I'll start it off with The Nerves "Hanging On The Telephone" which is pretty much forgotten in Blondies wake, but still a pretty great tune.
House of the Rising Sun It turns out no one is really sure who wrote this tale. The first recording is from 1934 and lots of country singers tackled it for the next couple decades. Then came the folk revival of the early 1960s, when Dave van Ronk sang it. Then Bob Dylan put it on his debut album in 1962 and people thought it was his tune. Then Eric Burdon and the Animals covered it in 1964 and made their break. Oddity I just learned from the aforementioned Wikipedia page: there may have been an actual place in New Orleans in the 1860s called Rising Sun Coffee House.
The first one that comes to my mind is "The First Cut is the Deepest". Sheryl Crow murdered that song, yet it became a giant hit. Too bad Yusef Islam doesn't give a shit anymore, because he probably had a lot left to record. Also "Jersey Girl". Love Waits. Hate the boss.
I absolutely loathe her version of that song. Cat Stevens was super influential on me during some formative years and to hear her hack through it... cuts the deepest. That song placed her fully into the same category as Rod Stewart - No Talent Ass-Clowns who have no originality, and a voice like sandpaper - and not in a good way. It's sad - because I used to kind of even like Sheryl. She had a few songs on earlier albums where the rasp in her voice worked in her favor - but she's dead to me now. And though I will concede that she probably had a "bigger hit" than Cat - it's garbage to the core. It's proof that even a great song can be ruined with ease.
I have been listening to a lot of Cat Stevens of late. My daughter really likes his music, I do too. You're right, that guy likely had a lot left to create especially if he kept stealing Joe Satriani riffs
Twist and Shout was a cover. Without a doubt the original version recorded by The Top Notes was eclipsed when The Beatles covered it.
When I first met my soon to be father in law, he was excited to know that I was interested in music. He lent me some CDs. The one he was most excited about was a JJ Cale CD. I've been a fan ever since, and couldn't believe I didn't know his music prior.
I was very surprised to find out that Blinded By The Light was originally a Bruce Springsteen song from his first album. Finding that out actually got me into Bruce, and that's always good.
Other Springsteen covers that you know better than their originals: Patti Smith - "Because the Night" ...dang. I can't remember any others right now. Oy. Patti Smith is famed for another cover that she made more famous than the original: "Gloria". The original was by Them.
I had no idea that Springsteen wrote Because the Night, listened to Easter many many times, it's a great album. Looks like she reworked it enough to get writer credits on the song. Kind of like Bruce reworking Suicides Dream Baby Dream. I am a fan of both artist and have to say that Bruce's version is incomparable. It's probably the strangest song to do as a final encore that I've ever heard, I always feel super sad when I hear Springsteen's version.
It took me ages to discover "I'm Henry the Eighth" by Harry Champion (1911) because it got eclipsed by the Herman's Hermits cover. The cover turns out to be just the chorus (twice, if you please!) The original has verses with many, many more jokes and a metric arse-load of Cockney slang.Oh, when he measured me with half a yard of string,
I dropped down on me marrowbones and sang God Save the King!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho Johnny Cash's "Hurt". Hell I didn't even know it was originally a NIN song for months after I heard it.
Think you got it backwards or maybe I was being unclear. We looked at cover songs over here http://hubski.com/pub?id=89157, now I"m fising for for quality originals that are forgotten becuase the cover got so big. If you had posted Hurt you would be following the spirt of the post. I'll will admit that Cash owns Hurt.