Famous Interpreters Who Were Famously Interpreted: Nilsson Types

The most famous version of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" is Harry Nilsson's cover. The most famous version of Harry Nilsson's "One" is Three Dog Night's cover. Are there any other singer/songwriters who had this degree of success singing songs by others and having their songs sung by others?

Like, there are early Beatles songs that are more famous than the r&b originals, but are there any songs written by John Lennon or McCartney where their version isn't the most famous? Did anyone ever score big with a Nina Simone original? Did Joni Mitchell notably cover something that wasn't already a standard?

Neil Diamond counts, with the Monkees' having the most famous version of "I'm A Believer" and he's got at least one hit he didn't write - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore." Are there any others?

Nilsson did this more than once, btw. It was a long time before I learned that "Without You" was originally by Badfinger.

but are there any songs written by John Lennon or McCartney where their version isn't the most famous?
I Wanna Be Your Man

Three Dog Night did this a lot - ie, with Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me Not to Come"

Willie Nelson? He's a great interpreter -- "Blues Eyes Crying In The Rain" + the whole Stardust album (which I think is his best seller). But obviously he's got tons of songs that are country standards.

i was thinking about "i wanna be your man", forgot it was an actual hit in the uk (b-side stateside)

xpost but did the singer for three dog night write a hit for anyone else? did randy ever have a popular cover? i know interpreters tend to interpret more than once.

and yeah a good number of songwriters also have singing careers to the point that they cover stuff, but i'm talking about a hit cover that isn't already a standard - people not realizing harry nilsson didn't write the song.

well Willie wrote "Crazy" for Patsy Cline and yeah he's always done other people's songs

country as a genre is rife with this kind of thing

xp

yep, and folk, too. Steve Young, for instance, who wrote Seven Bridges Road.

willie does count - albert hammond wrote "to all the girls i loved before"

i think i thought blue eyes crying in the rain was a willie original for a while...

but did the singer for three dog night write a hit for anyone else? did randy ever have a popular cover?

oh I see, you're thinking specifically of it going both ways. Three Dog Night never wrote shit so I guess that puts them out. I dunno about Randy, don't think he does covers tho.

xp

Willie didn't write a lot of his biggest hits (Always on My Mind, Blue Eyes Cryin in the Rain, etc.)

"always on my mind" is a weird one - brenda lee put out the first version, elvis frikkin presley had a top 20 country single with it (and the pet shop boys version debuted on an elvis tribute special) - but it was willie's version that won Song Of The Year

cool thread idea

obv Dylan covered a lot of folk songs and whatnot but it seems like all of his hits were originals?

as far as the ol' brill types go, can't find a hit non-standard cover recorded by Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka or Carole King, even they've obviously given countless hits to others

obv Dylan covered a lot of folk songs and whatnot but it seems like all of his hits were originals?

only Dylan track I can think of that qualifies is House of the Rising Sun on the debut

but yeah not a "hit" really

yeah dylan does not have the most famous version of house of the rising sun

Ian Hunter. He sang the most famous version of Bowie's "All The Young Dudes"; Barry Manilow sang the most famous version of his "Ships."

good one!

Elvis Costello sang the most famous version of Nick Lowe's "What's So Funny (About Peace Love and Undertanding)"; Nick Lowe sang the most famous version of Mickey Jupp's "Switchboard Susan." (Lowe's version actually got airplay in Detroit, and presumably other places -- pretty sure it was the second single, or at least AOR focus track, off Labour Of Lust after "Cruel To Be Kind.")

CCR with Dale Hawkin's "Suzie Q", then Tina Turner with CCR's "Proud Mary"

CCR's version of "Proud Mary" actually charted higher than ike & tina's

ike & tina version is still plenty famous, though, and prob more familiar to a good number of people

ike & tina didn't make CCR's #2 hit famous

there may be people who think simon & garfunkel wrote "wake up little susie" but it doesn't count here

elton's "lucy in the sky with diamonds" was a #1 hit, while the beatles didn't even release it as a single, but we're not going to say he made "lucy in the sky" famous

eh i was going with the "famously interpreted" phrase in the thread title, didn't realize making the song famous was a requirement but ok

well if we're going to compare it to nilsson covering neil the song obv can't already be a hit

There must be some Elvis Costello song that somebody else made famous, right? If so, he fits (see Lowe comment above).

