Rock musicians began making covers for songs by other artists from time immemorial: Elvis Presley and The Beatles "covered" less successful colleagues from the 40s. Most often, they get it so well that the original is not just forgotten, but as if erased from history.
No one has a clue that the hit of their favorite band was actually recorded by someone else, and sometimes both versions become popular. It is precisely such cases that will be discussed.
10. Children of Bodom - Oops, I Did It Again! (Britney Spears)
In 2000, the pop princess recorded this song for her album of the same name and the composition immediately became a hit. She topped the charts of 15 countries, and single sales reached 4 million copies worldwide.
The song was good and even liked the Finnish death metallers Children of Bodom. In 2009, they, as an experiment, made a cover on it, including it in the collection Skeletons in the Closet.
The musicians themselves explained this by the fact that they simply were interested in working with such unusual material and they did not think that even Britney Spears fans would like their cover.
9. Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)
Annie Lennox, with her Oscars, Golden Globes, four Grammys and eight BRIT Awards (record number), is one of the most successful women in the music world. Her duet with David A. Stuart Eurythmics recorded many good compositions, the most famous of which was Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).
The most amazing thing is that Marilyn Manson made the song more famous than its authors by writing a cover on it. This allowed him to gain a foothold in the mainstream and get into rotation on TV, significantly increasing the number of his fans.
In addition to the new sound, Manson added several new lines to the song: “I wanna use you and abuse you / I wanna know what’s inside / Gonna use you and abuse you / I’m gonna know what’s inside”.
8. Muse - Feeling good (Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse)
The composition Feeling good is one of the most recognizable in the work of British rockers Muse, although its authors are completely different people.
The original song was recorded by their countrymen Anthony Newley and Leslie Brickass in 1964, and Muse made their cover in 2001.
It is worth noting that Feeling good was remade in its own way by many musicians from other genres: for example, in 2015, DJ Avichi released his version.
7. Scorpions - White Dove (Omega - Gyöngyhajú lány)
The Hungarian band Omega recorded the song Gyöngyhajú lány (Girl with Pearl Hair) in 1969, and after almost a quarter of a century, in 1994, they decided to “certify” Scorpions.
In fairness, it is worth noting that they used only the music from the original, and they completely replaced the text with their own, since they did not like the romantic version of the Hungarians. Their version was successful and gave Gyöngyhajú lány, which now became White Dove, a second life in the mid-90s.
4. Led Zeppelin - Dazed and confused (Jake Holmes)
The song Dazed and confused, recorded by “Zeppelins” in 1969, is considered a classic of the group in particular and rock in general, but its author is already forgotten Jake Holmes.
She entered his 1967 album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes and really liked Jimmy Page, who was still performing at the Yardbirds at the time.
He decided to rework it to his taste, making it much harder and doing a signature trick with playing the bow on an electric guitar. He even performed it at concerts, but the general public found out about the song only after it entered the debut album Led Zeppelin.
5. Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)
Chris Kristofferson, who wrote the song Me and Bobby McGee in 1969, had no success with it. He even performed it not the first: at first she was sung by country musician Roger Miller and Gordon Lightfoot, and separately. They did better than the direct author, but the composition became a hit only in the performance of the legendary Janice.
She recorded a cover just a few days before her death, and he was included on Pearl's 1971 album. It was this single that climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the only Joplin discography.
4. Placebo - Running up that hill (Kate Bush)
The British singer Kate Bush gathered huge halls in the 80-90s, and when the song Running Up That Hill (recorded in 1985) was played, everyone present sang. Then she disappeared from the scene for a long time, but her music lived, and other performers were interested in her.
Brian Molko, frontman of Placebo, released his version in 2003, including the track in the Covers album. After Kate Bush in the zero came back and began to perform again, she had to get used to the fact that her old composition is now known to many in a different performance.
3. Johnny Cash - Hurt (Nine Inch Nails)
The ability to correctly choose a song for a cover is also a talent and Johnny Cash is more than endowed with it. Young and not very popular in those years, Nine Inch Nails recorded the song Hurt in 1994, and when in 2002 Cash decided to do a cover, they were skeptical.
The leader of the group, Trent Reznor, was most unhappy, but then he admitted that the cache version turned out better than their original.
2. Pearl Jam - Last kiss (Wayne Cochran and the S.C. Riders)
The extravagant but damn talented Wayne Cochran was quite popular in the middle of the last century, but his song Last kiss on the charts failed. Even Elvis Presley, who was friends with Cochran, tried to give her a new sound, but his cover did not become a hit either.
They forgot about the composition for almost 40 years, until in 1999 Pearl Jam included a cover for it in the album No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees.
1. Iggy Pop - Real wild child (Johnny O’Keefe - Wild one)
Johnny O’Keefe is an Australian rock and roll actor who has become the most famous member of the genre in his homeland.
He recorded the song Wild one in 1958 and it even entered the American charts, which for the Australian at that time was a real achievement.
After almost 30 years, Iggy Pop decided to rework the composition: calling it Real Wild Child, he released it as a single and included it on the Blah Blah Blah album. The cover was successful, and that album is still the best-selling Iggy's career.