I feel like it's no longer a "cover" if it becomes the reference version. Like, Tony Rice's "Church Street Blues" is a cover of Norman Blake's song ... but it's Tony's. Every subsequent version is compared to Tony's not Norman's. Too bluegrassy? Here are some now-canonical covers ... - ThreadSky

gnat.bsky.social • 3 days ago

I feel like it's no longer a "cover" if it becomes the reference version.

Like, Tony Rice's "Church Street Blues" is a cover of Norman Blake's song ... but it's Tony's. Every subsequent version is compared to Tony's not Norman's.

Too bluegrassy? Here are some now-canonical covers ...

Comments

openpolicy.bsky.social•3 days ago

📌

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

"Soft Cell's Tainted Love", originally by Gloria Love.

Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody", originaly recorded by Todd Duncan, of whom I'm reasonably sure you've never heard, and at least four other times before they did it.

Amy Winehouse's "Valerie", originally recorded by The Zutons.

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Jimmy Hendrix's "Along the Watchtower" is a Bob Dylan song.

Beatles' "Twist and Shout", was by a band called The Top Notes.

Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was first recorded in 1979.

What are your favourite now-canonical covers?

mike-kay.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Afghan Whigs' version of TLC's Creep.

nug.monster•3 days ago

hurt by johnny cash.

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

How about Bananarama's "Venus". Original by Shocking Blue https://youtu.be/8LhkyyCvUHk?si=Sa0aygAGPZcYjaJG

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Oh man, the original goes hard! Also wtf a Dutch pop song?! I bet there's a moving window of time where producers in their 40s and 50s say "I know an obscure cover you can make awesome" that's drawing on the music that was briefly big when they were teens and twenties but has lost cachet since then.

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

I know. Dutch pop! A bit off theme, but Shocking Blue also did Love Buzz, covered by Nirvana on their first album.
https://youtu.be/QaPL8UsTR1Q?si=FX_1J24mUdh5EfXc

https://youtu.be/Xm0qjrceeYE?si=TqFbyxBQc4wHaGo0

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

Song to the Siren - This Moral Coil

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

Nothing Compares to You - Sinead O'Connor

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's so frustrating to my internal sense of narrative that the two artists didn't get along. I don't know if he felt his version should be the best version, didn't like her politics, or what. His estate continued the dickery tho: sister vetoed the use of the song in Sinead's autobio doco.

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

Maybe they're getting on better these days

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

Take me to the River - Talking Heads

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Huh! I didn't realise this, but I guess it fits with the Heads vibe of the time where they were using Black funk musicians to make the sound. My source for that might be the Strong Songs episode on the documentary.

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Talking Heads version of Take Me To The River is canonical for me, but I see the original by Al Green making lists of "best songs of all time" so jury not unanimous.

The Wikipedia article says the rightsholders made more $ from licensing the song to Big Mouth Billy Bass than from anything else. Ha!

hroethgar.bsky.social•3 days ago

Many well-known Joan Jett songs are covers that became the reference: I Love Rock and Roll, AC/DC, Crimson and Clover, Do You Wanna Touch Me.

They’re all heaps better than the original.

hroethgar.bsky.social•3 days ago

Rod Stewart’s Downtown Train is much better known than the Waits original but I wouldn’t say it’s better.

hroethgar.bsky.social•3 days ago

Funky Town - Pseudo Echo's version is easily the best know, and certainly my preferred version.

hroethgar.bsky.social•3 days ago

Go West is an interesting one - I suspect whether you associate it with the Pet Shop Boys or the Village People is a function of age and geography.

Always On My Mind - I don't think that PSB have nicked that, although I prefers theirs.

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Did Rod sing it in a voice that sounds like a sack of depressed gravel grunting a murder confession?
(listens)

I much prefer the arrangement and production on the Waits recording. Chorus needed more welly because I prefer more contrast/vibe range, but the rest is great.

Stewart popped it up. Meh.

jackcraw.bsky.social•3 days ago

Milk Cow Blues. Bob Wills. Originally Kokomo Arnold

Many songs originally Leadbelly eg Goodnight Irene, Black Betty, In The Pines, Midnight Special, Backwater Blues...

stevereeves.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Man Who Sold The World covered by Lulu...the original by Bowie first sank with little trace until her version.

Also, Torn by Natalie Imbruglia :-)

brosnami.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Man Who Sold the World - Nirvana

stevereeves.bsky.social•3 days ago

Almost everything by the ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain :-)

Teenage Dirtbag in particular

https://youtu.be/Fw8ZDwdyHJQ

...but many, many others!

stevereeves.bsky.social•3 days ago

Sorry! Drifting off topic! :-)

openpolicy.bsky.social•3 days ago

So good.

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

OMG Torn's history is amazing. Swedish first recording under a different name? And this is the first English language version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRRXseBJljs

I wonder how much of Imbruglia's success was just that trancey beat in the chorus?

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also, check out this terrifying rework that drops the video firmly into the uncanny valley ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyKpNBAv1Bw

stevereeves.bsky.social•3 days ago

I have always loved that video

openpolicy.bsky.social•3 days ago

This may well not pass the test of ‘canonical’, but I think this Bowie cover of Waiting for The Man is better than the original.

https://youtu.be/BOcN8DR9UAo?feature=shared

tslumley.bsky.social•3 days ago

Istanbul, by TMBG

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

100% correct, no notes.

Ok, one. https://tmbw.net/wiki/Istanbul_(Not_Constantinople) is interesting reading.

How absolutely mental to be the heirs of the songwriter and composer, and suddenly money rains from the sky in 1990.

talkingtothecan.bsky.social•3 days ago

Siouxsie and the Banshees’ covers of “Dear Prudence” and “Passenger”

talkingtothecan.bsky.social•3 days ago

(Probably not canonical but still damn good)

paulmilbank.bsky.social•3 days ago

I love the Soft Cell cover of Marilyn Mansons tainted love.

Hurt by Johnny Cash. The NIN version is very good too, but has such a different feel to it

ancient.bsky.social•3 days ago

Muppets’ “Mahna Mahna”, originally by Piero Umiliani

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

OMFG! You're not making this up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBPnRh9U8ZE

chiphall72.bsky.social•3 days ago

Angel from Montgomery

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

I keep forgetting that song was made famous by Bonnie Raitt! I grew up with a John Prine's Greatest Hits compilation so that's the canonical version in my head. Thanks for the reminder!

chiphall72.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm a huge John Prine fan as well! I love both of their versions. In fact, my favorite is the one they sing together on John Prine Live. I think more people know her version, but I really do love the original.

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

What a talent he was! Outside of "Paradise" and "Angel from Montgomery", I was wondering which of his endures the best. It might be "Sam Stone" for me. For you?

chiphall72.bsky.social•3 days ago

Got My Mind Set On You

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k68Fob0QA_k

acgeddis.bsky.social•3 days ago

"Tainted Love" by Soft Cell

"Nature" by The Muttonbirds

"Without You" by Harry Nilsson

"Always on My Mind" by The Pet Shop Boys

"Respect" by Aretha Franklin

"Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes

"Sweet Jane" by The Cowboy Junkies 😉

"Hallelujah" by John Cale (+ I will fight you on this ...)

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hallelujah is a landmine. That's one of the few songs with a bunch of different versions, and several from the writer of the song, with no clear single version winning. Cale is an interesting choice! Cohen, Buckley, and Wainwright also strong contenders depending on listener's age and proclivities.

acgeddis.bsky.social•3 days ago

Agreed - but somehow this was the first version of it I ever heard and it still sticks for me ...

acgeddis.bsky.social•3 days ago

Also ... "I Fought The Law" by The Clash ... could maybe add "Police and Thieves" to that but not sure their version actually replaced Junior Murvin's original to the same degree

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

You only have to listen to ten seconds of the Brenda Lee original to admire Pet Shop Boys for how much better it got in their hands!

holovaty.com•2 days ago

"Respect" is definitely owned by Aretha Franklin despite it being an Otis Redding tune originally.

gnat.bsky.social•2 days ago

OMG 100%. And his version isn't bad, per se. Just not ... wow.

publicaddress.bsky.social•3 days ago

*Gloria Jones.

But otherwise, yup.

gnat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thank you! I'm sorry you had to smell my brain fart.

icyred.bsky.social•3 days ago

"House of the Rising Sun"-can you really imagine anyone but The Animals?

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"-the Graham Bonnet one is the only one I hear!

blueshiftnz.bsky.social•3 days ago

Whitney's I Will Always Love you. Original by Dolly. Written on the same day she wrote Jolene.

sarawinge.bsky.social•1 day ago

Bonnie Raitt's version of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery." The Beatles' "Til There Was You" (jk). Surely there are a bunch more--shall burn my limited cognitive resources in pursuit of them...

sarawinge.bsky.social•1 day ago

Elvis's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (Bill approved solely cuz the royalties were so choice).

chiphall72.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hallelujah?

chiphall72.bsky.social•3 days ago

Although I actually prefer Cohen's version.

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