And has Prince ever hit with a cover? Because obviously other people (Chaka Khan, Sinead, etc) have made his songs famous.

prince tried with "betcha by golly wow" but we're not giving it to him

Prince didn't release any covers for like the first 15 years of his career so no

may have been more like first 20 actually

linda ronstandt did her best to induct elvis into this club with "allison" but i'd say she failed

costello, i mean

"god gave me strength" was arguably more famous in the movie it was written for than the costello/bacharach recording but obv not really a hit

er "god give me strength"

Mel Torme? Most of his hits were written by other people, but the best-known version of the best-known song he wrote is Nat Cole's recording of "The Christmas Song."

totally counts - nat king cole even recorded it first!

I'm sure there's quite a few Adele fans that don't know The Cure's version of "Love Song"

and there are probably some dipshits who think 311 wrote it, but it was already a top ten hit for the cure

Speaking of Linda Ronstadt, she hit big with Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum" while singing for the Stone Poneys.
I think that Mike is best known for his interpretations of other peoples songs even though he's quite a formidable songwriter, himself.

I thought I was gonna score big with Pete Seeger/The Byrds (Turn! Turn! Turn!), but that motherfucker didn't just sing If I Had a Hammer...he wrote it too. He wrote EVERYTHING.

nesmith counts fo sho

lol xp how about the byrds -- best known for their dylan covers, but "eight miles high" has been covered a lot over the years.

none of those covers are more famous than the Byrds' tho

altho maybe there's some Gene Clark/Tom Petty angle here with the "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" cover

if we counted every "this person covered one standard and a lot of people covered one of their hits" most singer/songwriters would count

sure

Clark is arguably most famous for covering Dylan songs in the Byrds tho

just in case anyone's getting lost in the semantics, let's tighten the concept to "made someone else's song famous and wrote a song someone else made famous"

so no "well there are a lot of fans of modern music who wouldn't know this was a hit 30 years ago" jive

Hmm... Bobby Darin famously interpreted many songs such as "Mack the Knife", "La Mer (Beyond the Sea)" and Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" - his "I'll Be There" was a top 20 UK hit and a #1 in Canada for Gerry and the Pacemakers, also Tim Hardin reached the top 50 with a recording of his "Simple Song of Freedom".

Yeah, I was just about to mention Hardin. Think he belongs here for sure -- other people hit with "If I Were A Carpenter" and "Reason to Believe," but he only ever hit the U.S. charts with that Darin cover.

Hmm, buncha people had Springsteen hits. Pointer Sisters did "Fire," Manfred Mann, of course. And Bruce's live cover of "Jersey Girl" is better known than the Waits original.

Nilsson did this more than once, btw. It was a long time before I learned that "Without You" was originally by Badfinger.

Badfinger counts too because their biggest hit is Come and Get It (McCartney) and Nillson really made Without You famous.

If we're counting folk songs, Simon & Garfunkel made Scarborough Fair famous and Simon wrote Red Rubber Ball that was a hit for The Cyrkle.

