Give yourself a hand if you know them already, but some folks may be unfamiliar with these first recordings of songs that became more popular when the artists rerecorded them.
THE SIXTIES: Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds Of Silence" struck a chord with record buyers after a backing band was dubbed onto it. The long-running Isley Brothers scored a hit in 1973 with "Who's That Lady", a song they first released almost a decade earlier. The Wailing Wailers recorded "One Love" in 1966, but Bob Marley's remake (without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) is the popular favorite. After the breakup of Nazz, Todd Rundgren sang "Hello It's Me" as a solo artist.
THE SEVENTIES: Little Feat slowed down "Willin" (a song from their self-titled debut), and made it a classic country-rock ballad. Lynyrd Skynyrd shelved an entire album recorded at Muscle Shoals in 1971, and remade many of the songs (including "Gimme Three Steps") with producer Al Kooper for their official 1973 debut. David Bowie first released "Moonage Daydream" in 1971 as a member of Arnold Corns, a short-lived group that preceded the Ziggy Stardust concept.
Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs sang "Ready For Love" on 1972's All The Young Dudes, and his desire to work with a singer with a greater vocal range led him to form Bad Company. The Move released "Do Ya" in 1972; ELO recorded it again after Todd Rundgren's Utopia popularized the song. Tom Petty's first band Mudcrutch did "Don't Do Me Like That" in 1974. It became a hit for Petty's Heartbreakers five years later.
"Cruel To Be Kind" was written by Ian Gomm and Nick Lowe when they were members of the band Brinsley Schwarz, but it wouldn't have made the charts if Lowe's A&R rep hadn't "bullied" Lowe into redoing it with Rockpile for Labour Of Lust. It was first recorded by the Brinsleys in 1974 at Rockfield, but wasn't released until 1978 (as the b-side to Lowe's "Little Hitler" single, and on some of the non-UK versions of Jesus Of Cool).
Ian Hunter released "England Rocks" as a 1977 single with his Overnight Angels, but relocating the song to Cleveland (with the help of Mick Ronson) proved to be a greater success. Cheap Trick's studio version of "I Want You To Want Me" was decidedly more Beatlesque than the hard-rocking hit version from At Budokan. Joan Jett's first attempt at "I Love Rock'n Roll" was coproduced by two Professionals (Steve Jones & Paul Cook).
After leaving a group called Starstruck, Bill Bartlett brought his hard rock arrangement of Leadbelly's "Black Betty" to his new band, Ram Jam. Billy Idol had a 1981 hit with "Dancing With Myself", but it was first released on the final Generation X album, and Derwood Andrews got Sweet Revenge by leaking the original 1979 recordings. Derwood plays guitar on the version included here. Steve New and Steve Jones (him again) played on the 1980 Gen X version.
The wistful ballad "Holding Back The Years" is neither frantic nor elevating, but The Frantic Elevators recorded it before transforming themselves into Simply Red. "Walking On Sunshine" is both elevating and somewhat frantic, but it wasn't a hit until Katrina And The Waves took another pass at it. "We Care A Lot" was originally recorded by Faith No More in 1985, before vocalist Chuck Mosely was replaced by Mike Patton.
The final "first" on today's compilation is the 1991 version of "Welcome To Paradise", which Green Day rerecorded for their 1994 breakthrough album, Dookie. Thanks to One Buck Guy for sharing the original "Down Under", and thanks to Stinky for suggesting several of songs on today's comp!
http://tinyurl.com/FirstVersions
ReplyDeleteI was test-driving this compilation the other day, and my wife asked why I would listen to these versions when (by my own admission) most of the songs were improved upon when they were re-recorded. My answer was that it's interesting to listen for what may have been lacking. For example, the horn arrangement on the hit version of "Walking On Sunshine", or the refrain "I'll keep holding on" that was later added to "Holding Back The Years". Or what Benmont Tench and Billy Powell added to their bands' sound. It's almost a shame that Men At Work cut all the cool musical digressions that add variety to the original "Down Under".
The missus did agree that The Move's recording of "Do Ya" rocks harder than the ELO remake, and she enjoyed the original "Moonage Daydream" as well as the bossa nova rhythm on the 1964 version of "Who's That Lady".
Mott fans may notice that I faded out "Ready For Love" before it segues into "After Lights". And I may have used Ian Gomm's 1988 remix of "Cruel To Be Kind" (which appeared on the posthumous Brinsleys album It's All Over Now).
Thanks for the great comps. You're probably aware of this, but Jett's "I Love..." is a cover of the song by a(an all-male) Scottish band called the Arrows, with genders flipped in the original lyric.
DeleteCool! Kinda like how Toni Basil flipped genders on "Kitty" (by Racey) and remade it as "Mickey"! I put together a "songs that Joan Jett taught us" comp last year: https://jonderblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Joan%20Jett
DeleteBig fan of Mudcrutch's "Don't Do Me Like That." It's just as good as Tom's. Starstruck's "Black Betty" is simply awesome. If you're doing a part two = Nazareth revamped "Woke Up This Morning" (off Exercises) for 73's Razamanaz. It certainly boosted the band's popularity.
ReplyDeleteOoo, good one! There were a few I could have included, but not enough (yet) for a part 2. Stinky had suggested the Beefeaters' "Don't Be Long" (which was remade by The Byrds as "It Won't Be Wrong").
