Covered Up

Covered Up 

Kids come up and say, "It's cool you're doing a Nirvana song." And I think, "Fuck you, you little tosser!"
— David Bowie, on performing "The Man Who Sold The World"

A specific form of  Older Than They Think where the cover version of a song becomes so iconic that people forget it was a cover at all. The cover becomes the definitive version of the song. To a certain extent, this is generational — if you hear a song before the cover is even recorded, you're less likely to be confused. (It doesn't count if the new version is in  a different language.)

Nowadays, "covers" are used to describe any band performing a not-originally-written song. However, when bands writing all their own songs was a less common practice, covering referred specifically to doing a version of a song in a similar style to another artist.

Related to the  Weird Al Effect. Somewhat related is  Breakaway Pop Hit, where an iconic song (or cover) composed specifically for a film overshadows the original film it was composed for. Compare  Sampled Up, and contrast with  First And Foremost. See also  Adaptation Displacement, Revival By Commercialization  and  Misattributed Song.

Examples:

• "Lambada", the worldwide hit by Kaoma, is actually an unauthorized cover of the song "Llorando se Fue" by a peruvian band Los Kjarkas, who successfully sued Kaoma for copyright infringement.
• "Valerie," originally performed by The Zutons, is better known as a song by Amy Winehouse.
• "Tainted Love", often thought of as a song about AIDS, first came out in 1964. Ed Cobb wrote and Gloria Jones sang the original version. (Thank you, The Other Wiki!) Soft Cell, of course, immortalized the song, with Marilyn Manson's cover likely the second best known.
• Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" (written by Janie Brafford and Berry Gordy) appeared as a single in 1959. The Flying Lizards' angular cover version had much more success than the original but The Beatles and The Rolling Stones also covered it.
• The song "The First Cut Is The Deepest" has been covered so many times, no one remembers it was originally Cat Stevens.
  
  
  
  • Cat Stevens covered "Morning Has Broken" which had English lyrics added to it by Eleanor Farjeon from a much older song (see most modern hymnals).
  • And then there are some who think that "Father and Son" was originally done by Ronan Keating or Boyzone, which isn't the case. Though only a few people think that, thankfully.
    
    
    
    • The tune is used for a hymn linked to St. Patrick, which uses just about every preposition in the English language to emphasize the omnipresence of Jesus; once you get through all the verses, you can start to feel a little claustrophobic.
• Some don't even know that "Free Fallin'" was originally written by Tom Petty. John Mayer covers the hell out of it though, so it's forgiven.
  
  
  
  • John Mayer did a cover of "Free Fallin'"? I really don't think that applies here. Not yet, at least.
    
    
    
    • I think people don't realize it was Tom Petty because of age, not because they think of John Mayer's version.
    • More like an Age Ghetto or something, considering that the original was more than half a year in the top charts, peaking at #1, while the cover, although known, cannot hold up with that. Anyone above 30 should know the original well enough to not fall into that trap.
• Roberta Flack, not the Fugees, first performed "Killing Me Softly."
  
  
  
  • Roberta Flack's might be the most famous version for those who knew it before the Fugees, but it was originally performed by Lori Lieberman.
• Many They Might Be Giants fans don't know that "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" was originally done in 1953 by the Four Lads. The song had been covered many times (most notably by Sha Na Na, who did nothing but covers) by the time TMBG did their famous version.
  
  
  
  • Considering the song was written by Jimmy Kennedy, it is also likely a parody of "Puttin' on the Ritz", which in itself was famously Covered Upseveral times, including a techno-pop version by One Hit Wonder Taco in the 1980s. Taco's version was a homage to Fred Astaire, who merely introduced the familiar version of the Irving Berlin song (with lyrics about "Park Avenue" rather than "Lenox Avenue").
  • "New York City" (originally by the all-girl indie rock trio Cub) and even "Why Does the Sun Shine?" (an educational song from an album from 1959) were also covers.
  • As is the theme to The Daily Show. Bob Mould did that one first.
• The Clash's version of "I Fought the Law". Even Bobby Fuller's 1964 version isn't the original. The song was written by Buddy Holly's backing group, The Crickets, in 1959.
  
  
  
  • Another Clash favorite, "Police on My Back", was originally recorded by reggae rock group The Equals (best known for having a pre-"Electric Avenue" Eddy Grant as its guitarist) and released as a single in 1968.
• The Ataris' cover of "Boys Of Summer" (by Don Henley) was thought by so many Ataris fans to be an original that their lead singer started wearing a "Who The Fuck is Don Henley" shirt to shows.
• Even though Bob Dylan sang "All Along The Watchtower" more often than any other song he wrote, plenty of people still think Jimi Hendrix did it first. Another prominent example is "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", which some thought was originally by Guns N Roses. Indeed, many Bob Dylan songs only became famous when someone else performed them, including "Blowin' In The Wind" (Peter, Paul, and Mary); "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "My Back Pages" (The Byrds); and most recently "Desolation Row" (My Chemical Romance). He's probably this trope's biggest victim.
  
  
  
  • Except on spoof news comedy The Day Today, where many of Dylan's hits are "revealed" to have been written by British Ukelele player George Formby in the 1940s; "Dylan, who is in hospital after eating a rotten wolf, has been unavailable for comment".
  • This trope is taken to its logical extreme with the video No Direction, Period, wherein it is revealed that, unbeknownst to the public at large, every popular song of the last 35 years was originally attributable to Bob Dylan.
  • Also reversed. Most people think Bob Dylan wrote "Mr. Bojangles." He didn't. Jerry Jeff Walker did.
    
    
    
    • Dylan himself covered "Mr. Bojangles", but the album it was released on, Dylan, was a ragtag collection of embarrassing outtakes released by Columbia Records after he went to another label, possibly as revenge or blackmail. It worked, since within a year he was back on Columbia and the album quickly went out of print.
  • The confusion regarding "All Along the Watchtower" isn't helped any by Dylan saying that's how the song should have been played to start with, nor by Dylan altering his playing to be closer to the Hendrix version after Jimi died.
  • Dylan himself wrote about Hendrix covering "Watchtower" in the liner notes of his Biograph box set:
    
    
    
    "It's not a wonder to me that he did my songs; rather, that he did so few, because they were all his."
  • Of course, in any event, "All Along The Watchtower" is actually a 150,000-year-old coded message from God, which Bob Dylan happened topick up on and translate into modern English because he's just that awesome.
  • Bob Dylan joked that he was a "first-rate songwriter and a third-rate singer" (rough paraphrase).
    
    
    
    • That's less self-deprecation and more Captain Obvious.
• Jimi Hendrix's first hit, "Hey Joe", was written by... some obscure Californian folksinger dude named Billy Roberts.
  
  
  
  • A Dutch book about the stories behind songs traced the history of "Hey Joe", it's amazing how much it changed between Billy and Jimi. It also travelled all across the US before it got to him.
• A number of songs by the King himself (Elvis Presley) are covers — for example, "Blue Suede Shoes".
  
  
  
  • His classic "Love Me Tender", while the lyrics were new, borrowed the tune of "Aura Lee" (published in 1861) note-for-note.
    
    
    
    • Quite a few Elvis songs borrowed their tunes from older songs while having original lyrics. Other examples are "It's Now or Never" ("'O Sole Mio", published 1898) and "Wooden Heart" ("Muss I Denn", published 1827).
  • "Hound Dog" is another, originally recorded by blues singer Big Momma Thorton. There's a reason Elvis is sometimes known as "The Prince of Thieves."
• "Can't Get Enough Of You Baby" was not originally by Smash Mouth. The Toys were the first to record it way back in 1965, and the 4 Seasons and ? and the Mysterians soon after that.
  
  
  
  • Those who came of age in the 80's will also remember the version by British new wave band The Colourfield.
• A high percentage of hits by Dominican "Merengue-hip-hop" bands from early to mid 90s (like Proyecto Uno, Ilegales, and Sandy y Papo) were in fact covers from hip-hop Anglo artists. This was made worse because many of the songs they covered were One Hit Wonders or specialists' hits in English, but those groups made these songs extremely popular and mainstream.
• "I'm A Believer": originally written by Neil Diamond, first made famous by The Monkees (Diamond recorded his version a few months after The Monkees), and then much later, brought back into the mainstream by Smash Mouth.
  
  
  
  • Neil Diamond is a bit of a special case: He started out as a songwriter, and then had to record his own material when rock'n'roll stopped needing songwriters so much.
  • "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" (made famous by Urge Overkill on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack) and "Solitary Man" (made famous by Chris Isaak, Johnny Cash, and H.I.M.)
• Aretha Franklin's "Respect" was originally written and performed by Otis Redding.
  
  
  
  • Since Aretha's version has become iconic as a theme for empowered women, it's ironic that the song was originally written from a man's point of view.
  • And "Can't Turn You Loose" is more well known as the chase theme to The Blues Brothers. There are people who don't realize that the song has lyrics.
• Toni Basil's song "Mickey" is a Gender Flipped cover of the song "Kitty" by the obscure British band Racey. Because the song is about feeling sexual desire for someone who won't put out, the song takes on a different meaning when the genders are reversed.
  
  
  
  • Particularly the line "Any time you want to do it, I'll take it like a man," which became "Any way you want to do it, I'll take it like a man."
• "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was originally written and performed by John Denver, but it didn't become famous until it was covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary.
• No, "Reason to Believe" was not written by Wilson Phillips. Rod Stewart released that one in 1971, before any of the members of Wilson Phillips even started school (two were born in 1968, the other in 1969). The Carpenters recorded it as an album track in 1970; it was originally written by Tim Hardin.
• Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah"; the original is by Leonard Cohen.
  
  
  
  • Even more curiously, Jeff Buckley's version is really a cover of John Cale's, which is significantly different from the original. Just about everyone's cover is based on the Cale version, either directly or via Buckley.
    
    
    
    • With a few notable exceptions, such as the U2 version, or Bob Dylan's live cover.
  • Let's take this one further and just say anything by Leonard Cohen in general has been Covered Up. Has something to do with the fact he's a mindblowingly fantastic songwriter but only just adequate as a performer (a few songs notwithstanding).
    