Maybe an obvious one... but Jagger/Richards. Marianne Faithfull's version of As Tears Go By came out in '64, Stones' version in '65. Tons of songs are best-known by the Stones versions - for sure "It's All Over Now" (Bobby Womack/The Valentinos) would fit.

forgot about "as tears go by"! good catch

what did Marianne Faithfull write

i was referring to it being a good catch re: a song by jagger/richards someone else made famous, if that's why you're asking

if the criteria is 'ppl who had a hit w/ a cover and also had other ppl hit w/ a cover of a song they wrote' that's a long as fuck list, if it's 'ppl who's biggest hit by far as a performer was a cover and whose biggest hit by far as a songwriter came via someone else's cover (w/ the cover dwarfing the original's success)' that's a much shorter list, esp if you add the caveat that both hits had to be genuinely big hits. nilsson obv w/o question (w/ some wiggle room for biggest hit even), badfinger very possibly (though you could argue that 'come and get it' isn't their biggest hit), neil diamond not really.

it's the former, and i don't think it's actually that long-as-fuck a list

well this is a really anal thread then huh

oh don't be sour grapes over "proud mary"

People we've mentioned so far who wrote a song someone else made famous and made someone else's song famous:

Nilsson ("Everybody's Talkin'"/"One")
Neil Diamond ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers Any More"/"I'm A Believer")
Willie Nelson ("Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain"/"Crazy")
Lennon/McCartney (pick one/"I Wanna Be You Man")
Ian Hunter ("All The Young Dudes"/"Ships")
*Mel Torme (actually what was this guy's hit that wasn't already a standard? before my time/"The Christmas Song")
*Mike Nesmith (actually did he sing lead on any monkees hit he didn't write?/"Different Drum")
Bobby Darin (a Hardin Cover/a song Hardin covered)
Tim Hardin (a Darin cover/a song Darin covered)
Springsteen ("Jersey Girl"/"Blinded By The Light")
Paul Simon ("Scarborough Fair"/"Red Rubber Ball")
Jagger/Richards ("It's All Over Now"/"As Tears Go by")

yeah if you add 'made the song famous' it's not that long i guess, otherwise you're just talking about songwriters who were or became performers and then eventually had a hit w/ someone else's song. this doesn't seem as common as it used to be - ppl don't interpret songs and ppl don't give songs away - and the songwriter -> performer path in country isn't as firm as it was (though it still exists in r&b).

Robert Wyatt's "Shipbuilding" for Costello maybe? Though Costello's version came afterward.

wyatt's went top 40 before costello had released it, i'd say it counts

yeah nesmith as far as i can tell wrote the monkees hits he sang (and a surprising number he didn't sing as well eg. 'mary, mary', 'daily, nightly'). chill bro.

*Mike Nesmith (actually did he sing lead on any monkees hit he didn't write?/"Different Drum")
Shit, I dunno?

xpost

'ppl who had a hit w/ a cover and also had other ppl hit w/ a cover of a song they wrote'

don't get how Proud Mary doesn't qualify then?

CCR hit #2 with "Proud Mary" a few years later, Ike & Tina hit #4 with a cover. Ike & Tina did not make "Proud Mary" famous.

yeah by this criteria it counts, i think the songs that were clearly written for someone else and then the songwriter went 'o, since it hit i guess i'll do my own version as well' are somewhat different than yr trad covers.

but you never said that anywhere is the thing

yeah i can't remember who it was (my gut tells me springsteen) but someone got fogerty to perform ccr live again by telling him if he didn't ppl were gonna start thinking of 'proud mary' as a tina turner song.

just in case anyone's getting lost in the semantics, let's tighten the concept to "made someone else's song famous and wrote a song someone else made famous"

― da croupier, Monday, October 22, 2012 6:19 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf that original post does bounce between 'made famous' and merely 'had a hit w/ a cover'. ie the beatles didn't make any of their covers famous (in america at least).

sorry guess I'll go start a "Are there any other singer/songwriters who had a degree of success singing songs by others and having their songs sung by others...but one of the songs involved was already famous initially" thread

i apologize if i was vague in my initial post but i didn't mean to leave the door open to Elton's "Lucy IN The Sky" hits.

haha yeah do what you gotta do to keep him out. I've only heard of about 1/2 of these famous songs, so the criteria w/r/t fame seemed pretty loose overall.

i feel your pain

B.J. Thomas first recorded "Here You Come Again" by Mann/Weil, but Dolly Parton made it a hit. Whitney's version of "I Will Always Love You" is more famous worldwide than Parton's own version.

