Most successful covers.

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,139
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    Animals - House of The Rising Sun

    Rollijng Stones - Time Is on My Side
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,139
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    sjp07 wrote: »
    Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is a cover?! Say what?!?! I never knew that.

    It isn't, it was written by a guy called Robert Hazard who did a demo, but it wasn't commercially released.

    So Cyndi's version isn't a cover
  • Chickens hitChickens hit Posts: 26,490
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    Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes.

    The original version by the song's co-writer Jackie DeShannon is...........different.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-R6-xUEEp4
  • tracystapestracystapes Posts: 3,309
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    InMyArms wrote: »
    From a UK only perspective Leona Lewis's cover of Run by Snow Patrol sold bucket loads.

    Her rendition is lovely though. I know a lot of people disagree but both versions are great imo.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 113
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    glyn9799 wrote: »
    The only other one I can think of is Go West by 'Pet Shop Boys'

    Always on my Mind was by far PSB's most successful cover.

    Would've thought Band Aid 20's version of Do They Know It's Christmas was one of the best selling.
  • Gill PGill P Posts: 21,569
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    I suppose Will Young's version of Evergreen is technically a cover as it was an album track on a Westlife album. It still is the biggest grossing single from a debut artist and is (I think) about No.11 on the highest selling singles.
  • MargueriteMarguerite Posts: 2,292
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    Gill P wrote: »
    I suppose Will Young's version of Evergreen is technically a cover as it was an album track on a Westlife album. It still is the biggest grossing single from a debut artist and is (I think) about No.11 on the highest selling singles.


    Evergreen was always going to sell by the shed load and break records for the simple fact, most people bought it as a souveneir of one of the most popular tv programmes ever. Shooting fish in a barrell I think is the term to describe it's sales. I doubt it will ever happen again and the money it made the label at £3.99 a unit was phenomenal too, no downloads back then :D.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,139
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    Always on my Mind was by far PSB's most successful cover.

    Would've thought Band Aid 20's version of Do They Know It's Christmas was one of the best selling.

    I doubt that Band Aid 20 sold more than Band Aid
  • ElectraElectra Posts: 55,660
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    sebastion wrote: »
    Bryan Ferry Jealous Guy (john lennon)

    Thought Ferry covered it brilliantly, but don`t know if it was a bigger hit.

    Great cover but it was Roxy Music, not Ferry solo. Roxy took it to no1.
  • mevilhoneymevilhoney Posts: 685
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    tortfeasor wrote: »
    The best example for me would have to be 'Mack The Knife.' Its history is a great story and worth reading but here's a brief version:

    It originally started as a song 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer' featured in a German stage drama/musical 'Die Dreigroschenoper.' This was translated into several other languages and performed in English as 'The Threepenny Opera.' There have been several English translations but the versions we all know and love of 'Mack the Knife' are ones that popularised the 1950s adaptation of 'The Threepenny Opera' by Marc Blitzstein, which was performed on Broadway.

    Louis Armstrong released his version of 'Mack the Knife' in 1956, which is my joint favourite version. Louis' version is the first that mentions Lotte Lenya (who was an actress/singer that had performed and recorded 'Mack' in 1955) and it was certainly a big hit in the USA

    However, Louis' version was overshadowed by Bobby Darin's cover in 1959, which topped the Billboard and UK charts.

    Then of course you get Ella Fitzgerald's infamous live in Berlin cover, where she improvises after forgetting the lyrics and she's just awesome in doing so! She even name checks Bobby and Louis. Ella's version (rightly) went on to win a Grammy award.

    Equally the song 'Beyond the Sea' has a good history with its music being lifted from the song 'La Mer.' Bobby Darin's cover, which is arguably the most successful, was not the first to reach the American Billboard charts.

    Another song with,I think,a link to this is Jacque Brel`s `Season In The Sun`. I`m pretty certain Brel did Mack the Knife or something connected to Brecht (deep influence on Bowie all that) and this song was a biig hit in 1974 for Terry Jacks,as an anodyne pop song, but it`s a ctually a story of suicide and infidelity,very French. Acoording to Wiki it`s been covered by Westlife and Nirvana.:eek:
  • mevilhoneymevilhoney Posts: 685
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    ` I`ll Stand By You` by the Pretenders was covered by Girls Aloud. That was successful.
    Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders wrote it in colloboration with two other writers,and the tune was based on something by Johann Sebastian Bach (according to wiki)
    So there is a direct link between Johann Sebastian Bach and..Cheryl Cole!
  • gelbma0991gelbma0991 Posts: 4,783
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    Makson wrote: »
    Celine Dion's "All Coming Back To Me Now"

    My god, the original of that was horrendous. And the video is beyond creepy haha.

    I never really liked Meatloaf's version either, even though I do love Meatloaf ha.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 306
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    Hendrix doing Dylan's All Along The Watchtower.
  • tortfeasortortfeasor Posts: 7,000
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    mevilhoney wrote: »
    Another song with,I think,a link to this is Jacque Brel`s `Season In The Sun`. I`m pretty certain Brel did Mack the Knife or something connected to Brecht (deep influence on Bowie all that) and this song was a biig hit in 1974 for Terry Jacks,as an anodyne pop song, but it`s a ctually a story of suicide and infidelity,very French. Acoording to Wiki it`s been covered by Westlife and Nirvana.:eek:

    It's a very odd song that one (though Brel's are). I think the suicide theme was lost on some people though even in the translation for Jacks' version it is clear (at least to me)that's what the singer is on about. However, some of the lyrics in Jacks' version are a bit silly - "the stars in our reach were just starfish on the beach!"

