Song that was a hit for the most artists, and most decades...

Cafe Society
1

I’m having a terrible time figuring out a less clumsy way to express this…

I was watching a video of Fred Astaire dancing to Puttin’ on the Ritz and I got to thinking about the fact that the song has been a hit/very popular a number of times over a number of decades.

Which got me thinking about songs that have been “revived” successfully (Does anyone remember that Roberta Flack’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was a popular song before she sang it? I can’t remember now exactly who made it most popular, probably Peter, Paul and Mary.) multiple times. And then I wondered which such song had been successfully revived in the greatest number of decades.

So that’s what I’m wanting to know.

Note: I’m not looking for the songs covered the greatest number of times, because that’s pretty easy to find out. (First Time has been covered 335 times. I’m sure it ranks.) I am talking about the covers becoming measurably popular, actually charting.

2

The Loco-Motion: #1 hit for Little Eva in 1962, then a #1 hit for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974, then an international hit for Kylie Minogue in 1987-'88.

3

There are probably better examples of the what the OP is asking for but I’m going to suggest “Georgia On My Mind”. It was first recorded in 1930 by its co-writer, Hoagy Carmichael, along with his orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on muted cornet. The following year, there were two hit versions of the song by, respectively, Fred Trumbauer and Mildred Bailey. Ray Charles had a #1 single with his version in 1960 and Willie Nelson topped the country charts with it in 1978.

4

I would look to Christmas songs maybe. “White Christmas” or “Little Drummer Boy”, for example.

5

I believe the most covered song in history is “Yesterday,” but it goes back only to the 1960s.

Songs older than that would include hits by Glenn Miller (“Moonlight Serenade”), Cole Porter (“I Get a Kick Out of You”), and the Gershwins (“Someone to Watch over Me”) that have been covered by many artists over the last century.

6

Badfinger’s* Without You *an international hit in both the seventies and the nineties. Sadly, I think the two guys who wrote it never saw a penny from it. Both dead from suicide stemming from financial and personal difficulties.

7

“Little Bitty Pretty One” was a Top 40 hit in the '50s for Thurston Harris, in the '60s for Clyde McPhatter, and in the '70s for the Jackson 5.

8

Two songs have reached the Billboard Top 40 in four consecutive decades.

“Everlasting Love”: in the '60s by Robert Knight, in the '70s by Carl Carlton, in the '80s by Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet, and in the '90s by Gloria Estefan.

“The Way You Do the Things You Do”: in the '60s by the Temptations, in the '70s by Rita Coolidge, in the '80s by Hall & Oates (as part of a medley), and in the '90s by UB40.

9

Dancing in the Street

Martha and the Vandellas
Mick Jagger and David Bowie
Van Halen

10

*Unchained Melody *

1955 Les Baxter, and others, ranked #1 on Billboard
1963 Vito & the Salutions, #66
1965 Righteous Brothers, #1
1968 Sweet Inspiration, #73
1981 Heart, #93
1990 Righteous Brothers re-release, #13, popular due to the movie Ghost

11

Hmm, how would Blues songs and their rock versions figure into this? Songs like:

  • When the Levee Breaks - originally from 1929
  • Robert Johnson’s songs like Crossroads, Love in Vain, Sweet Home Chicago
  • Muddy’s song I Just Want to Make Love to You
  • Train Kept a Rollin’ - Rock n’ Roll Trio, Yardbirds, Aerosmith (although the YB’s and Aerosmith used the rhythm more from the RnRT’s song Honey Hush).

You get the idea. Blues and early rock songs revised and updated. Heck - Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochrane, then Blue Cheer and The Who…

12

Good one. Have any of you seen the video (I can’t remember just where I saw it…) of some gal singing UM so slowly that the sun rises and sets while she’s singing. It’s a hoot. :slight_smile: