By deep I mean with the most obscure original. I am not talking ‘all along the watch tower’ but things like Fever Ray’s cover of Vashti Bunyan’s song Here before
Fever Ray is relatively well known while Bunyan had very limited success
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“House of the Rising Sun” has been covered numerous times. The most known version is from The Animals. I was today years old when I learned that this is the original version of the song. However, my personal favourite cover version is from BTO.
Another well-executed cover version is of the song “Johnny B. Goode”, covered by Peter Tosh, beause it is tranferred into a different music genre.
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Probably The Man Who Sold the World covered by Midge Ure, which I find much better than Bowies original or the famous Nirvana cover.
Good song, but Bowie is not obscure.
Whiskey In The Jar Song by Metallica, original is from the Dubliners in 1969
Metallica might have been more influenced by the Thin Lizzy version. But the song is older than The Dubliners.
Rage Against the Machine’s Renegades of Funk was originally written and performed by a band called Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force in 1983.
The Louis Prima Orchestra’s cover of “Whatta Ya Gonna Do?”, by Sunny Skylar. One of my favorite songs, a perfect blend of New Orleans and New York in the 40s. I have it on vinyl, but the link above is the only place I can find it on the internet. I hope somebody works to preserve Louis Prima’s catalog from the 40s digitally
“Torn,” by Natalie Imbruglia (1997) was originally written by Ednaswap and recorded in 1995—which, imo, is better. However, even though they wrote it, it was first recorded in 1993 by danish band, Lis Sørensen, who titled it “Brændt,” which means “Burned.”
Bonus! “The State I’m In” a song from Ednaswap’s first album, was covered by Sinéad O’Connor for her 2000 album Faith and Courage.
Wild! I didn’t know that wasn’t done by Sinead
Stille Volk’s cover of Iron Maiden’s To Tame A Land:
This would be a perfect fit if it went the other way. Big band covering obscure band
The Sound of Silence by Disturbed.
Original. - had no much success until the cover.
The original had not much success until the cover?? Where did you get that information from?
Yeah, I literally laughed out loud when I saw that.
I have one word for that commenter.
“Plastics”
Harry Belafonte’s exuberent cover of “Day O (Banana Boat Song)” which was a hit in its time and re-popularized by the dinner scene in Beetlejuice.
The original is Jamaican folk/traditional and the first recording of it Eric Connor - Day O has a totally different tone to it. In the original, labouring on a banana plantation is as tiring and depressing as you’d think.
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Two that are not at all obscure to but often overshadowed by their covers… i love the Four Seasons version of Beggin - https://youtu.be/d5AfvOk57bE?feature=shared
Same for the Everly Brothers doing Love Hurts - https://youtu.be/hFE2SnliiV0?feature=shared
There’s a kid I know from a few karaoke nights whose go-to song is Beggin. Now it makes more sense why he does that song a bit differently (the first “Beggin” in the chorus he doesn’t sing.)
I only grew up with the Madcon version and I didn’t know until today that it was a cover.
I also heard a local singer do a really good acoustic cover of that song, where he actually does the rap parts.
Gloria Jones originally performed Tainted Love in the ‘60s. It didn’t hit until Soft Cell covered it in ‘81.
Holy shit. Mind blown
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Wow, this is why I’m here.
The Amen Break is a few seconds sample that became drum and bass. All of drum and bass has roots from that sample.
~18 min explanation on it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
For only seven seconds worth of drumming the Amen Break’s influence and reach is mind blowing. It literally changed (modern, western) music.
Not sure if this applies, but people still seem to think that Nine Inch Nails covered Hurt by Johnny Cash and not the other way round. That or they haven’t even heard the original.
You want obscure? Here’s a cover of a song by Joe Glazer, written by a union coal miner that immigrated to the US
The first one I didn’t know! And yes, this one is absolutely the most obscure cover of an even more obscure song I think I’ve heard of.
probably The Association’s cover of “Windy” by Ruthann Friedman (which she wrote about a guy, btw)
Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
