DOPPLENAMER Volumes 1 & 2
I came up with DOPPLENAMER to describe songs that share their title with an earlier (often much better) song.
Casual visitors to the blog know that I love cover versions. Local radio was behind the times in my home town, so when I was a teenager, I'd often buy albums without knowing much about the contents. I'd look for names I knew like producer Mike Chapman to improve my chances of finding something worth listening to.
In the case of a two-way tie, if I had to decide which album I was going to buy, and which one I'd put back, I usually bought the LP that had a cover song that I liked on it. I figured that I liked at least one song on it. And if the band and I agreed on one song’s merits, I figured I was more likely to enjoy the songs that the band wrote--we were simpatico.
On occasion, I’ve been swayed by a dopplenamer because I failed to read the fine print. One that comes to mind is THE RUMOUR album with their original song Tired Of Waiting on it. Did it not occur to them that people would assume it was a cover of THE KINKS' classic track? Or is that what they were hoping for?
That track may not wind up on a future volume—because it’s not a great song—but it’s a world-class dopplenamer.
That’s the challenge with the some concepts—after all a successful compilation should warrant repeated listenings. The World’s Worst Covers isn’t likely to get played twice (but that didn’t stop me from compiling that series--I just haven’t shared it!)
So here are tunes that aren't exactly original as far as the song title is concerned, that are actually great songs. Maybe it's not a bad thing that you can't copyright a title.
Volume 1 features great songs, in their own right, that share a name with another (often better-known) song.
Carlene Carter's Every Little Thing and Laura Brannigan's Gloria bear no resemblance to the songs by The Beatles & Them--nor does Joe Grushecky's I Can't Control Myself have anything to do with The Troggs' catalogue.
Styx's massive hit Lady may have gone unnoticed by The Little River Band, & who knows; Bowie's Ashes To Ashes may have escaped the notice of Faith No More. Talk Talk seem to have named themselves after the song by The Music Machine, but (if that's the case) that didn't stop them from recording a dopplenamer--as did The Psychedelic Furs:
Volume 2's Breakdown by The Alan Parsons Project may not make me forget that Tom Petty has a song with the same name, but it pulls me in anyway. So does Blondie’s Call Me, Romeo Void’s Wrap It Up, and so on. And Volume 2 has a pretty good flow, if I can be permitted to say so.
Don't be the last person on your block to have the first two volumes of Dopplenamers (anywhere), compliments of JOKONKY.
Downloaders are asked to please weigh in on something I've often wondered.
ReplyDeleteI know that when there are multiple volumes shared of a compilation that has multiple volumes, it often keeps me from listening to them (at) all.
Is that just me, or do our visitors PREFER when there are two or more volumes shared at once (like today)?
Here are the DOPPLENAMER links:
VOL. 1: https://pixeldrain.com/u/HnfS6Pnm
VOL. 2: https://pixeldrain.com/u/y35MQ52w
To be honest I prefer 1 volume at the time, easier 'digesting' I guess ;-) Although I must admit having posted a double volume as well in the past...
DeleteWeird coincidence, yesterday (before even having seen your post!) I was looking on discogs at a weirdly named band who'd released only 1 single: Twenty Inches At The Knee with on the B-side: Spy In The House Of Love. I assumed it was a Was (Not Was) cover but that turned out to be completely wrong as this single was released in 1982 and W(NW) released theirs in 1987! Checking on YouTube I found other versions of Spy In The House Of Love as well as A Spy In The House Of Love and There's A Spy In The House Of Love...
I'm with you, Koen. as another commenter said, I don't have enough time to dig several CDs deep. And I also like to more slowly digest a good comp.
DeleteBeggars can't be choosers; delighted by whatever you are kind enough to throw our way--appreciate it more than you imagine
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind, Eric. We need ten more "regulars" just like you.
DeleteI never listen to music as a total package unless it is an Opera a Symphony or otherwise a one way package. Shuffling Sgt Pepper makes no sence for me, a lot good albums have a purpose structure.. I find multiple sets of the same concept rather pleasing. The once done here, made me want to join in.
ReplyDeleteThere are problems with these 2 sets. Gloria by Laura is certainly a cover, not of Them but Umberto Tozzi's fantastic song. Pretty Woman is something to think about. Did you mean the Roy Orbison song? that bears resemblance to that title but is not the same. And I would not say that Every Little Thing is a famous Beatle song, I had to look it up, and I don't know other famous songs with that title.
