One of the biggest would be I Love Rock and Roll by the Arrows.
A lot of people think Joan Jett wrote it. Nope, cover version.
“Torn” by Ednaswap, made famous by Natalie Imbruglia. Thing is, though I like Ednaswap, Imbruglia’s version is better, imo.
REM’s “Superman” is a cover of a song recorded in 1969 by The Clique.
To be sure, “Tainted Love” has a 60’s pop melody and structure written all over it, even if Soft Cell’s instrumentation and vocal style haven’t.
A good example of the OP is Love Don’t Live Here Anymore, a smash 1985 hit for Jimmy Nail, and one of the quintessential 80’s songs. Blows my mind, actually, that the R’nB / Disco band that gave us “Carwash” wrote both.
“Wind Beneath My Wings” was recorded by many artists–including Sheena Easton, Lou Rawls, Gladys Knight, and Gary Morris (whose country version in 1983 was very popular)–before Bette Midler had a hit with it in 89/90 on the *Beaches *soundtrack.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun was first recorded by it’s writer Robert Hazard in 1979, from a male point of view.
Although Willie Nelson wrote Crazy the Patsy Cline version is the original. Nelson at the time had not recorded it and was far better known as a songwriter than a performer.
A good many people think that Try A Little Tenderness was originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1966. It was actually first recorded by the Ray Noble Orchestra in 1932. It has been covered by many other artists before Redding, most notably by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, and Aretha Franklin.
These aren’t cover versions, they are songs where the original release is by someone other than the songwriter. In the case of the Willie Nelson and Prince songs, their versions that we’ve heard are publishing demos.
In the case of Me And Bobby McGee, Kristofferson recorded for his debut album some years after the original hit by Roger Miller - but the most famous version is a cover of that version.
ETA don’t ask has made this point about Crazy, for some reason this post didn’t show up first time.
My favorite version of this is Hard to Handle
Redding’s version is a lot more minimalist and straightforward while the Crowe’s version is an aggressive take. Still, they’re clearly the same song and done in a very similar way.
Wikipedia says Nothing Compares was written by Prince for the band “The Family” which recorded the song for their one and only album. So the O’Conner version is a cover, albeit not of a Prince song.
What’s weird is that the “primary silent comedy sketch scene music for The Benny Hill Show” was actually Yackety Sax.
I can’t say definitively that, in his decades of making TV comedy, Benny Hill never used Mah Nà Mah Nà, but it’s not the tune that’s generally associated with his silent comedy sketches.
Passed, in coolness, by a version called…
Yakety Axe by Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler
I stand corrected. While I knew the Nelson version was not well known until after the Patsy Cline version, I did think it had been released.
People think “Love in Vain” is a Rolling Stones song, but it’s by Robert Johnson.
Elvis Costello’s 1978 hit (What’s So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding? was written by Nick Lowe and recorded in 1974 by Lowe’s band Brinsley Schwartz. Lowe was the producer on Costello’s take.
“Mony Mony” was originally recorded by Tommy James & the Shondells in 1969 but most people
only know the Billy Idol cover.
Back Door Man by the Doors was a cover of Willie Dixon
Last Kiss by Pearl Jam was a cover of Wayne Cochran
Van Halen did a lot of this, esp early on. Pretty Woman might be the best example
Is Tiffany’s version really the more well known one? I don’t think I’ve heard that version since the early 90s, but I still hear the Tommy James version regularly.
Dammit, and somebody beat me to “Torn.” Here is Ednaswap’s version. They wrote the song. However, the interesting thing is that it’s not the first recorded version of the song.
This is the first recorded version, “Brandr”, performed by Lis Sørensen, and the direct inspiration for Natalie Imbruglia’s version. This one came out in 1993, two years before Ednaswap released their version.
Oh, and this may be a bit more obscure, but the song got major airplay in the Chicago market. Kim the Waitress by Material Issue was originally Kim the Waitress by Green Pajamas. The Material Issue version was played incessantly in Chicago on Q101 in 1993-4. (I want to say early 1994). Never heard the Green Pajamas version out here. Somewhat interestingly, Sister Psychic released a version almost exactly at the same time as Material Issue, and that version was my first exposure to the song.