Famous songs asThe original Twist and Shout by Top Notes sounds nothing like the cover done by The Beatles. The interesting things is that many people think they have heard the original song by the Isley Brothers. Which sounds like the Beatles’ version but nope.
With many of these songs, the unknown original and the famous cover sound very similar and are easily identifiable as the same song.
When a song becomes popular, sometimes people forget that the new hit actually originated with another artist. Often the cover sounds better than original version.
That was a reworking of the Top Notes song as produced by Phil Spector in one ofhis first assignments as a record producer. The songwriter Burt Berns hated what Spector did with the song and gave it to the Isley Brothers to redo.
Lori Lieberman, a Jennifer Aniston lookalike, sang the original version of the song Killing Me Softly a year before Roberta Flack catapulted it into the national consciousness. While Flack’s version is soul, Lieberman’s is pure early 70’s folk music.
Cyndi Lauper’s first hit single as a solo artist, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,”reached the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983. Lauper was nominated for two Grammys for the song, including Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Performance.Robert Hazard originally wrote and recorded “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”
"Hey Joe” was a modest hit for The Leaves, but it was The Jimi Hendrix Experience's first hit single overseas in 1966. While the authorship of the song “Hey Joe” is ambiguous and unclear, the earliest recording of the song dates to 1965, by the California-based garage band The Leaves.
In 1971, British rock band Led Zeppelin re-arranged and popularized the song “When the Levee Breaks” for their fourth album, which is referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. Husband and wife singer-songwriters Kansas Joe McCoy & Memphis Minnie originally recorded “When the Levee Breaks” as a blues song in 1929
Prince wrote and originally recorded the song “Nothing Compares 2 U” for his side project The Family in 1985. While the song received little recognition, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor popularized it in 1990.Actually, Sinead Version is much better famous than original. O'Connor won three Moonmen Awards at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year, Best Female Video, and Best Post-Modern Video.
The Paragons In 1967 released a single called “The Tide is High,” the song went on to become Blondie’s second No. 1 single.
Between other famous songs apper the original version of Betty Davies Eyes by Jackie DeShannon and Gloria Jones Tainted Love.