51 Songs You Didn't Know Are Covers

It's easy to not realise that a famous song is actually not the original version. So today we are going to look at 51 songs where the most well-known version isn't actually the original.

This video was edited by Martino Gasparrini.

And, an extra special thanks goes to Chase Heeler, Peter Keller, Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

[nothingislogical]

Fun fact about “New York, New York”: later, Liza Minnelli would play the role of Lucile Austero on Arrested Development. In one episode, she’s at a bar with Michael Bluth, played by Jason Bateman. Tobias Funke, played by David Cross, starts singing “New York, New York” for karaoke. Liza’s character rolls her eyes and remarks to Michael, “Everyone wants to be Frank Sinatra.” as a reference to everyone associating the song with him instead of her.

[gpeddino]

Before Paul Anka did "My Way", the publishing company approached another songwriter to write an English version of "Comme D'Habitude": David Bowie. He wrote "Even a Fool Learns to Love", which was rejected (the demo he submitted can be heard on YouTube). When Bowie heard "My Way" on the radio, he was pissed and decided to write his own take on the song: "Life On Mars?" That's why both songs have a similar harmonic structure.

[apathyisdeath]

Today I learnt The Beatles covered a song originally sung by Lando Calrissian-- I mean uhh Billy Dee Williams.
I also learnt Billy Dee Williams was a singer before he became a big actor!
The more you know!

My pick for a song not many people might know as a cover is Ulver's cover of Solitude by Black Sabbath, which sounds like a completely different song. I had no idea until i happened to read the writing credits for the song on the Wikipedia page for Shadows of the Sun!

[owenfitzgerald]

The 'Love today' on mambo #5 was actually so funny lol

[jjsant]

In the USA, Dionne Warwick’s version of “I Say a Little Prayer” had way more airplay than Aretha’s in my memory. I had never heard Aretha’s version until ~40 years later.

[kennethsimmons]

"One" by Three Dog Night, known for the lyric "one is the loneliest number, " was originally done by Harry Nilsson.

[madhatterman]

Lando Calrissian wrote a Beatles song. I don't know what to do with that information.

[aristotleasparaguspodcast]

Fun Fact: The Strangeloves, the original performers of "I Want Candy, " also wrote "Sorrow" and gave it to the McCoys!

[geetarwanabe]

8:20 those two superstar songs are identical. Totally the record labels playing some games.

[marfand]

I was absolutely astounded by learning that New York New York was from the late seventies. Wow. I'd always assumed that was from the fifties.

[SeventhSwell]

Thing about Just Call Me Angel is that here in the US quite a lot of us actually think of the Juice Newton version first.

[moenchii]

Here's a highly regional one:

In 1978 the famous East German band Karat released the song "Über sieben Brücken mußt du gehn" (You need to cross seven Bridges). In 1980, famous West German singer Peter Maffay went to a concert of Karat and asked them if he can record his own version of the song which they agreed to.

Because the East German Ministry of Culture didn't allow Karat to go on West German TV, the version of Peter Maffay became the standard version in the West. This is also the reason that many people in the (former) West think that Peter Maffays version is the original. Meanwhile the original by Karat is the standard version in the (former) East.

Maffay and Karat also have performed this song together on multiple occations since the German reunification in 1990.

[shadowclaw]

I don't think you've mentioned "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft" yet, it was originally by Klaatu and covered by The Carpenters

[santiagobenites]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos. I'm a total music nerd, and I have a special affinity for cover versions, and discovering the original versions, so I was in my glory watching these. You're the best! Cheers.

[princesspiranha]

"(They Long To Be) Close To You" always remembers me of the Simpsons. 😂Marge has a new doorbell with that song's tune, but it's stuck and goes on repeat. The whole neighborhood gets angry about it

[catherine]

Richard Carpenter composed the piano introduction in The Carpenters' cover of Close To You. This made their cover unique. The original piano composer Burt Bacharach didn't have the intro.

[Strb]

”Amsterdam” by David Bowie is a cover of the French song ”Amsterdam” by Jacques Brel. It was actually the B-side to Bowie’s single "Sorrow". Although, Scott Walker recorded it in English before Bowie.

[simonjhudson]

Peter Gabriel's twin album "You Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" is an interesting album of covers (I think they renamed it "Scratch my back" eventually). Peter Gabriel covers a number of songs by other artists and then encouraged them to do covers of one of his songs. The quality of the tracks might be variable in places (And some artists changed their mind and decided not to participate in the end) but there are some really interesting covers.

[drrumak]

I am way more familiar with the Warwick version of "I Say a Little Prayer". It looks like in the US and Canada, that was actually the more successful version. And also, the version in the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding" (sung by the cast, I guess) is much closer to the Warwick version than the Franklin version.

[Jeff_Lichtman]

The version of "A Taste of Honey" that I'm most familiar with was by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. For "Angel of the Morning, " it's the version by Merrilee Rush.