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

Ash.J.Williams

When I heard garage days revisited by metallica back in the day one of the stand out tracks was killing jokes "the wait" however it was some years before I discovered killing joke are the greatest band that ever lived and the original wait is a masterpiece compared to the cover which sucked out all the dynamics from the bass drums AND guitar

GreeBo

People Are Strange, Echo & The Bunnymen and of course The Doors.

BrianD3

I think if a song is covered shortly after it is originally released then there's a good chance that the cover will be one that people know.

E.g Walk Away Renee by the Left Banke. Had some chart success. Covered by The Four Tops a year or two later.

Also, Without You by Badfinger. Covered by Harry Nilsson.

gigantic09

A new England Kirsty McCall, originally recorded by Billy Bragg

Downtown Train Rod Stewart, originally recorded by Tom Waits

The moon and the stars originally recorded by peggy Seeger and later covered by Roberta Flack and Johnny Cash.but the first time I heard it was in the form of a trance tune 'the gift' by way out west in the 90's.

Ash.J.Williams

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

I really like princes demo though

Akrasia

Amy Winehouse singing Valerie was a cover of a Zutons song. Of course Mark Robson and Amy did the definitive version

FrancieBrady

I was a fan of the great Freddie White, and his version of Martha introduced me to it's creator the greatest - Mr Tom Waits.

Mister Vain

I was big into electronic music as a teenager so I would have heard a lot remixes before the originals.

Aurora ft. Naimee Coleman - Ordinary World

Frankie goes to Hollywood - Power of Love - Rob Searle remix

And of course Maniac 2000.

That's just a few off the top of my head.

saintsaltynuts

Summer Breeze by The Isley Brothers was a cover of Seals and Crofts original version.

Akrasia

David Bowies 'wild is the wind' was a cover of the Nina Simone song by the same name and both versions are beautiful in their own way. But both are also covers of the original performance by Johnny Mathis from 1957

Seve OB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532302#Comment_121532302

Oh but it was a cover

here is original

https://youtu.be/_ZlzN0Gtpp8?si=6Dy04PMi0albEHiI

The J Stands for Jay

https://youtu.be/cpGA0azFdCs?si=1LhXduJfzte85wwb

Fr Tod Umptious

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

Speaking of Prince, Manic Monday The Bangles breakout hit was a Prince song

But I don't think he ever recorded it.

Hippodrome Song Owl

Several of those already mentioned were definitely true for me (hearing the cover before the original). Particularly the many Bob Dylan songs - he really is a songwriting genius. In fact this thread is the first time I'm learning that The Happy Mondays Step On is a cover!

Others where I only learned of the original after the fact would be:

I Will Always Love You- heard Whitney do it first when I was a child, then my dad introduced me to Dolly's superior version.

I definitely heard Nirvana's Man Who Sold The World before hearing David Bowie do it.

Fr Tod Umptious

Not exactly a cover but The Prodigy song "Outer Space" heavily samples "Chase the Devil" an old reggae song by Max Romeo.

I'd say few who know "Outer Space" know "Chase the Devil", I certainly didn't until recently enough.

And it's a feckin brilliant tune.

https://youtu.be/XcMNfX5yh28?si=3Bv2nxyz0befWHtz

odyssey06

A rake of big hits in the 1980s...

Tiffany I Think We're Alone Now, originally a minor 1950s hit

Paul Young - Love of the Common People (Johnny Hurley), Wherever I lay My Hat (Marvin Gaye)

And also:

Because the Night - I heard the 10,000 Maniacs version before the original Patti Smith version

Jafin

Freak Like Me. Heard the Sugababes version back in the early 2000s and didn't know until 10+ years later that it was a cover of an Adina Howard song.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532549#Comment_121532549

Because the Night - I heard the 10,000 Maniacs version before the original Patti Smith version

Which is a Bruce Springsteen song, not sure if he ever recorded it though.

jmbkay

"Don't Leave Me This Way" Heard it on a Disco music programme on BBC2 last night.

Ger Roe

I just remembered another :

Bye Bye Baby - The Bay City Rollers (Original The Four Seasons)

The roller's version is so embedded in my memory that I thought The Four Seasons version was a cover.

AyeGer

Natalie Imbruglia Torn was apparently a song by a Norwegian singer who accused Natalie of stealing it.

Fr Tod Umptious

"Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway", recorded by Shane McGowan and The Popes, and also by Irish balladeer Jim McCann, he of Grace fame.

But written and recorded by Gerry Rafferty (Baker St, Stuck in the middle with you) as part of the band The Humblebums which also included Billy Connelly.

Mal-Adjusted

I'd imagine that hallelujah is certainly up there. Personally it was years before I know that Natalie imbruglia's Torn was a cover of a Lis Sorensen release and then by Ednaswap. Neither of which actually wrote it

Sgt Hartman

Hush Hush by Kula Shaker. I only heard the original by Deep Purple about 20 years after Kula Shaker’s version was released.

Prodigy’s “Girls” tune samples a song called Style of the Street by an obscure mid 80’s hip hop group from Manchester called Broken Glass.

https://youtu.be/MoNLYcP7f80?si=JYaSnH1ncXsfC_3V

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532038#Comment_121532038

Gary Jules' vocals sound like Michael Stipe which also gives it an REM-ish vibe.

Fr Tod Umptious

It was many many years after Christy Moore released "Don't forget your shovel" that I learned that it was originally recorded by the late Tralee singer Christy Hennessy.

moonage

Sailing—Rod Stewart

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun—Cyndi Lauper

Got My Mind Set on You—George Harrison

Torn—Natalie Imbruglia 

All are covers.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532585#Comment_121532585

He did but wasn't the first same as Jersey Girl which he wrote but Waits released first.

As for the OP I heard the Placebo Running Up That Hill long before the original. Placebo were huge at the time and Kate Bush was in a pre revival quiet period.

Scipri0

Laura Branigan - Self Control is a copy from the original song by Raf an Italian singer. But i got to say it, Laura Braingan was a absolute babe the way she dances at 1:50 to 2 minutes in the video gets me hot and bothered! haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0_8J7uxhs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_TQjEn6cpQ

Ash.J.Williams

Samples are not covers