Cover versions that were covers of covers

[ale]

Slits 'Heard Through Grapevine' by way of Gladys Knight & Marvin Gaye

Marilyn Manson 'Tainted Love' filtered through Gloria Jones & Soft Cell

[Jah Womble]

The Slits completely re-worked Grapevine, though, did they not?

[Patrick Thistle]

Don't Stop Believin' was on the radio this morning. It reminded me of a few years ago when just about every TV show had it playing at some point. I think the X Factor contestants released a version, following on the heels of the Glee cast, and sounding very much like the Glee version.

I'd nominate All Along the Watchtower - recorded live by U2 and included on Rattle and Hum. They even used Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner as the intro to it. Hendrix of course covered it after Bob Dylan had released it three years earlier. .

[Sits]

Oh yes, one of Bono's more bombastic moments that one.

[ale]

The Slits completely re-worked Grapevine, though, did they not?

They did and it was all the better for it.

[G-Man]

When you cover a famous song that has been perfectly arranged and performed, your only true option is to rework it. Otherwise you're just Michael Bolton.

[Satchmo Distel]

Nine Simone is often the middle person in such covers:

Lilac Wine - Jeff Buckley covering Simone covering Eartha Kitt covering Hope Foye's stage version written by James Shelton

Wild Is The Wind - David Bowie covering Nina Simone covering Johnny Mathis

House Of The Rising Sun - Animals covering Johnny Handle (Newcastle folk singer) covering Woody Guthrie but perhaps also inspired by Nina Simone's 1962 version

[G-Man]

Eric Burdon has credited the versions by Johnny Handle as well as by folk singer Josh White as having influenced The Animals' arrangement.

[Gert from the Well]

Also Coil's version of Tainted Love takes the Soft Cell version as the jumping off point. Marc Almond even appears in the video

[anton pulisov]

Whiskey in the Jar. Metallica covering Thin Lizzy covering The Highwaymen covering The Dubliners covering a trad standard.

Although we don't know if Lizzy was covering the The Highwaymen or The Dubliners directly. More likely The Dubliners, for obvious reaons.

Metallica certainly lifted all the riffs that Thin Lizzy introduced.

[andrew7610]

So many deluded X Factor contestants offer up "Valerie by Amy Winehouse" that Simon Cowell, to grudgingly give him credit, corrects them by mentioning The Zutons.

[Ray de Galles]

Pretty much every cover of 'Hurt' is of the Johnny Cash version rather than the Nine Inch Nails original.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Mariah Carey's version of Without You is a cover of Harry NIlsson's version, rather than Badfinger's.

There's a page 1? Bloody hell.

And I don't remember starting this thread. Looks like the Alzheimer's is kicking in.

[Jah Womble]

...as both G-man and I mentioned on the previous page.

[Capybara]

Does Bill Oddie's version of Ilkley Moor Baht 'At in the style of Joe Cocker's cover of With a Little Help From My Friends count? And if it does, has it already been mentioned?

[Jah Womble]

There's a page 1? Bloody hell.

And I don't remember starting this thread. Looks like the Alzheimer's is kicking in.

What's throwing you might be the fact that you started it exactly a year ago today.

[DCI Harry Batt]

My band used to cover the Kingsmen's version, fo sho. The Wild Thing was kinda in between the Troggs and the Hendrix.

[Sporting]

The Fall's version of War was a cover of a faulty memory of the original:


Tim Mitgett: Is that a Henry Cow cover ['War"] on Middle Class Revolt?Are you actually a fan of that group or just that particular cut?
MES: Well, that's not really Henry Cow, it's Slapp Happy. No, I didn't like a lot of that stuff, actually...
TM: I was kind of surprised that it was on there
MES: Yeah, I find most of it very boring, though the Slapp Happy bits of it were good. I decided we should do it because it fit in with *Free Range* [single released dur-ng Operation Desert Storm] and stuff like that, what we'd been doing. But I went to get the Slapp Happy LP out, and I'd lost it; I hadn't really played it for about eight years. So, all I had were the Iyrics on the back, and I had to explain it to the group, you know? from memory.
TM: I suppose that can sometimes be more fruitful than picking it out note-for-note. . .
MES: Well, the funny thing was that I found the record again, and it's a completely different bloody song. [laughs] Same Iyrics, you know, but the arrangement is completely different, not even the same notes. It's funny what you think things sound like.
TM: Well, see, now you can put your name on it and get a piece of the publishing.
MES: [Laughs] No, no, I don't believe in that.

[Gangster Octopus]

Does Bill Oddie's version of Ilkley Moor Baht 'At in the style of Joe Cocker's cover of With a Little Help From My Friends count? And if it does, has it already been mentioned?

I remember watching that on the wonderful Broaden Your Mind, and then reading a letter complaining about it in the following week's Radio Times...

[Capybara]

Excellent. I knew I'd seen it, but couldn't remember where.

[Gangster Octopus]

Sadly nothing remains of Broaden Your Mind, but you'll probably remember the follow-up: The Goodies...

[Satchmo Distel]

Over The Rainbow is now often covered in the style of Israel Kamakawio'ole's ukele version rather than Judy Garland's non-ukelele one.

[Sits]

And very annoying they are too.

[ale]

Don't Stop Believin' was on the radio this morning. It reminded me of a few years ago when just about every TV show had it playing at some point. I think the X Factor contestants released a version, following on the heels of the Glee cast, and sounding very much like the Glee version.

I'd nominate All Along the Watchtower - recorded live by U2 and included on Rattle and Hum. They even used Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner as the intro to it. Hendrix of course covered it after Bob Dylan had released it three years earlier. .

XTC also did a version of it on their debut album. Slowed down a tad from their usual quirky jerky style but recognisably twitchy XTC all the same.

[ale]

The Fall's version of War was a cover of a faulty memory of the original:


Tim Mitgett: Is that a Henry Cow cover ['War"] on Middle Class Revolt?Are you actually a fan of that group or just that particular cut?
MES: Well, that's not really Henry Cow, it's Slapp Happy. No, I didn't like a lot of that stuff, actually...
TM: I was kind of surprised that it was on there
MES: Yeah, I find most of it very boring, though the Slapp Happy bits of it were good. I decided we should do it because it fit in with *Free Range* [single released dur-ng Operation Desert Storm] and stuff like that, what we'd been doing. But I went to get the Slapp Happy LP out, and I'd lost it; I hadn't really played it for about eight years. So, all I had were the Iyrics on the back, and I had to explain it to the group, you know? from memory.
TM: I suppose that can sometimes be more fruitful than picking it out note-for-note. . .
MES: Well, the funny thing was that I found the record again, and it's a completely different bloody song. [laughs] Same Iyrics, you know, but the arrangement is completely different, not even the same notes. It's funny what you think things sound like.
TM: Well, see, now you can put your name on it and get a piece of the publishing.
MES: [Laughs] No, no, I don't believe in that.

Fall also did Ghost In House after R Dean Taylor & B.E.F ft Paul Jones