Does “My Ding-a-Ling” even have a studio version?
No studio Bertha? Wow, wouldn’t have thunk it. Well, you’ll always have Los Lobos.
(Deadheads! How about it? What other fanbase is so out of touch with their favorite band’s studio output?? Ha-ha-ha.)
Thanks! I would add the obligitory “Jerry!” here, but since I brought these songs up, i’ll say instead: “Bobby!”
( …and a “We Want Phil” for good measure.)
:):D:)
Not only that, the Grateful Dead never recorded a studio version of “Playing in the Band”, one of their most recognizable songs. (I never knew that until I wiki’d it just now!)
That awesome blues improv Jimi did at Woodstock.
And as of last night, a bunch of Cher stuff that came out after she humped that battleship on MTV. I didn’t even know she’d released anything in the last 25 years, but sure enough.
Don’t judge me. The tickets were free.
The entire album Grateful Dead (not their debut) was live and such there were no studio versions of quite a few of the songs there – “Mama Tried,” “Me and My Uncle,” “Big Boss Man,” and their version of “Me and Bobby McGee,” among others.
The Allman Brothers Band have other songs that fit the OP: “Statesboro Blues,” “You Don’t Love Me,” “Stormy Monday,” and “One Way Out.”
Lee Michaels’s third album was recorded live – though in the studio, with just Michaels and a drummer and no retakes.
They did, but under Bob Weir’s name.
The thread seems to have shifted from “songs you’ve only heard the live versions of” to “songs that ONLY exist as live recordings.”
The latter category is interesting, particularly if you limit it to original songs by the artist in question (as opposed to covers done in concert, which many artists do).
There are many possible nominations in this category, but two that come immediately to mind are “Rules and Regulations” by Donovan, from his In Concert album; and “Sea of Madness,” a Neil Young song performed at Woodstock by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young but never done in the studio.
I don’t think the studio version of Rock And Roll All Night has been on the radio since 1975, if even then. I wasn’t a hit until the live version came out the same year.
I guess everything on Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys album never had a studio version, unless you count those atrocities cobbled together with session musicians years after his death.
Well, technically, the latter is a subset of the former. 
If it only exists as a live recording, that’s certainly the only version anyone’s ever heard.
The Frank Zappa songs that fit this category must number in the hundreds, especially if you count the many seemingly studio recordings that are actually studio overdubs on a live basic track. Zappa regularly released live albums consisting mainly of material that he hadn’t recorded in the studio, and also included live tracks on primarily studio albums (and vice versa).
Amsterdam by Jacques Brel was popular but never recorded in a studio. There is a great live recording, though. David Bowie recorded an English version of the song.
The Star Spangled Banner
“A Boy Named Sue”. The famous Johnny Cash version and I’ve also seen a youtube clip from his TV show where he and the writer (Shel Silverstein) sing some of it live.
Shel wasn’t much of a singer 
I take it you’re under 40? Or did you forget falling asleep as a kid and waking up to the We Bid You Goodnight playing of the anthem as television stations went off the air for the night?
Yeah, get that you young whipper-snappers out there. Television stations used to go off the air every single night. Sometimes twice on weekends!
Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a studio version of “Memphis” by Johnny Rivers.
The live unreleased version of “Vienna” on Billy Joel’s The Complete Hits Collection: 1973-1997
Before I went looking in response to this thread, the only version of “Seven Bridges Road” I had ever heard was the rendition found on Eagles Live. I didn’t even realize it wasn’t original to the Eagles until literally three minutes ago.
There’s a new commercial featuring the studio version of Supertramp’s “Dreamer”. A live version made the Top 40 when I was in high school, and it’s the one I’m familiar with. Great song, too.