Seerrrrrpriiiise

[geoviki]

Surprise!covers, take 2.

Well, the first round was so fun that I thought I'd do it again. Here are songs you may or may not know were covers. I posted these on lunatunes a few weeks ago and forgot to do it here.



I picked up some of these from the music blog Any Major Dude with Half a Heart. Props to him. Also – I've got these uploaded to Box.net; that site lets you just listen if you aren't that invested in having the song for your very own. Hopefully I won't exceed my free monthly bandwidth with this post.

isiscolo reminded me of this first song. I think Talking Heads had the most commonly known version, although Bryan Ferry, Annie Lennox, and Eva Cassidy were just a few of the other artists who covered this Al Green song.

Take Me To the River – The Talking Heads (1978)
Take Me To the River – Al Green (1974)

This next song probably isn't such a surprise – I think a lot of you know that Otis wrote this, not the Crowes.

Hard to Handle – The Black Crowes (1990)
Hard to Handle – Otis Redding (1968)

But this one, whoo-wee, I had no idea that Otis covered this really old song, sung (but not written) by one Bing Crosby. It's…different, for sure.

Try a Little Tenderness – Otis Redding (1966)
Try a Little Tenderness – Bing Crosby (1932)

In 1978, Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen were recording in adjacent studios. Bruce couldn't seem to make this one song work, so he passed it on to Patti and…. the rest is history. He finally recorded it himself in 1986.

Because the Night – Patti Smith (1978)
Because the Night – Bruce Springsteen (1986)

This next song is so heavily associated with Hendrix that I didn't realize it wasn’t his. Who were The Leaves, anyway?

Hey Joe – Jimi Hendrix (1967)
Hey Joe – The Leaves (1966)

Another surprise coming up, and I love Jackie DeShannon. She was always underrated and underappreciated, IMO. Even Bette Davis herself became friends with Kim Carnes and not Jackie after Kim had the hit.

Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes (1981)
Bette Davis Eyes – Jackie DeShannon (1975)

I like the Hollies. I liked this song. I thought they wrote it. I was wrong.
The Air that I Breathe – The Hollies (1974)
The Air that I Breathe – Albert Hammond (1972)

If you knew 'Lady Marmalade' was not an original on the Moulon Rouge sound track, raise your hand. Good, good. If you knew that 'Lady Marmalade' was not original to LaBelle either, move to the head of the class.

Lady Marmalade – Christina Aguilera/Pink/Mya/Lil Kim (2001)
Lady Marmalade – LaBelle (1974)
Lady Marmalade – Eleventh Hour (1974)

So far, all the covers I've written about, even though another artist made it more popular than the original artist, had proper attribution. These next two, however, pass the bounds of honesty. Jock-a-mo was clearly the same song in 1964 when the Dixie Cups recorded it as it was in 1953 when Sugar Boy Crawford released it, yet after a lawsuit over the issue, the 'Cups got the copyright with some unclear side arrangements. I call bullshit.

Jockamo (Iko Iko) – The Dixie Cups (1964)
Jockomo (Iko Iko) – Sugar Boy Crawford (1953)

Same with this song. The words may be different, but the Canned Heat song, which they have a copyright on, is clearly the same song as the 1928 blues tune, down to the flute intro. I'm so disappointed. Not on, Canned Heat!

Goin' up the Country – Canned Heat (1968)
Bull Doze Blues – Henry Thomas (1928)