Not only is Cat Stephen’s hit Morning Has Broken a remake of a 1931 folk song, but the melody was written for a 19th hymn, Child in a Manger.
I damn near passed out when I innocently googled one to find out what the original song was.
Another oldie - I had no idea that “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)” was originally a Bertolt Brecht poem set to music by Kurt Weill in the 1920s. I only knew the version by the Doors.
“Mack the Knife” is also by Brecht and Weill, from The Threepenny Opera. Bobby Darrin’s version is the most famous, although it’s a close, if faster, copy of Louis Armstrong’s version from 1956.
I just loved the Indigo Girls song “Romeo” - it was some time before I discovered it was a cover of a Dire Straits tune. It never sounds right to me to hear a man singing it.
It’s been part of Catholic missals for a while. First time I heard it, I thought “why on earth are we singing Cat Stevens in church?”
“Romeo and Juliet.” I have the opposite reaction. I’ve heard the Dire Straits version so many times that the Indigo Girls version sounds a bit odd to me. I do like the Indigo Girls though.
I first heard it in church, because I grew up in the 60s. I wondered “Why is Cat Stevens singling a Catholic hymn?”
I think that version broke my brain. If I wind up in an asylum feel free to take some of the credit.
I preferred this version.
Jethro Tull’s “Bouree” is a cover of Bourrée in E minor, the fifth movement from Suite in E minor for Lute, written by Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Eyesight to the Blind”, covered by The Who in Tommy, was written by Sonny Boy Williamson and first released in 1951.
Mad World-from the Donnie Darko soundtrack. Didn’t know it was a remake of a song originally from the 1980s band Tears for Fears. Was shocked to hear the original have such an uptempo beat.
Killing Me Softly-by the Fugees. Thought this hip-hop group was unique at the time and then a relative told me that they liked that song too but that they would get me a new tape that didn’t distort Roberta Flack’s vocals so badly. Prefer the Fugees.
Running Up That Hill-by Placebo. Really haunting track and again, didn’t know it was originally an 80s song by the great Kate Bush. Like both but ended up preferring Kate Bush’s version.
Always on My Mind-Pet Shop Boys. Just found out this was originally an Elvis song. Good song by both, but prefer the remake.
Laura Nyro was a talented artist whose remakes arguably became more famous than her own versions. Blood, Sweat and Tears’ “And When I Die,” Barbra Streisand’s “Stoney End,” Three Dog Night’s “Eli’s Coming,” The Fifth Dimension’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” were all written and performed by her first.
I recently found out that the **Go-Go’s **big hit “Our Lips are Sealed” was a cover of a song by Euro-New-Agers Fun Boy Three!
The original is lethargic and a bit woozy, with bongos.
This blows me away. The song is *so *Go-Go’s. It’s perfect for them. It defines them!
Weird, wild, and wacky stuff.
That whole Labour of Love album is unabashedly covers.
In the case of RRW, I think there must have been a Jamaican cover after Neil but before UB40.
Actually the Go-Go’s version came first. The song was co-written by Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s and Terry Hall of Fun Boy Three, so neither version is exactly a cover.
Ah, interesting! Thanks.
Here’s a variation on this theme.
I have always known that Led Zepplin’s version of the Gallows Pole was based on a traditional song.
However, the version I heard of the traditonal arrangement, the person being threatened with hanging was a woman, and she is saved from hanging when her love brings gold to bribe the hangman.
I always assumed the Led Zepplin version - in which the victim was a man, and his sister has sex with the hangman as a bribe, and in which the hangman hangs him anyway - was their invention.
Not so. Apparently it is a traditional variation.
As was mentioned upthread, this is one of those cases where the author credits on the liner notes (assuming you bought the album on LP, of course…) don’t match the performer, which sets off the “aha! Cover!” alarm.
Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler written by Don Schlitz and originally recorded by Schlitz and Bobby Bare.
But Dr. Kildare was the cute doctor compared to Ben Casey. Of course he had to be able to sing!