Do you have a cite to support this? Wonder is and has been the only songwriter credited on the song (Which BTW is titled “Superstition”). You may be confusing things as Jeff Beck actually plays guitar on one of the other songs on the album “Talking Book” that Superstition was released on.
Apparantly, I’m wrong. This is one of those bits of trivia I vaguely remember from my mis-spent youth. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, third edition, says (in Wonder, Stevie entry) it was written “for Jeff Beck”. Beck’s entry shows his accident caused a two year delay in the formation of Beck, Bogert and Appice. These two facts and his playing on “Talking Book” are probably where the story got twisted from.
Talking Book" was released in '72, “Beck Bogert and Appice” in '73 (with “Superstition” credited to Wonder, of course). Not exactly simultaneous. (No mention anywhere about lawsuits or even bad blood between the two men.)
A little over eight months. Dylan released John Wesley Harding on December 27, 1967, and Hendrix’s cover of AATW first appeared as a single on September 4, 1968 (a month before the Electric Ladyland album came out).
Didn’t Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood (from American Idols)simultaneously release versions of “Inside Your Heaven”?
When I was a kid, the New Seekers and the Hillside Singers both had big, simultaneous hits with the Coke theme song, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” back in the early Seventies.
In the early Eighties, Welsh rocker Dave Edmunds and American country diva Juice NEwton released different versions of “Queen of Hearts” at the same time.
Juice had a big hit and Dave didn’t. Dave was both angry and a bit bemused by this. He still sometimes plays “Queen of Hearts” in concert, and introduces it by saying, “Now, I’d like to play you a Juice Newton song.”
A few years later, after Quiet Riot had a huge hit with Slade’s “Cum On Feel the Noiz,” both QR and a band called Mama’s Boys simultaneously released covers of Slade’s “Mama Weer All Crazee Now.”
And if you want to go WAAAY back… in November of 1945, the #1 single on the Billboard charts was “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” by Harry James. The following week, the #1 single was “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” by BIng Crosby!
Actually, I think it was very common in the Forties for big bands to cover the same songs at the same time.
The song, written by David Tyson and Christopher Ward, was first released by Alannah Myles in 1989 on Alannah Myles. Robin Lee released it in 1988 on Country’s Greatest Hits, Volume 4: Sweet Country Rock (and if that doesn’t scare you, nothing will).
I thought Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye released their versions of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” at the same time, but according to Wikipedia, although Marvin recorded his version first, Gladys’s version came out in 1967 and went to number 2, and Marvin’s came out in 1968 and went to number 1. I love Gladys’s version, it’s much funkier than Marvin’s.
Not exactly. Dave Edmunds’ version appeared on Repeat When Necessary in 1979. Rodney Crowell (whose steel guitar player, Hank DeVito, wrote the song) released his version in 1980 on But What Will the Neighbors Think, and Juice Newton’s version was released in 1981.
Anyone who had co-written “A.1. On the Jukebox” (released on Edmunds’ 1978 LP Tracks on Wax 4 could hardly have been “bemused” by anything that happens in the music business. Angered, perhaps, especially since Juice Newton’s version is arranged almost identically to Edmunds – she could almost have just stripped the vocal off Rockpile’s backing tracks and recorded her own.
Bruce Wooley and Camera Club came out with “English Garden” in December of 1979. It featured the single “Video Killed The Radio Star” a month before the Buggles hit huge with it.
In fairness, it was written by Downes, Horne and Woolley together, and they presumably knew about each others recording projects.
I love the Camera Club version. I mean, I like the Buggles version too, of course. But the Camera Club tune is so… unexpected.
Thwartme
The apocalyptic antiwar anthem Wooden Ships - cowritten by David Crosby, Stephen Stills (both of CSNY) and Paul Kantner (of Jefferson Airplane). CSN and the Airplane both recorded versions of the song on albums released in mid-late 1969: the self-titled debut “Crosby, Stills & Nash” Lp, and “Volunteers”. (although “Volunteers” release was held up for a few months due to a quarrel with RCA over the use of profanity in some songs.)
Interesting tidbit - at Paul Kantner’s request, he was not credited as a songwriter on the CSN version, because he did not want CSN dragged into the ongoing legal battle the Airplane had with a former manager (who was demanding a share of royalties in their profits even though he’d been fired.) Even though that meant he didn’t get royalties from the CSN recording.
Jefferson Airplane and CSNY both released “Wooden Ships” in the same year.
The Who and the Guess Who both had covers of “Shakin’ All Over” on the charts around the same time.
Donavon Frankenreiter released two versions of the song “Free” in the same year - one by himself, one featuring Jack Johnson on vocals and ukelele.
The Grateful Dead and Cream both recorded “Sittin’ On Top of the World” in the same year.
After the Fire had a huge hit with **Falco’**s Der Kommisar less than a year after the original was released.
The Pixies and **The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ** versions of Head On were on albums released 2 years apart, but it seemed like alternative radio (as it was called back then) latched onto them about a year apart.