# Songs recorded with alternate lyrics to the original but not for humor or satire
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [October 13, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199 "2022-10-13T17:21:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/1 "2022-10-13T17:21:33Z")
I know satirical versions of songs are a dime a dozen ala Weird Al but are there a lot of songs recorded, either by the original artist or someone else, that changed the lyrics into a different song but not done for humor?
The best example I can think of is Elton John’s Candle in the Wind re-written as Candle in the Wind 1997 as a tribute to Princess Diana rather than Marilyn Monroe.
Another I know of is an alternate version of Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner called Waiting at the Border written about the Gulf War.
Any more examples?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/2 "2022-10-13T17:24:20Z")
_Gangsta’s Paradise_ is based on Stevie Wonder’s _Pastime Paradise_.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H3Sv2zad6s)
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/3 "2022-10-13T17:28:24Z")
Lyle Lovett’s “Penguins.”
Original lyrics:
I don’t go for fancy cars
For diamond rings
Or movie stars
After his marriage to Julia Roberts, he only hummed the third line.
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### Author:  [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/4 "2022-10-13T17:30:14Z")
“Since I’ve Been Loving You” by Led Zeppelin is a re-write of “Death Valley Blues” by Black Cat Bones.
“Hotel California” sounds very suspiciously like “Things We Used To Know” by Jethro Tull.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/5 "2022-10-13T17:33:34Z")
Austrian singer Falco had a song in 1981, “[Der Kommissar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-bgiiTxhzM),” which was primarily in German, with a splash of English; it was [covered in 1982 by the British band After the Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfFDTPPlaM), with lyrics which were primarily in English, with a splash of German (though the theme, about drug use, was unchanged).
However, for purposes of this thread’s topic, the song then was recorded _again_, this time by Canadian singer Laura Branigan in 1983, but with a different name (“[Deep in the Dark](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVNdjglcRvk)”), and mostly different lyrics (though the melody and arrangement was similar to both versions of “Der Kommissar”).
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/6 "2022-10-13T17:51:12Z")
Gwen Stefani redid _If I was a Rich Man_ as _Rich Girl_. Though maybe that is just adding a snippet to her song.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rlNpWYQunY)
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/7 "2022-10-13T17:55:15Z")
Billy Bragg updates his lyrics in his live shows (they are full of 1980s political references). There was some minor controversy when he updated the lyrics to Sexuality to be more trans inclusive rather than just anti-homophobic:
> **[Billy Bragg changes 'Sexuality' lyrics in support of transgender rights](https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/news/billy-bragg-changes-sexuality-lyrics-transgender-rights-5586/)**
>
> Billy Bragg has changed the lyrics to his song 'Sexuality' in support of transgender people, which previously made reference to gay rights
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/8 "2022-10-13T17:58:20Z")
Also my four year old watches the kids cartoon [Beat Bugs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Ev_Es7onw) which someone got hold of the rights to the Beatles back catalog (but didn’t have money to spare to pay writers who don’t suck 🙂 ) The sanitize a lot of the songs, something she immediately caught onto when I added the originals to her car playlist (“They are singing these songs funnily!”)
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/9 "2022-10-13T17:58:32Z")
I think the term you might be looking for is contrafactum.
Would something like “My Country Tis of Thee” and “God Save the King/Queen” count for the purposes of the OP? What about foreign tunes? “It’s Now Or Never” by Elvis/“There’s No Tomorrow” by Tony Martin/“O Sole Mio”?
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/10 "2022-10-13T18:06:17Z")
There is also I’m sure a lot of examples of replacing a place name with the one they are singing in. e.g. Iggy Pop, as recounted in the book Trainspotting, sang “'Scotland takes drugs in psychic defence” in place of “America takes drugs in psychic defence” when he played in Edinburgh:
> **[One hell of a nice old age](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/mar/03/popandrock.features)**
>
> They got their first record deal in 1968, then came drugs, dissolution ... and now the Stooges are back. But why would infamous frontman Iggy Pop want to rejoin a band he associates with 'disaster, flames, failure'? Laura Barton asks him.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/11 "2022-10-13T18:19:53Z")
Not a direct alternate but close.
1966:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxzg_iM-T4E)
2009:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pLdaDzV8Ts)
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### Author:  [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/12 "2022-10-13T18:25:32Z")
The original Japanese lyrics to _Sukiyaki_ by Kyu Sakamoto, which hit #1 in one U.S. in 1963, were about a condemned prisoner. In 1981 _A Taste of Honey_ released an English language version that reached #3, which had new lyrics about a failed love affair.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/13 "2022-10-13T18:36:52Z")
This was common in the early days of blues and country music.
Examples from country include [“I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4tBmpRdZ94) by the Carter Family, the melody of which was later used in [“Great Speckled Bird”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbfQrKcVjg) by Roy Acuff, and later [“The Wild Side of Life”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFXB5cJDmp8) by Hank Thompson. Kittty Wells wrote a response to this last one using the melody once again, [“It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKleTa94dC8).
Many examples from blues. A prominent one is [“How Long Blues”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqOYncRHtO8) from 1928 by Leroy Carr, the melody of which was used two years later by Ma Rainey on [“Daddy Goodbye Blues”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJzL8jqwbds).
Blues and country started out as folk music forms, in which nobody owns the music. So it was perfectly acceptable to reuse melodies and other elements of songs. This changed as folk music gradually morphed into pop music.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/14 "2022-10-13T18:53:13Z")
The one-hit wonder group Gun Hill Road recorded “Back When My Hair was Short,” about life in the 60s. It had some lyrics that mentioned drugs, so they rerecorded it with new lyrics without the drug references, and setting the nostalgia for the 1950s. The revised version became a minor hit.
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### Author:  [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/15 "2022-10-13T18:54:25Z")
Today I learned…
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/16 "2022-10-13T18:55:26Z")
“Happy Days Are Here Again” turned into a love song:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ey9wYTOgew)
Дорогой длинною – tune borrowed for a very different English song:
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vd5q1Ioo588/hqdefault.jpg "The original "THOSE WERE THE DAYS" (Дорогой длинною) - Marie-Anne Izmajlov (Manca Izmajlova)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd5q1Ioo588)
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/17 "2022-10-13T18:57:41Z")
Same here. Wow.
Makes Coolio look even more jerkish for getting snippy with Weird Al for parodying GP.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/18 "2022-10-13T19:05:27Z")
There are also answer songs, like “King of the Road” and “Queen of the House”.
“Bear Cat” – originally credited to Sam Phillips – is so close to “Hound Dog” that Leiber & Stoller sued Phillips and won.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXQ29v9Nheo)
Some people never got that message and still credit Phillips rather than Leiber & Stoller. [This box set released in 2007 is one example.](https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Records-Collection-Elvis-Presley/dp/B0000033DF)
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/19 "2022-10-13T19:19:22Z")
Make 'Em Laugh from the movie Singing in the Rain was the Cole Porter song Be a Clown with new lyrics. It’s not known why Porter didn’t sue. He would have won hands down.
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-recorded-with-alternate-lyrics-to-the-original-but-not-for-humor-or-satire/973199/20 "2022-10-13T19:30:40Z")
The U.S. Civil War song “[When Johnny Comes Marching Home](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Johnny_Comes_Marching_Home)” has been being repurposed ever since. I know it primarily as “The Ants Go Marching”, but Wikipedia has a long list of variants and recordings.
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