Police and Thieves is a cover The Clash did too - original written by Junior Murvin and Lee “Scratch” Perry
Oh, I knew “I Fought The Law,” because i listened to oldies stations all the time as a kid, and I’m pretty sure I was introduced to “Police On My Back” as being a cover (though I had not heard the original before the Clash version), but when I was first really getting into the Clash (early 90s, for me, late high school), “Pressure Drop” was on some alternative/college rock mix tape a friend made for me, and I had no idea for years that it was a cover of essentially a reggae standard originally by Toots and the Maytals.
Not to mention, with that 1963 song (I Call Your Name), the Beatles casually invented ska in a twenty-second section.
(I exaggerate… but only a little!)
And UB40’s biggest hit, Red Red Wine, is a Neil Diamond tune from 1967
Interesting. Looking it up, it looks like Lennon was a fan of ska, and this song is mentioned as having a Beatles attempt at ska (or “blue beat” – Jamaican R&B – according to some sources) at the instrumental bridge. It doesn’t really sound that much like ska to me at all, especially with that bass line; I mean I guess it has the off-beat chords, but that comes from the rock and roll tradition, as well. Seems its a common enough sentiment that I could find references to it, but, man, I would never have picked that out in a million years.
Lots of Led Zeppelin I and II are reworks of old blues songs.
This is Led Zeppelin IV, and I don’t know if this is the original or just an old folk number, but I had no idea “When the Levee Breaks” was not an original tune until the 2000s. Here is the Memphis Minnie recording, which I understand to be the original recording, at least, if not the origin of the song. (I believe they did credit the original artists on this one, though. ETA: Yes, the record does have Memphis Minnie on it.)
This has been mentioned in previous threads, but the original was written/performed by the Crickets after the death of Buddy Holly.
But I love the Bobby Fuller version. The guitar just makes the song, and I’ve no patience for versions that weaken that strumming.
:smack: I knew that (and forgot).
That one I knew was a cover — Jim “The Poorman” Trenton liked to play the original on KROQ during the “Loveline” call-in show.
Just for the record, the Damned was a British band. I was backstage during their final non-concert where Captain Sensible never showed up. Ended up with then bass-player “Moose” holding a ffing switchblade to my throat.
Because after that there were no more volunteers to bring the band to the airport, I gave them a ride. He apologized 
#2 should probably be adjusted to “released for sale.”
It may not happen often that a song is recorded with the intent of releasing iit, but isn’t released, and then it becomes a hit for someone else, but it does happen.
An example is Neil Diamond’s “I’m a Believer.” It was in the can and ready to go when the producers of The Monkees made him an offer. I don’t think the Monkees’ version can really be considered a cover in the sense that we usually mean since it wasn’t heard by the public until years later when it released on on a Diamond retrospective compiliation album called In My Lifetime.
Diamond later said that selling them the song was the best financial decision he ever made. It would have been a hit for him, but at nowhere near the scale and longevity that it was for The Monkees.
The opposite happened with Prince’s “Kiss.” IIRC, he wrote it for someone else and didn’t like how it was going, so he took it back, re-worked it, and released it himself. I’m not sure how far along the other band was in the recording process, however.
For example…?
Helluva link-Thank you.
We’ve done this in CS countless times before, but if you just go to Youtube and look up “Led Zeppelin plagiarism,” you’ll find a number of videos with side-by-side examples. There’s a number I don’t agree with, but, yeah, there were a lot.
Slight correction here: Neil Diamond’s version of “I’m a Believer” was released on his second Bang album, Just for You. So it was heard not long after he recorded it.
However, it wasn’t released as a single, and The Monkees indeed got the big hit with it, and it’s their version that’s remembered.
…But they thought they were covering Tony Tribe.
jYears ago I picked up on something remarkable playing on the radio. Hadn’t caught the title or artist, but it was obviously Johnny Cash and I eventually found out the song was called In My Life:
But it was an age - maybe years - before it dawned on me that this was the Beatles song. Cash just put his mark on it so emphatically that I never made the connection.My version of this sort of cascade is Handbags And Gladrags
Mike D’abo wrote it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApIMvj3xLvM
and Chris Farlowe had a hit with it (produced by D’abo) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3yN0JvG5co - if you’re a generation older than me, you probably think this is the original.
It was recorded by Rod Stewart; if you’re my age, you probably think this was the original (I certainly did) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edbFVGrTG-c
And if you’re a generation younger than me, then obviously it’s a Stereophonics original - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51GuG6N2qHE
As someone said, if it’s good…
j
He’ll do that. Cash did such a spectacular rendition of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, that Trent Reznor has said that he no longer considers it his own song.
mc
And another one for the Beetles: I thought that the Beetles were just another oldies band. But I really liked Elton John’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. (1972) Easily the best thing he had ever done.
When I realized that it was just a cover version, that was the moment when I first thought that the Beetles might actually be more than just another band that had been popular at some time in the past.
One of the reasons why the Beetles have already been mentioned several times in this thread is that their songs are really easy to cover. They’re carried by the melody harmonies and lyrics, not by the production, voices or special effect (natural or artificial). Even I used to make a decent shot at covering some of the hits. Contrast the Beach Boys, who were only rarely covered: it’s just too difficult to get that sound.