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That was almost us! Hit songs stolen by someone else

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    #26
    I dunno … Badfinger's version of Without You really isn't that great.

    Nilsson's version, meanwhile, is matchless. He arguably invented the power ballad when he recorded that.

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      #27
      No, it isn't that great. That was kind of the point - even Ham and Evans didn't rate their own version much. To see the song take off in such a way was obviously utterly astonishing to Badfinger - basically all of their professional dreams realised.

      The way things panned out, however, was the stuff of nightmares.

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        #28
        How so? I know the name, but not the band at all (it may surprise you...).

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          #29
          Please see my original post (#2) on the previous page - very much a mini-precis of one of pop music's darkest stories.

          I've just recently been scripting it for a projected TV pilot of my books, in fact.

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            #30
            Just read up on it. Yeesh. Of course, the fraudster Polley lived to a ripe old 87 and died in Palm Springs, no doubt lying on a bed of other people's money.

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              #31
              G-Man, is that the same Rian Malan who wrote My Traitor's Heart. That's a fine book.

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                #32
                Yes. He's a prize asshole, but a hell of a writer.

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                  #33
                  "She's the One" by the criminally underrated World Party.

                  Made famous by Robbie Williams.

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                    #34
                    No. Fucking. Way.

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                      #35
                      He wrote it about his recently deceased mother. Robbie Williams took it and turned it into a god awful love song.

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                        #36
                        Originally posted by antoine polus View Post
                        "She's the One" by the criminally underrated World Party.

                        Made famous by Robbie Williams.
                        Wow. I have a collection of something like 700 songs that could qualify for this thread, but I never knew this one.

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                          #37
                          Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                          Well, "What's Going On" wasn't directly written for somebody else. Obie Benson wanted an early version, with a different melody, for the Four Tops, who rejected it for being political. Gaye, who wrote the melody, had it in mind to give it to The Originals, but Benson told Gaye to record it himself. There was no arrangement yet. But, yeah, on Motown many songs were recorded by different artists before they decided which version to go for. And sometimes a cover would appear shortly after the original, undercutting the first version. I Heard It Through The Grapevine is an example of that (though Gladys Knight already was having a hit with it).

                          Another notable example is Papa Was A Rolling Stone, which was first recorded by The Undisputed Truth. Who in turn had their one big hit, Smiling People Sometimes, with a song first recorded by The Temptations. Who also first recorded Edwin Starr's War.
                          The Undisputed Truth's version of 'What's Goin' On' was also released before Marvin's version, if I'm remembering my dates rightly. But given that as you say he wrote part of it, it's probably a bit much to say he stole it.

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                            #38
                            I'm surprised to learn all of that about The Lion. I assumed it was always an American doo-wop song because lions don't really live in the jungle. They live on the savannah.

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                              #39
                              Joni Mitchell wrote "Both Sides Now," but recorded it after Judy Collins. As did, by coincidence, The Tokens. But I don't think it was actually stolen.

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                                #40
                                Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                Just read up on it. Yeesh. Of course, the fraudster Polley lived to a ripe old 87 and died in Palm Springs, no doubt lying on a bed of other people's money.
                                That's pretty much it. Even his right-hand man Stan Poses (his real name, yes) thought that Polley was an absolute bastard.

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                                  #41
                                  Originally posted by Sam View Post
                                  The Undisputed Truth's version of 'What's Goin' On' was also released before Marvin's version, if I'm remembering my dates rightly. But given that as you say he wrote part of it, it's probably a bit much to say he stole it.
                                  No, Gaye recorded it in June 1970 and released it in January 1971. The Undisputed Truth's version came out in January 1972 and was recorded in 1971. Though their nine-minute version is worth hearing.

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                                    #42
                                    Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                                    Yes. He's a prize asshole, but a hell of a writer.
                                    Thanks for this. I have ordered both books.

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                                      I dunno … Badfinger's version of Without You really isn't that great.