    
    
    • Not the case with the Flying Lizards cover of "Suzanne" which sounds as if they used malfunctioning Cybermen for session musicians.
• Speaking of Buffy Sainte-Marie, she recorded the original version of the Protest Song "Universal Soldier", which most people identify with the cover by Donovan.
• Talking Heads' cover of "Take Me To The River", originally by Al Green and Mabon Hodges. Also covered by The Woodshed, The Radiators, Ratdog, Grateful Dead, God Johnson, Escape Goat, Diesel Dog, Day By The River, Bockmans Euphio, Annie Lennox, Max on the Rox, Dave Matthews Band, Bryan Ferry, Mana, that funny singing fish that also does "Don't Worry, Be Happy", and others. It's a popular song.
• "No More I Love You's" was originally by an obscure 80s band, The Lover Speaks, but it didn't become famous until it was covered by Annie Lennox.
• "Torn", as performed by Natalie Imbruglia, is a cover of a song written by the obscure band Ednaswap. (Many of Ednaswap's members were — and still are — successful songwriters that wrote for other performers.)
• "Don't Cha", by the Pussycat Dolls? Also a cover — of a song first recorded by Tori Alamaze, one year before the Pussycat Dolls performed it.
  
  
  
  • Not to mention the hook is shamelessly swiped from Sir-Mix-A-Lot's "Swass".
• This trope has a life of its own in Asia. Many Mando-pop artists will take a hit foreign song (like Britney Spears's "Everytime," or Wild Cherry's "Play that Funky Music"), give it Mandarin lyrics and put it out.
• Led Zeppelin have a few of these. "Dazed and Confused" was written by Jake Holmes, a folk-pop musician best known for writing commercial jingles, including the "Be All That You Can Be" jingle for the U.S. Army. (Aside from "I've been dazed and confused", Jimmy Page entirely discarded Holmes' lyrics and wrote new ones for the Zeppelin recording.) "Whole Lotta Love"'s lyrics come from a Willie Dixon song, and the arrangement the group used was based on a cover by the Small Faces. "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" was written by an early 60s folkie named Anne Johannson Bredon (and erroneously credited as a traditional song when Zep recorded it). "When the Levee Breaks" was originally by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. "In My Time of Dying" was originally a Blind Willie Johnson song. "The Lemon Song" contains elements of Robert Johnson's "Travellin' Riverside Blues" and Muddy Waters' "Killing Floor". "How Many More Times" was a Howlin' Wolf song.
  
  
  
  • It doesn't help that Led Zeppelin themselves are the kings of doing covers without giving credit to the originals, or doing so inconsistently. They were sued several times over this.
  • Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy didn't write "When The Levee Breaks", it's a folk-blues standard that describes a disaster in 1927 New Orleans.
  • Does this really count? It's more like, "Led Zeppelin were plagiarists" rather than that everybody thinks they wrote songs that they're really performing as covers. Their songs just take parts (occasionally large parts) of other songs, they're not covers.
• How many people remember that "I Will Always Love You" was originally a Dolly Parton song?
  
  
  
  • More than you'd think, though they're primarily concentrated around Pigeon Forge and Sevierville.
    
    
    
    • Not all of them. Sheesh, Dolly's version only charted three times (going to #1 twice).
• This contributor remembers a radio show asking for "good hangover tunes". One request was for Nirvana's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"?. "A Lead Belly song, of course", interjected the DJ... presumably, this was news to the person who requested it. There's also probably plenty of people who think Kurt Cobain wrote "Love Buzz". (It was originally by Shocking Blue.)
  
  
  
  • Another song by Shocking Blue, "Venus", is possibly more famous in its cover version by Bananarama, although both versions were hits.
  • Nirvana's Unplugged in New York live album is also subject to this, as many people are apparently unaware that many of the songs are covers of anything from David Bowie tunes to old Christian standards... despite the fact that Kurt Cobain says so on the album itself.
    
    
    
    • Cobain also gets it wrong when he introduces "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam", calling it a "rendition of an old Christian song, I think" by the Vaselines. It's not. It's an original song by the Vaselines that parodies an old Christian song called "I'll Be a Sunbeam". However, there's more confusion: the Vaselines' song was originally called "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" when released in 1987, but the song was re-released on a compilation in 1992, changing the title to the now-famous "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam". Nirvana's cover is of this latter version.
    • I don't think he's "getting it wrong", I think he's just joking, since it's obvious it's not a Christian song if you actually listen to it. (And he says, "but we do it the Vaselines way" too, indicating that he knows it's different from the 'original' song).
  • Nirvana also covered up Devo's "Turn Around" - the fact that the original was a rare b-side to begin with probably doesn't help (although it's available on itunes now).
  • The Foo Fighters, formed by Dave Grohl of Nirvana, have also done more than their share of covers - with the most notable being Paul McCartney's "Band On the Run", Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street", and Prince's "Darling Nikki".
• "Whiskey in the Jar" wasn't written by Thin Lizzy, nor the Pogues, nor Pulp, nor Metallica. It's an old Irish folk song.
  
  
  
  • And speaking of Metallica, how many of their fans know that "Turn the Page" is a Bob Seger cover?
    
    
    
    • Most of us. Or anyone who's, you know, read the liner notes.
    • The Garage Inc. album consisted entirely of cover songs, a fact the band has called plenty of attention to. It's unlikely that anyone owns the album and doesn't know that.
    • But no one really owns a Metallica album, right, Lars?
• An exception: A common sentiment about Wings' "Mull of Kintyre" is that it sounds like it must be a traditional Scottish song that's as old as the hills. Except Paul McCartney actually did write it.
  
  
  
  • Likewise, probably half the Dropkick Murphys' songs sound like they're ditties passed down through generations. Of course, the fact that the other half of their songs are tunes passed down through generations (such as "Fields of Athenry" or "The Rocky Road to Dublin") doesn't help with clarity.
    
    
    
    • Except "Fields of Athenry" isn't a traditional song — it was written in the 1970s by Pete St. John, and most people know it from the Paddy Reilly cover, making it another example of this trope.
    • The Dropkicks have also recorded a few otherwise unrecorded Woody Guthrie compositions, such as "Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight" and "I'm Shipping Up to Boston". They didn't write them, but they were the first to perform them, thus causing some confusion.
• The Specials didn't write "A Message to You Rudy" or "Monkey Man". That was Dandy Livingstone and Toots & the Maytals, respectively.
• Grand Theft Auto: the "Master Sounds" radio station from San Andreas is apparently a conscious attempt by the developers to reverse this trend — it plays only songs which later became vastly more famous when they were covered or sampled by more popular artists.
• Madness' "It Must Be Love" is a cover of a Labi Siffre song recorded ten years previously. Interestingly, he makes a cameo in the music video for the Madness version.
  
  
  
  • Madness' "One Step Beyond" is also a cover. Prince Buster did it originally.
• This happens to Tom Waits a lot. For example, "Jersey Girl" was his song, originally, but most people know the Bruce Springsteen cover. This also happened when The Eagles covered "Ol' '55", when The Ramones covered "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" (he has since covered two of their songs), and with a particularly odious cover of "Downtown Train" by Rod Stewart.
  
  
  
  • Then there is the matter of "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard", which was written by Waits, but was intentionally supposed to sound like it was written and performed in the manner of Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Then Hawkins covered it, and that version was used in a commercial.
  • Thanks to The Wire, the Blind Boys of Alabama's version of "Way Down in the Hole" is now at least as famous as the Waits original... And it might even be better. The Waits version was used as the theme in Season 2, but the Blind Boys' was the theme in Season 1 and also played over a montage at the end of the final episode.
• Very few people know that two songs on Black Sabbath's first album, "Warning" and "Evil Woman", are covers of respectively The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation and Crow.
• "Blinded by the Light" was written and sung by Bruce Springsteen. Manfred Mann's Earth Band made it famous — they also added one of the most infamous mondegreens in music, "wrapped up like a douche". (The real lyric is "revved up like a deuce [coupe]", and they could have avoided it if they kept Springsteen's original, "cut loose like a deuce".)
  
  
  
  • The cover also spawned a hilarious comedy sketch
  • Also, Springsteen wrote "Because the Night", which singer/poet Patti Smith made into a hit after gender-flipping his lyrics. It was most famously covered in the early 90's by college-rockers 10,000 Maniacs on their MTV Unplugged performance.
• UB40's version of "Red Red Wine" was a cover of Tony Tribe's version, which was itself a cover. Neil Diamond wrote and recorded the original, as well as a more upbeat version inspired by UB40's cover.
• "House of the Rising Sun" was not written by The Animals. It's a folk song from the United States, and the oldest known recording was made in 1933. And in the original version, the singer is female. Puts a different spin on things, no?
  
  
  
  • In a case of people getting things half right, they are often accused of taking it...from Bob Dylan, whose version was recorded only 2 years earlier and itself, of course, a cover. They may have borrowed certain aspects of the arrangement he played—but Dylan himself borrowed that arrangement wholesale from his friend, Dave Van Ronk.
  • The Animals also didn't write "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". It was originally performed by Nina Simone. Even the Animals version has been forgotten by some fans of the later Santa Esmeralda cover, especially after Kill Bill.
• "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" did not originate with Tight Fit, nor with The Tokens. It started out as a song named "Mbube" by South African singer Solomon Linda and his group, The Evening Birds, in 1939. In 1951, Pete Seeger and his band, The Weavers, released their own version, renamed "Wimoweh" (based on misheard lyrics), whereas The Tokens recorded their own version based on the Weavers' version, now named "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", with the now familiar lyrics, in 1961. All three versions of the song have been covered multiple times, and quite a few versions (particularly the ones based on the Tokens' version) have become hits.
  
  
  
  • And only recently did poor Solomon Linda's family receive proper credit for the song. Linda himself died penniless.
• Some country fans recognize the song "When You Say Nothing At All" as a beautiful song by Alison Krauss & Union Station, and are surprised to learn that its first release was on a tribute to the late Keith Whitley, who both wrote and sang it in the '80s, when country wasn't cool.
  
  
  
  • Alison Krauss & Union Station's' song "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" is also a cover. The original song was in Spanish, it's titled "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás", and was written by a Cuban composer in 1947. Doris Day wasn't even the first to sing it in English: that honor goes to one Tony Bavaar. The Spanish original has been sung by practically every ballad / Bolero singer ever, to the point that no one remembers who sang it first.
  • Most Europeans will never have heard of Alison Krauss but will have encountered Ronan Keating's version of the song, included on the "Notting Hill" soundtrack.
    
    
    
    • They probably don't know that Ronan's "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and "The Long Goodbye" were previously #1 hits for Garth Brooks and Brooks & Dunn, respectively.
    • Ronan Keating and all of his Irish brethren definitely know who first recorded the former.
    • "The Long Goodbye" is a curious one: Ronan Keating and Paul Brady actually co-wrote it for Brady's album Oh What a World and it was the lead single off that album; a year before Brooks & Dunn covered it. Ronan then claimed it back two years after that, his version being the best known in the UK.
• "Piece of My Heart" may be a contender for grand prize winner, as Faith Hill herself didn't know it was a cover song when it was selected for her to perform. Of course, it also fits the trope in that the most famous version, by Janis Joplin, eclipsed awareness of the original by Erma Franklin (sister of Aretha).
  
  
  
  • Just how deep of a hole must one live in to have not heard the Joplin version of "Piece of My Heart?"
  • Eh, don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
• "Got My Mind Set On You" was made famous by George Harrison in 1988, but it was originally written by Rudy Clark and performed by James Ray in 1962.
• In the 1970s, George Clinton would frequently get in the habit of covering himself. Parliament's 1974 hit "Testify" is much more well-known than the 1967 original, when Clinton's group was a doo-wop outfit called The Parliaments and the song was called "(I Wanna) Testify". "The Goose", which follows "Testify" on the album Up for the Down Stroke, also falls under this category.
• Most people remember "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" as sung by Marvin Gaye and later covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Fewer people remember the original hit by Gladys Knight & the Pips.
  
  
  
  • Smokey Robinson & The Miracles actually recorded it first, but their version wasn't released until 1998.
• Some believe that Joan Jett's "I Love Rock And Roll" is a Britney Spears cover. Actually, it's a cover of The Arrows.
  
  
  
  • Some people are apparently either still under voting age and/or ignorant, since the song in question charted in 1982, while Britney Spears was born in December 1981.
• Bertolt Brecht's "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", the opening piece from his Threepenny Opera, was translated to English nearly 30 years after its composition as "Mack the Knife", whereupon Louis Armstrong (and later Bobby Darin) made it into a hit.
  
  
  
  • While we're on the subject of Brecht, a song from Brecht and Weill's The Rise and Fall of the State of Mahagonny was covered by the Doors as "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)".
• And while we're on the subject of Louis Armstrong: before he became famous for "Mack the Knife" and "Hello Dolly", he was best known for the song "St. James Infirmary", which he recorded back in the late 1920s. If that sounds old to you, keep in mind that the song ultimately derives from an English folk song that dates back to, at the very latest, 1531 - that's when the original St. James Infirmary (a leper hospital for maidens and nuns) was torn down. It probably dates back a few decades earlier at least, and may therefore predate the discovery of the New World.
• "Time Is on My Side" wasn't composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (in fact most of The Rolling Stones' first singles were blues covers).
• Red Hot Chili Peppers did it twice, with "Higher Ground" (Stevie Wonder) and "Love Rollercoaster" (Ohio Players).
• The version of "Lady Marmalade" recorded for Moulin Rouge!. It wasn't even done by LaBelle first; that honor goes to the Eleventh Hour.
  
  
  
  • Don't forget the All Saints version, either. That's the one this troper grew up with, and was shocked when her cousin (5 years younger) didn't know it, she was confused when it came up on karaoke rather than the Moulin Rouge version, since it just had song titles, not artist names too.
• The Isley Brothers have been Covered Up twice: "Twist and Shout" by The Beatles, and "Shout!", which is mostly associated with Animal House.
  
  
  
  • With "Twist and Shout", the Isleys Covered Up the original by a group called The Top Notes.
  • Officially, Michael Bolton Covered Up the Isleys' 1966 song "Love Is a Wonderful Thing" and wrongly claimed songwriting credit. Officially, because The Isleys sued him for $5 million and won. But if you actually listen to the two songs, the best you can say is that they're conceptually similar but don't really sound much alike. Plus, the Isley Brothers version was really obscure: it didn't get included on an album until after Bolton's hit. When an appellate court upheld the original decision, they admitted in the opinion that Bolton probably got screwed. Still, the karmic and symbolic justice of Bolton being forced to pay a group of genuine soul singers was pretty sweet.
• "Without You" is possibly Harry Nilsson's greatest hit. Mariah Carey also famously performed it. Most people have probably never heard the original version by Badfinger.
• Power metal band Gamma Ray even got its name from the cover version of the much older song "Gamma Ray".
• Though Garth Brooks is an accomplished songwriter, his career was launched off a cover: "The Dance" was originally sung and written by little-known country artist Tony Arata.
  
  
  
  • Another of Brooks' biggest hits, "Friends in Low Places," was originally recorded by Mark Chesnutt (though Brooks did the demo for the song, the last demo tape he'd ever have to make).
  • And Billy Joel loves Brooks' cover of "Shameless" so much, he only lets him sing it at Joel's concerts.
  • Another Joel/Brooks example: Brooks' version of "To Make You Feel My Love" quickly eclipsed Joel's, recorded just a few months earlier. And Joel's version was itself a cover; the original version is by Bob Dylan.
  • "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House" had previously been a low-charting single for Dennis Robbins, who co-wrote it.
  • "Callin' Baton Rouge" was previously a minor hit for the New Grass Revival, who also back Garth on his version.
  • Possibly inverted with Ronan Keating's cover of "If Tomorrow Never Comes"; see above.
  • The rodeo tune "The Fever" is a full-on re-lyricized cover of the Aerosmith song "Fever". Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are given credit for the music.
• A number of Laura Branigan's hits ("Gloria" and "Self Control", for example) were covers of Italian pop songs.
• R.E.M. covered an obscure song by The Clique, "Superman", on one of their albums, and many people think it's by them, to the point where people yelled at them for selling out... when someone else covered it again and it was used in a commercial.
• Many of Limp Bizkit's fans didn't know that "Faith" was originally performed by George Michael.
  
  
  
  • And "Behind Blue Eyes" was originally by The Who.
    
    
    
    • Yes, well, consider the source.
• In a particularly odd aversion, a number of songs which Jim Steinman wrote for Meat Loaf were initially declined by him, and instead recorded on his solo album Bad For Good or by a pet project band of Steinman's called Pandora's Box. Meat Loaf himself eventually recorded a number of these songs, including the title track of "Bad For Good". Guess whose version is more widely known?
  
  
  
  • Taking it to an even further degree, Steinman's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" was written for Meat Loaf, originally recorded by Pandora's Box, was later covered by Celine Dion (whose version hit #1 on the US charts), and was eventually covered in turn by Meat Loaf on Bat Out Of Hell III. Dion's version is probably the most familiar in America; Meat Loaf's version, however, a duet with Norweigan singer Marion Raven, made #1 in her home country, where the Dion version never charted.
• You might know that Milli Vanilli weren't the original singers of "Girl You Know It's True". (You're more likely to know that they didn't sing it at all.) But few remember the original performers, Numarx.
• Blondie's "The Tide Is High" is a gender-flipped cover of a Paragons song from 1967. Apparently it's been covered since and accredited to Debbie Harry in one of the newer versions.
• And then there's "There She Goes" by the La's. A peculiar case as the original La's version and the version by the Boo Radleys appear in So I Married An Axe Murderer... yet the main one anyone knows is the Sixpence None the Richer version, which was included in every single Freddie Prinze Jr. movie ever made.
• How many Eric Clapton fans have heard the original versions of "Crossroads" or "I Shot The Sheriff"? Or were even aware that there wereoriginal versions (by Robert Johnson and Bob Marley, respectively)?
  
  
  
  • Are you kidding? A good deal of them would have heard "Crossroads", and it's as (or more!) likely that they'd be familiar with Marley's version of "I Shot the Sheriff."
  • Speaking of Clapton, "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" were originally by J.J. Cale.
    
    
    
    • As was Lynyrd Skynyrd's "They Call Me The Breeze".
  • How about "Behind The Mask"? That was originally by Japanese electro-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra. There were some extra verses in Clapton's version that weren't in YMO's, however; those were written by none other than Michael Jackson!
• Luther Vandross' "Superstar" wasn't the first version, nor was the Carpenters' — Richard decided to cover it after hearing Bette Midler sing it on The Tonight Show; it was written by Leon Russell.
• "Big In Japan" was not originally performed by the Guano Apes (it's actually an Alphaville song). In addition, both Tom Waits and a punk-era bandnamed Big in Japan have done completely different songs with the same name.
• "Louie Louie" was not written by the Kingsmen. Nor was it improved or rescued from obscurity by them. It was written and recorded in 1956 by Rick Berry and the Pharaohs, and was very popular in the rock and roll community around Seattle and Tacoma (and in those communities, the Kingsmen's version wasn't even the most popular - it was the one by the soon-to-be-famous Paul Revere and the Raiders). All the Kingsmen did was to make it visible to the white youth market across the US, and slur the vocals so much that the lyrics could not be understood, making it sound naughty and subversive.
  
  
  
  • You mean it wasn't a Motorhead original?
  • The slurring was unintentional: They recorded the song using one microphone mounted on the ceiling, Jack Ely's voice was shot from taking part in an all-night Louie-Louieathon(and he was wearing braces at the time) and, while aware that they had to record in one take, the band didn't know that the tape was running and thought they were doing a rehearsal play through. The FBI actually investigated the "obscene" lyrics with the aid of analysts and linguists and, after 18 months, declared it "unintelligible at any speed", proving themselves unable to determine the authorship of a published song! And while they questioned a number of people in the course of the investigation, for some reason Jack Ely was never brought in and asked to repeat what he had sung. (Nor, apparently, did they notice the actual profanity that a member of the band shouts after missing a cue 53 seconds in.)
    
    
    
    • More than likely because The Kingsmen were reluctant to admit that they'd forced Ely to quit the band, but were still using his vocals anyway during "live" performances.
  • In, ah, certain circles, the tune is much more famous in the form of "Pharaoh, Pharaoh, whooooa baby, let my people go ..." Many churchgoing children are surprised to first hear "Louie, Louie."
    
    
    
    • Which is just [[Irony ironic]] considering who wrote it.
• "Popcorn" was originally preformed by Gershon Kingsley, but was made famous by Hot Butter's cover.
  
  
  
  • Some of us know it from the old arcade game Pengo...
  • Not to mention Crazy Frog, with the recent generation.
    
    
    
    • ...and speaking of Crazy Frog, its big theme tune is a cover of "Axel F", the theme to Beverly Hills Cop.
• Quick, when you think of the song "Proud Mary" do you think of Creedence Clearwater Revival or Tina Turner 's legs? Much like the Trent Reznor/Johnny Cash example mentioned below, even the lead singer of Creedence (John Fogerty) has said that "Proud Mary" is Tina's song now.
  