    I seem to remember Westlife's cover was a double A-side with their cover of ABBA's 'I Have A Dream.' I hated both of those though they sold very well. I'm not too keen on the original 'I Have A Dream' either.

    Nirvana definitely performed 'Seasons...' and I think a recording they did was released on a boxset. I read a book about Kurt a few years ago and it had quotes from an interview he gave where he talked about Terry Jacks' version, which he listened to when growing up.

    Now talking about links to other artists, you can of course bring Bowie back in to the mix here (as you mentioned, he was influenced by Brecht and Brell). His cover of Brel's 'My Death' is my favourite version of the track and of course Nirvana (as was mentioned elsewhere on this thread) covered Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World.'
  • toyotacitytoyotacity Posts: 762
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    Was going to say I Feel For you by Chaka, probably the best cover version i've ever heard, almost like you would think it was her original song

    Also Hanging on The Telephone - Blondie
    originally by The Nerves

    Denis by Blondie, a cover of Denise by Randy and the Rainbows
  • tortfeasortortfeasor Posts: 7,000
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    toyotacity wrote: »
    Was going to say I Feel For you by Chaka, probably the best cover version i've ever heard, almost like you would think it was her original song

    Also Hanging on The Telephone - Blondie
    originally by The Nerves

    Denis by Blondie, a cover of Denise by Randy and the Rainbows

    Great examples. Few people in my experience realise that Blondie covered 'Hanging on the Telephone.'

    I love Prince's 'I Feel For You' as well as Chaka's, It's one of the best songs on the second album and arguably one of the best he wrote. Not often discussed but The Pointer Sisters also covered it - 2 years before Chaka's version was released. Chaka really did wonders with it though. It's one of the best records of the last 30 years. I love the 'sound' that Arif Mardin was making in the mid-1980s: the tracks he did with Scritti Politti for 'Cupid & Psyche 85' sound equally brilliant.
  • toyotacitytoyotacity Posts: 762
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    oh I forgot

    Girls just want to have fun by Cyndi Lauper, originally by Robert Hazard

    I thought it was Cyndi's song originally
  • tortfeasortortfeasor Posts: 7,000
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    Paul Young made some excellent covers of songs.
    However, I've known a few people to think that 'Come Back and Stay' was an original Paul Young song. It was actually recorded and released by its writer, Jack Lee, who (gosh this is spooky) also wrote 'Hanging on the Telephone,' which has not long been mentioned! Dare I say it, Jack Lee's version is more along the lines of 'Hanging on the Telephone.'

    My other favourite Paul covers are (with the original versions in brackets):

    Softly Whispering I Love You (The Congregation)
    Everytime You Go Away (Hall & Oates )
    I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (Ann Peebles)

    Love of the Common People (John Hurley, though this version was released a few years after it was recorded and I think the earliest released version, which was a cover, is the one by The Four Preps).
  • eugenespeedeugenespeed Posts: 66,695
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    Toploader's cover of Dancing In The Moonlight, Madness' One Step Beyond and Blondie's Tide Is High were all pretty successful
  • Residents FanResidents Fan Posts: 9,204
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    The Johnny Cash version of NIN's "Hurt".
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    Smithy1204 wrote: »
    Oh wow, I didn't even realise that was a cover. :o I love that song.

    I think Twist & Shout by The Beatles has to be up there with the most successful covers. And on that note also, Chains by The Beatles too, although Twist & Shout is obviously the more well-known of the two.

    Maybe Guns'N'Roses' version of Knockin' On Heaven's Door too. And obviously I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, although I'm not a fan of it personally, I prefer the original.

    I love Chains
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 114
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    Apparently tlc's waterfalls was originally sir Paul marcartney's. they added/removed to make it more rnb.
    This made me sad cause everyone is really bashing the stooshe version when tlc did the same thing. Don't get me wrong stooshe's version is truly an awful cover - but all the tlc fans are forgetting its humble beginnings.
  • gettygetty Posts: 3,480
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    "Light My Fire" by Jose Feliciano which won him a Grammy Award for the best male vocal performance of a song.
    Will Young also recorded the Jose Feliciano version and took the song to #1 in the UK for the first time ever and also to #4 in Italy.
    Many others have recorded The Doors classic but Jose Feliciano's version remains the most successful and widely played version after The Doors.
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    toyotacity wrote: »
    Also Hanging on The Telephone - Blondie
    originally by The Nerves

    Denis by Blondie, a cover of Denise by Randy and the Rainbows

    I never realised both those songs were covers!
  • Cantona07Cantona07 Posts: 56,910
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    The Johnny Cash version of NIN's "Hurt".

    Yup thats my winner!

    Also a fan of

    Oasis - I am the Walrus
    China Drum - Wuthering Heights
    Social Distortion - Under My Thumb
    Guns n Roses - Sympathy for the Devil
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