Oh yeah, I remember that, and you were not alone. I also seem to recall that pissed Scott Weiland off, and understandably.
You could have made a fortune betting me that Bring Me Some Water was by Mellisa Ehteridge and not Tina Turner.
I always thought Harley David (Son of a Bitch) was Mick Jagger. I’m still not convinced it isn’t, and the Bollock Brothers are just an elaborate joke that I didnt get.
I wonder if Pearl Jam has covered it. While Stone Temple Pilots are very distinct, that song could have been a Pearl Jam song.
It’s a Serge Gainsbourg song originally, I think they’re the first to translate it.
Of course every day, someone new learns that “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” is not by Jimmy Buffett.
A few days ago, at lunch with my folks, “Your Song” came on. My dad asked “Who sings this?” My mom confidently said “Jim Croce.” I looked at her, “This is Elton John, mom.” But now that that idea is in my head… I can totally hear it.
That’s how Elton John says “I love you” in a song.
Hey. That was mine.
Recently I was told different.
Nobody has mentioned The Knickerbockers, yet? I don’t even have to say who they sound like. Just listen:
Thanks to a misheard radio announcement, I thought “Young Folks” was by Pete Yorn.
There’s a parody of Copacabna called The Star Wars Cantina. For the longest time I thought it was a Weird Al song.
Quite understandable, since Weird Al is well-known as a Star Wars geek who wrote the epic ‘American Pie’ parody ‘The Saga Begins’:
I thought “The Bare Necessities” was written by the Sherman Brothers, but it’s actually by Terry Gilkyson.
Hearing Argent’s “Hold Your Head Up” for the first time, I was certain it was Rod Stewart on lead vocals.
That chord progression and those rhythms just don’t sound Pearl Jam to me, so I never confused those.
That one Gotye song from several years back I always confused with Sting.
It’s actually by Richard Cheese.
In the days of Napster every parody song was labelled as being by Weird Al, which I think was often an attempt at a meta tag, i.e. if you like Weird Al you’ll like this. Which means a lot of people ascribe Al as being much more prolific than he was, sometimes for offensive material he would never go near.
I’ve always’s thought that Joshua Kadison’s “Jessie” sounded like the poor man’s Elton John. And every Jamiroquai song sounds like Stevie Wonder.
I remember a classmate seeing a picture of Cheap Trick, before “Budokan”, and wondering what kind of weirdos they were. I also remember telling him that they’re actually really good, and sounded a lot like The Who.
I never, to my knowledge, heard Martin Page’s mid 1990s hit “House of Stone and Light” until I started working at the grocery store a few years later, and their usual daytime channel played this all the time. I also thought it was by Sting at the time.
I also thought Blues Image’s “Ride Captain Ride” was by Grand Funk Railroad for quite a while. Interestingly, Mark Farner and Mike Pinera were both born on September 29, 1948.
Since you mentioned Argent, they actually are the original writers and performers of “God Gave Rock & Roll To You.” The Christian band Petra later wanted to record it with a few words changed, to which Argent granted permission, but the KISS version. the best known of them, is a remake of the original Petra version.
Russ Ballard of Argent also wrote “New York Groove.” Also, covered by Kiss.