  
  
  • Not to everyone. In fact, any fan of classic rock will happily set you straight as to whose song it really is.
    
    
    
    • You mean it's not by the folks who write all the songs for Glee?
• "Nothing Compares 2 U" was made famous by Sinead O'Connor, but it was originally written and recorded by Prince. Why else would the title contain "2 U" rather than "To You"?
  
  
  
  • That ain't the only example. "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan? Prince song.
  • This troper needs to make a correction, "Nothing Compares 2 U" was was originally written by Prince for a group called "The Family" in 1985, making them the first to record the song. However, that version didn't get much recognition until Sinead O'Connor did her version. Prince himself has done live versions of the song. I apologize if this correction has any mistakes.
• "Manic Monday" by The Bangles. Also written by Prince.
• "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James And The Shondells has been covered several times, most famously by Tiffany.
  
  
  
  • Also, I think most would agree that Tommy James And The Shondells' song "Mony Mony" is pretty much Billy Idol's now.
    
    
    
    • To add to the oddity, the two covers were #1 hits consecutively.
    • And then, both covers were parodied on Weird Al Yankovic's album Even Worse, along with two other then-recent covers.
• Although Robert Palmer made "I Didnt Mean To Turn You On" famous in the 80s, Cherelle's original version is currently the more well known.
• Iconic surfer song "Misirlou" has its origins in folk dance; Dick Dale had learned it from his uncle, a Lebanese folk musician, and originally adapted his version, at greatly-increased tempo from the original, on a bet that he could play an entire song on a single guitar string. It began as a Greek rebetiko song in 1927, as performed by Michalis Patrinos (cite The Other Wiki). True authorship is unknown, as is the case with most rebetiko songs. Nowadays, credit is given to either Patrinos or Nicholas Roubanis (who created a jazz arrangement in 1941), and S. Russell, N. Wise and M. Leeds who wrote lyrics. It's also been covered in various other styles, including Klezmer. And now, of course, a lot of people think of it as "The Pulp Fiction Theme".
  
  
  
  • It was also Sampled Up by the Black Eyed Peas in "Pump It".
• "Kids In America" by Kim Wilde has had various covers throughout the years. One such cover was featured on the dub of the Digimon Movie, performed by Len (not THAT Len!), and another was featured in Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, performed by No Secrets. There is also the Jonas Brothers cover "Kids of the Future", made to tie in with Meet The Robinsons (hence why it mentions the Robinsons multiple times during the song). Slightly older kids in America might remember the cover by The Muffs, which was used in the opening sequence of Clueless and subsequently featured in Rock Band 2.
  
  
  
  • Speaking of the Jonas Brothers, "Year 3000" - made famous by them in the US - is actually a cover of a song by the defunct English boy band Busted.
    
    
    
    • A rather watered-down version, at that..
• Guns N Roses didn't originate "Live and Let Die" (it was Paul McCartney and Wings, guys, for a James Bond movie).
  
  
  
  • Does anybody actually think Guns N Roses originated "Live and Let Die"?
  • Guns N' Roses also Covered Up "Since I Don't Have You" by The Skyliners.
• Johnny Cash's legendary 2003 cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" easily falls into this, as because of the song's success, some people don't even remember that it was a cover of a song by NIN. Upon hearing Cash's cover, Trent Reznor proclaimed that the song was "no longer his". This sentiment was later echoed by Nick Cave in performance when referring to Cave's "The Mercy Seat".
  
  
  
  • Cash did this earlier in his career too. "Folsom Prison Blues" was closely based on a Gordon Jenkins song called "Crescent City Blues", "Ring of Fire" was first recorded by Anita Carter (June's sister), and Shel Silverstein had already released his own version of "A Boy Named Sue" before Cash recorded it.
  • "I've Been Everywhere" is now thought of exclusively as a Johnny Cash song, but it has a complex history. It was written by Australian songwriter Geoff Mack in 1959, using Australian place names. Then his publisher gave him an atlas and asked him to write a version with American names. Hank Snow recorded that version in 1962, and it became a country music standard. When Cash recorded it in 1996, his younger fans weren't familiar with the song.
• Santana's "Black Magic Woman" was originally a Fleetwood Mac song.
  
  
  
  • Then again, some of those people probably don't even know that there was a Fleetwood Mac before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, or that Rumors is about their tenth album. The fact that the band's own compilations ignore this fact doesn't help.
  • "The Green Manilishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)" was likewise a Fleetwood Mac song of the same era (back when Peter Green was the singer and lead guitarist) but today most people only know the Judas Priest version.
    
    
    
    • "Better by You, Better Than Me" was originally by Spooky Tooth most people have only heard the Judas Priest version.
  • On classic rock radio, the recording of "Oh Well" from the 1980 album Live, with Lindsay Buckingham singing, is the definitive version of the song. One would hardly be aware that the original recording dates to 1969, was sung by Peter Green, and includes a 6-minute acoustic instrumental outro that rivals Layla in its awesomeness.
  • Back on the topic of Santana, "Evil Ways" was originally recorded by Willie Bobo.
  • The vast majority of Santana's big hits (at least in their early years) were covers. In addition to Black Magic Woman and Evil Ways, "Oye Como Va" was originally recorded by Tito Puente, "Jingo" was originally by Babatunde Olatunji, and "Everybody's Everything" was based on the obscure single "Karate" by the Emperors.
• "Barbara Ann" wasn't originally performed by the Beach Boys, nor even by The Who, but by The Regents.
• Everybody and their uncle have probably heard Josh Groban singing "You Raise Me Up". Probably far fewer know that it was originally composed and performed by the Irish-Norwegian duo Secret Garden.
  
  
  
  • Weren't they the Eurovision winners at one point?
  • And the tune is a reworking of the Irish classic "Danny Boy" (or the Londonderry Air, for those Irish who don't care for those lyrics.)
• "Shivers" is quite probably the biggest single Australian band the Screaming Jets ever produced. Pity it's actually a cover of a Nick Cave song, which, just to add insult to injury, also gets the lyrics wrong ("All alcohol and cigarettes" becomes the totally inexplicable "Our love could hold on cigarettes").
• Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was actually written and originally performed by Costello's producer,Nick Lowe.
• "Last Kiss" was first recorded in 1962 by its author, Wayne Cochran. The first hit version was released in 1964 by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. Then Pearl Jam covered it after Eddie Vedder found a copy of the 45 single at a flea market.
• When you think of "Hard to Handle", do you hear the Black Crowes or Otis Redding?
• The Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" is now best known as the Tetris theme.
• At least some Counting Crows fans were surprised to learn that "Big Yellow Taxi" was originally by Joni Mitchell — and that her version was a third the length of the cover, shifting the emphasis from the general theme of loss ("Big yellow taxi/took my old man away") to the more specific (and already predominant) environmental message. Like "Misirlou" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", the song is one of the most frequently recorded non-traditional pieces.
  
  
  
  • This happens to Mitchell a lot. She also wrote and recorded the original versions of "Woodstock" and "Both Sides Now", but the hit versions were by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and Judy Collins, respectively.
    
    
    
    • With "Both Sides Now", she gave Collins first dibs, since at the time Collins was signed with a label and Mitchell wasn't yet.
  • Ditto "This Flight Tonight" covered by Nazareth.
• After hearing Vitas's performance of "Il Dulce Suono", a listener declared that she didn't like his rendition of the opera from The Fifth Elementand that you can't perform Sarah Brightman's music without screwing it up. (A common fan mistake: Brightman was not in The Fifth Element.) The music piece comes from the opera Lucia de Lammermoor, which debuted in 1835.
• "Fly Me to the Moon" didn't originate from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was originally a cabaret song in waltz time called "In Other Words". The version that all performances since copy is from Frank Sinatra (And The Count Basie Orchestra)'s "It Might As Well Be Swing", where Quincy Jones changed the time signature and gave it a swing rhythm.
  
  
  
  • ...people honestly think that!?
  • While we're on the topic, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai", the insert song played at the end of Evangelion 2.0, is a Japanese folks' song from the 70s. A lot of people mistakenly assume it was taken from K-On.
• Another song Covered Up by Sinatra is "New York, New York," which was written for Liza Minelli as the theme song of a Martin Scorsese movie.
  
  
  
  • The New York Yankees play the Sinatra version after home victories, and the Liza version after home losses. Make of that what you will.
• dc Talk's hit worship song "In The Light" from Jesus Freak was originally by Charlie Peacock, who even provides guest vocals at the end of the more well-known version.
• "Jet Airliner" was written and originally preformed by Paul Pena, but the album was shelved by his record label and only released 27 years later, in 2000. Steve Miller heard a bootleg of the song and recorded a cover with the Steve Miller Band, which became a massive hit.
• Most people are familiar with "In The Street" as the theme song for That 70's Show. If they are aware it's a Real Song Theme Tune at all, it's likely because they noticed it being credited to Cheap Trick in the end credits, or have their full version on a Cheap Trick greatest hits album or a That 70's Show companion album. In fact it was originally performed by Big Star in 1972, five years before Cheap Trick's first album came out. Because Cheap Trick are the more well known of the two 70's bands, people tend to assume it's an early Cheap Trick song, when in fact it's a cover specifically recorded for the show.
• The most instantly recognizable version of "Unchained Melody" today is the Phil Spector-produced one by the Righteous Brothers (helped along by oldies radio and the film Ghost), but not only was it not the original, it was not even the first version of the song to become a hit — Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton had all recorded top-ten hit versions of "Unchained Melody" in the US, and a British singer named Jimmy Young had a #1 cover of it in the UK. Also, the original version (for the movie Unchained) was Oscar-nominated for Best Song a full ten years before the Righteous Brothers recorded it.
• "Two Little Boys" is subject to multiple levels of this. People who only know it casually (British people, at least) think it's "a Rolf Harris song". People who listen to the lyrics tend to think it dates from (and is about) World War One. In fact the modern version of the song was published in 1903, is probably about the American Civil War, and there are still earlier versions that probably date from the Napoleonic Wars.
• The song "One (Is The Loneliest Number)" was made famous by Three Dog Night, but was originally written and recorded by Harry Nilsson. Aimee Mann's later cover for the Magnolia soundtrack is notable for hewing much closer to the original arrangement of the song than the Three Dog Night version.
  
