Sorry to disappoint you folks, but the playlist below does not include songs by Eddie Floyd, Carole King, The Four Tops, The Supremes and ... particularly sorry about this one ... Kylie & Jason. It might look like it does, but it doesn't. Trust me. All of the songs in the playlist are in fact what you might call musical homonyms. Let me explain.
These are all tracks where the songwriter in question has chosen (bravely or foolishly, as you will) to give their song the same name as a much more famous song - and it's surprising how often this happens. I've come up with a few from my own collection and I'm sure there are many more out there. But, before you post your own suggestions, let's lay down a few rules.
1. No one word titles please - there are just too many songs called Beautiful, Crazy, Stay, Careless and Smile - to name but a few.
2. The 'second' song should be significantly less famous than the original - for that reason I wouldn't allow My Girl by Madness as it's arguably at least as well known as the Temptations/Otis Redding song.
3. The 'first' song should be very well known - let's not have any obscure album tracks. When Moloko recorded their track called Forever More it's almost certain that they had never heard of The Bluebells' track of the same name - I mean, have you? The second one can be as obscure as you like.
Here are five to start the ball rolling - 1 point for each of the artists:
This house is now open for suggestions...
20 comments:
Knock on Wood sounds very much like Paddy McAloon to my ears, so that would be Prefab Sprout.
Is number 4 Lykke Li?
I'm guessing 1 is the mighty mighty bosstones, and 4 is the concretes, and that's without even hitting play yet!!
i'm wrong about 1!!!
and right about 4!! stone cold classic that tune!!
"bag it up" by geri halliwell / oasis is a current one. noel has had much piss taken on account of this of late.
gosh! there's about 15 different songs called "i can't help myself" in the itunes store!!
crikey! the amount of folk who've had a crack at "be my baby" is nourmous! everyone from moe tucker to gary glitter!
Orange Juice did my fave "Can't help myself" while namechecking the 4 tops.
Niña Nastasia & The Bunnymen both did great "Stormy Weather" songs. The Fats Comet (Tackhead) cover is not shabby either.
I reckon Garethi's got the points for No.1; not a clue about No.4.
No.2 - something about this makes me think it could be The Last Shadow Puppets but I'm way out of my comfort zone here.
No question about No.3 - Orange Juice
5 - will be kicking myself.
OK, and (two games in one - it's positively Olympian here):
There's a Can I Get A Witness by the soul singer Ann Nesby that isn't "listen everybody, especially you girls..."
And Eugene Record, of the Chi-Lites, had a song called Here Comes The Sun, which deserves to be almost as well-known as the one by The Beatles.
off topic, but does anyone have "spam again" by moe tucker?
"Evergreen" Will Young / Brian Jonestown Massacre / Bunnymen
Especially for you is by Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens, is it not? Fine song.
"Pump Up The Volume" M/A/R/R/S / Art Brut
4. the Concretes!
oh...Mrs Japanther got this one, i'm pretty sure No.2 is Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche.
Great idea for a thread by the way
Not obscure bands as such for the homonyms, but not the best known tracks from each:
Chris Farlowe/ Blur - "Out Of Time"
Orange Juice/Razorlight - "Rip It Up"
Blur/Peter Hammill - Chemical World
Thanks for all the comments - the five tracks have now been correctly identified and most of the UK daytime mob aren't even awake yet:
1. Prefab Sprout
2. Sondre Lerch
3. Orange Juice
4. The Concretes
5. The Smithereens
Points awarded as follows:
1. garethi
2. Mrs japanther
3. shoey - or possibly May1366 if that wasn't actually a guess by the downward gazing one...
4. blimpy
5. sourpus
I hope someone's keeping track of all this - 'Spill points are precious and are not to be sniffed at.
Keep the homonymical suggestions coming...
ToffeeBoy@, was gonna suggest 'Road Runner' although it depends on your taste, possibly your era and even your definition of famous whether its Jr. Walker or Jonathan that you consider the less famous of the two.
Nice idea though, the musical homonym. Makes you wonder if there are any true musical antonyms out there aswell, i.e. songs that are somehow the perfect mirror opposite of each other in terms of their lyric; not just 'stop/go', 'come/stay' etc but actually complimentary opposites in terms of their whole frames of reference. Hmmm...maybe we are straying a bit too far into spiral-notepad-and-pen-sandwiches-and-satchel-type trainspotting material with that one though. :)
This was a great thread idea Toffee, and I really wanted to get my tuppen'th in, but I'm too tired now, and I haven't even thought about memory songs yet. Just keep your eye on it in case I come back (much) later.
G'night.
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