                                      Nilsson's version, meanwhile, is matchless. He arguably invented the power ballad when he recorded that.

                                      I once heard Mickey Dolenz claim that Harry Nilsson was basically conned into recording "Without You". Friends played him the Badfinger original but told him it was a Paul McCartney bootleg to pique his interest.
                                      We should probably take that with a pinch of salt but there may be a germ of truth in it.

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                                        #44
                                        Originally posted by antoine polus View Post
                                        He wrote it about his recently deceased mother. Robbie Williams took it and turned it into a god awful love song.
                                        I didn't know it was a cover either.

                                        But having now heard it, William's version is a pretty straight-up cover.

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                                          #45
                                          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                          Joni Mitchell wrote "Both Sides Now," but recorded it after Judy Collins. As did, by coincidence, The Tokens. But I don't think it was actually stolen.
                                          See my comment upthread re: Both Sides Now.

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                                            #46
                                            I don't see where you mentioned that.

                                            BTW, I also don't see how you drank tea out of jam jars. Assuming it was hot tea - seems like a safe assumption - then jam jars wouldn't be sufficiently insulated. Your hand would be too hot and the drink would get cold. I think.

                                            I'm going through a thing lately where it seems like every time I read something, I fixate on something it in that's not at all important to the main point.

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                                              #47
                                              Originally posted by wittoner View Post
                                              I once heard Mickey Dolenz claim that Harry Nilsson was basically conned into recording "Without You". Friends played him the Badfinger original but told him it was a Paul McCartney bootleg to pique his interest.
                                              We should probably take that with a pinch of salt but there may be a germ of truth in it.
                                              There is a germ of truth in that Nilsson believed that it was a Lennon/McCartney tune - but whether he was encouraged to think this by others, I really don't know.

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                                I don't see where you mentioned that.

                                                BTW, I also don't see how you drank tea out of jam jars. Assuming it was hot tea - seems like a safe assumption - then jam jars wouldn't be sufficiently insulated. Your hand would be too hot and the drink would get cold. I think.

                                                I'm going through a thing lately where it seems like every time I read something, I fixate on something it in that's not at all important to the main point.
                                                Sorry, my mistake, my Joni response was from another current thread:

                                                I'm in the middle of reading David Yaffe's rather excellent Joni Mitchell bio, Reckless Daughter. It's his contention that she deliberately left many of her best songs off her first album, as she figured putting them on the follow-up was a better long-term career move. That's why Both Sides Now, The Circle Game, (Tom Rush), Chelsea Morning, I don't Know Where I Stand (Fairport Convention and others) precede her recordings — though she'd been performing all but the latter for years.

                                                She seems to have "saved" certain songs for years. Little Green for example was written shortly after she gave her daughter up for adoption. And she sang it in performance almost immediately — often bursting into tears when doing so — but she didn't record it until six years later.


                                                You're right about the jam-jars. But it was a construction site, so most of us had labourers gloves. IIRC the site foreman, an older guy who was mainly tied to the office had his own mug.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Was just reading up on the recording history of heard it through the grapevine as I was sure the recording of the Marvin Gaye version predates the Gladys knight version. It does but what I didn't know is the there is a miracles version that predates both of these. Plus, it's possible that the isleys were scheduled to do a version even before that one. Whether they actually did so is open to debate, as there is no recorded evidence of the isleys' version.

                                                  The other big Nilsson song is everybody's talking and, like without you, it could also be included on this thread, written and recorded by Fred Neil a good couple of years before it was recorded by Nilsson and chosen for inclusion in midnight cowboy.

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                                                    #50
                                                    Hugo Montenegro having the UK No. 1 with The Good, The Bad and the Ugly instead of Ennio Morricone, who had no hits at all until Chi Mai in 1981. I assume Montenegro received a lower royalty rate than Ennio would have done, or there was some licensing issue, or the film company simply failed to cash in on the soundtrack with a UK release.

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