More…
“Venus” was a #1 hit for both Shocking Blue and Franky Avalon
“Honey” was a #1 hit for both Bobby Goldsboro and Mariah Carey
Neil Sedaka and Taylor Swift both had #1 hits called “Bad Blood”
Marky Mark and the Beach Boys both had #1 songs called “Good Vibrations”
Maroon 5 and Phil Collins both had #1 singles called “One More Night”
Celine Dion and Huey Lewis both had #1 hits called “The Power of Love”
Adele and Lionel Richie both had “Hello”
“Big Girls Don’t Cry” by both Frankie Valli & the 4 Seasons and Fergie
Well, I wasn’t just talking about songs with the same name. I was more thinking of songs that you associate with a name that most others don’t.
Since Petula Clark was mentioned above, if someone mentions “Downtown” her song would still be the version that I think of. I wonder if most people wouldn’t think Macklemore these days. And to be honest, I like his “Downtown” song a lot more.
One of the most diabolical examples has to be Robin S’s “Show Me Love” vs. Robyn’s “Show Me Love”. Both were hits in the 1990s. Fortunately, my survival does not depend on distinguishing the two.
When I Google the song title “Rhythm of Love,” the top hits are not for either the 1987 Yes song or the 1988 Scorpions song, but a 2010 song by someone called Plain White T’s. Wiki tells me that there are at least nine different charting songs (or songs from charting albums) with this title, but the Yes one came first.
There’s a gazillion songs entitled “Hold On”; Wilson Phillips is of course the most popular, but I’m more likely to think of Santana, Kansas, Triumph, or 70’s one-hit wonder Ian Gomm.
“Learning to Fly”: Emerson, Lake & Powell is what comes to mind, even though Pink Floyd & Tom Petty’s songs were much more popular.
“Over the Hills and Far Away”: There was a time when I’d answer Led Zeppelin (like most people, I’d presume) but nowadays it’s more likely to be the Gary Moore/Nightwish song.
Yes and Tom Waits for me.
Or Marvin Hamlisch*.
(*and Edward Kleban)
This just happened to me today and reminded me of this thread. Clicked a YouTube link to Maggie May by The Spinners. Not what I thought at all.
I thought it was the Bee Gees.
I was a top-40 listening 3rd grader when the Rod Stewart song came out. So I was more familiar with that than the Dylan song. Becoming more familiar with the Dylan song later in life, I don’t think they seem similar at all except for the name.
Also, I’m surprised Rod Stewart wrote the song. I figured it was a cover. His later career seems to be mostly covers, and even back then he was doing cover songs (Try a Little Tenderness, Downtown Train) and songs written by others for him to sing (My Heart Can’t Tell You No). His next album was all covers and a couple new throwback sounding songs not written by him.
Neil Young and Pearl Jam, from “Mirror Ball.” #6 on the US rock chart and #13 overall in Canada in 1995.
SWV’s R&B hit from 1993. Using the other meaning of “downtown”.
While we’re mentioning Petula Clark, this morning in church I saw a hymn named “This Is My Song” and wondered “why is a Petula Clark song in the hymnal”?
They’re clearly not the same song.
When I was growing up, the only radio station my mom listened to was the local country station. So for me, these are the definitive versions of the songs:
Heartache Tonight, Conway Twitty
Danny’s Song, Anne Murray
Mountain of Love, Charlie Pride
Interestingly, searching you tube for the Led Zeppelin song caused me to find the Nightwish version, and I was quite surprised at how much I actually liked it despite never really hearing anything like it before. Then a few months later an Epica song came onto my normally classic rock station, and from there I got swept into symphonic metal and didn’t really look back (although I’ve gone on to a lot of different music since then).