St Etienne is a good one (though I'm not mad on the original).
Made me think of this...
I didn't hear this until years later...
Ah, the Paul Quinn one was Bourgie Bourgie doing Little Red Rooster.. now there's a well covered song! Bourgie Bourgie's version, the fab Jesus & Mary Chain version .. and the Rolling Stones - which I thought was the original ha!
Try:
but there's no doubt versions older than that that I haven't heard 🙂
[i]I always wondered why St Ettiene never released "Only love can break your heart" as a single[/i]
It was their first single:
https://www.discogs.com/Saint-Etienne-Only-Love-Can-Break-Your-Heart/master/22652
Got another - definitely fits the OP's requirements!
I heard this:
Before this:
I think the original just edges it.
I heard this:
After I heard this on the soundtrack to The Crow.
Love both versions.
Heard this in my teens, thought it was quite catchy...
The original absolutely blew me away when I heard it in my 20s, one of the all time greats...
Technically I heard the cover first, but then came across the original courtesy of a SuperSessions 9-2 mixtape:
Love The Clash, but have to admit - prefer Junior's version.
[i]one of the all time greats[/i]
He ain't wrong
Wasn't Robert Wyatt's Shipbuilding released before any Elvis Costello version, so not really a cover? I oculd be wrong.
You're not wrong. Costello's version is technically a cover, as he wrote it for Robert, then recorded it later himself, the same is true of Aimee Mann's 'The Other End Of The Telescope'
There's a whole album of Costello's songs that he wrote for and with other artists, and only later covered himself, called [i]All This Useless Beauty[/i] which is a very fine album indeed.
Interesting! But much prefer the Lemonheads myself. Actually, the Stone Poneys is quite humourously bad
That's the only YouTube version I could find that would play, all other original versions seem to be embargoed, for whatever reason.
I've always loved Linda's version, I first heard it back around the time it was released, and I love her voice; the photos of her on her early albums helped enormously, too... 😉
The cover photo from [i]Hasten Down The Wind[/i]
[img] 
?v=1372024439[/img]
I had no idea Got the Time was a cover!
Frank Turner- The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Actually much prefer the covers of both tbh but this is how I got in the Postal Service.
I only recently made the connection that 'Megablast' by Bomb the Bass (1988) was based on the theme from 'Assault on Precinct 13' by John Carpenter (1976):
Which in turn gave rise to this jaunty little disco number by The Splash Band (1983):
Mazzy Star - Blue Flower
I'd presumed it was an original albeit heavily influenced the the Velvet Underground.
Turns out the original is by Slapp Happy from 1973.
I heard the John Cale version before the LCD Soundsystem original
Caledonia by Dougie MacLean
I'd heard the Frankie Miller version, possibly on that old Tennent's advert and was non-plussed. Sounds like it was trying to cash in on the success of Braveheart or something.
Then I heard Dougie MacLean sing it. I'm a proud Yorkshireman, flat cap, whippet, Hendo's, all that good stuff*, but Dougie's version is so perfect I almost wish I were Scottish when I hear it.
*I actually own neither a flat cap nor a whippet, but I do have an emergency stash of 6 bottles of Hendo's in the cupboard. Just in case.
I only recently made the connection that 'Megablast' by Bomb the Bass (1988) was based on the theme from 'Assault on Precinct 13' by John Carpenter (1976):
Woah!
Thanks for that, and for prompting me to listen to Megablast again - one of my most-played 45s as a youth.
No problemo! Actually, thinking back I'm pretty sure that there was some Bomb the Bass promo material that said 'Hip Hop on Precinct 13' which should have been a bit of a giveaway! 🙂
[i]I've always loved Linda's version, I first heard it back around the time it was released, and I love her voice; the photos of her on her early albums helped enormously,[/i]
Perve!
I get the voice, it was the backing! 🙂
Perve!
I get the voice, it was the backing!
Too old for that sort of thing now... 😉
Yeah, it's not as good as the original studio recording, that's for sure, but, like I said, it's the only version that I was allowed to even play. 🙄
Sadly, she hasn't sung for some years, and now has Parkinson's, so she'll never record again. She did a lot of big band and Spanish language stuff, which I'm not so keen on, but still an amazing voice.
Arthur Russell - this is how we walk on the moon, a mate played Luke Foskey's (Young Edits) version in a DJ set one night which blew my socks off, and sent me off searching down the original, I love both in their own ways
@Coyote thanks for that never heard the original, loved the NIN one though.
Mad World - Gary Jules vs Tears for Fears
-Now someone will tell me that's not the original after all.
Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkle.
First heard the version by The Lemonheads. Still love both.
It was quite some time before I found out this was a cover' although I was familiar with the band who originally wrote and recorded it:
Unfortunately, again I can't find a single available video, or at least one that'll play, of the original by Badfinger.
It's not a patch on Nilsson's version.
Bit obvious and I'll wager for most of those under 45 it worked out you heard this:
before this:
the cover
the covered
CountZero - MemberIt's not a patch on Nilsson's version.
Blasphemer! 😯
😉