Blue Monday is a good one, Venus is one you can add, it was a song by Frankie Avalaon, Eton Crop made Bridge Over Troubled Water (not a cover) Olivia Newton John and Pilot both made Magic, and Runaway is a Status Quo song. You can take Poison, Our House, Hurt (big hit for Timi Yuro), Tonight is done ten different ways. I love you, by Yello has no relation to Cliff's, Easier Said Than Done (Shakatak or Jon Anderson) A Girl Like You,
Stinky thank you for expanding my work field even further
I also stand corrected, Richard. I had no idea Laura Branigan's GLORIA was a cover.
ReplyDeleteYou got us two posts in a row--putting a lot of pressure on Jon who's the next one of us to post.
That said, a DOPPLENAMER is NOT a cover. It's a song that takes it's name from a previously released song with the SAME NAME.
I feel GLORIA could still be included because the question I posed still applies: "Did it not occur to them (the artist) that people would assume it was a cover?"
Here in the states, people were more likely to expect GLORIA to be a cover of VAN MORRISON (with THEM) before it's a cover of UMBERTO TOZZI. That I wasn't aware of UMBERTO lends creedence to my clearwater.
PRETTY WOMAN is a textbook example. BILLY PAUL and ROY ORBISON both have entirely different songs with the same title: they are dopplenamers. :)
Pretty woman is the wrong title to the Roy Orbison song. I am going to be very cross with you :-)
Deleteoh, pretty woman
That is the proper title. I know loads of people, hundreds and thousands are sloppy. Just like the Police song is not Every Little Thing but Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, and sometimes when things are in brackets (as they sometimes do), one forgets the bracket part. I can see that, but the function of the Oh, in Oh, Pretty Woman is clear to me, when he sings in the very last line, when she's walking back to him Oh, Pretty Woman
When I did "As Heard Here First", I shared a total of 8 CD-length volumes (2 blog posts of 4 volumes each). One of those volumes included Umberto Tozzi's original "Gloria" from 1979. There's also a U2 song called "Gloria" that was not written by Umberto Tozzi OR Van Morrison!
DeleteMaybe we should do a compilation of songs that were hits in other countries before the lyrics were translated into English. It could include Umberto Tozzi, "Piangi con me" (the original version of "Let's Live For Today"), "Comme d'habitude" ("My Way"), and "99 Luftballons"...
And if we're REALLY going to be picky, the original German word for a "double" is doppelgänger (spelled with "E-L" rather than "L-E"). But if you're inventing a new word like "Dopplenamer", then YOU (Stinky) get to decide how to spell it!
DeleteDon't YOU fucking start! ;)
DeleteAnd while I didn't know how to spell doppelganger correctly--when I looked it up I found neither do a LOT of people. Even SNL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVfS5FTVhDk
DeleteWhen you make other language songs. Do you count 99 Red Balloons it stays with Nena, as did Helden by Bowie. Umberto Tozzi, and such were covered into other languages by different singers and often with a different text ( not a translation) The US Anthem is such a song where the old melody got paired with a new text. As is O Sole Mio
DeleteFinding translations that are done by other artists that is different.
The Beatles, Stones, Bowie, Peter Gabriel and others recorded versions of their own songs in other languages. The Stranglers redid their song "Sweden" in Swedish. The same backing tracks were used in each case. Nena was the same. The punk band 7 Seconds covered "99 Red Balloons". Nena just sang her own song again in English. (And now she makes children's music!)
DeleteI agree with the other distinction that you're making. "Let's Live For Today" and "My Way" aren't translations of "Piangi con me" and "Comme d'habitude". The lyrics were rewritten, and the meaning of each song changed. Same melody, new text. Google translates the phrase "Piangi con me" to "cry with me", and "Comme d'habitude" translates to "as usual"
Imagine my surprise when I bought Led Zeppelin and found "Stairway to Heaven" was not the song By Neil Sedaka from 1960!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great one! Were you surprised in a good way, or disappointed?
DeleteHilarious!
DeleteYou got me AGAIN, Richard. I stand corrected.
ReplyDeleteOrbison's song IS "Oh, Pretty Woman". So Billy Paul's "Pretty Woman" is NOT a dopplenamer.