Gene Pitney aproaches balls' criteria. His biggest hits were by others, but he only wrote the second or third biggest hits for The Crystals and Ricky Nelson.

Jackie De Shannon's biggest hit was by Bacharach / David "What the World Needs Now" (is it an interpretation if she recorded it first?), and she co-wrote "Bette Davis Eyes", Kim Carnes biggest hit.

now that da croupier has tightened up the rules, my brain has given up.

thought bowie was a candidate but 'sorrow' wasn't a hit in the us (and while it was a hit in the uk so was the original). there are album cuts that are covers and more well known than the original but i don't really think you can call 'it's not easy' a hit.

i don't know why you'd be bothered by the tightening, zachary (which honestly i meant from the get go) - pitney and de shannon still fit the bill!

whitney's version is the bigger hit but it was already a hit before that (dolly even revived it apropos of nothing in the best little whorehouse in texas). thought bobbie gentry might qualify but she actually had a pretty big hit w/ 'fancy' if nowhere near as huge as reba did.

yeah my second criteria was tighter than croup's, those totally fit.

So I guess Lowe's "Switchboard Susan" cover is deemed "not famous enough"? (I'll buy that, if so; just trying to keep score.)

yeah sorry i meant to mention that - "some airplay in detroit" is a little too low a bar, "shipbuilding" at least was a top 40 hit (rough trade records' first!)

kinda weird that 'shipbuilding' is the best cover of costello candidate by far cuz that is one dude who really has worked to be on this thread

Smokey Robinson wrote tons of hits for other Motown artists of course, and he also had a hit with Holland, Dozier, Holland's "Mickey's Monkey".

Kirsty MacColl - her biggest hit Billy Bragg's "A New England" ; wrote Tracy Ullman's biggest hit "They Don't Know About Us"

wondering if there's enough incidences of 'ppl scoring a hit w/ a cover while somewhat simultaneously someone is scoring a hit w/ a cover of them' or if that's just hall & oates. beatles and stones probably fit here too.

John Phillips might count for Dedicated to the One I Love and Kokomo. Although the original was already famous, and I think there was even a thread here about which one you think of first.

Toni Wine co-wrote "A Groovy Kind of Love," transatlantic smash hit for Wayne Fontana; then as one of The Archies she sang on the number one hit "Sugar Sugar," a song written by Jeff Barry/Andy Kim... although Andy Kim sang on it also.

warren zevon only charted twice, and one of them was his version of allen toussaint's "a certain girl." the most famous version of zevon's "poor poor pitiful me" is linda ronstadt's cover.

Henry Mancini more or less belongs here. His biggest recording ever was "Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet," a Nino Rota composition. (Granted, it had already been heard in the popular film).

Several years earlier he had written "Moon River" for Breakfast at Tiffany's of which it seems Andy Williams' contemporaneous cover seems to be the most famous version.

John Phillips might count for Dedicated to the One I Love and Kokomo. Although the original was already famous, and I think there was even a thread here about which one you think of first.

i thought about this myself (phillips also wrote that "when you go to san francisco wear a flower in your hair" jam) but "dedicated"(a #3 for the shirelles) and all their cover singles were already hits

balls ref'd hall & oates and i'm not sure if they qualify. hall wrote "electric blue" for icehouse (and "every time you go" was a deep cut before paul young found it) but did they have a cover hit other than that motown medley?

oh and the righteous brothers one, but those are all chestnuts

i am horrified to learn that kenny loggins qualifies because while he co-wrote "what a fool believes" HE DID NOT WRITE "DANGER ZONE." wtf i had no idea, the fraud.

