# Songs you would have sworn were sung by somebody else. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239 "2009-10-01T15:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/41 "2009-10-01T22:13:17Z")
From wikipedia: [Confusion credited to Cat Stevens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_in_the_Cradle) “Cat’s in the Cradle” is widely mistakenly credited to artist Cat Stevens, in part due to a mistitled MP3 version of the song widely circulated on the internet. As well, the song and the singer both contain the word, ‘Cat’. In 1977, Stevens’ former label, Deram Records released a compilation album, Cat’s Cradle.[3] Jack Black contributed to this confusion, playing part of the song in a Saturday Night Live sketch where Black’s character claimed the song was by Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Cat Stevens. There are no known verifiable recordings of Cat Stevens performing the song, however, and a Cat Stevens fan web site assures readers that Stevens has never performed the song, “not live, not in the studio, and not even privately”. Stevens did perform a song titled “Father and Son”, but that was very different as the son was unsure of his future and the father is a more self-confident man assuring his son not to worry. The cover of the song by Ugly Kid Joe is furthermore oftenly confused on the internet for a cover by Guns n’ Roses, a band which never recorded the song. This is due to an incorrect mp3 circulating on for example Limewire which contains the Ugly Kid Joe version even though the file credits it to Guns n’ Roses.[4] ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/42 "2009-10-01T22:52:28Z")
On first glance, a lot of people have mistaken the song [Fireflies by Owl City](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0hbUw) for Ben Gibbard’s side project [The Postal Service](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMOkfI7wCrI). The guy’s vocals are very much like Gibbard’s at times, I must admit. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/43 "2009-10-01T22:53:26Z")
**Train** - _Drops of Jupiter_. There was a **Black Crowes** CD released about the same time and I recall skipping through the tracks on the CD looking for the new Crowes song that was all over the radio. Disappointment followed. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/44 "2009-10-02T00:56:55Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I’ve told this story before, but… back in 1978 or 1979, when Bonnie Tyler came out with her first hit single, “It’s A Heartache,” I probably heard it dozens of times before I realized it wasn’t Rod Stewart. To bring things full circle, Rod recorded a cover of “It’s A Heartache” for his 2006 album [“Still the Same - Great Rock Classics of Our Time.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_the_Same..._Great_Rock_Classics_of_Our_Time#Track_listing) ---
**Author:** ![kirk1168](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@kirk1168](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk1168)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/45 "2009-10-02T00:57:24Z")
“Love Is Like Oxygen” is by Sweet, not ELO. I was deep into my thirties before I found that out… ---
**Author:** ![Coalcracker0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b38774/32.png) [@Coalcracker0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coalcracker0)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/46 "2009-10-02T01:11:20Z")
It’s Only Make Believe is by Conway, not Elvis! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/47 "2009-10-02T01:43:43Z")
I believed for quite a while that “88 Lines About 44 Women” was by Jim Carroll (It was by the Nails) and that “Honky-Tonk Badonkadonk” was by Toby Keith (it was Trace Adkins). The first time I heard “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, I thought it was Queen. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/48 "2009-10-02T02:14:59Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > _Edwyn Collin’s_ **A Girl Like You**. > > When it was played a lot on the radio back in the mid 90s I thought > “This must be a new _David Bowie_ song or an old one I never heard of before.” > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Thought Aerosmith’s “Dream On” was by Led Zeppelin or Robert Plant or something. Ditto on both of these. Back in the Napster days I went looking for a copy of “A Girl Like You” but wasn’t sure who it was by. Searching on the title turned up a bunch of copies credited to Bowie, and a fair number credited to Iggy Pop. I had assumed the singer was Bowie but thought it might by Iggy instead and turned to Google, which revealed the correct artist. But I don’t think anyone on Napster that night had the song identified as being by Edwyn Collins. As for “Dream On”, I’m still not wholly convinced it’s Steven Tyler singing! It just does not sound like him. Wikipedia tells me the song was Aerosmith’s very first single, so maybe he just had not yet fully settled into a vocal style. On the Who album _Quadrophenia_ there’s a brief snippet of their early hit “The Kids Are Alright”. When I first heard _Quadrophenia_ I was largely unfamiliar with the Who’s other work, and assumed it was a Beatles song. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/49 "2009-10-02T02:18:15Z")
This won’t mean much to most people, but for years [this song was mislabeled](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf_tmRnK4yM) as being a duet between **Annie Lennox** and **Kate Bush**. Someone (I don’t know who, and I swear it wasn’t me) put it up on the old Napster that way. It got passed around by both Annie fans and Kate fans. For a mistake, it’s pretty cool, because more people have discovered her over the years via that mistake than just about any other way. [Here’s a live version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zzcMmfGBjY) as proof that it’s just her singing both the very low and very high voices. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/50 "2009-10-02T02:23:08Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > As for “Dream On”, I’m still not wholly convinced it’s Steven Tyler singing! It just does not sound like him. Wikipedia tells me the song was Aerosmith’s very first single, so maybe he just had not yet fully settled into a vocal style. I really prefer that style to his regular style actually. I kind of wish he’d done that more often. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/51 "2009-10-02T03:13:54Z")
