Another interesting cover is by “The Charmer” a.k.a Louis Eugene Walcott, a.k.a. Louis Farrakhan.
mbh - The original Ugly Woman (1934) by Roaring Lion was a great find.
The original Go Now by Bessie Banks.
Go Now! by The Moody Blues.
Here’s Denny Laine again with a little help from his friends.
The original Torn by Ednaswap
Huh. I’m surprised that song hadn’t been mentioned already in the thread.
“Torn” has an interesting (at least to me) backstory. It was originally written and performed by Ednaswap in 1993, but never released as a studio recording (or any other type of recording, as far as I know.) The first to release a studio version was Lis Sørensen, a Danish singer, who performed it under the title “Brændt.”
You will note that the Sørensen version laid down much of the musical groundwork for the Trine Rein version (which we’ll get to in our timeline) and therefore the popular Natalie Imbruglia version. The Ednaswap version has a significantly different vibe to it, but has a melodic figure that is used in both the Rein and Imbruglia versions.
So, time line →
1993 - Written by Ednaswap; performed by them in concerts; not released
1995 - Lis Sørensen, first released recording, under the title “Brændt”
1995 - Ednaswap releases “Torn.” This version, if you listen closely, has that sweeping guitar figure in the outro, which Lis’s doesn’t.
1996 - Trine Rein, a Norweigien-American, releases “Torn” – this is also a version more similar to “Brændt” but has that sweeping little guitar solo at the end. It reaches #10 in Norway. Both this version and “Braendt” were released on Medley Records in Norway, so there’s some connection there.
1997 - Natalie Imbruglia releases her version, where it rockets to #1 in many markets. This version sounds closest, to me, to Trine Rein’s version.
So here’s the Trine Rein version.
Some of you in the Chicago area (and perhaps beyond) may remember “Kim the Waitress” by Material Issue (it seemed to be played incessantly for a spell back in the day on Q101 c. 1994). It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered it was the cover of a Green Pajamas (from Seattle) song, and not an original. There was also another cover that same year by the band Sister Psychic, also from Seattle. I remember hearing that version around the same time as the Material Issue version and scratching my head as to how and why they got a cover out so fast without realizing the obvious: that they both were covering an older song.
Not originally Joan Jett, but a London glam band called The Arrows.
Police On My Back, famously done by Clash was originally done by Eddie Grant of “Electric Avenue” fame and his band The Equals.
Is a cover of
isn’t a cover of
unless it is.
I thought I did, but that was the ‘Original better than the cover’ thread. Ednaswap is the only version I can stand of this song. Great song, but the covers all suck.
The original Time Is On My Side written by Jerry Ragovoy was first recorded by jazz trombonist Kai Winding and his orchestra in '63.
The covers with additional lyrics added…
Irma Thomas
The Stones
“Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers
was used in the film Unchained, performed by Todd Duncan
and was popularized in part by by Al Hibbler
but was first popularized by Les Baxter
Just found out this one is a cover.
Leo Sayer - More Than I Can Say
The original written by Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison, both former members of Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets.
More covers…
I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am was a hit for Herman’s Hermits in 1965 (their second #1 hit in the US; it replaced, believe it or not, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction), and I thought at the time that it was original. It turns out to be an old British Music Hall song from 1911. and they only used the chorus, none of the verses (despite their line “second verse, same as the first”. It was really “chorus again”)
Okay, I thought, so they used an old song. They probably just sped it up.
Wrong again. If anything, they probably slowed it down. The people they covered had a reutation for rapid-fire delivery of this song.
Leo Sayer co-wrote and performed it first.
In Sayer’s version, the last line of the chorus is “I won’t let the show go on”. Three Dog Night sang it as “I must let the show go on”, which Sayer was reportedly not happy about.[ citation needed ]
I guess he had a hit with it in the UK but Three Dog Night’s version is the one Americans would recognize.
The film is fascinating, but the only reason I could understand the dialects was that I had just lived in rural Jamaica for a year.
I guess it doesn’t really qualify as the original since it was only recorded as a demo, but I never realized “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” was not an original song by Cyndi Lauper. Here is the demo by the writer:
I saw it on PBS in the 80’s and it had subtitles (thankfully.)
Covered, some years later (1976), by Bill Wyman:
In 1961, Lonnie Donegan recorded “Does your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavour (on the Bedpost Overnight?)” . It’s actually a cover of a 1924 song by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare “Does the Spearmint Lose its Flavor…”
Possibly the BBC’s refusal to play songs with commercial product names in them led to the change in title in the 1961 version?
Coca Cola/Cherry Cola, from Lola.