Owning a Song..

Sharpstik

Stuck in the 70's
I was listening to Vaughn Monroe singing 'Ghost Riders in the Sky", and thought his rendition was the best I've ever heard. On 45. I think he absolutely nails it with that baritone.
And then, on Imus in the Morning, they were doing 'battle of the bands'. And "I Hear You Knocking" comes on, first by Smiley Lewis, which wasn't bad, but then Edmund' s version is next, and the whole panel agrees Edmunds just took that song and made it his own.

Any others? There must be.
 
Led Zeppelin's "Dazed And Confused" vs. any claimed plagiarized original. Ditto "How Many More Times". Imagine if Zep had been around in the 1930's? There would not have been a World War Two. People would have been getting high and listening to Zep.
 
Trent Reznor on Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt"
I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore… It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning — different, but every bit as pure.
 
This is something that has been addressed in a previous thread regarding covers that you like better than the originals. And, yes, there are covers out there that just blow the originals away. Some people are incredible singer/songwriters, but lack the "show biz" to "make it happen"--there are others out there that are natural performers, and can "nail" anything thrown at them--just don't ask them to write a song.
 
This is something that has been addressed in a previous thread regarding covers that you like better than the originals. And, yes, there are covers out there that just blow the originals away. Some people are incredible singer/songwriters, but lack the "show biz" to "make it happen"--there are others out there that are natural performers, and can "nail" anything thrown at them--just don't ask them to write a song.

Then there are others where the original recording is obscure and is eclipsed by a hit cover. I've seen many references to covers of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" by people that have no idea that it was originally recorded by Gloria Jones and first heard by Marc Almond in a Northern Soul disco.
 
Ruben Studdard's soulful version of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" is an awesome take on a classic.
 
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