DeleteThe Beefeaters was a silly name given to The Byrds for a one-off single as a failed marketing gimmick to make it look like they were part of the British Invasion, but it is indeed the Byrds themselves who did both versions.
DeleteVery cool -- thank you for this (oh, well) second First in a really interesting series.
ReplyDeleteHa ha that Down Under OG version is a trip! Also had never heard that OG Isley version (was hoping it was better but knew that their magic period would be between their LATE 60's and 70's stuff when they started experimenting). Joan sounds so young also but no scream! Don'tcha do me like that! Nice comp! I've got some cool versions coming up for next post from a 'Best of '66' album such as Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go) (another one of those songs I like to collect all the versions like "Light My Fire" ) by the Byrds, Help! by the Brothers Four, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by POZO SECO SINGERS and These Boots Are Made For Walkin' by the New Christy Minstrels. The new pre-amp sounds clean and should be posting in next two weeks as I overloaded my vacay time in between rippin'!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your new shares! I got a new laptop for Christmas and downloaded the latest version of Audacity (which has a lot more features than the old one I was using). Hopefully some of your enthusiasm for ripping vinyl will rub off on me!
DeleteNice! Don't know if you were following the blog yet but a few years ago after having a temp problem with my ripware that rectified later, I tried the Audacity freeware on the web and after careful testing I found it inferior in sound to my Audio Cleaning Lab Magix. Hopefully they rectified that but maybe if you have time you can test. Anyways, I know RYP over at Twilight Zone swears by it...
DeleteAnother "Only on Jonderblog" comp to start the year (I misspoke when I commented "it could only come from Stinky" on the LAST comp). Both of you share a similar warped sensibility when compiling music which is what keeps us coming back (along with your encyclopedic musical knowledge and good taste of course)!
ReplyDeleteMrDave, you may be right -- Stinky and I are warped in similar ways, not identical in our tastes but close enough to entertain and amuse each other! Kind words like yours encourage us to keep it going.
DeleteLove this concept, thanks for tracking all of this down and providing the history.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm not the first to do it, but it's interesting stuff to dig into. Hard to believe that DOOKIE is almost 30 years old (or that the 1960's were 60 years ago).
DeleteAnother FIRST on Jonderblog! - Stinky
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance, this looks pretty cool!!!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure. Regatta Da Blanc from Down Under! This looks like a fun collection...
ReplyDeleteThinking more about other candidates, Queen's "Seven Seas of Rhye" probably doesn't really qualify, as it's more of a "cool riff gets turned into a real song" situation. A-HA's first version of "Take On Me" is a good candidate. Another pretty good one: "Sentimental Lady", first with Fleetwood Mac, then Bob Welch alone. Maybe Neil Young's first version of "Wondering"? I'm sure there's a bunch of others that I can't think of right now...
ReplyDelete"Sentimental Lady" would be perfect for a Vol.2! I didn't know there was an earlier version of "Take On Me". And speaking of Neil, how about the Trans version of "Mr. Soul"?!!
DeleteRe: Take On Me
DeleteOh, they didn't only just out the song, it had a glossy music video and everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liq-seNVvrM
J.J. Cale's After Midnight, the hit version was on his first album Naturally (1971), but he had recorded it first in 1966.
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent suggestion! I didn't know that JJ recorded it twice.
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/master/1481712-JJ-Cale-After-Midnight-Slow-Motion
ReplyDeleteI just read (in a comment from Strohmian at Twilight Zone) the unusual story of The Rumour's album Purity Of Essence:
ReplyDeleteKeyboardist Bob Andrews had just left the band, so The Rumour’s last hurrah was a stripped-down affair, leaning in the direction of the New Wave, with a guitar-heavy emphasis and a reliance on outside writers, including Nick Lowe, Glenn Tilbrook, Clive Langer, Thom Bell and others. But then… that all depends on which version of Purity Of Essence you got. The original UK release, produced by Alan Winstanley, came out on Stiff Records in 1980. But when producer Joe Boyd wanted to issue the album in the US on his own Hannibal Records, finances got in the way of the negotiations with Stiff. So he figured it would be just as economical to re-record the album and… the band went for it, somehow getting past the usual label/contract restrictions against doing that very thing. The Rumour entered Island Studios with engineer John Wood and taped an entirely new version of Purity Of Essence, resulting in a straight-up, nearly live-in-the-studio recording that Martin Belmont himself deemed “more energetic, confident.” The band dropped and added three songs for the US version, debuting “All Boys Lie,” “Rubber Band Man” and “Depression,” a Glenn Tilbrook composition never recorded by Squeeze (Tilbrook sits-in on organ, the only guest on the US re-make). A fourth added track, “Name And Number,” was recorded for the original UK album, but ended up being released only as a B-side (before being added to UK version CD reissues as a bonus track). Then it was re-recorded again. As fans know, the US vinyl version remained out of print for over three decades, until finally getting an indie CD release only a few years ago, subtitled “The American Edition.”
What a wild story! I had Purity as a cassette but no idea about this... Before that I bought Frozen Years as a single, it was a minor hit in Holland, still a classic! Actually this is a perfect album begging for a Deluxe Edition, don't you think?
ReplyDelete