  
  
  • Three Dog Night had a penchant for recording definitive versions of other people's songs.
• Quiet Riot's covers of "Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," both originally by '70s British rock band Slade.
  
  
  
  • Quiet Riot covered these up in America, but the Slade versions were two of the best-selling singles of the 70s in Britain.
• Perry Como had a big hit with his cover of "And I Love You So," which was originally written and performed by Don Mc Lean.
  
  
  
  • McLean himself had a hit with "Crying," originally by Roy Orbison.
• Guitar Hero World Tour features a song by Lenny Kravitz. Guitar Hero World Tour features the song "American Woman". Now, how many of you are aware I'm referring to two separate songs? (The game features the original version of "American Woman", by The Guess Who, and a separate Lenny Kravitz song.)
• "At Last" is now universally associated with Etta James, who recorded it in 1961, but it was originally written in 1941 for the Glenn Miller Band.
• Everyone knows the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone". The group's singer Dennis Edwards even got angry at songwriter Norman Whitfield because the song opens "It was the 3rd of September [...] The day my daddy died" (Edwards' father had died on that date), thinking that Whitfield was getting too personal. Edwards, like most people, was at the time unaware that the song was not written with him in mind and was in fact first recorded by lesser-known Motown artists The Undisputed Truth.
• Rita Coolidge's recording of "We're All Alone" is probably the most commonly known, but the song was originally written and performed by Boz Scaggs for his 1976 album Silk Degrees. Coolidge's version came out a year later.
• Most people think of "The City of New Orleans" as either an Arlo Guthrie song (if they're folk fans) or a Willie Nelson song (if they're country fans). The song was in fact written by folksinger Steve Goodman, who also wrote "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" as a parody of country songs, though everyone today remembers the hit country version by David Allan Coe.
  
  
  
  • In Coe's defense, he explicitly says that Goodman wrote the song in the spoken bit before the last verse, which breaks out all of the stops.
• The Space Jam soundtrack features examples from both ends: Seal covered up "Fly Like An Eagle" (Steve Miller Band), while All For One's "I Turn To You" only became well-known after a version by Christina Aguilera.
• "Amarillo by Morning" was originally recorded by one of its writers, Terry Stafford. It's been covered several times, including the best-known version by George Strait.
• Patsy Cline's signature song, "Crazy", was in fact written by Willie Nelson, and later covered by him.
• The '80s ballad "Everytime You Go Away", made a hit single by Paul Young, was originally written and performed by Hall and Oates.
• "Feel Good Time" is kind of an odd case, as the original version was never officially released: It was written by Beck and William Orbit for a scrapped collaboration-heavy Orbit solo album, but it became a hit when Pink ended up performing it for the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttlesoundtrack. The producers of the soundtrack wanted the Beck version, but he didn't want to appear on the soundtrack himself, though he didn't mind the song being covered. The backing track for her version is in fact exactly the same as what would have been the Beck version, but with his vocals and guitar part mixed out.
• Jules Shear is another recurring victim of the trope. He wrote and recorded the original versions of "All Through the Night", "If She Knew What She Wants", and "Whispering Your Name", songs which are mainly associated with Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles, and Alison Moyet, respectively.
• "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen is actually combination of two songs by The Rivingtons: "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" and "The Bird's the Word".
• "I Go Blind" by Hootie and the Blowfish is actually a cover of a song by 80's Canadian alternative rock group 54-40.
• An odd example: The best remembered version of "Land of 1,000 Dances" is neither the original version (by Chris Kenner) nor the highest charting version (by Wilson Pickett), but a low-charting version by the otherwise obscure band Cannibal and the Headhunters — which was, significantly, the first version to use the "na-na-na-na" chorus.
• Getting back to The Beatles, the band is believed to be the most covered artist in history, and it's a testament to their artistry that for nearly all of their songs, the original versions remain the most famous versions. One notable exception, however: Joe Cocker's version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" became so iconic (helped by having been used as the theme song to The Wonder Years) that few realize it's a Beatles song at all, let alone that it was another song from Sgt Pepper. Even Across The Universe, which generally stuck pretty closely to the Beatles' arrangements of songs, made that one roughly 50/50 Beatles/Cocker.
  
  
  
  • The lads themselves reportedly loved Joe Cocker's cover; in fact, it was the only Beatles cover they really liked. (And speaking of Across The Universe, Cocker's in it, and he sings a great rendition of "Come Together".)
  • A lot of Joe Cocker's songs, actually, have been covers of other songs. Another example is "Feelin' Alright" which is a cover of a song by Traffic.
    
    
    
    • Let us not forget his cover of "You Can Leave Your Hat On" from the movie 9 1/2 Weeks. The song was written, and originally performed, by Randy Newman.
    • And speaking of Randy Newman, he also did "Mama Told Me Not to Come" before Three Dog Night. (And way before the Tom Jones & Stereophonics version)
  • Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" was originally written and recorded by Billy Preston.
• The Beatles, in turn, have done their share of Covering Up, in addition to "Money" and "Twist and Shout" mentioned previously. Some of the cover songs on their early albums were well known rock and roll and R&B hits (and "Till There Was You" was from a well-known Broadway musical), but many were obscure singles or album tracks which the band just happened to like. Not many remember that "Boys" was originally a Shirelles song, or that "Mr. Moonlight" was by Dr. Feelgood and the Interns. And can anyone name the original artist of "Chains" or "Devil in Her Heart"? It was the Cookies and the Donays, respectively (the latter being originally titled "Devil in His Heart"). Some people can recall the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman," which happens to be the original.
  
  
  
  • And "Roll Over Beethoven" is a Chuck Berry song.
• "MacArthur Park" is either known as the song the Jurassic Park parody was based on or some really bad disco hit from Donna Summer. In fact, it was originally written by Jimmy Webb and originally recorded by none other than Richard Harris aka Dumbledore.
  
  
  
  • Harris's version is still fairly well remembered, however. It's usually one of the first songs mentioned whenever the topic of musical Narm is discussed.
• Several Laura Nyro songs: "Wedding Bell Blues" (covered by The 5th Dimension), "And When I Die" (Blood Sweat And Tears), and "Eli's Coming" (Three Dog Night)
• "Close to You" was originally done by Richard Chamberlain. The only version that matters, apparently, was performed by The Carpenters.
• There are people out there who think that Marilyn Manson wrote "Personal Jesus". Confusion over another Depeche Mode cover, "Stripped," is worse in some ways - Rammstein's work is overwhelmingly in German.
  
  
  
  • Similarly, no, "Sweet Dreams" wasn't originally from Marilyn Manson; Eurythmics get that particular credit.
  • ...seriously? People are confused about "Stripped"?
    
    
    
    • "Just Can't Get Enough" was not written for Payless shoe commercials by girl group The Saturdays. It was originally a Depeche Mode song from when they still wrote bouncy, cheerful synthpop.
• Many fans of the early goth band Alien Sex Fiend will rave about how great the song "Hurricane Fighter Plane" is, unaware that it's actually a cover of a song by Red Krayola, a 60's psychedelic band.
• American music fans know "Billy Don't Be a Hero" as a song by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods; however, the song was originally a UK hit for the band Paper Lace.
• The Cascada song, "Everytime We Touch," is known by a good majority of America. Not nearly as many know it was originally by Maggie Reilly. Subverted in that Cascada only used the chorus of the song; bands such as Trixiana, Lacara, and Trinity have done full covers of the song that are not nearly as prolific.
  
  
  
  • For Eurobeat fans, "Livin' in the Night" by Pamsy uses The Jimmy Hart Version of the original melody.
• "1985" is probably Bowling for Soup's greatest hit, but it is in fact, a cover of a song by SR-71, featuring slightly different lyrics.
• Would you believe that the background music from Frogger is an example of this? No, really: it's a cover of "Rock River E", the Japanese theme song from the 1970s anime Rascal the Raccoon.
  
  
  
  • Wow. All these years I just assumed that it was a variation on "Five Little Speckled Frogs".
  • Similarly, Frogger's opening theme is a rendition of Japanese children's song "Inu To Omawarisan" ("Dog and Policeman").
  • That isn't the end of it actually. Three other anime themes can be heard, although they're just snippets: "Oshiete" from Heidi, Girl of the Alps (the part being played is the second "yodeling" part), Hana no Ko Lunlun (from the show of the same name; split into two jingles), and "Ore wa Arthur" from Moero Arthur: Hakuba no Ouji.
    
    
    
    • Later ports and remakes of the game featured entirely new music, presumably for this reason.
  • Also while we're on the subject of video games, not everyone may know that the "theme" from Spy Hunter is in fact the Peter Gunn theme. Indeed, for the Playstation 2 remake, the rock band Saliva did a "cover version" of "The Spy Hunter Theme" using their own original lyrics.
  • The "extra life" theme in Mr Do is in fact the theme from Astro Boy.
  • A video game called Domino Man used Scott Joplin's ragtime song "Maple Leaf Rag".
  • The main gameplay theme in Gyruss may sound pretty cool, but you may be surprised to know that it's actually an electronic rendition of a classical composition called "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach (and classical music typically isn't thought of as "cool"...).
    
    
    
    • And wouldn't you know it, musicologists are now predominantly of the opinion that even this wasn't an original composition, but Bach's transcription from a version for string instrument by an unknown author.
    • Ha. The "Toccata and Fugue" (well, the toccata part, anyway) is the most well known organ piece out there, and has been appropriated in this way ever since cinemas got organs.
  • The arcade game "Bomb Jack" uses the first ending theme of "Spoon Obaasan" (based on the classic book "Mrs. Pepperpot") was used as the first level theme. The second level theme is "Lady Madonna", one of the Beatles' less well-known tracks.
  • Phoenix, for its intro, uses that Spanish-guitar classical piece whose name escapes me. For the second and subsequent waves, the intro is Beethoven's "Für Elise".
• John Williams' "Title Music from Jurassic Park" sounds good — but it sounded much better as JS Bach's "Fugue no. 2 from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier".
• Eric Clapton's famous little acoustic tune "Change the World" is awesome. It's also a Wynonna Judd cover.
• "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" is one of Boyz II Men's signature tunes. Few of the group's fans would know of the 1975 original by G.C. Cameron. And nearly all of them only because of the song's presence on the Cooley High soundtrack.
• "Everlasting Love" was first performed by Robert Knight in 1967. Since then, it has been covered by practically everyone under the sun. Two of the most famous covers were by Carl Carlton (in 1974) and Gloria Estefan (in 1995).
• A rather convoluted example: Country music fans know "Always on My Mind" as a song by Willie Nelson, while pop music fans know it as a song by the Pet Shop Boys. However, both artists were actually covering Elvis Presley's version of the song... which itself was not even the original version. The song was first performed by Brenda Lee, and obscure country singer John Wesley Ryles had a #20 hit with it before Nelson's version (under the title "You Are Always on My Mind").
  