When I was younger, I thought [Come and Get It](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk57K4OGrAg) was sung by the Beatles. It’s actually by Badfinger. But it sounds exactly like something the Beatles would have done. Nothing else Badfinger ever did sounded like this. Then in 1996 The Beatles Anthology 3 included Paul McCartney doing this song, sounding exactly like it. What happened was that Paul wrote the song, then during the Let it Be sessions, McCartney went into the studio one day by himself, and performed the entire song, multitracking himself on every instrument. He then gave the song to Badfinger, who had signed to the Beatles’ Apple records, on the condition that they perform it exactly as it was performed by McCartney. McCartney also produced the song, chose the lead singer and assigned the harmony parts. So it sounds like a Beatles song because it is - it’s a cover of a Beatles song that was never released, and tightly controlled by a Beatle so that it sounded as close to the Beatles as possible. Here’s Paul McCartney’s original version [Paul McCartney - Come and Get it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1xss8MlwCk). It sounds virtually identical, although it’s clearly Paul’s voice. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/52 "2009-10-02T03:49:25Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > From wikipedia: > > [Confusion credited to Cat Stevens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_in_the_Cradle) > > “Cat’s in the Cradle” is widely mistakenly credited to artist Cat Stevens, in part due to a mistitled MP3 version of the song widely circulated on the internet. As well, the song and the singer both contain the word, ‘Cat’. In 1977, Stevens’ former label, Deram Records released a compilation album, Cat’s Cradle.[3] Jack Black contributed to this confusion, playing part of the song in a Saturday Night Live sketch where Black’s character claimed the song was by Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Cat Stevens. There are no known verifiable recordings of Cat Stevens performing the song, however, and a Cat Stevens fan web site assures readers that Stevens has never performed the song, “not live, not in the studio, and not even privately”. Stevens did perform a song titled “Father and Son”, but that was very different as the son was unsure of his future and the father is a more self-confident man assuring his son not to worry. > The cover of the song by Ugly Kid Joe is furthermore oftenly confused on the internet for a cover by Guns n’ Roses, a band which never recorded the song. This is due to an incorrect mp3 circulating on for example Limewire which contains the Ugly Kid Joe version even though the file credits it to Guns n’ Roses.[4] Not to mention that there was also that 1970’s song “The Year of the Cat” (also not by Cat Stevens) ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/53 "2009-10-02T04:45:45Z")
For the longest time I thought Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo was done by the Doors. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/54 "2009-10-02T09:34:28Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > On the Who album _Quadrophenia_ there’s a brief snippet of their early hit “The Kids Are Alright”. When I first heard _Quadrophenia_ I was largely unfamiliar with the Who’s other work, and assumed it was a Beatles song. Similarly, when the Bee Gees’ single “New York Mining Disaster 1941” was released in America, many U.S. DJs mistakenly assumed the song was by the Beatles, due to the record having a white label with only the title on it. Thus, it was played in heavy rotation, helping the song climb into the top 20. Also complicating the matter was a reference to NEMS Enterprises (Brian Epstein’s management agency, which had just been joined by Bee Gees’ manager Robert Stigwood). ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/55 "2009-10-02T09:48:20Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > For a long time I thought “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” was by Credence Clearwater Revival, until someone pointed out to me that it was by the Hollies. Whelp, now I’ve got one…I’m not sure that I ever actively thought it was CCR, but if you asked me who it was, I’d have probably said them. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/56 "2009-10-02T10:30:49Z")
For years I thought “Spinning Wheels” was by Chicago. It’s actually by Blood, Sweat and Tears. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/57 "2009-10-02T10:45:20Z")
“Vehicle” sounds like Blood, Sweat and Tears, but is by The Ides of March. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/58 "2009-10-02T13:17:49Z")
Back in the 1970s, did anybody believe that the band [Klaatu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_(band)) was the Beatles? From the link: > [@](#): > > Their first album, _3:47 EST_ (named _Klaatu_ in the US due to a misunderstanding), had a Beatlesque sound, particularly in the song “Sub-Rosa Subway”, but contained no biographical details, thus inspiring a rumour that the album was an anonymous project by The Beatles. This rumour was wide-spread, and was taken seriously by many people. I’ll admit, “Sub-Rosa Subway,” and the other songs on the album, do sound like something that the Beatles may have produced in the late-60s. It would be easy to think that if they did reunite in the mid-70s, they would sound like that. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/59 "2009-10-02T14:26:25Z")
I am ashamed, horribly, terribly and emphatically shamed to admit that I used to think “Let Her Cry” by Hootie and the Blowfish was by Pearl Jam. :smack: In my defense, I had never heard of Hootie et al. and the only time I heard the song in question was in the acoustically terrible on-campus pub. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239/60 "2009-10-02T22:32:33Z")
My Sirius radio is really teaching me that I don’t know as much about music as I thought I did. I was fairly certain that “Western Union” was by the Monkees. Nope. It’s the Five Americans. But honestly, doesn’t [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rod7dFrmJA) sound just like the Monkees? Especially the chorus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-would-have-sworn-were-sung-by-somebody-else/512239.md?page=4)