Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" is a renamed cover of a Betty Hutton song called "Blow A Fuse". I quite like Betty's version too. It's from the 30s or 40s.

I'm assuming most of Westlife's entire output are cover versions.

Another good example is Kylie’s “Confide In Me” which, as you will remember, was her first single after leaving Pete Waterman’s company to go to sign with BMG’s ‘trendy’ dance label ‘de/Construction’. Even though at the time, the fact that Kylie was working with ‘hip’ production groups such as The Brothers In Rhythm was triumphed as a fresh beginning, it was soon found out that the song was based upon an old Opus III song, which was coincidentally released by none other than her ‘former masters’ at PWL.

 

Loz

 

thats interesting, thanks for that info ....

 

ps i like reading your posts, very informative :)

ps i like reading your posts, very informative :)

 

 

Thank you very much, it is greatly appreciated that you took the time to read my post.

 

Loz

In regards to the previous post about Torn. it was written by Ednaswap with producer Phil Thornally. Initially 1st covered by Lis Sorensen in Danish then later by Norwegian Trine Reine and finally Natalie Imbruglia.

 

The confusion is because co-writer Phil Thornally has worked with all the cover artists, clearly repeatedly trying to get a hit out of it. But the original 1995 version is undoubtedly Ednaswap's.

Status Quo - Rocking All Over The World (originally John Fogerty of CCR)

Joan Jett - I Love Rock N Roll (Arrows)

Edited February 2, 201015 yr by Severin

In regards to the previous post about Torn. it was written by Ednaswap with producer Phil Thornally. Initially 1st covered by Lis Sorensen in Danish then later by Norwegian Trine Reine and finally Natalie Imbruglia.

 

I did not know that “Torn” was covered in the Danish language. Now that is a concept that I can not imagine being done and I can not see how it could work, though having not heard the record, I would not like to dismiss this recording completely.

 

I briefly went out with a Dane a few years back [think of Finlay Roberts more than Whigfield] and from experience, I do not think that you could ever call Danish a ‘language of love’. I do not think that Danish would ever be a language that could improve the recording of a song if the record you were listing to was not the English version.

 

I would not say that is true for all languages, in the case of “Der Kommissar” by Falco, I think the original German version should have been better known in English speaking territories, though I would not want it to be the only song he would be remembered for. When After The Fire recorded the song into English they got a big American hit, but I thought that something got ‘lost in translation’ as it was not as good as the original version.

 

As a child, I think that I would have had not as much fun singing “Rock Me Amadeus” if I knew what Falco was actually singing about. I remember trying to imitate those German lyrics, as I guess most children would have done at the time, with random harsh sounding ‘noises’, as this is what the German language sounded like to me.

 

To this day I do not know what Falco was actually singing about though I think I heard something in the lyrics about there being “no plastic money anymore”. Maybe the theme of the song was quite ‘apocalyptic’, maybe it was just innuendo, though I doubt that it was just a song about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

 

Even though I have never seen a translation of “Rock Me Amadeus”, I remember that Smash Hits once translated the lyrics to “Joe Le Taxi” by Vanessa Paradis. Once it was translated into “Joe The Taxi”, the appeal of the song was slightly spoiled for me, as the original hit did not seem that it could be simply about a French taxi driver.

 

As the song featured many other exotic words alongside all the French, I thought that maybe Joe was not just a regular taxi driver, but a driver more like a chauffeur, transporting ‘glam’ film stars to the festival in Cannes or taking fabulous creatures on a ‘fantastic voyage’ across Northern Africa [on the other hand, I do not recall Smash Hits ever translating “Voyage Voyage” by Desireless, and as I do not know what that is about, maybe that song is about doing this].

 

Whereas I know and like many songs in the German and French languages, I do not think I would be able to tell you the title of a single Danish language hit. I am not sure if any of the Danish acts that I know well would actually sing in their own language, but out of all of the ones that I have heard maybe the ‘Efferrklang’ group would, though I suppose they could be the type of band who would probably make up their own language in a Sigur Ros type of way [‘Efferrklang’ were one of Radcliffe & Maconie’s Record Of The Week picks a few weeks ago with a record that sounds a bit like Coldplay, but are supposed to be more ‘avant-garde’ than this record would make you believe].

 

It is quite funny that I am talking about Danish artists to you today as on my way back to work from lunch, a clothes shop was playing Brother Brown’s “Under The Water” on their in-store system. You may remember this hit record from the lyrics about growing a mermaid’s tale and from the shuffling house music beat. It was this rhythm that caught my attention, even though for a moment I thought that the store was actually playing another old record called “Ride The Rocket” by Lithium & Sonya Madan [Echobelly]. Even though these records were Top 40 hits, I am guessing that most people would regard them as being quite obscure, that is unless there are some devoted Echobelly fans on the site which could be a possibility.

 

I think Marie Frank, the singer of that Brother Brown track, may have reverted to singing in Danish as her British album career sunk without trace. I bought her album for about 50p in a second hand shop but can not remember anything about it, apart from the ‘bonus’ track, the aforementioned hit “Under The Water”. I think she was trying to be a sensitive singer-songwriter and this is why she was credited as Frankee on the hit, to distinguish the dance music collaborations from her normal career. Perhaps in her solo career she was supposed to be like a Danish Dido, but as it was a long time ago I would not know, at least “Under The Water” still sounds great and at least she was not quite a one hit wonder as she managed to get another smaller hit with the group.