I feel as if Barry ("I Write the Songs" but not this one) Manilow and Louis Armstrong belong here too, but I can't prove it. What Manilow song was made famous by someone else first?

actually does it count if you co-wrote a song with the guy who made it famous? supposedly the loggins & messina version of "danny's song" got a lot of play even if anne murray took it up the charts, so i don't want to give it to him for that. in general i've been using whichever version is at the top of a song's wikipedia page as the one that made it famous.

ok apparently loggins & messina's version of "a love song" was released the same year as anne murray's hit version and got far less attention so i guess kenny passes

On the Nesmith question, he never had a lead vocal on one of the hits, but I would argue that "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round" (written by Nesmith's ex-bandmate Michael Martin Murphey and Boomer Castleman) was pretty well known at the time. It was the B-side to "Mary Mary" and got showcased as the only featured song in two episodes of the series (and shared a third episode with "Daydream Believer"); I wouldn't be surprised if it got some airplay because of that.

I think the only Nesmith Monkees hit was "Tapioca Tundra" which inched into the Top 40 as a bside. "Love Is Only Sleeping" was earmarked as a single, but dropped in favor of it's intended flip, "Daydream Beliver". Nez also was respnsible for their final charting items of the '60s: "Good Clean Fun" and "Listen To The Band"

Nah, he wrote Mary Mary too. Which might possibly be better known these days from the Run DMC version I guess.

But those are all songs that Nesmith wrote--"Hangin' 'Round" is the only (semi-)famous one he didn't write. That, plus Linda Rondstadt's hit cover of "Different Drum," makes a pair fit for the thread topic.

For Elvis Costello, he did get some airplay on New York FM radio with his cover of Betty Everett's "Getting Mighty Crowded"; the original was not a hit in the U.S., though it may have been in the U.K. And for someone else having the hit with an Elvis song, how about Dave Edmunds' version of "Girls Talk"?

totally meant to mention 'girls talk', somehow forgot. curious to what extent rondstadt's costello covers were big hits ('alison' was a single at the very least) and how well known the originals were at the time.

forgot "girls talk" too! linda's alison only hit #30 on the AC chart (didn't even make the pop chart) so it's hard to really say she made the song famous - at this point i'd say you're at least just as likely to hear Elvis' version at a grocery store if not more

o yeah ec's version definitely more played now, just thinking as huge as ronstadt was that maybe 'alison' might've hit more. plus i always have a tough time gauging just how much mainstream success certain punk or new wave acts actually managed in the late 70s, i know that when 'everyday i write the book' hit it was treated as 'finally elvis costello has a hit!' (and even then it was only #36)('veronica's still his only legitimate hit, though i think 'alison', 'detectives', 'what's so funny' and 'everyday' are more well known now) but at the same time armed forces made the top ten.

obv ppl still have hits w/ songs they didn't write and even have hit written by other artists that have hits as performers in their own right (eg kelly clarkson and katy perry), but unless i'm forgetting some obv stuff (very possible, haven't listened to music on commercial terrestrial radio since the bush admin) it seems like ppl don't really have hits w/ traditional covers that much any more (esp in comparison w/ any other stretch in the past forty years or so) and that the type of artist that was almost an interpreter or standards singer of contemporary rock or pop like nilsson or ronstadt probably died w/ robert palmer.

Going back to Hall and Oates, they had a big hit with "Family man", originally written and recorded by Mike Oldfield, but not generally known to be his. So do they count too? And has Mike Oldfield covered songs too? Apart form "8lue Peter"? Probably afew along the way.

woah, no idea 'family man' was a cover so they totally qualify

Not sure if this counts... Jimi Hendrix. Did the definitive version of "All along the watchtower", and has been interpreted as well - "Little wing" by Derek and the Dominos and "Angel" by Rod Stewart. Yes or no?

xposts re:Nesmith

What I meant was he only wrote AND sang lead on one of the Monkees Top 40 songs. Dolenz handled "Mary Mary" (which had been cut a year prior by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band for an early FM turntable hit).

