Everyone loves a good cover version, but not everyone knows a cover when they hear it. How many Americans heard Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" on the radio and thought, "Gee, these New Wavers have really done a number on Gloria Jones's 1964 northern soul gem"? Probably not many. I flatter myself that I am a pretty big music dork, and I think I found out "Tainted Love" was a cover roughly twenty years after the first time I heard it. If you're a casual music fan and you're not inclined to at least glance at album liner notes, you may not uncover a cover until some radio DJ mentions the original artist or it comes up on some random VH1 special. Hell, you may never know.
All of which inspired the management to make up a list (surprise!) of songs that I only later learned were cover versions. Obviously, as this list is based upon personal experience, it is far from exhaustive. You are encouraged to add examples of your own.
Anyway, I'll start with the most "embarrassing," by which I mean the most recent. (Note: If you actually consider stuff like this embarrassing, you are an insufferable Rock Snob and you have more serious personal issues to sort out.) After that, there is no particular order...
1. Fischerspooner, "The 15th" (2002)
Originally recorded by Wire, from their 1979 album 154. The only reason I feel bad about this one is I was already a huge Wire fan when I first heard the song. I had just managed to skip directly from their first two albums to 1988's A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck. 154 has since become second only to Pink Flag in my heart. (Years before, I also heard Wire's "Strange" for the first time... but it was being sung by R.E.M.)
2. Soft Cell, "Tainted Love" (1981)
Well I kinda blew this one in the intro. Interesting trivia: Gloria Jones was Marc Bolan's longtime girlfriend and a T.Rex background singer, and she was in the driver's seat when he was killed in a freak auto accident. Their son was named Rolan Bolan. Seriously. Thanks mum & dad!
3. Naked Eyes, "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (1983)
By the time it hit the American top ten, this Hal David/Burt Bacharach ditty had been covered by a bunch of other acts, most notably by Sandy Shaw in 1964.
4. Mötley Crüe, "Smokin' in the Boys Room" (1985)
Oooooh... the Crüe is so dangerous. The song came off as such a pathetic attempt at being "bad" that I was actually relieved to find out it was originally recorded in 1973 by Brownsville Station. Get this: it was the Crüe's first Top 40 hit.
5. David Bowie, "China Girl" (1983)
Sure, David did co-write it with Iggy Pop, but the song originally appeared on Iggy's 1977 album The Idiot. (Morbid rock factoid: Joy Division singer Ian Curtis was reportedly listening to The Idiot when he killed himself.)
6. The Damned, "Alone Again Or" (1987)
The Damned's last Top 40 hit was one of my favorite "modern rock" songs growing up. Imagine my surprise when I heard the even more beautiful version from Love's 1967 Forever Changes album.
7. Blondie, "Hanging on the Telephone" (1978)
Ultra-obscure power pop band The Nerves split up after releasing only one 1976 EP... which just happened to contain this little gem.
8. Cowboy Junkies, "Sweet Jane" (1988)
Awww cut me some slack. So it took me a while to discover the Velvet Underground's 1969: The Velvet Underground Live and Loaded. Guess what, I heard Jane's Addiction's 1987 cover of "Rock 'n' Roll" first, too! And the first time I ever heard "Femme Fatale" and "Pale Blue Eyes"? That's right, both covers on R.E.M.'s 1987 rarities collection Dead Letter Office.
9. Tesla, "Signs" (1990)
This was originally a hit for a Canadian group called the Five Man Electrical Band in 1971. But really, who cares?
10. The Soup Dragons, "I'm Free" (1990)
"I'm Free" is a so/so 1965 Rolling Stones b-side that can currently be heard in a terrible remix on a cell phone commercial. But in 1990 I thought it was a really groovy hit by a Scottish "baggy" band.
11. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (1981)
Sure I knew their version of "Crimson and Clover" wasn't the first, but I just found out that this was a cover, too. It was originally released as a single in 1975 by The Arrows. Who knew??
12. The Power Station, "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" (1985)
I don't care what you say, when I was eleven, ex-Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor was still really cool. Robert Palmer, however, was always a putz. Anyway, this was a massive T.Rex hit back in 1972, which we all know now but somehow managed to escape me at eleven. At least I didn't give Bauhaus credit for "Telegram Sam".
13. Eric Clapton, "I Shot the Sheriff" (1974)
Unless you're not from the U.S., you probably heard the Clapton version first too; Bob Marley's original was only a year old when Clapton covered it.
14. Quiet Riot, "Cum On Feel the Noize" (1983)
Having missed the glam explosion that occurred on another continent when I was an infant, I actually gave the 1980s hair metal bands full credit for their AquaNet-soaked craziness. Turns out glammy British pub-rock legends Slade had a big hit with this way back in 1973.
15. Talking Heads, "Take Me to the River" (1978)
Well it sure sounded like a cover, but I wasn't aware that Al Green had recorded the song in 1974. (Even better, I thought the Heads' "Memories Can't Wait" was a Living Colour song for like two years.)
16. Manfred Mann's Earth Band, "Blinded by the Light" (1977)
Considering the fact that Bruce Springsteen's original 1973 version sank like a stone, I don't think many of us knew this was a cover at the time. And yes, I also thought they were saying "wrapped up like a douche."
17. Phil Collins, "Groovy Kind of Love" (1988)
Phil had cover fever there for a while; he also did "You Can't Hurry Love" around the same time. Anyway, whether Phil's doing it or you're listening to the 1966 version by The Mindbenders... "Groovy Kind of Love" really, really blows.
18. Janis Joplin, "Me and Bobby McGee" (1971)
There's some Wikiversy as to who issued the first recorded version (it's between Kris Kristofferson, Gordon Lightfoot, and Roger Miller), but Kristofferson wrote it and included it on his 1970 debut album.
19. David Lee Roth, "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" (1985)
Originally adapted from an Austrian song in 1929, "Just a Gigolo" had been covered a bunch over the years. But Diamond Dave based his on the 1956 Louis Prima medley version. (The Village People also covered this version in 1978.)
20. Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah" (1994)
It wasn't long until I found out about Leonard Cohen's 1983 original, but for a little while I thought that Buckley kid was a friggin' genius.
**UPDATE**
Feeling covers crazy? Search cover versions by artist or song at The Covers Project. And discover a steady stream of cool and rare cover versions at Copy, Right?
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