I have a friend who first heard the song Ticket to Ride as The Carpenters' version, and to him it's the "real" version of the song. The Beatles' original version is to him the lesser of the two. That's crazy, I know, but it really does seem to be the one you heard first that sticks and feels "real" to you. As a consequence, lots of people alive in the 1980s are far more familiar with remakes made of earlier songs, and think it is the 80s cheese that reigns supreme.
1. & 2. You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde vs. Diana Ross & The Supremes
3. & 4. Venus - Bananarama vs. Shocking Blue
5. & 6. Hazy Shade of Winter - The Bangles vs. Simon & Garfunkel
7. & 8. Lean on Me - Club Nouveau vs. Bill Withers
9. & 10. Take a Chance on Me - Erasure vs. ABBA
I really saved the best for last there, didn't I? I could watch those two over and over!
I have a friend who first heard the song Ticket to Ride as The Carpenters' version, and to him it's the "real" version of the song. The Beatles' original version is to him the lesser of the two. That's crazy, I know, but it really does seem to be the one you heard first that sticks and feels "real" to you. As a consequence, lots of people alive in the 1980s are far more familiar with remakes made of earlier songs, and think it is the 80s cheese that reigns supreme.
1. & 2. You Keep Me Hangin' On - Kim Wilde vs. Diana Ross & The Supremes
3. & 4. Venus - Bananarama vs. Shocking Blue
5. & 6. Hazy Shade of Winter - The Bangles vs. Simon & Garfunkel
7. & 8. Lean on Me - Club Nouveau vs. Bill Withers
9. & 10. Take a Chance on Me - Erasure vs. ABBA
I really saved the best for last there, didn't I? I could watch those two over and over!
Cover songs are nearly as old as their originals. In fact, back in the early days of the rock era, covers of hit songs would often come out almost simultaneously with their originals, sometimes with the "remake" doing better than the "original." Take for instance Twist and Shout. The original version (then called Shake it Up, Baby was by The Top Notes in 1961. It went nowhere. Then, it was remade by The Isley Brothers in 1962, and it went to #17. But The Beatles took it to #2 (#1 on the Cashbox chart).
Sometimes, a longer amount of time goes between version one and version two. But both become classics of their eras. Take You Keep Me Hangin' ON, which was huge in 1967 for Diana Ross and the Supremes. It was remade by Vanilla Fudge the same year, and went to #6, amazingly enough. But it was in 1987 that it went to number 1 again for Kim Wilde.
Straying into the (early) disco era, a song by LaBelle called Lady Marmalade went to #1 in the States. And though it was remade a couple of times, it took until 2001 to go to #1 again, this time for the movie Moulin Rouge by Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim and Mýa.
But one of my favorite remakes is of Fred Astaire's 1946 Puttin' on the Ritz, itself not truly an original, but a remake itself of a 1929 tune. But aside from the treatment the song was given in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, the 1983 version by one-hit-wonder Taco (#4 on Billboard) is the one that sticks in many minds of my generation.
And that will do it for me for now, folks. Happy Monday!
OK, the last post got me to thinking about the worst cover song ever. The afore mentioned "Ticket to Ride" by the Carpenters comes close, but this one takes the cake. It's two, two, two bad remakes in one. The song itself isn't what does it. It is the unintentionally hilarious video. The girl out-eighties Bananarama, and the guy wouldn't have looked good in any decade. So without further ado, "Baby I love Your Way/Free Bird" by Will to Power.
This article hits my sweet spot for pop culture. I've always been fascinated by cover songs, particularly covers that are as popular or more so than their originals. It's funny how people like the version they knew first, or the one popular when they were first into music.
I think I'll always like the Kim Wilde version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On," over Diana Ross' version. Sure I knew the original first, but the Kim Wilde song was popular when I was in high school. My friend Mark always liked the Carpenters' version of "Ticket to Ride," because he didn't even know there was a Beatles version first.
And here are some of my favorites, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Kim Wilde, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" by Annie Lennox and Al Green, "Dancing in the Street" by David Bowie and Mick Jagger, and finally, "Venus" by Bananarama. Enjoy.
