Back in 1989, my friend and I produced a jazz jam session of sorts at a restaurant in Pearl City (we paid a bunch of local musicians and arranged with the owner to let us use a corner of the dining room as a stage for three or four hours). During the session, I requested that they play the Flintstones theme. Everybody was okay with it, but the rhythm guitar guy said he didn’t know it. The bassist told him “Just play I Got Rhythm.”
Those chord changes work for dozens of songs.
Yep. The progression even has a name “rhythm changes” in jazz circles.It’s one of the foundational chord changes in jazz.
We’re this far in and no one’s mentioned what Rod McKuen did to the songs of Jaques Brel?
From Brel, Le Moribond, a song about the thoughts of a dying man (English lyrics)
Translated by McKuen (who thought it "too macabre) into the glurgiest song in human history.
Interesting, I didn’t know that Neil himself sings the updated lyric. In that case, I’m ok with it. 
It’s not a huge deal, but I did have a cringey reaction when I heard “I feel like I could cry.”
mmm
Dinosaur Jr. (really just J. Mascis on the recording) did a cover/mashup of Quicksand and Andy Warhol by David Bowie. He changed the lyrics to the verses to be about his station wagon that had been recently wrecked. I actually like it better than the original.
Oh, and the original for reference:
That’s it! This was bugging me earlier, I could remember the genre and feel of what had happened, but the specifics were eluding me. Great example,
I feel you, I had the same reaction. Someone some time ago posted the ATGR version by Parton/Harris/Ronstadt here and I commented that I liked the singing, but not the bowdlerization of that line. What I got as first response was “Ok, boomer”, though I’m a classic Gen-Xer.
They called themselves “Trio” and released two albums.
Joan Baez changed the lyrics of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” from “Stoneman’s cavalry” to “So much cavalry.” Not sure why, since it makes the line more bland.
She also modified “Suzanne”, singing the line “you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind” with the modified lyrics " Cause she’s touched you, And she’s moved you, And she’s kind"
I think she just didn’t have lyric sheets when she recorded it. There are a few other mishearings on her version.
The Star Spangled Banner, based on a British song
Elvis’s Wooden Heart, based on a German folk song
In the same way, he turned “O Sole Mio” into “It’s Now Or Never”.
Here is Train singing Heart an Soul Play That Song
It was also interpreted as, “OK, so we lost the stupid war. We’re still alive, and we can make a new Japan.” It became very popular during the Tokyo Olympics.
A popular anti-War song around 1914–15 was I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier (P.O.V. of a grieving mother). After the Zimmerman telegram and all that followed, it was rewritten as I’m glad I raised my boy to be a soldier.
That’s weird. The original song was written by Michael Timmon from Cowboy Junkies. and performed by John Prine and Margot Timmons, and Tyler absolutely butchers it.
So if I have this right, she took a Cowboy Junkies/John Prine song, changed the lyrics and mixed it into a sort-of Bonjovi song, which means she changed the lyrics of two good songs to make a bad one.
Here is the fantastic original, sung live by John Prine and Cowboy Junkies. Listen to this, and marvel at how badly Bonnie Tyler mangled it.:
“I’ve Been Everywhere” was first popularized by Australian artist Lucky Starr. The original version used all Australian towns:
Later it was re-written using American towns, and recorded by numerous singers, with Johnny Cash’s version probably the best known:
There was also a New Zealand version, and I particularly liked how that one specifically mentioned where I am from (it’s one of the fifth verse ones).
Seems John Grenell died only a couple of months ago. RIP.
Also a Canadian version of that song, done by Stompin’ Tom Connors.
