Name a song you heard a cover of before you heard the original of.

ottolwinner

Was listening to music on YouTube earlier. Noticed in the comments section a person said they only heard Running up that hill by Kate Bush years after listening to Placebos cover version.

Johnny Cash version of Hurt is the only one I Can definitely think of for me.

Have you a song that fits that ?

Fr Tod Umptious

Young at Heart. Made famous by The Bluebells in 1984 and again in 1993.

But it was originally a Bananarama song from their debut album in 1983.

I only found that out in the last year.

silliussoddius

I fought the law by The Clash, originally by Colin Farrel/Sonny Curtis.

FantasyFool

Cheap Wine by a lad called Charlie Parr. Cracking song. Heard it by chance by a duo called Tevor Moss and Hannah-Lou a few years back when they supported Fionn Regan 9n Galway.

VanHalen

Watching a documentary about Disco Music, I found out that “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor was the B side of her first single. The A side was called “Substitute” which I had only ever heard performed by girl group Clout

AndrewJRenko

Dear Prudence - danced to Siouxsie and the Banshees version in my formative years in the Afro. Only discovered the Beatles original recently

waynescales1

Strumming my paaaain with his fingeeeers...

cj maxx

Loads , helter-skelter

All Along the Watchtower

Knocking on heavens door and loads more Dylan songs

Strumms

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros covering The Harder They Come by Jimmy Cliff, 1999.

It kickstarted my love of Jimmy Cliff… saw him live twice. Bought all his quality albums from back in the day.

Mehaffey1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121531901#Comment_121531901

That's a cracker of a song.

Heartbeats by The Knife when covered by Jose Gonzales is the first that springs to mind.

silliussoddius

Tainted love, original by Gloria Jones.

banie01

2 that spring immediately to mind, Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, originally Leonard Cohen & The Book of Love by Peter Gabriel, originally by The Magnetic Fields but there are loads more.

Strumms

Be Not So Fearful was performed by Jeff Tweedy in Union Chapel London back in 2010… It is a song by the late great Bill Fay who’s work as a result I went on to admire, like and listen to a lot.

Bill joined Jeff on stage for it .

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121531964#Comment_121531964

Must be up there for a track where most people know the biggest cover and not the original.

Plenty of people would see Marilyn Mansons version as a cover of Soft Cell and not of Gloria Jones due to not even knowing it was a cover to begin with

kirk.

Mr tamborine man the Byrd's

rjturek

'Till There Was You' by the Beatles. Written by Meredith Willson for the 1957 Broadway show 'The Music Man'

silliussoddius

Nothing compares to you, a Prince song.

Say Your Number

Mad World by Tears For Fears covered by Gary Jules.

Think it works better as a sparse piano ballad, the original is a bit too upbeat for the lyrics and I'm not mad on the eighties synths.

PhoneMain

Hounds of Love by Kate Bush, covered by Futureheads

Charlie19

I remember the first time I heard Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie and after the base line at the beginning....

I was like wtf what have you done to vanilla Ice;) bless my little cotton socks.

Dav010

“Are you with me” and “When I fall in love”, I heard the Lost Frequencies and Rick Ashley versions before the originals.

AyeGer

Knocking on heavens door.

I often find certain covers are better than the originals. That’s the case with most Bob Dylan covers imo, great song writer but not a great singer.

dmc17

For a long time I thought Make You Feel My Love was written by Adele but it's another one from Bob Dylan.

ceadaoin.

Hallelujah. Only heard the Leonard Cohen version years after jeff Buckleys. The man who sold the world by nirvana/David Bowie also.

My daughter heard an ad the other day with a version of fools rush in and thought it was a cover of some other artist she knew who had also covered the song. Had no idea it was Elvis originally lol

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532096#Comment_121532096

Dylan songs are everywhere.

As already mentioned here Mr Tambourine Man, Knocking on Heavens Door, All Along the Watchtower.

"It's all over now" was covered by Them and that version sampled by Beck.

One of my favorites is the Sinead Lohan version of To Ramona, which I heard long before the original Dylan version.

But probably the most obscure is Wagon Wheel, the popular Nathan Carter song.

It's originally "Rock me Mama" by Dylan.

And while I'm here one of the best tracks on the Pulp Fiction OST is "Girl you'll be a woman soon" by Urge Overkill, but it's originally a Neil Diamond song.

ZV Yoda

https://youtu.be/sqbwOyr5Alc?si=pIU94jQ56f76LDi7

I heard this version before I heard the Springsteen original.

i think the Frankie version is much better.

Hangdogroad

Step On by the Happy Mondays, a cover of Hes Gonna Step On You Again by John Kongos. I'd only found out about the original about 15 or so years ago. It was used in the true crime drama the Serpent more recently.

Alan30

I found out about 2 years ago that Step on by the Happy Mondays was a cover of a John Kongos song.

Ger Roe

Red Red Wine - UB40 (Original Neil Diamond)

Three steps to heaven - Showaddywaddy (Original Eddie Cochran)

The man who sold the world - Lulu (Original David Bowie)

Ruby Tuesday - Melanie (Original The Rolling Stones)

Thank you for the days - Luke Kelly (Original Ray Davies The Kinks)

Knocking on Heaven's door - Eric Clapton (Original Bob Dylan)

Tell him - Hello (Original Gil Hamilton, also The Exciters)

Lofidelity

Nothing compares to you.

Written by Prince but made famous by Sinead.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532278#Comment_121532278

This one isnt a cover though