Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I Never Knew!



Okay, I didn't know that this song I love was a cover til I read Fintan's excellent post on Evie Sands (scroll down a bit).

I remember the first time I got stung:


(I was only 15 when I bought it on tape single, I must have watched the Graduate shortly afterwards...)

Here's the question - which songs did you later find out were covers, and how did you feel?

14 comments:

sourpus said...

There are so many. Song to a Siren was heard before realising. So was You and your sister. I just remember thinking how cool it was. Cover didnt always used to mean cant write your own.

Fintan28 said...

Blimpy, thanks for the kind word. I've been taken in more than a few times. One of the first that stands out was Peter & Gordon's I Go To Pieces which I found maybe 10years later was written & recorded by Del Shannon 6 months before P&G's.

sonofwebcore said...

In case you don't return to Fintan's original post, Any Way That You Want Me is another Chip Taylor song.
There have been a few I didn't realise were covers. Will come back when they come back.

bishbosh said...

Good question, Blimpy. I'm with sourpus: didn't at first realise This Mortal Coil's version of Song to the Siren was a cover. Same goes for Dexy's version of Jackie Wilson Said. And the Banshees' Dear Prudence. Oh, and somehow I failed initially to notice that the Flying Pickets' Only You was a cover, despite it being released so shortly after the original.

treefrogdemon said...

I remember them all first time round...

steenbeck said...

A lot of reggae songs...Tide is High, Pressure Drop, Police and Thieves. I felt excited to discover a whole new world of music that I loved...you know I liked Bob Marley a lot, but, holy smoke! Toots! and Desmond! and the Paragons! And Lee Perry! and on and on...

Unknown said...

For some reason, D'Angelo's Cruisin' is the first and only one that comes to mind at the moment, but I know there are loads more.

barbryn said...

I've always been an avid reader of record sleeves, so knew exactly who wrote all the songs on every album I bought before the age of about 25. A few have slipped through the net though... I only discovered Andrew Bird's "Giant of Illinois" was a cover when I came to send it off as my Festive Spill no.1 - same with Neko Case's version of "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" which I posted as an EOTW recently. With both of those, I was initially disappointed as they're such great songs - but actually I now appreciate their versions even more. Didn't know David Gray's "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" was a cover when I first heard it either (see May's earworm above). Some Clash songs too - "Armagideon Time", "I Fought the Law". OK, so there's a few after all... I'll probably think of some more.

DarceysDad said...

Yep, Song To The Siren for me too.

Discounting the subsequent revelation that most of Zep's early albums were thinly disguised covers, the first one that I recall was probably UFO's Alone Again Or on Lights Out. It would be years before I heard Love. Unsurprisingly, in a head-to-head, I'd go for UFO.

I only got to know Lorraine Ellison's Stay With Me AFTER hearing local heavy rocker (John) Verity's version. (which, btw, seems to have disappeared from the Spill thread I PodBeaned it into. Has PodBean gone?) I still like the Verity version, though much less than I did on discovery; Lorraine wipes the floor with any other version I know, including Thunder's.

I'm with steenbeck on all of those reggae selections.

The big surprise one in my life is peculiar to me and Gordon. Our friends at Uni - the previously 'Spilled Somebody's Brother - did a R&B version of Easy Money as a set staple for years. I stumbled across Rickie Lee Jones' original much later, and wouldn't have spotted it at all, apart from the bizarre discovery that I was singing along to a song I'd never heard before. That was a really weird feeling. For a decade or two after that, I had credited SB leader Denny Austin with quite an inventive re-arrangement, completely in character with his Little Feat / The Band leanings. It was only after I'd joined RR that one of you lot (Mark68? Barbryn? Mnemonic?) pointed me at Lowell George's Thanks, I'll Eat It Here, and there was the boogie version I'd drunk/danced/sung along to for all that time, except for the Mackem accent being replaced by LG's Hollywood tones.

Whooda thunkit?

There are more songs that spring to mind, but I've got a load of paperwork to do this evening ...

Luke-sensei said...

good question Blimpy, too many to mention i'm afraid, the first one that comes to mind is The Detroit Cobras version of Shout Bama Lama, which I love and only found out last year that it's a cover of Otis Redding and i'm sure it's really famous and everyone knows it..

..I bought Mrs Robinson on cassette single too!

sonofwebcore said...

Twist And Shout wasn't an Isley Bros original. 'Twas The Top Notes recorded it first. I think Rockingmitch caught me on that one.

Carole said...

I didn't find out that Hey Joe wasn't a Hendrix song for years. I always assumed that the other versions were covers of Jimi.

I didn't realise that Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused was originally someone else's until about five years ago either.

severin said...

The first time I ever heard "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" it was sung by Anita Harris.
I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was in love with Anita Harris.
When I heard the Righteous Brothers version I was appalled. They'd ruined it. Her lovely song. The rotters.

severin said...

The first time I ever heard "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" it was sung by Anita Harris.
I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was in love with Anita Harris.
When I heard the Righteous Brothers version I was appalled. They'd ruined it. Her lovely song. The rotters.