  
  
  • And gamers know it as the song from Silent Hill.
• Some people do not realise that Nightwish's "Over the Hills and Far Away", not to be confused with the 18th century or Led Zeppelin ones, is actually a cover of an earlier one by Gary Moore.
  
  
  
  • Ditto for Alice Cooper's "Poison", which was covered by Tarja Turunen.
  • And what about "Walking In The Air"?
• "When The Stars Go Blue" was made famous on pop radio by The Corrs and on country radio by Tim McGraw, but Ryan Adams' original version predates both of those.
• "I Only Have Eyes For You" seems to be most remembered in a version done by the Flamingos in 1959, but it was originally a Busby Berkeley Number from the movie musical Dames (where it was sung by Dick Powell).
• The song "Just One Person" was originally written and sung for the Peanuts stage adaptation, Snoopy!. However, it is now completely associated with Jim Henson considering it was used as the eulogy song for him both at his funeral and the television tribute to him which declared that the genius' legacy would continue.
• Canadian example: It's almost certain that more people know the Barenaked Ladies' softer version of "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" rather than the original, performed by Bruce Cockburn. Ironically, the song was originally released in an album called Kick at the Darkness, a Bruce Cockburn tribute album.
• "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm. This trooper was astonished by how many people were unaware that it was a cover of a Michael Jacksonsong. Well who didn't know until after Jackson died recently, despite it being the highlight of Moonwalker, and the large number of Jackson references in the AAF video?
• The song "Emotion" which is known as being from Destiny's Child is actually a cover of a Bee Gees song. Well, technically Samantha Sang, but...
• "You Better Run" is a song from The Rascals but is better known as its cover which was done by Pat Benatar.
• You may recall "I've Told Every Little Star" in Linda Scott's 1961 hit version, especially if you're of a certain generation or have seen Mulholland Drive. This cover version is very different from its original use as the theme song of the Kern & Hammerstein musical Music in the Air.
• The Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses" is a bit complicated. See, Mick and Keith originally wrote it back in 1969/1970 or so. Gram Parsons came around, heard it, liked it, asked if he could cover it. Mick 'n Keef said yes, so he puts it out on The Flying Burrito Brothers' debut album in 1970. Then in 1971, The Stones put their own original version on Sticky Fingers. Cue much confusion as to who recorded it first.
  
  
  
  • And a later generation found the song due to it being featured in a third-season episode of Buffythe Vampire Slayer, performed by British group The Sundays.
• "Fancy" was originally written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry in 1969; then covered by Reba Mc Entire in 1990, accompanied by a popular music video.
  
  
  
  • Come to think of it, McEntire seemed to love covers in the early 90's. "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" was written in 1972 by songwriter Bobby Russell. He didn't care for the song, but his wife at the time, comedian/actress Vicki Lawrence, was convinced it had hit potential and recorded it for her debut album. It was covered in 1991 by McEntire, along with a similarly popular music video.
• Most people seem to associate the song "Only Hope" with the movie A Walk To Remember where Mandy Moore sings it, and some even credit her as writing it. Even those who notice that the song was written by a guy named Jonathan Foreman generally don't know that Jon Foreman is the lead singer of the band Switchfoot, the original performers of the song.
• How many people know that "Mad World" is an eighties song, by Tears For Fears?
  
  
  
  • Probably quite a few, considering that it recently broke out again as a hit when Adam Lambert performed it during American Idol's annual "Songs from the year of your birth" theme week. Although there's an equally good chance that his rendition could eventually end up the iconic one...
  • But the most played version is still the one made for Donnie Darko.
• For the record, "Sea of Love" is NOT originally by Cat Power and is NOT originally by the Honeydrippers (and for that matter, NOT LedZeppelineither). It was originally by Phil Phillips from way back in the 1950's.
• No Doubt killed any hope of ever hearing "It's My Life" on the radio in its original version by Talk Talk.
• In the Netherlands, where bad taste seems to come to its inhabitants in spades, "Atomic" (original by Blondie) and "Aquarius" (originally from the musical Hair) are considered songs by The Party Animals. A lot of people also seemed to think that "Just Can't Get Enough" (by Depeche Mode) was a track by Charlie Lownoise And Mental Theo when their cover was released.
  
  
  
  • I would like to say that the person who wrote this is probably living in some sort of recently reclaimed piece of land isolated from music history, because this confusion is completetly new to me. "Aquarius" is forgiven, as it never had a release as a single in the Netherlands, people preferred the cover of "Hair" by Zen.
• Jose Gonzales found fame through the use in a commercial of his acoustic cover of electropop song "Heartbeats" by The Knife.
• Quick, think of the songs "I Swear" and "I Can Love You Like That." Now, did you think John Michael Montgomery, or All-4-One? Montgomery took both to the top of the country charts before All-4-One took either for their rides on the pop charts.
• Remember the song "Love Hurts" by Nazareth? How about the original version by The Everly Brothers, or the subsequent cover by Roy Orbison which also predated Nazareth's? Didn't think so.
• "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" was written by Fred Rose to be recorded by his friend, legendary country singer Roy Acuff (the ubiquitous "Acuff-Rose" Publishing company of many classic country songs), and was covered several years later by Hank Williams Sr. However, by far the most famous version is Willie Nelson's 1975 cover from his Red Headed Stranger concept album.
• "Rivers of Babylon" was originally performed by The Melodians before it became a hit for Boney M.
• Clint Black's "Desperado" may be one of the most-played country songs not to reach the Top 40, with a #54 peak. It's a cover of an Eagles album cut.
  
  
  
  • . . . and is one of their most famous songs.
  • Linda Ronstadt covered it too.
• "Why Baby Why" has been a #1 hit for Red Sovine (as a duet with Webb Pierce) and later for Charley Pride, as well as a Top 10 hit for Hank Locklin. The first version was by George Jones, whose version peaked at #4 (its chart run having been eclipsed by the Sovine/Pierce duet).
• "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" was a pop hit for One Hit Wonder act The Casinos in the 1960s. One year after its release, Eddy Arnold had a #1 country hit with it, and Neal McCoy sent a cover to #4 in 1996. But before all that, its writer, John D. Loudermilk, recorded it.
• "Tennessee Flat Top Box", a #1 hit for Rosanne Cash, was originally a #11 hit for her father. You know, Johnny Cash. Even she didn't know that her own father wrote the song until after she recorded it.
• "What Hurts the Most". Which artist do you think of first? Jo O'Meara, Rascal Flatts or Cascada? If you're a country fan, probably Rascal Flatts. (But before all that, Mark Wills recorded it.)
• "She's All I Got" was first a hit for One Hit Wonder Freddie North before Johnny Paycheck sent his cover to #2 on the country charts. Later on, Tracy Byrd had a big country hit with his version, which still gets played on the radio to this day, making this another example of a cover-up of a cover-up.
• Clay Walker's debut single "What's It to You" was originally recorded by its co-writer, Curtis Wright.
• Blake Shelton's signature song "Ol' Red" was originally recorded by George Jones, and had been covered by Kenny Rogers before Blake got to it.
• Another big one. Billy Ray Cyrus' debut single "Achy Breaky Heart" was originally recorded by an obscure act called the Marcy Brothers. Their version was called "Don't Tell My Heart."
• Emmylou Harris' "Together Again" is so associated with her that many people forget that its writer, Buck Owens, had a #1 hit with it first.
• Chris Cagle's biggest hit, "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out", is a cover of a song first recorded by David Kersh.
• How many people can tell you that Paul Davis was the first singer to do "I Go Crazy"?
• Kevin Sharp's only #1 hit was "Nobody Knows", originally by Tony Rich. While Rich's was his only big hit, Kevin at least got two more Top 5 hits after his somewhat more well-known cover.
• The Oak Ridge Boys' "Elvira" was originally recorded by its writer, Dallas Frazier, back in 1966, and was a minor single for Rodney Crowell before the Oaks' version became a big country crossover hit in the early 1980s.
• Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson's duet "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" was originally a minor hit for its writer, Ed Bruce, three years before the Waylon/Willie version.
• Brooks & Dunn's version of "My Maria" is seemingly much more well-known than B.W. Stevenson's original. Even worse, Stevenson was a One Hit Wonder.
  
  
  
  • It wasn't the first time it happened to B.W. Stevenson either. Just as his original version of "Shambala" started gaining momentum, Three Dog Night released theirs and had a Top 10 hit with it.
• Four of Bruce Robison's songs have gone on to become covered up by others: "Angry All the Time" by Tim McGraw, "Desperately" and "Wrapped" by George Strait, and "Travelin' Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks (which had also been recorded by Ty England before their version, but only the Chicks' version was a single).
  
  
  
  • Two more of the Dixie Chicks' hits were originally recorded by other artists as well: "Some Days You Gotta Dance" by The Ranch (a short-lived band fronted by Keith Urban), "Cold Day in July" by Joy Lynn White.
    
    
    
    • Also, the Sons of the Desert were going to record "Goodbye Earl," but their record label said no.
• Bjork's single "It's Oh So Quiet" is a renamed cover of the less well-known Betty Hutton song "Blow A Fuse".
• "Sloop John B", made famous by the Beach Boys, is actually a West Indies folk song dating back to at least 1917 (originally titled "Wreck of the John B"). The band did rework the tune pretty radically, however, so it could almost count as an original composition. (In fact, Brian Wilson is the only songwriter credited for the tune.)
• "Rosalie", written by Bob Seger in tribute to a Windsor, Ontario radio executive and first recorded for his Back in '72 LP, but much better known in Thin Lizzy's rendition for their live album Armed and Dangerous.
  
