As indicated by a couple of posts upthread, you could get a decent thread on this topic even if you limited it to songs popularized or covered by Three Dog Night.
Here’s the song listing on their 20th-C. Masters compilation:
Joy to the World [Hoyt Axton]
Shambala [Daniel Moore]
One [Harry Nilsson]
Black & White [David Arkin - Earl Robinson]
Mama Told Me Not To Come [Randy Newman]
An Old Fashioned Love Song [Paul Williams]
Never Been to Spain [Hoyt Axton]
Liar [Russ Ballard]
Eli’s Coming [Laura Nyro]
Easy to be Hard [Galt MacDermot - James Rado -Gerome Ragni]
Celebrate [Gary Bonner - Alan Gordon]
The Show Must Go On [Leo Sayer - Dave Courtney]
A few others:
“Strawberry Letter 23” [popularized by The Brothers Johnson; wr. & perf. by Shuggie Otis]
“One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer” [pop. by George Thorogood; wr. by Amos Milburn and Rudy Toombs & perf. by Milburn]
“Take Me To the River” [revived by Talking Heads; wr. & perf. by Al Green] – dunno if most people don’t really know who wrote that one, though
“Alone Again Or” [revived in the 80’s by The Damned; wr. & perf. by Love in the '60’s]
“Come And Get It” [given to Badfinger by Paul McCartney]
I wonder how many teens and 20-somethings think that “Shadowplay” is by The Killers (instead of Joy Division)?
Some others by Tom Paxton that you could have mentioned:
Bottle of Wine (fuit of the vine, when ya gonna let me get sober) (perrformed by many artists)
The Marvelous Toy (perfomed by the Irish Rovers and others)
Forest Lawn (performed by John Denver)
Daddy’s Taking Us to the Zoo Tommorrow
The Last Thing on My Mind (I’ve heard a couple of covers, but can’t remember who)
Shel Silverstein is mostly known as a children’s author, but wrote the following:
Boy Named Sue (Johhny Cash)
Cover of the Rolling Stone (Dr. Hook)
Sylvia’s Mother (Dr. Hook)
The Unicorn (Irish Rovers)
The Mermaid (Bobby Bare, Great Big Sea)
Queen of the Silver Dollar (Emmylou Harris)
The thread title has already been mentioned, but I’ll point out that you’re doing Avril Lavigne a disservice. Unlike Ms. Spears, Lavigne has the lone writer or a co-writer credit on virtually every song she’s recorded.
Actually, they didn’t perform/record it first. Neil Diamond did. But that’s a really obscure (and irrelevant) little factoid.
Neil Diamond wrote it and recorded it. I was in the can and ready to be released. IOW, it wasn’t a demo. It was done. The TBTB at the Monkees wanted the song, however, and offered Diamond lots of money for it. So he said “okey dokey” and didn’t release the song himself.
So the Monkees did release it first, but they didn’t record it first.
Not that this proves anything. The Monkees’ version is “the original.” But I just thought I’d share as long as we were on the subject.
I really can’t claim to know much about Lavigne as a songwriter, but when she responded to the allegation that the chorus for her song “Girlfriend” was lifted from The Rubinoos’ “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, I was thinking that I really believed that she had never heard the Rubinoos song but at the same time I believed the two songs were way too similar.
This led me to the suspicion that she had someone ghostwriting for her: her ghostwriter lifted the chorus from the other song (possibly subconsciously), but since Lavigne took the writing credit she was placed in the position of having to defend it.
Again, the above is only my suspicion- no proof. But I definitely believe her chorus had more than a coincidental resemblance to the older song, so if she wrote it I believe she lifted it BUT if she never heard the other song (not unlikely) I believe she had someone ghostwriting for her.
Many people don’t realize that Linda Ronstat’s first his single (with the Stone Ponies), “Different Drum,” was written by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees.
People also assume that any Beatles song was written by the Beatles. While that was true later on, in the beginning, they recorded songs by Goffin/King, Burt Bacharach, Smokey Robinson, Leiber/Stoller, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, and (perhaps most incongrously) Meredith Willson (from The Music Man).
There are many classic blues numbers that are more associated with people who covered them than the original artist. People like Willie Dixon and Louis Jordan have written many well-known songs but don’t get the same recognition (though it is much more traditional for blues musicians to mention who wrote the song they are covering).
“Over the Rainbow” - lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
“Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” - lyrics by Johnny Mercer
“A Sleepin’ Bee” - lyrics by Harold Arlen and Truman Capote
“Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive” - lyrics by Johnny Mercer
“Come Rain or Come Shine” - lyrics by Johnny Mercer
“Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” - lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
“Get Happy” - lyrics by Ted Koehler
“I Could Go On Singing” - lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
“If I Only Had a Brain” - lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
“If I Only Had a Heart” - lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
“I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues” - lyrics by Ted Koehler
“I’ve Got the World on a String” - lyrics by Ted Koehler
“It’s Only a Paper Moon” - lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, Billy Rose
“Let’s Fall in Love” - lyrics by Ted Koehler
“One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” - lyrics by Johnny Mercer
“Stormy Weather” - lyrics by Ted Koehler
“That Old Black Magic” - lyrics by Johnny Mercer
“The Man That Got Away”
I love Elvis Costello as a songwriter, but I like him even more as an interpreter, as my favorite two Costello songs are “(What’s So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” and “She”. “WSFBPLAU” introduced me to the wonderful world of Nick Lowe, who wrote it. “She” introduced me to Charles Azvanour, who wrote that.
Although it’s a stretch to say “rarely” in his case because he was such a prolific and well known songwriter, if you went through a list you might be surprised at all the songs that have Willie Nelson as the writer.
I’ve heard people attribute “City of New Orleans” to Arlo Guthrie. He did record the most famous version, but it was the late great Steve Goodman who wrote the song.
Nesmith also wrote “Papa Gene’s Blues,” “Sunny Girlfriend,” “The Girl I Knew Somewhere,” “Mary, Mary,” “Listen to the Band,” “You Just May Be The One,” “Can You Dig It,” “Circle Sky,” “Carlisle Wheeling,” and “Tapioca Tundra” and a few other Monkees tunes. I think most people assume they wrote nothing.
I came in here to hype Harold Arlen. Great list, don’t ask.