Heh, I heard it for years on the radio - never actually bought it on LP, when those were common. 
George Harrison’s 1987 #1 hit “Got my Mind Set on You” was originally recorded and released by obscure R & B singer James Ray in 1962.
Wow! That is Rogers’s signature song, and I always thought he wrote it.
Arlo Guthrie’s City of New Orleans has a interesting backstory: It was written and recorded by Steve Goodman, who approached Arlo after one of his concerts and asked him to listen to it. Arlo responded “Buy me a beer and I’ll listen to it.” They went to the nearest bar, Steve bought the bee,r and Arlo listened. Steve asked him what he thought of it, and Arlo responded “Buy me another beer and I’ll record it.”
And the rest is history.
I recently discovered that “Step On” by Happy Mondays is a cover of “He’s Gonna Step On You Again”, a song from 1971 by John Kongos.
- YouTube‘My Boy Lollipop’ by Millie was originally recorded by Barbie Gaye in 1956. It was her manager who had changed it from the originally written 'My Girl
Lollipop’.My Boy Lollipop - Wikipedia
MiM
I Love Rock N Roll-Joan Jet-Arrows
No You Don’t-Pat Benetar-Sweet
Hard To Handle-Black Crows-Otis Redding
Didn’t know Universal Soldier wasn’t a Donovan original. Buffy Sainte-Marie penned it.
Guster’s “The Harder They Come” was written and recorded by Jimmy Cliff way back in 1972.
And I feel extremely stupid not to have known that. But I heard Guster’s version first.
Wow. I never knew that either. I knew most of them in this thread, but not this and “The Gambler.” (And I’m starting to feel my age at only 39, as a number of the songs posted in this thread I’m shocked to hear people didn’t know were covers, as I remember the originals on the radio.)
I was going through the posts expecting to add this myself. One of my favorite Doors’ songs.
Two more big ones that have slipped though the cracks:
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Quincy Jones’ 1981 hit “Ai No Corrida” (#28 US, #14 UK) was written and originally recorded by Chaz Jankel (formerly with Ian Dury & The Blockheads).
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Van Halen’s 1978 album track “Ice Cream Man” was a credited cover of John Brim’s 1969 original (which was recorded in 1953, and waited 16 years for release!).
The original version of “Louie, Louie” with lyrics that can be understood.
The Killers cover it too, rather well.
George Thorogood’s “Move It On Over” was originally a Hank Williams, Sr. hit in 1947. Covered by many people.
It was an entire movie.
“Baby I’m Down” by Leslie West/Mountain was remade/reworked by Clutch into “Immortal.” Later, Mountain then covered “Immortal.”
A young Fleetwood Mac recorded “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite” under the name Earl Vince & The Valiants as a B-Side to “Man of the World.” Later it was covered by scottish punk band The Rezillos, and their version has been covered by other punk bands over the years.
An odd one I just ran across.
Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and Gladys Knight combined for the superhit “That’s What Friends Are For” in 1986, which also won the Grammy as Song of the Year.
It wasn’t written for them. Warwick heard it first in the movie Night Shift, where it was sung by… Rod Stewart. She saw the movie on a late show on television and ran to the studio.
Whitney Houston did something similar when she covered George Benson’s “Greatest Love of All,” from the 1977 movie The Greatest.
Barry Manilow had a #1 smash on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1983 with “Read 'Em and Weep,” taken from Meat Leaf’s album Dead Ringer.
Paul Young’s “Everytime You Go Away” was taken off of Hall and Oates’ 1980 album Voices,
That explains why it’s the only Hootie and the Blowfish song I ever liked!
Heart’s “Alone” was originally recorded by a group called I-Ten, which included the songwriters Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YrY5tnHy14
Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” was originally recorded for a Jim Steinman studio project called Pandora’s Box. Elaine Caswell performed the lead vocals. Celine’s version appears to use pretty much the exact same backing track as the Pandora’s Box version but I gotta admit, Celine’s vocals blow Elaine out of the water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ssqr4eKryw