  
  
  • It probably doesn't hurt that Seger himself has kept Back in '72 out of print since the '70s due to Old Shame.
• It's technically not a cover since Colin Hay sang both versions, but the Men at Work song "Overkill" has been covered up by Hay's solo acoustic version from the season 2 premiere of Scrubs.
• McBride & the Ride's biggest hit, "Sacred Ground," was originally released by Kix Brooks two years before he became the Garfunkel half of Brooks & Dunn.
• Three artists released "Butterfly Kisses" in the same year: Bob Carlisle, Raybon Brothers and Jeff Carson. Carlisle's was a big hit at AC radio but didn't enter the pop charts because it was ever a physical single; as a result, only the Raybon Brothers' cover went up the pop charts. Given that both artists were One Hit Wonder (although Marty Raybon was previously a member of the sucessful 1990s band Shenandoah), this is an especially unusual case of covering up.
• Several of Alan Jackson songs are examples, presented chronologically:
  
  
  
  • Since there are already a couple of Alan Jackson covers on this list, let's throw in one more: "Mercury Blues" (y'know, Crazy 'bout a Mercury?) is a cover of a 1949 song by K.C. Douglas, and was originally called "Mercury Boogie". It's also been covered by the Steve Miller Band and Meat Loaf.
  • "Summertime Blues" was originally released by Eddie Cochran.
    
    
    
    • Which was also covered by The Who and Rush (who covered The Who's version).
    • And by Blue Cheer (#14 in 1968).
  • "Song for the Life" was first recorded by its writer, Rodney Crowell, and had been recorded by at least five other artists before Alan released his version.
  • "Tall, Tall Trees" was co-written by Roger Miller and George Jones, both of whom recorded their own versions in the 1960s.
  • "Who's Cheatin' Who" was a #1 hit for country singer Charly McClain in 1981. Alan's cover, despite peaking one position lower on the charts, is much better-known.
  • "Pop a Top" was a hit for Jim Ed Brown in the 1960s.
  • "Murder on Music Row," his duet with George Strait, was originally recorded by Larry Cordle.
  • "The Blues Man" was originally an album track by Hank Williams, Jr.
  • "It Must Be Love" was a hit for Don Williams about 30 years before Alan Jackson's cover. Both versions went to #1; both this song, "Pop a Top", and "The Blues Man" were from a covers album.
• Dwight Yoakam's "Honky Tonk Man" seems to be more well known than Johnny Horton's original; for some reason, most of Johnny's non-historically-themed songs (e.g. "Sink the Bismarck", "North to Alaska", "Battle of New Orleans") seem to be long forgotten.
• "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry had originally been released by Margie Singleton, whose version was climbing the charts when Bobbie's was released.
• Phil Vassar's "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" was previously a single for Paul Brandt under the title "It's a Beautiful Thing."
• Keith Urban's "Raining on Sunday" was previously recorded by Radney Foster, and "Making Memories of Us" was originally recorded by Tracy Byrd (and by its writer, Rodney Crowell, as a side project involving his backing band, The Notorious Cherry Bombs).
  
  
  
  • Also from the same album as "Raining on Sunday" is "I'm In," which was also released by The Kinleys two years after Foster's original. In only three weeks on the charts, Urban's rendition of this song has outpeaked the Kinleys'.
• Mark Chesnutt's #1 hit "I'll Think of Something" was originally a top ten hit for Hank Williams, Jr. in his earlier days (you know, before all the chest-beating "party" songs).
• Several of Alabama's songs were previously released by other artists to varying degrees of success.
  
  
  
  • "Take Me Down" and "The Closer You Get" were originally released by Exile. Both were hits for Alabama only a couple years before Exile reinvented itself, transforming from a one-hit wonder pop band to a successful country band.
  • "Touch Me When We're Dancing" was originally a pop and AC hit for The Carpenters.
  • Both Johnny Russell and Tom T. Hall (whose version is a duet with Earl Scruggs) released "Song of the South", barely scraping the charts with it before Alabama's version went to #1.
  • "In Pictures" was originally recorded by Linda Davis.
• "Hush", written by Joe South and originally recorded by Billy Joe Royal, is probably most famous as the cover by Deep Purple (1968) or the one by Kula Shaker (1997).
• A rather strange example is "Back Where I Come From," first released by Mac McAnally in 1990. A 1996 cover by Kenny Chesney (though never a single) seems to be far more well-known, as Chesney regularly performs the song in concert and some stations play Chesney's version anyway.
  
  
  
  • Similarly, Chesney took a cover of McAnally's 1990 single "Down the Road" to #1 in 2009, although McAnally sang duet vocals on it ? a rare example of an artist helping to cover up his own work.
• When "Hot Rod Lincoln" is mentioned, most probably think it was originally done by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who recorded the best-selling version of the song. However, Charley Ryan and the Livingston Brothers did the original song. Somewhere, four cylinders pulling the titular Model A were lost, in the process of covering by various artists.
• While "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" is typically thought of as a "girl power"-type song because of Cyndi Lauper's success with the song, some might be surprised to learn that it was originally written by a man (Robert Hazard) and was originally sung from a male perspective.
• Gary Allan's "Best I Ever Had" was originally recorded by Vertical Horizon. Despite virtually no non-country music airplay, it outpeaked the original on the Hot 100 (51 vs. 58).
• Five of the songs on the Queen Of The Damned soundtrack were originally written and recorded by Jonathan Davis of Korn. Due to contract troubles, all five songs were covered for the official soundtrack, by the likes of Wayne Static, David Draiman, Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington and Jay Gordon. Unless you've seen the movie (especially the music videos included as extras), most people think that the covers are in fact the original versions of the songs. And considering how hard it is to get a hold of the original versions, since they were never officially released, this doesn't look like it will change any time soon.
• DragonForce's "Strike of the Ninja" is actually a version of "Feel the Fire" by DragonForce side project Shadow Warriors.
• In the days of early rock and roll, this was deployed almost systematically by major labels trying to put their great white hopes up against the black musicians who were making the good music. Pat Boone is still infamous for the amount of covering he did.
• Thanks to the proliferation of remixes and vocal arranges of the awesome library of Touhou music, numerous themes tend to get covered up from a fan's perspective.
  
  
  
  • For example, "UN Owen Was Her?!", Flandre Scarlet's theme, is often covered up by both hits like COOL&CREATE's version... or even the Ronald remix known also as the McRoll.
  • A more recent example would be "Bad Apple!" - odds to evens you were thinking more of the Alstroemeria Records remix.
• It appears that "If You Knew Susie" was written for Al Jolson to sing in the Broadway musical Big Boy, but the song didn't go over well for him and the show. It then became one of the songs most associated with Eddie Cantor, his popular rival.
  
  
  
  • Speaking of Al Jolson, though he recorded the definitive version of "Swanee" and performed the song in one of his touring productions, it had been introduced before in an obscure Broadway show by a female singer. Many decades later, musical arrangements from that show were exhumed and recorded for the CD Broadway Showstoppers.
• More Joplin: most people don't even realize Bobby McGee was originally female, in the song by Kris Kristofferson. Joplin, her personal life notwithstanding, made him a man.
  
  
  
  • It's generally accepted that Kristofferson, who was Joplin's lover for a time, wrote the song about her; that is, when Joplin sings about "BobbyMc Gee," she's singing about herself!
• A few of Great Big Sea's more popular songs are like this. "Run Runaway" was originally recorded by Slade, "When I'm Up (I Can't Get Down)" was originally by Oysterband, and "Beat The Dream" was originally a Runrig song (called "Pride of the Summer".)
• "Flying Without Wings", arguably mostly made famous by its use on American Idol by Ruben Studdard, was actually by Westlife, and featured in the film Pokemon: The Movie 2000.
• Sort-of example: The song "Wooden Ships" had lyrics written by Paul Kantner (of Jefferson Airplane) and music by David Crosby. Jefferson Airplane and Crosby Stills & Nash both recorded and released the song at around the same time in 1969. Today, CSN's version is the authoritative one as far as classic rock radio is concerned.
• The song "Drift Away" was written by Mentor Williams (brother of famed composer Paul Williams) and originally performed by John Henry Kurtz. Dobie Gray's version is the most famous, although Uncle Kracker's cover is also well-known.
• "I Just Want to Make Love to You" was covered by Foghat, the Rolling Stones, and Etta James - any of whom may be believed to be the original artist - but was first recorded by Muddy Waters, in 1954.
• "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer", a well-known George Thorogood song, was originally written by Rudy Toombs for Amos Milburn, but first recorded by John Lee Hooker.
• Insomuch as one can cover up a song they wrote with a different band: "Do Ya" was first written by Jeff Lynne as a late single by The Move - it later got much more exposure when he remade it with Electric Light Orchestra.
• George Thorogood ended up covering himself with "Bad To The Bone". He originally wrote the song for Bo Diddley, but Bo decided not to record it. George then tried to have Muddy Waters record it, but Waters was in-between recording labels at the time.
  
  
  
  Thorogood: I literally could not peddle it, so I was my own third option. And it became the song I'm probably best known for.
• "Move It On Over" was originally written and recorded by Hank Williams Sr. before being covered in the 70's by George Thorogood.
• In an Argentinian example, the band Metropoli recorded the song "Heroes Anonimos", but were the band Catupecu Machu the ones who popularized it.
• "Hurdy Gurdy Man": while most of the people who know this song are aware that it was first written and performed by Donovan (Leitch), Steve Hillage's cover version has reached a larger audience and enjoyed a greater popularity since the mid-70s.
• "Wild Thing" was written by Chip Taylor (brother of Jon Voight) and originally recorded by the Wild Ones in 1965. A year later, the Troggs covered the song, it stormed to #1 on the charts, and the rest is history.
• This is a pretty obscure example, but the 4 Strings song "Turn It Around" is actual a cover of an earlier song also called "Turn It Around" and also produced by Carlo Resoort, performed by Alena.
• The Isley Brothers cover of "Summer Breeze" probably counts. Ernie Isley adding a Epic Riff and ending on a bad ass 3 minute guitar solo. It went from a folk type tune by Seals and Crofts and turned into psychedelic funk/rock/soul track. Most people think this is the original version...which is ironic as the cover version didn't chart as big as the original.
• The A*Teens frequently did this to ABBA tunes (not surprising, since they were originally a tribute band called the ABBA Teens until the members of ABBA asked them to change the name). They later went on to cover up Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love", and their version was featured on the soundtrack to Lilo And Stitch.
  
