Performers whose breakthrough hit was a cover song...

[gmoney]

I contend that most "original material" bands or singers are well-advised to have one cool cover song in their repertoire, as that gives audiences, radio programmers, etc,. something they can connect with directly. "Oh have you heard the new whosits record? They do a great cover of _______."

Obviously, cover bands, and performers that are primarily doing standards (jazz for instance) aren't quite what I'm thinking of. Nor am I thinking of performers who hire songwriters, like a lot of pop and country performers. And I'm not sure I'd count older acts like the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles, who did a lot of covers as was common back then.

I used to have a fairly long list in my mind, but it's fading... can you guys help me flesh out the list?

Two that come to mind are Talking Heads with their version of Al Green's "Take me to the River" and Black Crowes with Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle". Or even Limp Bizkit with their cover of George Michael's "Faith" would count. Wondering if Bonnie Raitt's cover of John Hiatt's "Let's Give 'em Something to Talk About" would count or not.

Anyway, i throw it out to you, in a thread that will sink like a stone, posted at 2am...

[jobycom]

1. Great White, The Power Station, and Quiet Riot come to mind. Maybe Cheap Trick.

Great White with "Twice Shy," Power Station with "Bang a Gong," Quiet Riot with "Cum on Feel the Noize."

Then there were bands who only had one hit, like Soft Cell with "Tainted Love," covering Gloria Jones.

Cheap Trick's first real US hit was "Ain't that a Shame," although they had hits in Japan before, and "Surrender" had had minor success in the US.

[boppers]

23. About Soft Cell and Tainted Love...:

... being their "one hit"...
--
The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love". In the UK, they had ten UK Top 40 hits, including "Bedsitter" (#4), "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" (#3), "Torch" (#2), and "What!" (#3), and also had four UK top 20 albums between 1981 and 1984.
--

Oh, and Gloria Jones was actually doing a song originally written by another musician, Ed Cobb of the Four Preps. So, when Marilyn Manson released his version of Tainted Love, he was already 4 levels out.

[cemaphonic]

28. Similar to UB40, really

Their only big hits in the US were Elvis (I Can't Help Falling in Love With You) and Neil Diamond (Red, Red Wine) covers, but they were huge in the UK all through the 80s, and still are fairly popular there.

[MiddleFingerMom]

2. Three Dog Night with Otis Redding's...

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..."Try a Little Tenderness".
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Rare Earth with The Temptations' "I Know I'm Losing You" and "Get Ready ('cause here I come)".
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Saw Rare Earth at a county fair in '71 or '72 -- WORST big name band I've ever seen in my life.
However, they had a percussionist who looked like he just crawled out of a cave -- made Ian
Anderson look like a Young Republican. The rest of the band walked offstage and took a ten
minute break while he ran around playing instruments he had scattered all over the stage.
.
In-fucking-credible!!! I woulda sat through 72 HOURS of sucky Rare Earth performance to see
another 10 minutes of this guy (Edward "Eddie" Guzman).

[Arkansas Granny]

10. My sister and I sat through 8 hours of heat, dust and randomly thrown bottle rockets

during that same time period waiting to see Rare Earth. We were so disappointed with their performance that we left halfway through their performance. We had really been looking forward to seeing them and it turned out to be the worst performance I have ever seen by a big name group. Luckily, there had been two other bands, Sugar Loaf and Dr. Hook, that played before them so the day wasn't a total bust.

[bluesbassman]

3. Two for Creedence Clearwater Revival

From Wikipedia...

The resulting 1968 debut album Creedence Clearwater Revival struck a responsive note with the emerging underground pop culture press, which touted CCR as a band worthy of attention. More importantly, AM radio programmers around the United States took note when a song from the LP, "Suzie Q", received substantial airplay in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as on Chicago's WLS. Blues aficionados doubtless appreciated the similarities between CCR's tough style and R&B artists on the Chess and Vee-Jay labels.

A remake of a 1956 song by rockabilly singer Dale Hawkins, "Suzie Q" was the band's second single, and its first to crack the Top 40. Reaching #11 nationally, it would be Creedence's only Top 40 hit not written by John Fogerty. Two other singles from the debut were released: a cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell On You" (which made it to #58) and "Porterville"

[Kat45]

18. Creedence also had a hit with "I Heard It Through the Grapevine,"

yet another cover. Of course they had plenty of hits with original material, and their song "Proud Mary" later was a hit for Ike & Tina Turner, who became associated with the song.

