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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2017 18:13:49 GMT 1
Classic Rocky Sharpe & the Replays' hit "Martian Hop" was written by the Ran-Dells and released in 1963. It has been described as a one-hit wonder novelty song and it reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The original sounds awful even for novelty song. Rocky Sharpe : www.youtube.com/watch?v=vySXwJDCnVU
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2017 18:17:28 GMT 1
Shame on me, but I didn't know that Blondie's "Denis" is a cover. Found it only some days ago.
Original "Denise" was a popular top ten hit on Billboard Hot 100 chart for American doo-wop group Randy & the Rainbows in 1963 year.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 25, 2017 18:26:43 GMT 1
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Post by raliverpool on Apr 25, 2017 19:00:21 GMT 1
^ I much prefer the original, for its sheer fun lunacy, compared to the boring, competent 50s throwback cover. I'll start with surely the most famous, and also infamous example: Everyone, remembers the huge global #1 from 1972 Harry Nilsson - Without You www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bQGRRolrg0 thanks to the stunning arrangement by the musician, and Richard Perry's top notch production. (Best gloss over Mariah Carey's proto X-Factor version, which was all style & technique and lacking in soul & substance) .... But no one (certainly on Simon Cowell so called talent shows remembers the original written by the Swansea band’s two primary songwriters, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, which has since been covered by more than 180 artists, including Shirley Bassey, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra & Beyonce: Probably the most heartbreaking story in Rock and Roll happens to have happened to one of the best bands in its history. Badfinger should’ve been a huge success story, but instead became a cautionary tale for the myriad ways the music industry exploits and throws away so many talented but naive artists. After supporting major outfits including The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd and the Who, the band — then named the Iveys — was picked up by manager Bill Collins in 1966. It was a move that would help them reach early stardom and contribute heavily to their downfall. Ray Davies of the Kinks recorded three early demos, which Collins managed to get to Apple Records; Badfinger signed with Apple in 1968, making them the first band that wasn’t the Beatles on the label. After a lineup and name change to Badfinger, Paul McCartney penned their first hit, the timeless power pop classic “Come and Get It.” (rejected from the Abbey Road album, as John Lennon thought it was a song mocking his attitude to coming up with new material for the group). The song became an international top ten hit. George Harrison had them play on his 1970 album All Things Must Pass and featured them as part of his backing band at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Whilst the band played on album sessions by John Lennon & Ringo Starr. They also scored huge international hits with Pete Ham's penned compositions "No Matter What", "Day After Day" (produced by George Harrison), and "Baby Blue". When the Beatles Apple Records folded in 1974 their royalties were frozen (until February 1984) whilst the lawyers sorted out the acrimonious divorce settlement between the four Beatles, and their hard nosed crooked manager Allen Klein and other interested parties. But taking manager Collins’s advice, In 1970, the band engaged American businessman Stan Polley to manage their commercial affairs. Over the next five years the band recorded five albums for Apple and toured extensively, before they became embroiled in the chaos of Apple Records' dissolution. After Apple Records folded, Badfinger signed to Warner Bros. Records, but Polley's financial machinations resulted in internal friction that soon caused Ham to quit Badfinger (out of loyalty he had turned down an offer from Paul McCartney to leave the group and join Wings), to be replaced by Bob Jackson on keyboard and guitar, then led to Ham rejoining and their savvy, but relatively hard nosed Liverpool bandmate Joey Molland leaving the band instead due his awareness of their impending financial doom. However, a lawsuit filed by Warner's music publishing arm against Polley over a missing escrow account money led Warner to withdraw Badfinger's critically acclaimed 1974 Wish You Were Here from the market seven weeks after its release, which effectively cut off the band's income. Warner then refused to accept (or pay the band for) Badfinger's next album, Head First, because of the dispute with Polley, leaving the band destitute, and unable to tour or record. Three days before his 28th birthday, on 24 April 1975, Ham committed suicide by hanging himself, leaving a note that included damning comments about Polley. (Polley, in a move that even most scumbags would be disgusted by, tried to cash in on Ham’s life insurance.) With the band shut down, the group's two-room rehearsal studio at No. 6 Denmark Street, London was bought by Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols. The 1978 global smash hit by Bonnie Tyler "It's A Heartache" was written by her two managers after the stock phrase her drummer (former member of Badfinger) Mike Gibbins used as an answer to describe his former band's woes. Inconsolable and unable to restart his own career in music after he & Joey Molland reformed Badfinger in 1978 to have modest success in the USA before splitting in 1982, Tom Evans who reportedly said numerous times over the ensuing years that he wanted to be “where [Pete] is” also hanged himself eight years later in November 1983. Badfinger finally got a sliver of the rediscovery they deserve when their 1972 song “Baby Blue” was used in the series finale of Breaking Bad which was deliberately used by the show' creator & producer Vince Gilligan because he was well aware of what happened to the band, and how it fitted in with the story line finale.
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 26, 2017 23:41:59 GMT 1
Some real ones for you.
All that Twisting craze in the early 1960s. Started with a famous Chubby Checker song. Except it wasn't his song, it was a cover version.
