At work a few years ago, and the Doors - Light My Fire was playing on the radio.
One of the women from another office came in and proceeded to say "That’s a shit cover of Jose Feliciano!
FAIL
I think I was 13 or so before I realized that “Come Together” was not an Aerosmith song.
And it turns out I was 39 before I found out that “Hard to Handle” isn’t a Tom Jones song. :eek:
RNATB, you are not alone. I share your dislike of the Smiths, but find the guitar part from “How Soon is Now” impossible to turn off. I’ve never heard of Love Spit Love.
I don’t get the Bodyguard confusion. Whitney’s character is literally listening to “I will always love you” on the jukebox before she sings it herself.
“heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez is a cover of the original by Swedish electro-bonkers duo The Knife.
Both are very different and very good. I love it when that happens.
Incidentally, since when did Prince’s version of “I feel for you” count as a ballad?
That’s some fine funky chicken. You can’t smooch to it can you?
Just please tell me that it wasn’t because you’d heard that the Black Crowes did it first…
This is going to sound snotty, but Cyndi’s isn’t a cover by virtue of the fact that Robert Hazard’s 1979 demo wasn’t commercially released and, as far as I can tell, still hasn’t been.
Under copyright rules, therefore, Hazard had the choice of who could record it first and gave the song to Lauper in '83 with some minor lyric changes to alter the sex of the narrator.
If his demo was released after that, he’d covered Lauper’s version of a song he’d written - unusual, but hardly unknown. Obviously, if I’ve missed where Hazard released it before '83, I’ll bow to your knowledge.
Blasphemy! I love The Smiths, but find Moz to be quite an ass.
I would consider that a cover, myself. I suppose their might be a more technical definition of “cover,” but songs that were originally demos and sung by another artist qualify for my definition (and the definition seems to be in use for allmusic.com.) Although, it makes sense to use the more stringent definition.
Here’s Hazard’s version, for those interested.
I heard that the Black Crowes’ version was a cover of the Tom Jones’ song about 15 minutes after I heard it the first time, so I was only deluded in that way for a short period of time. Otherwise, yes, I am that clueless.
I’m gonna learn that version of “Down on Me”. I don’t understand what they are singing in verses, 3, 4, and 5, though. I guess I’ll have to sub someone else’s verses in.
A couple of weeks ago, someone sang “Landslide” on American Idol. I was all excited that someone was actually singing a song I knew - a Smashing Pumpkins song! I was momentarily baffled when the judges started talking about Stevie Nicks. I had no idea that was a cover.
Maybe not a ballad, but it is a bit slower and has different feel. I haven’t heard it in a while.
OK, I’m probably being whooshed here in the worst way, but just in case…
A long time ago, the was this fellow named Otis Redding…
Also during the late 1960s, Tommy James and the Shondells also covered Joan Jett’s 1981 hit, “Crimson and Clover.”
And Billy Idol’s “Mony, Mony.”
I should’ve put a smilie in there just in case you thought that was snarky…not intended.
Perhaps I have difficulty thinking of any Prince song being a ballad, it pretty much all sounds filthy…but in a good way! My wife and I kicked our wedding dance off with “diamonds and pearls” that’s about a ballad-y as he gets (and even then I can’t say we weren’t thinking about sex)
Speaking of covers…something interesting about “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 1988 album Even Worse: it has three parodies of COVERS:
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“I Think I’m A Clone Now” --> parodied Tiffany’s remake of Tommy James & The Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now.”
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“Alimony” --> parodied Billy Idol’s remake of TJ&S’s “Mony Mony”
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“(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long” --> parodied George Harrison’s remake of James Ray’s “Got My Mind Set On You”
And if you want to extend “covers” to include folk songs, then there’s a fourth:
- “Lasagna” --> parodied Los Lobos’ version of “La Bamba,” which was a cover of Ritchie Valens’ rendering.
It was alleged on Coverville that when “Mony Mony” succeeded “I Think We’re Alone Now” as the American #1 in 1987 that it was the first time that two covers had held the top spot immediately after each other - and that they were very different takes on the same original artist’s work.
But Snoop says so at the very beginning of the song…
I have serious doubts about that. I wasn’t even aware the Love Spit Love ever did a version of it.
I would dispute that, but on the other hand I played the same song for a friend who said (paraphrased) “I didn’t know the Smiths did a version of this t.A.T.u song.”