[blogslut]

4. Bolton

He owes his entire career to cover songs plus he stole that innocent office worker's name:

[underpants]

5. Manfred Mann

the band struck gold with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", a cover of a minor hit earlier that year by The Exciters

Their first Fontana single was another Dylan cover, "Just Like a Woman",

However they scored a third #1 in 1968 with another Dylan song, "Mighty Quinn",<2> which also peaked at #3 in Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Mann

"Blinded by the Light" is a song written and originally recorded by Bruce Springsteen. It is best known as a 1977 #1 hit version recorded by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light

[Kat45]

19. And they also had a hit with Springsteen's "Spirits in the Night"

I guess this band did pretty well with covers.

[Mr. Ected]

21. Don't Forget "(I Came) For You"

Another great MMEB cover of a Springsteen song.

[CBGLuthier]

6. Aretha Franklin. Otis Redding's Respect

[Zorra]

7. Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe was a hit single in the UK.

[old mark]

8. Going way back, The McCoys "Hang On, Sloopy" was a cover-and they

didn't even record the backing music to the record. They were a group of high school friends from Indiana, they recorded the vocals and guitar solo track over music laid down bu another group (The Strangeloves) that produced the McCoys' record, and had a huge hit with it. I think the McCoys were about 17 at the time.
The McCoys recorded several more LP's, went on to become the band for bluse man Johnny Winter.
The McCoys guitar player changed a few letters in his name and became Rick Derringer.

Mark

Oh, yeah - and the first 2 or so Rolling Stones LP's were mostly covers..didn't seem to hurt them much, either...

[BurtWorm]

9. The Pretenders: Stop Your Sobbing, by the Kinks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcn15ODltA

[SoxFan]

11. The Clash

Two of the three songs that receive the most commercial radio airplay are covers, "I Fought The Law" and "Police On My Back". Before "Casbah", these were the only exposure most people had to the Clash.

[Bennyboy]

12. Patsy Cline: Crazy.....

Willie song.

[lazarus]

13. Willie wrote it

but I don't think he performed it until much later.

[Bennyboy]

14. Might be right...

[lazarus]

17. of course, both versions are insanely good

:hi:

[flvegan]

15. Quiet Riot, "Cum On Feel the Noize"

Slade cover.

[Mopar151]

16. Grand Funk Railroad "Gimme Shelter"

and "Locomotion" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zflwb4YgAUM

Eric Clapton/Cream's "Crossroads" is a Robert Johnson song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLK_HSyy1U

Commander Cody's "Hot Rod Linclon" originally done by Johnny Bond http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpHHV5zx-nE

Jim and Jessie's version of John Prine's "Paradise" is simply amazing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeDWJqvpat0

Not well known, but Steve Earle's version of "In the Jailhouse Now" is one of the best.

Hardly a breakthrough, but "Thirteen" was written for Johnny Cash by Glenn Danzig, and Johnny's version is (IMHO)one of his best songs - and that is saying something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7OpGizuCmw

[The Midway Rebel]

20. Elvis.

Blue Moon of Kentucky - Bill Monroe w/b That's Alright Mama - Arthur Crudup

Everything Elvis did was a cover and then everybody copied him.

[gmoney]

22. Yeah, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly were kind of pioneers

Rock performers who wrote most of their own material... same with the Beatles once they got past doing Chuck Berry and Isley Brothers covers.

I don't think Elvis actually wrote any of the songs he's credited on. Just Col. Tom insisted that songwriters sign over half ownership of songs if they wanted Elvis to record them.

I met the son of the guy who wrote "Devil in Disguise" once on a road trip to Vegas in a beat up Cadillac... seems fitting.

[boppers]

24. Orgy: Blue Monday (originally by New Order)

Bauhaus: Ziggy Stardust (originally by David Bowie)
Taco: Puttin' on the Ritz

[Sebastian Doyle]

25. Van Halen : You Really Got Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A3GPkjHMvg

[ornotna]

26. Chubby Checker - The Twist

Originally released in 1959 by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters

[MiddleFingerMom]

27. Led Zeppelin I -- the only album of theirs I really like...

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...although I really REALLY REALLY like it, had two
songs by Willie Dixon -- "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You, Baby".
.

[Lindsey]

29. Somewhat off topic but IMO these covers were better than the

originals: Kurt Cobain-The Man who sold the world and Gary Jules - Mad World. There are many others but those are the two that come to mind immediately.

[Heidi]

30. William Shatner: Rocket Man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN3MGN899yE

[flying rabbit]

31. Alien Ant Farm

"Smooth Criminal" Better than the original IMHO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyx5DuBmjI4

[Enthusiast]

32. Don't forget José Feliciano!

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[Enthusiast]

33. Dupe