney Todd came out 10 years ago! I could have sworn it hasn’t been that long. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/6 "2015-08-24T02:12:44Z")
The closest I’ve ever been to what the OP describes is when I look back at a song and say, “that came out _that long_ ago!? Damn, I’m gonna be getting old soon.” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/7 "2015-08-24T02:44:53Z")
> [@Nema98](#): > > “Red Red Wine”-UB40’s famous cover version, was #1 in 1988, and I used to hear often during the nineties as a child, even into the early 2000’s. Some years ago I found that the 1988 was NOT it’s original release date, it was actually 1983:dubious::eek:!! The song does not seem THAT old. A Neil Diamond cover at that. It was re-released in 1988. It was performed live that year as part of the celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday (although he was still in prison). Astro, the singer from UB40, did it as a solo act. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/8 "2015-08-24T03:33:19Z")
I haunt a FB site about growing up in the 60’s and they keep showing lists of the ‘top 50 most popular songs’ throughout the 60’s. Holy Cripes, I am continually shocked at reading the years those songs came out. And talk about feeling OLD! I read the list for 1964 and I am right back in middle school listening to the Beatles on a transistor radio. ANCIENT! ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/9 "2015-08-24T03:42:33Z")
Recently saw on Sirius’ 90s on 9 that Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” came out in 1999. I could have swore she came out earlier in the 90s. I would’ve guessed 96. She just seems so “90s” to me, but she barely was. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/10 "2015-08-24T03:44:25Z")
Cat Stevens recorded “[The First Cut Is the Deepest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBccr-aLu4I)” in 1967, but to my ears it sounds like it must have been recorded in the early '70s. (Many other people, of course, are shocked that it even came out in that _century_, since Sheryl Crow’s cover is the best known version.) Likewise, “[One Step Beyond](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-uyWAe0NhQ)”, by Madness, has all the elements I associate with the ska-punk that was huge in southern CA in the '90s when I was a teenager, but it’s actually from 1979. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/11 "2015-08-24T09:22:14Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQMCfqFr4XA&feature=youtu.be&t=28), and don’t look at who wrote it or when. Yup, that sounds like boogie-woogie. So I bet that your first guess wasn’t Beethoven, 1822. In a similar vein, the beginning of the “Waldstein” piano sonata is also surprising. I also refuse to admit that these pieces were written in the late 80s. Late 1880s that is… [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPIuZPmCLaY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPIuZPmCLaY) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSnw28dz2DM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSnw28dz2DM) And there’s **Mossolov** inventing industrial music in 1927. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1-\_UPwYSM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1-_UPwYSM) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/12 "2015-08-24T09:54:36Z")
Well, some of [Lucille Bogan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkPCmIxv-3k)’s ( **NSFW** ) work surprised me—mostly because one tends to think of some of those words as not being invented until about 30 years later. :eek: (Jesus. My grandfathers were _seven years old_ when that one was recorded…) Also, [“Young Men Dead”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKjpGP6P5Y), which was inexplicably released not only over 40 years _after_ The Doors’ eponymous album was made, but by a completely different band. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/13 "2015-08-24T12:25:48Z")
[“I Believe in a Thing Called Love”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKjZuykKY1I) by The Darkness sounds like it came straight out of the mid-1980’s. Nope, 2003. A lot of Bob Seger’s best-known songs originally came out a suprisingly long time ago. For instance, [“Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2aBOTNGWMY) from 1968. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/14 "2015-08-24T13:31:11Z")
The hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” was written in 1912. Yet years ago, I read two novels set during the 1800’s in which the main character sings it. (Sorry, can’t remember the titles.) ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/15 "2015-08-24T13:34:15Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > [“I Believe in a Thing Called Love”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKjZuykKY1I) by The Darkness sounds like it came straight out of the mid-1980’s. Nope, 2003. Wasn’t there a lot a talk at the time it came out about them going deliberately for that 80s sound? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/16 "2015-08-24T13:51:34Z")
I would have bet money the song “Crazy” was from the 70s but I learned embarrassingly recently it was by Gnarls Barkly and was from the mid 2000s. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/17 "2015-08-24T15:27:56Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Well, the nineties actually [began in 1987](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6m-pwWCDKU). So that may explain a few things. > > (And, as I’m fond of pointing out, are still going. Late eighties Pixies still sounds contemporary.) > > Anyway… > > Listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQMCfqFr4XA&feature=youtu.be&t=28), and don’t look at who wrote it or when. Yup, that sounds like boogie-woogie. So I bet that your first guess wasn’t Beethoven, 1822. To me, it definitely sounds late classical/early romantic but with hints of ragtime or something like that a century to come. I don’t think I would have made the boogie woogie connection unless it was pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/18 "2015-08-24T15:30:15Z")
When first hearing the song “Booty Swing” by _Parov Stelar_, both the lyrics and the music made me think it was from the 1940s or earlier. Imagine my surprise when I googled it and found it was released in 2010 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/19 "2015-08-24T17:48:15Z")
Not the greatest example, since it is a song I hate, but that “I’ve Never Been to Me” by Charlene always sounded to me like the quintessential awful mid-70s dreck. I’d have pegged it as coming from 1975. Apparently it was a top ten hin in 1983! It sounds so “un-83” to me (I was a teen and actually listened to pop music back then, and it was all heavy synths and power chords.) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/20 "2015-08-24T18:13:48Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Not the greatest example, since it is a song I hate, but that “I’ve Never Been to Me” by Charlene always sounded to me like the quintessential awful mid-70s dreck. I’d have pegged it as coming from 1975. > > Apparently it was a top ten hin in 1983! It sounds so “un-83” to me (I was a teen and actually listened to pop music back then, and it was all heavy synths and power chords.) Actually, you were close. Charlene recorded her song in 1976, and it was released the following year as a single but did very poorly (only reached #97 on the charts.) Then in 1982, a Tampa DJ discovered the song and started playing it frequently, which eventually led to it becoming a #3 hit. Trivia note: [A 2006 CNN poll](http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2006/04/27/Paul-Anka-wins-worst-song-poll-by-CNN/UPI-74281146163429/) ranked “I’ve Never Been To Me” as the 4th worst song of all time, with the top three being “(You’re) Havin’ My Baby”, “Muskrat Love” and “You Light Up My Life”. Heavy competition! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671.md?page=2)