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You heard the cover first then discovered the original.

Lovers in a Dangerous Time

Being from Bruce Cockburn's home town I should have known it was his song and not The Barenaked Ladies... but I didn't. Now I prefer the original hands down.
 
Heard "Train Kept a Rollin" by Aerosmith way before I heard the original...can't remember who did it at the moment....
 
Another Robert Gordon entry:

I had been listening to Robert Gordon doing "Someday, Someway" for a number of years (on his "Are You Gonna be the One" album) before hearing Marshall Crenshaw's sing his own song. Kinda figures though - Gordon covered it in 1980, but Crenshaw didn't record it until 1982. Both are very good.
 
Black Crowes "Hard to Handle." Soon thereafter I discovered the Otis Redding version. Man, two incredible, but very different, performances. I do think the Crowes managed to capture a lot of the soul of the original. Fantastic band and fantastic song. :thmbsp:
 
parman said:
Alright I've got one. I had heard You Can Leave Your Hat On by not 1 but 2 artists before the original. First by Joe Cocker & then by Tom Jones but I knew Randy Newman had done it first and I finally heard him do it. Think I liked Joe Cocker best.
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Three Dog Night recorded the song before Joe Cocker, convinced it would be a hit. It was, but not for them.
 
marty59 said:
Heard "Train Kept a Rollin" by Aerosmith way before I heard the original...can't remember who did it at the moment....
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The Yardbirds didn't do the original version. I have a version by Johnny Burnette and the Rock And Roll Trio done in 1956.
 
actually first I heard the original "wild horses" by the Stones and then later heard Old and In the Way do a great version, the Sundays do a good version as well.
 
KeninDC said:
The Black Keys' "Act Nice and Gentle" off of "Rubber Factory" sounded kinda retro when I first heard it a few years ago.

No wonder. It was written by the Kinks in, oh, 1967.

Ken
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Just as many thought "Better Stop Sobbing" was a Pretenders original...
 
clydeselsor said:
I heard Pat Benatar's version of "I need A Lover" before John Mellencamp's.
John's is so very much better!!
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Pat Benatar's "Just Like Me" was a radio semi-hit - but then I heard Paul Revere & The Raiders' original & flipped my wig. Northwestern garage rock that I wouldn't (at the time) have thought them capable of.

And let's not forget Bowie's "Friday On My Mind" vs. The older Easybeats version.
 
313guy said:
"Black Magic Woman" Heard it first as a cover by Santana. In the mid nineties, a co-worker had the original Fleetwood Mac on a classic rock station and asked me, "What f@#%ed up version is this?". I had to break it to him that it was the original, and he wouldn't believe me that Santana's was the cover.
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Naptown Rob said:
Now play him Oye Como Va by Tito Puente...
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And then play him Gypsy by Gabor Szabo. Another cover on Abraxis.
 
finnbow said:
Led Zep's Gallows Pole. I picked up an old Leadbelly album a few years back and heard Gallis Pole on it for the first time decades after first hearing Gallows Pole.

A lot of Clapton/Zep/Stones covers of old blues were obviously covers. Zep's Gallows Pole (Gallis Pole) wasn't as obvious to me.
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Part of Stairway to Heaven is actually a somewhat veiled cover of Spirit's 1967 song Targus.
 
ecandle said:
It's gonna take allot of love, had no idea this was a Neil
Young song .
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Same here.

I heard Nicolette Larson's version on the radio growing up. I couldn't believe what I was hearing when I played Live Rust for the first time. :scratch2:
 
For me, it's the song Daydream Believer, a huge hit by The Monkee's and later by Anne Murray. I never knew the song was a John Stewart tune. I was a big Kingston Trio fan way back to the 1950's. Daydream Believer pulled him out of that group for good.

I love both the Monkee's and Johns versions. So different, equally wonderful.
 
similost said:
The one that surprised me there was an original I just found about a couple years ago.. Tainted Love by Soft Cell in the 80's

Turns out it was originally written by Ed Cobb and then recorded by Gloria Jones the year I was born.. 1964.. tha shocked me, and it's also pretty amazing how close Soft Cell's version is to Gloria's..

Here's the original...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSehtaY6k1U
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They performed it together too. Also didn't know Gloria married Marc Bolan.
(There are always a lot of docu's on music in December on the telly :) )
 
Kingfish by Levon Helm on Electric Dirt made me go out and get the Randy Newman version...I think I like Levon's version the best...
 
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