  
  
  • Which had previously been covered by UB40, who scored a #1 hit with it. Interestingly, each rerelease makes it more and more uptempo, with the Presley original being a slow ballad, the A*Teens version a dance hall-type song, and UB40's version somewhere in the middle.
• "Landslide" has been covered at least twice. Originally performed by Fleetwood Mac, it has been covered by Smashing Pumpkins, and most recently, the Dixie Chicks.
• The Bangles' 1987 hit "Hazy Shade of Winter?" Done by Simon and Garfunkel, 20 years earlier.
• Not exactly this trope, but "Mrs. Robinson" was written in its entirety after The Graduate was made. Only preliminary parts of it were used in the movie.
• For some, Cake's "The Guitar Man" (originally by Bread).
• "China Girl" is best known for David Bowie's 1983 hit version, but it was originally performed by Iggy Pop (and co-written with Bowie) in 1977. The covering up was ultimately pretty beneficial to the original artist, which may have been the point: Iggy Pop was nearing bankruptcy at the time, and receiving substantial royalties for the Bowie version helped him out financially.
• In yet another example involving Rod Stewart, "Broken Arrow" was written by Robbie Robertson, formerly of The Band, and first recorded on Robertson's first solo album. (And may I say his version kicks Stewart's around the block.)
• Though neither song is terribly well remembered these days, when people think of "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and "Hasten Down the Wind," they're more likely to think of Linda Ronstadt than Warren Zevon.
  
  
  
  • In country circles, when they hear the former they think of Terri Clark rather than Linda Ronstadt.
• Faith No More with The Commodores' "Easy".
• "The Lady is a Tramp," originally from the musical Babes in Arms, is most famous as a Frank Sinatra song. It doesn't help that the well-known movie version didn't include the song due to Adaptation Decay; also, the licensed version of the show changed one line in the song to say, "For Frank Sinatra I holler and stamp."
• "Ievan Polkka" is mix of Covered Up and Memetic Mutation. The song was written in the 1930's by Eino Kettunen, and performed many times since then, but most non-Finnish internet users were introduced to the song by Loituma's a cappella cover version—specifically, the 27-second portion of the song used in the Leekspin flash video. The kicker is that this clip was a Scat Singing intermezzo that Loituma added. Naturally, several cover versions since (including Hatsune Miko's version, the Holly Dolly version, and this Russian cover) have copied Loituma's improvised nonsense verbatim, more-or-less ignoring the actual lyrics of the original song.
• "One Tin Soldier" was first recorded by The Original Caste, not Coven.
• "Everybody's Talkin'" was written by Fred Neil, but is most often connected to Harry Nilsson as the soundtrack from Midnight Cowboy.
• Semi-example: "What a Fool Believes" was originally recorded and released by Kenny Loggins on his album Nightwatch. Co-writer Michael McDonald recorded another version a year later with his band, the Doobie Brothers. The Doobies' version is much more famous than the original.
• "One and One" (made famous by Robert Miles and Maria Nayler) and "Perfect Moment"(made famous by Martine McCutcheon) were both originally by Polish singer Edyta Gorniak.
• "Knock On Wood" by Eddie Floyd, better known from the Amii Stewart version. And no, Donna Summer never sang it.
• Akira - "Piece of Heaven" was originally by A7 (not to be confused with Avenged Sevenfold), which had some of the same producers. Dune also did a Jimmy Hart Version called "Heaven", which was banned from release due to a plagiarism lawsuit.
• Some people don't know that "Family Man" by Hall & Oates is a cover originally done by Mike Oldfield. May be a bit justified since Oldfield isn't really that popular in the US.
• "Wild in the streets" is known by many younger people today as a song by Circle Jerks, but it was previously a small 70's hit by Garland Jeffreys.
• The Grammy for Song of the Year for 1986 went to the Gladys Knight, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick version of "That's What Friends Are For". How many people realize this is a cover of a song recorded four years earlier by Rod Stewart (yep, Rod again) for the movieNight Shift.
• "Bette Davis Eyes" was originally written and recorded by Jackie DeShannon. Kim Carnes's version is the most famous.
• "Heart and Soul" was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, and originally recorded by Exile. The Bus Boys also recorded it, but the version by Huey Lewis and the News is the most famous and the only one which hit the top 10 on the Billboard singles chart.
• "La Bamba", made famous by Richie Valens, was originally a Mexican wedding dance song.
  
  
  
  • Incidentally — the video of the Los Lobos cover of "La Bamba" (which they in turn did for the soundtrack to the Richie Valens bio-pic) ends with the band starting to play the original traditional song on acoustic guitars. It's kinda nifty.
• Weird version: in Brazil, the success of The Elite Squad brought much attention to the opening theme, a 90's song called Rap das Armas". Yet somehow people mostly played a cover which was not in the film (which even was remixed by European D Js and became a hit in the Netherlands and Scandinavia).
• "Whenever You Need Somebody" is best known as a Rick Astley song. Most people don't know that it was originally performed by O'Chi Brown.
• Fans of late sixties/early seventies music will certainly be more familiar with the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed solo versions of "Sweet Jane," with or without the excised half-minute, but others today would probably be quicker to recognize the very, very different Cowboy Junkies version, based on a slow, mostly ad-lib live version from before the album was out, thanks to it being used in Natural Born Killers, a Wham Episode of Law And Order, a CSI episode, etc., etc.
• "Strawberry Letter 23" by Shuggie Otis, or the version you may recognize by Brothers Johnson.
• There was an all-covers album called "Punk Goes Crunk," which featured various alternative music artists doing their own takes on various hip-hop and R&B songs. All Time Low did a cover version of Rihanna's "Umbrella." Now, it's debateable whether All Time Low's or Rihanna'sversion is better known, though there are a sizable number of people who seem to think All Time Low's version was the original.
• Many more people are familiar with Cyndi Lauper's cover of "Money Changes Everything" than the original by The Brains.
• Many jazz standards were originally Broadway show tunes. Since many of the shows they came from are long-forgotten, the famous musicians who performed covers of the songs are more closely associated with them than their original authors.
• Most people are familiar with "If You Asked Me To", written by veteran songwriter Diane Warren, as one of Celine Dion's first English-language hits. Few are aware that it was originally recorded by Patti La Belle, and even played over the end credits of the James Bond movie Licence To Kill.
• This troper heard the techno Eurobeat cover of Jesse McCartney's "Because You Live" before the original, not knowing it was a cover.
• "Think Twice", covered by Alana Dante and M.G., and performed live by Kelly Clarkson, was originally by Celine Dion .
• "My Island Home" was not originally by Torres Strait Islander Christine Anu, but by Warupmi Band, an Aboriginal group from the Northern Territory, penned by member Neil Murray. Anu started out as their backing singer, and was encouraged by Murray to sing it.
• "Crimson and Clover" was originally by Tommy James and the Shondells. Joan Jett covered it, keeping the gender lyrics so now you have a punk goddess singing a love song to another woman, added killer guitar riffs, and removed that annoying warbly vocal thing. Unsurprisingly, her version is now the more famous (despite only reaching #7 instead of #1 like the original).
• Barry Manilow's "Mandy" was originally called "Brandy", and it was written and performed in 1971 by Scott English and Richard Kerr.
• Brian Setzer's hit "Jump Jive An' Wail" was a cover of a 1957 song by Louis Prima.
• "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder, covered by Unique II, Max-a-Million, and more recently Blue Lagoon, and interpolated in P Diddy's "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"
• Bananarama's "Look on The Floor" covers the chorus of the 80's italo-disco song "Hypnotic Tango" by My Mine.
• Placebo's "Running Up That Hill" and Maxwell's "This Woman's Work" have both managed to eclipse the original versions by Kate Bush.
• Eddie Cochran was one of the great pioneers of rock. During his tragically short carreer he had several hits, many of which have been covered by others. "Summertime Blues" has already been mentioned on this page; other notable Cochran songs covered by others include "Three Steps to Heaven" (covered by Showaddywaddy), "Somethin' Else" (covered by Led Zeppelin and Sid Vicious amongst many others, but the version best known in the UK is probably the John Lydon version) and "C'mon Everybody" (Led Zeppelin and Sid Vicious again — amongst many others, again). Indeed, Cochran is a prime example of this trope; he used to be erroneously described on this very page as a "one-hit wonder".
• "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" was not written by Herman's Hermits. It is significantly Older Than They Think, having been penned in 1910 and originally recorded by Harry Champion.
• "Turn The Beat Around", originally by Vicky Sue Robinson, covered up by Gloria Estefan.
• Jerrod Niemann's "Lover, Lover" is probably the first time that most Americans have heard this song. Australians, however, probably know it better through Sonia Dada's original, which was titled "You Don't Treat Me No Good." The strange thing here is that Sonia Dada was anAmerican band!
• The song "Cinderella" has been performed by artists such as Play, Tata Young, and The Cheetah girls. It was actually originally written and sung by a relatively unknown girl group i5.
• There are quite a few people who don't know that The Byrds' enormous hit "Turn! Turn! Turn!" was originally written and performed by Pete Seeger.
• "Georgia on My Mind" was written and performed by Hoagy Carmichael. No one but no one thinks it's anything but a Ray Charles original today. Well, except for those who think of it as a Willie Nelson song.
• "Love You Down", better known from INOJ, was originally by Ready For The World. Ironically, INOJ's album was also titled Ready For The World.
• Think of the song "Iko Iko". You're probably thinking either of the version used in RainMan, of Dr. John's version, or the Grateful Dead's. Or Cyndi Lauper's. Or maybe even the 1965 version recorded by The Dixie Cups which most people believe was "the original." They are all pre-dated by a 1953 recording by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, who himself adapted a bunch of Mardi Gras parade chants into a song that he called "Jock-a-mo". The Dixie Cups' version came when the singers were on a break during recording and just started singing it — one band members' grandmother was a fan of the Crawford song — and didn't know that the producers were recording them.
• "Waiting For Tonight", better known as a Jennifer Lopez song, was originally by 3rd Party.
• "Love is Alive" by Gary Wright; covered up by 3rd Party, and later Anastacia.
• "Obsession" was not originally performed by Animotion, but rather by Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight. Animotion's was the first to appear on the charts.
• Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man" was originally performed by blues musician John Brim.
• The Kinks have been known to introduce "You Really Got Me" as a Van Halen song when performing it live.
• Rascal Flatts' immensely popular hit "Bless The Broken Road" was originally sung by Marcus Hummon.
• The Sweet's "AC/DC," by Joan Jett. At the very least, it sounds less brazenly offensive coming from her.
• Sublime's "Smoke Two Joints" is actually originally by The Toyes.
• Most people are more familiar with the Blue Swede version of "Hooked on a Feeling"—you know, the one with the "ooga chaka"s—than the original performance by B.J. Thomas. It was made even more well-known as the "Dancing Baby" song, featured in Ally Mc Beal. Blue Swede itself borrowed "ooga chaka" from an earlier version by Jonathan King.