I have store-bought compilations with mistakes on them, so I'm not going to feel too bad about it.
In the words of Rich Moratta: "If this was easy, everyone would be doing it." :)
Talk Talk (the group) originated as a British punk band called The Reaction, who had a song called "Talk Talk Talk Talk" on STREETS, the 1977 punk compilation LP. I think I put it on one of the "Four Or Further" compilations that Richard helped me with!
ReplyDeleteDid the Psychedelic Furs name their second album TALK TALK TALK as a tribute to the band Talk Talk, the Music Machine song "Talk Talk", or the song "Talk Talk Talk Talk"?
Or maybe the Furs and/or The Reaction were thinking of the Roxy Music lyric "I could talk, talk, talk, talk, talk myself to death"?
I was careful in my choice of words regarding TALK TALK's name, Jon. I selected "seem to", and "if that's the case" in order to not have to do any research.
DeleteWork smarter, not harder.
I LOVE multiple volumes of a series if the series is one that I really like. The only problem is that it sometimes takes YEARS to get through them all because I'm easily distracted by other things I want to hear.
ReplyDeleteI'm betting that people buying Laura Brannigan singles had only the vaguest idea that Van Morrison existed, let alone a working knowledge of songs widely covered by Garage Rock bands.
I'm with you, on multiple volumes, Psychfan, & it's good to hear from you.
DeleteThere are two camps in regards to any artist's output. Let's use LAURA BRANIGAN as an example.
You make a good point that people who were fans of hers may not have been aware of VAN MORRISON, or garage rock.
But then there's everyone else. I feel any avid music fan (a musical omnivore like myself), or anyone in the music business, like radio station DJ's or people who work in record stores would have most likely thought: "She's covering G-L-O-R-I-A."? Didn't Patti Smith do that six years ago?
Not that a lot of time has to pass for a hit song to be covered. In my own experience, 8-10 years seems pretty common. (Again, I'm avoiding doing any research through careful wording).
I agree that Gloria is a much less generic title than Lady (see OBG's comment below), especially since it was such a widely covered song and was influential to many other musicians. I still wonder how much overlap any of that had with the world of Disco, though. My understanding was that there was a strong grass roots component to the rise of a disco hit (What's moving them on the dancefloor?).
DeleteOn the other hand, I suppose that it wouldn't be hard to find many examples of singles that failed to get airplay or other support because of the confusion you're talking about.
A few extra thoughts
ReplyDeleteWhen you talk about songs from other languages into English Jacques Brel is always a contender. Nobody does it better than Mr Brel. (He remains "hors categorie")
Many have done If You Go Away.. Also Brecht/Weill has been done and in recent times Joel Corry x Jax Jones - OUT OUT (feat. Charli XCX & Saweetie) is more than just sampling Stromae - Alors On Danse. Also Aznavour had some songs that became anglicised
For Stinky: Saturday Night, the great song by Whigfield shares the title with Dutch giant Herman Brood
Jump For Joy by 2 Unlimited shared with Duke Ellington. (Good, better, one of the best of Duke)
Hello (no introduction needed)
Shake It Off by Narada Michael Walden, shares title with a 1970 song by the (relatively unknown) Omnibus
Sometimes I know the song, and someone uses the title, and than I find nobody knows that previous song. I had that with Vienna. I had to look up that someone had a song called Vienna tucked away somewhere. That made me think. Usher using My Way is that arrogance? Surely he knew that song. I don't always know if someone knew that previous song, or thinks it's a great title to make something new with it or whatever.
There is, another however, anothe fairly big complaint from me to you (Beatles reference) Initially you put the artist of Pretty Woman as Biily Paul, look b-i-i-l-y
Please, Richard... no more thoughts.
DeleteYou're busting my onions over a typo?
Are you going to start correcting our punctuation?
Here's the thing, some of these titles are completely generic ("Lady" - which I thought was a cover of Kenny Rogers rather than Styx, "For Your Love", "Runaway", "I Want You", "Photograph") so it's not a surprise that there are more than one, in fact most of these (and I only mean originals, not covers) must exist in dozens of variations. The issue (if we can call it that) is that the concept of the compilation is relatively random - these two songs share titlmes, but for most of them there is no real indication that they were thinking of, or taking the title from an earlier song. I mean, "Ashes To Ashes" is obviously referring to the funeral eulogy first, before it references the Bowie song. Something like "The Dream Police" is more specific, and Numan surely was aware of the earlier song, but I think both songs are independent plays on 1984's Thought Police.
