I always thought I was smart because I knew The Beatles Twist and Shout was a cover of an Isley Brothers song. Rudolph Isley told me about introducing the song to John Lennon, and then told me the Isley Brothers version was a copy of the original song written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns (later credited as “Bert Russell”) and originally recorded by the Top Notes.
Good enough to be done by CHASE, an amazing band. One of the only covers they ever did.
I’m not sure I agree. If you’re talking about sound, later Beatles was absolutely heavily produced. Now, sure, they all had good melodies, so you didn’t need the production, but it was the same with the Beach Boys. Their music absolutely was carried by the melody, harmonies, and lyrics, as you put it. Pet Sounds is their most adventurous work (usually equated with Sgt. Pepper in terms of its ambition and production values), but all the songs there have great melodies. Wikipedia, for example, lists thirty-two covers of “God Only Knows,” for instance. David Lee Roth’s “California Girls” was a mid-80s hit here in the US (peaking at #3; looks like it made #6 in Australia.)
The BEATLES! BEATLES BEATLES BEATLES. It was a double pun, on Buddy Holly’s Crickets and on music with a beat.
There was an early band called the Beetles, an exploitation group whose name was intended to fool clueless parents into buying the record for their kids. Since them a ton of cover and tribute groups have called themselves The Beetles. There are joke Meet the Beetles albums with pictures of an all-insect group.
And that’s because the Beatles are the most famous rock group in history. The BEATLES! BEATLES BEATLES BEATLES.
Grump.
Triple pun. It also references the beatniks.
“Drunk History” did a funny segment on Dolly Parton and why she wrote “I Will Always Love you.”
The Bobby Fuller Four played at my high school’s Boys League annual concert, so I knew about their version. Bobby committed suicide (this in dispute, apparently) shortly after, so he was another victim of the Boys League jinx. Something bad always happened to bands who played at that concert. First band to escape the jinx was Three Dog Night.
I LOVE “Iko Iko” – glad to see the earier version. Thanks!
I just found out about this one earlier today because WXPN did an afternoon of music from 1986. The song “Superman” from R.E.M.'s Life’s Rich Pageant is a cover; the original version was from Texas band The Clique in 1969.
Looked this up – it’s good! Thanks 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFR-2m9CHI0
If you haven’t already, it’s worth looking into the weird ritualized pseudo-violence of the Mardi Gras Indians. That’s where all the stuff about setting people’s flags on fire and so forth comes from. The HBO show Treme did a plot line about one of the “tribes” – here’s one scene to give a taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmgXIMbT3cU
I love that the Dixie Cups turned the chanting of a subculture that was still kind of sinister/disreputable when they were little girls into a catchy pop song.
Oh, no kidding! I did not know that. Always loved the REM song, never realized it was a cover! The original for those interested.
Nice! Never heard it either. I think it might be better than REM’s at communicating the how the narrator’s, well, a bit pathetic. (Insert jokes on how Stipe always sounds kinda pathetic.)
I just found out that Bad Company’s “Ready for Love” - the only version I’ve ever heard - was a cover of Mott the Hoople.
Reminds me of this sketch from Victoria Wood.
It all makes sense then because Mike Mills sings lead on the R.E.M. version.
I ran across a Sarah McLauchlan cover of an ol’ Eagles song, looked at the credits and learned it was actually from this guy. There were a number of covers in the '70s that seem just a bit too glossy compared to the originals (Manfred Mann, I am looking at you).
Once upon a time, when I was listening to random music on the radio, this song came up: Everly Brothers - “Love Hurts”.
Wait, what? The rock ballad by Nazareth is not an original? And also, it’s not like the Everly Brothers were one-hit wonders or anything, so how did I not know they did the first ever recording of this song?
Hey, it was years after I heard Simon & Garfunkel’s version of “Bye Bye Love” that I became aware that it was a cover of the Everly Brothers.
Of course, back in that (waaaaay) pre-Web era, how would you know who wrote the song if you didn’t buy the record?
Huh. Somehow I don’t even remember S&G’s version. And I even had the album Bridge Over Troubled Waters. I guess I just never really listened to the last two tracks on the album. (Though I do seem to remember “Song for the Asking,” so I don’t know if I just skipped over it or what. I don’t like recorded versions of live songs 95% of the time as it goes, especially on studio albums, so that’s probably what happened.)
Simon & Garfunkel even plagiarized themselves. For years I was unaware that Somewhere They Can’t Find Me was just a plugged-in version of Wednesday Morning 3AM.
Hell, all this time I’ve been thinking the Roy Orbison version was the original. :o
The song I thought for the longest time as original but actually a cover is most likely “Louis Louis” by The Kingsmen. The original version was written by Richard Berry and recorded by Richard Berry & The Pharaohs in 1957. I heard this song for decades before finding out it was a cover while reading about Frank Zappa carrying the torch, in a sense, for this song (Royal Albert Hall version on Uncle Meat album, other live performance snippets, etc.).
For the first couple years that I listened to Jimi Hendrix, I did not realize that “Hey Joe” was a cover song earlier recorded by The Leaves
For some years, I did not realize that Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” is a cover of a traditional Jamaican song first recorded by Edric Connor in 1952.
Some of my ska/reggae loving friends were shocked to find out that Sublime’s “Scarlet Begonias” is actually a cover of a classic tune by The Grateful Dead