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 26, 2017 23:46:55 GMT 1
Currently #3 in my retro chart, this hit by Madeline Bell was later covered by the Supremes and the Temptations. Madeline Bell later joined British group Blue Mink and is the female singer on the songs "Melting Pot", "Banner Man" etc.
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 26, 2017 23:48:53 GMT 1
Crispian St Peters had an original hit called Pied Piper. But this one was not his song originally:
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 7:07:25 GMT 1
Maybe you didn't know it, but "The Best" originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler on her 1988 release "Hide Your Heart". The single reached number 10 in Norway and number 95 in United Kingdom.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 27, 2017 8:04:12 GMT 1
Crispian St Peters had an original hit called Pied Piper. But this one was not his song originally: Wasn't theirs originally either. Written by Sylvia Tyson.
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 27, 2017 9:47:54 GMT 1
One that has annoyed me intensely for appearing on an "official" site by the NME who are expected to know their music.
We know that the Clash's "I Fought The Law" was a cover version, but it annoys me when people credit the original to the Bobby Fuller Four.
Written by Sonny Curtis. So this is definitively the original
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 27, 2017 9:54:19 GMT 1
.... But no one (certainly on Simon Cowell so called talent shows remembers the original written by the Swansea band’s two primary songwriters, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, I didn't know they were Welsh. Peter Ham lived in Golders Green. 7 Park Avenue, NW11 7SL to be precise.
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Post by o on Apr 27, 2017 10:20:16 GMT 1
Yeah I was going to mention Without you as well. I also didn't know about The Best.
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Post by Earl Purple on Apr 27, 2017 10:31:12 GMT 1
I knew "The Best" was a cover, but didn't know who had done the original.
Ok, this song was not originally done by the Hollies..
Most of their early hits were also cover versions. They didn't start writing their own material until later. So, for example, an early hit of theirs..
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 14:05:07 GMT 1
"Human On the Inside" is a song originally recorded by Australian rock duo Divinyls, released in 1996 as the fourth single from their fifth studio album "Underworld". A minor hit in Australia in 1996, the song became better known after it was covered by The Pretenders in 1999 under the title "Human". In this version, the song became a 1999 chart hit in UK and New Zealand.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Apr 27, 2017 17:56:26 GMT 1
On The subject of Tina Turner, this was originally the B-side to her 'Typical Male' song, 2 years before Aswad had a #1 hit with it.:
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Post by raliverpool on Apr 27, 2017 17:58:04 GMT 1
After passing on signing The Spice Girls (because Simon Cowell would not recognise the next big thing if it shouted boo very loudly in his ear); Simon Cowell got the managers of 5ive to assemble a BMG/Sony equivalent of the "Wannabe" hitmakers, consisting of members Jodi Albert, Anika Bostelaar, Linzi Martin, Michelle Barber and Nikki Stuart. Girl Thing released two singles in 2000 which performed underwhelmingly "Last One Standing" UK #8; & "Girls On Top" UK #25.
The band had already recorded an album, which was cancelled in the UK, Europe & North America; but was still released in Asia & Australasia. As a result the initially planned 4th single "Pure & Simple" remained relative obscure:
Thankfully. its co-writer Alison Clarkson (aka Betty Boo) would receive a sizeable financial boost, when the British pop group Hear'Say, the winners of the UK version of Popstars released it as their debut single in 2001....
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Post by raliverpool on Apr 27, 2017 18:05:19 GMT 1
Whilst Alison Clarkson got her breakthrough featuring on the Beatmasters 1989 UK #7 hit "Hey DJ! (I Can't Dance to that Music You're Playing)".....
Except, that song was a cover of this lesser known Motown track which reached USA #42 in 1968 recorded by Martha & The Vandellas (which features an uncredited Syreeta Wright on vocals on the chorus, and her future husband Stevie Wonder on the distinctive piano riff):
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 19:50:49 GMT 1
“Superman” by Black Lace is a cover of an Italian song, “Gioca Jouer”, written by Claudio Cecchetto and Claudio Simonetti.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 11, 2017 10:56:53 GMT 1
Whilst Alison Clarkson got her breakthrough featuring on the Beatmasters 1989 UK #7 hit "Hey DJ! (I Can't Dance to that Music You're Playing)"..... Except, that song was a cover of this lesser known Motown track which reached USA #42 in 1968 recorded by Martha & The Vandellas (which features an uncredited Syreeta Wright on vocals on the chorus, and her future husband Stevie Wonder on the distinctive piano riff): Just 2 places too low to get into my retro chart then. Gladys Knight's version of "It Should Have Been Me" peaked just high enough though and is on my current playlist. I grew up with Yvonne Fair's version. The original of that song was sung by Kim Weston (the one who later duetted with Marvin Gaye), with the Supremes on backing vocals, back in 1963.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 18:54:03 GMT 1
Famous Tight Fit's hit "Fantasy Island" was recorded for Dutch National Eurovision pre-selection and performed by three different acts (The Millionaires, Bonnie St. Claire, Bill van Dijk)
The Millionaires - Fantasy Island
Bonnie St. Claire - Fantasy Island
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