 

A few years ago, I used to buy Billboard magazine quite frequently as a shop I knew sold it. I remember reading the Charts Of The World section every other week and if you think the charts are slow in the UK, now that downloads have been introduced, well it was a good job that you did not live in Denmark at that time. Every time I looked at the Danish chart I was amazed that it always looked the same with at Number One each week, a record by actress in a popular TV show called Trine Djerholm.

 

That record must have been at Number One non-stop for about two years, as it never seemed to move and even when other songs, that had been big international hits, were featured in the Danish chart, it was still at Number One. I cannot remember seeing another chart like this, which had a record like this stuck at Number One for so long [Elton John may have been Number One in Canada for a year but that was a charity tribute, the world’s biggest selling single in a country where you can be Number One having sold just 49 copies in the previous week, whilst Trine’s record was just a normal hit]. I was also informed at the time that Trine Djerholm’s single was not actually a new record and had been first recorded in the late 1980s, but I can not be sure how true this is.

 

Therefore, I think we should be grateful that Wet Wet Wet and Bryan Adams were only Number One for a few months back in the 1990s. If everybody on here was complaining back then at those records being Number One, I would not like to imagine how people would feel if Journey moved to number one next week and stayed there for another 730 days. I guess there might be a few people who would like this to happen, but I would guess it would annoy the majority of the people on this site [though obviously it will be Simon Cowell’s Haiti single next week, unless MacGowan & Cave’s alternative charity single for Haiti can be rush-released and pushed to Number One by a Facebook campaign instead].

 

Loz

 

Not a cover as such, but only found out yesterday that Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance was based/had the same backing track as Morgan/McVey's Looking Good Diving - a PWL track

Toni Basil - Mickey (originally by Racey but called Kitty)

ill direct you to look at this site ... tiz in resources too .. interesting browse

 

http://www.whosampled.com/

Another one here:

 

Marvin Gaye - Abraham Martin & John - 1970 UK#9 (US did not chart) -- original - Dion - 1968 US#4 (UK did not chart) although I prefer Marvin

 

David Watts - Jam -- original - The Kinks

Edited March 29, 201015 yr by euro music

Hello,

 

I do not know if anyone else has perused the latest issue of the Radio Times, but someone here might be interested in a show, that is to be broadcast by Channel 4 next week. The show is all about the song “Blame It On The Boogie”, which was [in]famously recorded by S/A/W trio Big Fun and written by a gentleman called Michael Jackson.

 

However, this ‘Michael Jackson’ was not the one who had a massive hit with “Blame It On The Boogie” when he covered the song with his brothers, nor was he the guy who used to run BBC Two, but another songwriter who released a number of records under the name Mick Jackson.

 

Even though I doubt the documentary will be made to the standards of BBC Four’s Latin Music, Skippy and Legends shows [as it will be most likely shot by a presenter-director on a small digital camcorder], I think it may still be worth a viewing. If not, then the coincidence of the artist and writer’s names being the same will still be a great bit of pub trivia to remember.

 

Loz

 

Another one is:

 

Status Quo - Rockin' All Over The World -- original by John Fogerty in 1975 - John was lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival

"It's a fine day" by OPUS 3.

 

The original was by "Jane" which is an acappella song that had a 1940s video and sounds a lot like something from a horror film!

 

That's cos it is - it's from Eraserhead :kink:

Aretha Franklin - respect (original by otis reading)

 

Whitney houston - I will always love you (original by dolly parton)

 

Jimi hendrix - All along the watchtower (oringal bob dylan)

 

jimi hendrix - hey joe (cant think its something roberts!!)

 

Carpenters - superstar (original by Delaney and bonnie)

 

The Beatles - twist and shout (original top notes)

 

Mannfred mann’s earth band - blinded by the light (orignal bruce sprngsteen)

 

The kingsmen - louie louie (oringal richard berry)

 

Guns n’ Roses - live and let die (original Paul McCartney and Wings)

 

Fugees (lauryn hill) - Kiling me softly (original Lori Lieberman)

 

Johny Cash - Hurt (nine inch nails)

 

Nirvana - where did you sleep last night (oldest recording i found Leadbelly- song dates back even further though apparently)

 

The Animals - House of the rising sun (oldest recording Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster again origins go back further into folk music history)

 

otis readin - try a little tenderness (bing crosby

 

Etta james - I just want to make love to you (diet coke advert) (original muddy waters.

 

Rihanna -no no no you dont love me (butchered the original) - Dawn penn

 

 

KEEP EM COMEIN PEOPLE I LOVE FINDING OUT SONGS I THOUGHT WERE ORIGINALS ACTUALLY ARENT, CRAZY JALFREZI

 

 

 

Shayne Ward - Gotta Be Somebody

Shayne Ward - Gotta Be Somebody

Erm... this is the retro forum.

 

Neither Shayne Ward nor Nickelback are retro

Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes

Can't believe no-ones mentioned The Bluebells' Young At Heart yet. Originally Bananrama

Edited November 26, 201014 yr by Severin