By deep I mean with the most obscure original. I am not talking ‘all along the watch tower’ but things like Fever Ray’s cover of Vashti Bunyan’s song Here before
Fever Ray is relatively well known while Bunyan had very limited success
Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun was originally Robert Hazard’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Wow. Again, mind fucking blown
I had no idea. This slaps.
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Gloria Jones originally performed Tainted Love in the ‘60s. It didn’t hit until Soft Cell covered it in ‘81.
Holy shit. Mind blown
Wow, this is why I’m here.
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“Torn,” by Natalie Imbruglia (1997) was originally written by Ednaswap and recorded in 1995—which, imo, is better. However, even though they wrote it, it was first recorded in 1993 by danish band, Lis Sørensen, who titled it “Brændt,” which means “Burned.”
Bonus! “The State I’m In” a song from Ednaswap’s first album, was covered by Sinéad O’Connor for her 2000 album Faith and Courage.
Wild! I didn’t know that wasn’t done by Sinead
Harry Belafonte’s exuberent cover of “Day O (Banana Boat Song)” which was a hit in its time and re-popularized by the dinner scene in Beetlejuice.
The original is Jamaican folk/traditional and the first recording of it Eric Connor - Day O has a totally different tone to it. In the original, labouring on a banana plantation is as tiring and depressing as you’d think.
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Whiskey In The Jar Song by Metallica, original is from
the Dubliners in 1969a traditional Irish song in the 1950sMetallica might have been more influenced by the Thin Lizzy version. But the song is older than The Dubliners.
The Amen Break is a few seconds sample that became drum and bass. All of drum and bass has roots from that sample.
~18 min explanation on it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
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For only seven seconds worth of drumming the Amen Break’s influence and reach is mind blowing. It literally changed (modern, western) music.
Not sure if this applies, but people still seem to think that Nine Inch Nails covered Hurt by Johnny Cash and not the other way round. That or they haven’t even heard the original.
You want obscure? Here’s a cover of a song by Joe Glazer, written in the 1940s by a union coal miner that immigrated to the US
The first one I didn’t know! And yes, this one is absolutely the most obscure cover of an even more obscure song I think I’ve heard of.
This cover by the Afghan Whigs of the song “Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash is really good:
Dude, London Calling (the Clash album this song is from) sold over 5 million copies. They are in no way obscure.
For real, they’re The Only Band that Matters.
Ah. Sorry.
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Rage Against the Machine’s Renegades of Funk was originally written and performed by a band called Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force in 1983.
probably The Association’s cover of “Windy” by Ruthann Friedman (which she wrote about a guy, btw)
Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
The song 1985 was not originally recorded by Bowling for Soup, but SR-71
God Gave Rock and Roll To You was a hit for Kiss.
Original by Argent: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QsG5V-o6uxY&pp=ygUdZ29kIGdhdmUgcm9jayBhbmQgcm9sbCB0byB5b3U%3D
And I only knew the Wyld Stallyns version!
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John Coltrane’s versions of Afro Blue. Very different from Mongo Santamaría’s original. I like both approaches, but Coltrane’s recordings of it were all just so powerful.
Type O’s cover is so weird: really turns out on its ear