This is related to the thread about covers. Lotsa times someone writes and records a song…but the hit only comes later when someone else covers it.
Give us the original—especially if it’s better than the remake that made the hit. I don’t speak Spanish but I always thought this made Pat Benatar’s look lke a booger.
“Love Song” by Leslie Duncan. https://youtu.be/SYelRP3MzEw
Elton John covered it on Tumbleweed Connection. And Olivia Newton-John did a great version on her first album.
“Queen of Hearts” was written by Hank DeVito, who was Emmylou Harris’s pedal guitar player for many years. It was first recorded by Welsh singer/guitarist Dave Edmunds in 1979, and was a top 20 hit in the UK and Ireland, but didn’t do well anywhere else. Two years later, Juice Newton covered it, and it went to #2 in the U.S., and was a top 10 hit in several other countries, as well.
Here’s Edmunds’ original version:
“Blue Bayou” by Roy Orbison
This could be the Jules Shear thread.
The Electric Light Orchestra’s 1976 hit “Do Ya” was a semi-cover; it had been written by Jeff Lynne in 1971, and he recorded it with The Move in 1972. The version by The Move was a minor hit (#93) in the U.S., and was released as The Move was morphing into ELO.
Over the next few years, Todd Rundgren’s band Utopia regularly covered the song in their concerts, and people were starting to associate the song with Rundgren. Lynne re-recorded the song with ELO, to let everyone know that it was his song. 
The original version by The Move – it’s much rawer and lo-fi than the highly-produced ELO version:
Robert Hazard’s original demo of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” has a completely different sound from the Cyndi Lauper version that became a hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aLNwOxPsjg&ab&ab (can’t figure out how to embed videos)
Van Halen’s cover of “You Really Got Me” was their first big hit and it must have piissed off the Kinks who came back from relative obscurity to put it on their live album. The live version blew Van Halen’s away and brought the Kinks back into the forefront with a new generation.
This was on the Double B side of the Move’s single - California Man
I think this original makes more sense logically and the rhyme obviousy works much better
I think this original works better then the more well known cover
Now this is a bit different, same tune - original but completely different lyrics - similar kind of feel - Comme D’Habitude
A year after Van Halen’s success with “You Really Got Me”, the Pretenders pulled the same trick with The Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing”.
“What a Man”
Made famous by Salt-N-Pepa in 1993, but first recorded by Linda Lyndell in 1968!
According to Wikipedia, she had to end her career before it started due to threats from the KKK, who didn’t like a white woman singing R&B.
Yes they did. I read once that when the Beatles were recording “Please Please Me,” they imagined it as a slow, soulful thing and George Martin said, “Let’s speed it up, see if it works better.”
Ha! Speaking of changing names, Wikipedia says of the Hollies’ song “Carrie Anne”
Here’s Billy singing his song.
And here’s Badfinger.
Paul Pena “Jet Airliner.”
And then the lead singer of the Pretenders Chrissie Hynde shacked up with the lead singer of the Kinks Ray Davies. Now thats rock and roll!
I guess David Lee Roth wasn’t Ray’s type.
Interesting backstory:
Before Juice Newton, even before Merrilee Rush…there was Evie Sands?
And before Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence…there was Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence.
The producer went back, added electric instruments etc. and we got the version that most know today. Wikipedia says, also:
Lori Lieberman helped write it and recorded it first.
Roberta Flack made it a hit.
