Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Composers who belatedly recorded a song written for another act

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Composers who belatedly recorded a song written for another act

    Carole King recorded Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow for 'Tapestry' several years after writing it with Goffin for The Shirelles.

    Elvis Costello did an album version of Shipbuilding a year after he and Langer wrote it for Robert Wyatt.

    #2
    Tapestry also has G&K's Natural Woman, which was specifically written for Aretha Franklin a few years earlier.

    The Byrds version of I Wasn't Born to Follow preceded King's own, as a member of The City, by several months.
    Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 10-12-2017, 03:00.

    Comment


      #3
      Judy Collins recorded "Both Sides Now" before Joni Mitchell did, and "Suzanne" before Leonard Cohen.

      But Kris Kristofferson is probably the king in that category: Sunday Morning Coming Down, Me and Bobby McGee, For the Good Times, Loving Her Was Easier, Darby's Castle, The Best of All Possible Worlds, Jody and the Kid and some others were first recorded by others before KK did superior versions of them.

      Otis Blackwell did an album in around 1978 of songs he had written for others (such as Elvis). Dennis Linde recorded his Burning Love in 1973, a couple of years after first Arthur Alexander and then Elvis recorded it.

      Comment


        #4
        Not quite the same, but Springsteen wrote Hungry Heart for the Ramones, but never ended up giving it to them. I wonder if they ever performed it.

        Comment


          #5
          Bowie of course finally recorded All the Young Dudes, having performed the song live for a year or two. He always readily admitted that Mott The Hoople's original was the definitive version. Which it absolutely is.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by G-Man View Post
            Judy Collins recorded "Both Sides Now" before Joni Mitchell did, and "Suzanne" before Leonard Cohen.
            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.
            Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 10-12-2017, 17:09.

            Comment


              #7
              Prince wrote Nothing Compares 2U for The Family, which was later picked up by Sinéad O'Connor, only for Prince to later record it and sing it in his live show.

              Comment


                #8
                Bowie co-wrote China Girl with Iggy for the latter's 1977 album then had his own hit in 1983. IIRC the 1983 version was partly to raise some royalties for Iggy.

                I think the Iggy vocal version is better than Bowie's: darker, stalkier, not a love song.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                  Bowie co-wrote China Girl with Iggy …
                  Peter Noone's version of Oh You Pretty Things preceded Bowie's by about six months.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Johnny Nash had a US hit with Stir It Up before The Wailers released their version.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Morrissey (I know but bear with me) gave Please Help the Cause Against Loneliness to Sandie Shaw in 1988, who had a minor hit with it. He then recorded his own version meant for Viva Hate. That wasn't officially released till there was an expanded edition of Bona Drag years later. The Sandie Shaw version is loads better.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        James Brown wrote I Found You for Yvonne Fair and played on her version which was released to little acclaim in 1962.

                        His own, slightly re-worked and re-named version was somewhat more successful.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X