ReplyDeleteAgain, not to take anything away from the concept, Stinky, but it has no choice but to end up a relatively random exercise, which might still bring us some killer comps.
As for the multi-disc vs. one disc question: I have done both on my blog, depending on how much sense it made to separate the material. I, like most of us music bloggers/music blog visitors have way too much music to listen to, so when I can I put box set tyoe stuff into single volumes, to people have the time to,, as Koen saud, digest it. Listening intently, and attentively, to two or three almost full capacity disc volumes takes time and dedication, that we all sometimes lack, especially the former...
Hi OBG. As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
DeleteI think I shared before that a deejay named WEASEL on WHFS in the Washington/Baltimore area was the first I heard do something that A LOT OF other radio stations swiped & ran with. He called it MY THREE SONGS--which were three songs that "shared a light motif". Listeners were asked to call in if they felt they knew WHAT the common theme of the three songs were. It was great, VERY original, & the concept left a lot of room for inclusion and randomness.
Read more here: https://www.feastyourearsthefilm.com/BOOTS/history18.html
I try to make sure all my comps have that playful spirit--& the fact they're relatively "random exercises" (I hope) is part of the charm. LUCILLE BALL & HARPO being on the cover is an indication that this is all for fun.
Any idiot can make a comp of songs with the word BLUE in their titles (& some idiot is almost certainly doing so as I type this). Search "blue" on your computer & pull the results into a new folder, & you're done in ten minutes.
Someone spending way too much time on a pointless exercise (fueled by their own compulsiveness) always gets my attention. And, if they can deliver something memorable combining those two elements, I feel they've really got something. You made a portrait of David Bowie using only tiny photos of your dog? I'm gonna take a look at that.
My goal is to go deeper & many of my series put the focus on a single line for a song to be included, like KEEP MY NAME OUT'CHA MOUTH. It's much more time consuming, & like MY THREE SONGS might hopefull inspire the listener to REALLY listen closely--to become invested.
For me, there's a time factor involved in a dopplenamer. Even with a generic title like LADY, there were only five years between STYX's smash hit and LITTLE RIVER BAND's dopplenamer. For me, that's simply not enough time. Teenagers are generally credited with buying the most records, and a kid who was held back a year could have been in high school for both releases. If I were in the band I'd have 100% lobbied for a different title. Like a comp of songs with "blue" in the title it just seems lazy, Hey, they COULD have made it a song about a girl who was LAZY! I mean if DIZZY can be a #1 hit, so can LAZY!
A rose by any other name can still hit the charts. :)
Here's the actual WHFS documentary I meant to share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFO6VkY5Sts
DeleteI can't stop screwing up today. The word is leitmotif, and that's not the correct link above, either! But it's still interesting. :)
DeleteFrom my listening background I think comp.'s beyond 90 minute (standard cassette length I would make comp.'s on for others) kind of fall off my radar. CD's are near 70 minutes maximum and I do have double CD comp.'s so 140 is about the maximum I am used to. My old tape comp.'s had cohesion from the songs I chose to paint a picture if I could 'grab the attention' that long. Yeah those associations can be a stretch like trying to lay claim to 'Ocean' as an album title like Eloy or known song. Of course I think of Jane's Addiction with 'The Ocean' as the 'defining song' for the word.
ReplyDeleteI think that I speak for us all when I say that we value your input, VCMD!
DeleteThis is VCMD's blog: https://downunderground.blogspot.com/ and many of my tracks may or may not have come from there!
did someone mention Pooh Sticks - Heroes and Villains
ReplyDeleteOooh! Good one, Richard! It's been secreted away for a future volume.
DeleteI finally tracked down the WHFS documentary on PBS' site, and I swear that this is the correct link:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pbs.org/video/feast-your-ears-the-story-of-whfs-1023-fm-gadpt4/
I have to say it wasn't as riveting as I expected because I was an avid listener in the station's 2-3 year "sweet spot" and the documentary covers the entirety of the station's history. I didn't know their DJ's plugged and attended WOODSTOCK, and were watched closely by the government--so there's a lot of history in general in it!