Discovering earlier versions of songs

[threebikesmcginty]

Jerry Reed ('Snowman' in Smokey & The Bandit) wrote/first recorded 'Guitar Man' (Elvis heard him play it & liked it)

When Elvis recorded it they couldn't get the Jerry Reed sound they wanted so they got Jerry Reed in to play, nice write up of it here...

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/jerry_reed_and_elvis_guitar_man_sessions.shtml#sthash.tjYOLozC.dpbs

Would've been a cool session to hang around at.

 

[Peteaud]

Blue eyes crying in the rain is one of Elvis best songs, then i heard Eva Cassidy do it, for once Elvis comes 2nd.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA6V2LPxBq8

 

[captain nemo1701]

On holiday last week with a bit more time I found my Kinks "singles" CD was in fact an "ultimate collection" with a second CD of old and obscure tracks. So having listened to the Pretenders - Stop your sobbing for 34 years, I found that the Kinks did it 15 years earlier.
Here is the Kinks version-

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZQUKN5G9xk

Anyone else discovered any obscure originals or earlier versions of songs?

I have the same CD. Was pleasantly surprised to hear the Kinks did 'David Watts' long before The Jam.

 

[Over The Hill]

I have the same CD. Was pleasantly surprised to hear the Kinks did 'David Watts' long before The Jam.

Great track too. I had an old Kinks EP with that track on but I had never heard Stop your Sobbing.

 

[PaulB]

Yeah, you know that song 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that everyone thinks the Queen brothers first recorded? Wrong. It was done many years before by George Formby yesitreallywas. Or do I mean Norman Wisdom? One of them, anyway. Trust me on this.

 

[PaulB]

The House Of The Rising Sun from 1933



The Animals version from 1964

Alan Price stole it off his fellow band members and they've never forgiven him for it. What he did (and this IS true) was that instead of the ubiquitous 'trad. arr.' Alan Price had his own name put on the label so that he accrued the royalties that should not have been his at all.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Yeah, you know that song 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that everyone thinks the Queen brothers first recorded? Wrong. It was done many years before by George Formby yesitreallywas. Or do I mean Norman Wisdom? One of them, anyway. Trust me on this.

Bohemian Rhapsody was written by Freddy Mercury for the 1975 album Night At The Opera,

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I enjoy the Bobby Fuller Four version of I fought the Law, although they were just the first successful coverers of it way before The Clash gave it a good go too.

 

[Saluki]

Have liked
for a long while.
I knew that I had heard it on the radio by some woman. Turned out it was her own song. Not keen on the Rhianna version but this.

 

[Over The Hill]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm5lc6-5LC4


The Blondie version is one of my favourite records but the 1963 original is very much of its time.

 

[dan_bo]

Heard this on the Bob Matthews show on saturday morning:

 

[accountantpete]

Madge

Curtiss & Muldoon

 

[User482]

Something of a cliché, but here's the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah and the Leonard Cohen original:





We'll draw a discrete veil over the Alex Burke version...

 

[clid61]

Classic Hot Chocolate track

 

[Deleted member 1258]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm5lc6-5LC4


The Blondie version is one of my favourite records but the 1963 original is very much of its time.

I'd forgotten about that version