"All Along The Watchtower" seems iffy - Dylan had released it as a single the year before Jimi's, and while Jimi's was a far bigger chart hit, are we really going to say nobody knew John Wesley Harding when it came out?

jimi definitely made it more famous, but it's not like he found it behind the dumpster

no one's mentioned Scott Walker yet? The ultimate interpreter with his Brel covers and also major influence on a huge swathe of pop.

did someone else make a song scott walker wrote famous?

i dunno, maybe? Marc Almond covered Jackie.

actually does it count if you co-wrote a song with the guy who made it famous?

was this question settled?

if it does count, then george harrison: co-wrote "photograph" for ringo starr (quite possibly ringo's biggest hit) and topped the charts with his cover of rudy clark's "got my mind set on you."

well as the thread-starter who's basically been playing thread-cop (with assists from balls) i'll file it under "eh" because you're not really being interpreted if the interpreter also wrote the song

fair enough.

The Fall covered Victoria, and were covered by Pavement's entire career </90smusicjoke>

Cathy Dennis : covered Touch Me, wrote loads of pop! hits!

did someone else make a song scott walker wrote famous?

― da croupier, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 12:45 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno, maybe? Marc Almond covered Jackie.

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 13:16 (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Go and sit on the stairs!

Was going to mention Jackie De Shannon but somebody beat me to it upthread, damn, you people are good

The Troggs of course. covered Wild Thing. Love is All Around covered by Wet Wet Wet.

Bravo

Maybe Kirsty MacColl? - Covered Days by the Kinks, her song They Don't Know was a hit for Tracey Ullman

oh, and A New England of course.

Love Is All Around was already a hit for the Troggs

updated thread-cop list, with torme removed until someone mentions which song mel torme didn't write mel torme made famous. Nesmith we'll keep for "Hangin' Round" and overall monkeehood.

Chris Brown ("With You"/"Disturbia")
Elvis Costello ("What's So Funny Bout Peace Love & Understanding"/"Girls Talk")
Bobby Darin (a Hardin Cover/a song Hardin covered)
Cathy Dennis ("Touch Me"/"Can't Get You Out Of My Head")
Jackie DeShannon ("What The World Needs Now"/"Bette Davis Eyes")
Neil Diamond ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers Any More"/"I'm A Believer")
Hall & Oates ("Family Man"/"Electric Blue")
Tim Hardin (a Darin cover/a song Darin covered)
Ian Hunter ("All The Young Dudes"/"Ships")
Jagger/Richards ("It's All Over Now"/"As Tears Go By")
Kirsty MacColl ("A New England"/"They Don't Care About Us")
Lennon/McCartney (pick one/"I Wanna Be Your Man")
Kenny Loggings ("Danger Zone"/"A Love Song")
Henry Mancini ("Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet"/"Moon River"
Willie Nelson ("Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain"/"Crazy")
Mike Nesmith ("Hangin' Round"/"Different Drum")
Nilsson ("Everybody's Talkin'"/"One")
Gene Pitney ("The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"/"He's A Rebel")
Smokey Robinson ("Mickey's Monkey"/pick one)
Paul Simon ("Scarborough Fair"/"Red Rubber Ball")
Bruce Springsteen ("Jersey Girl"/"Blinded By The Light")
Warren Zevon ("A Certain Girl"/"Poor Poor Pitiful Me")

some acknowledgements: the original "Family Man" diiiiid go top 30 in canada, based on radio play maccoll's "they don't care about us" probably would have made the chart if not for a strike that kept the physical single from being released(!), Warren hitting #57 doesn't exactly make an Ernie K-Doe song famous, the originals of the mancini-related covers were all in hit movies (suggesting they were already famous) but it's still pretty neat,

...and while the original "touch me" single is appreciated enough in hindsight to top the wikipedia page for the song (it was in nightmare on elm street 2!) it only hit like #70 on the r&b chart

Scritti Politti "She's A Woman" / Madness "The "Sweetest Girl"

You should add in Badfinger (or Ham/Evans) for "Come and Get It" / "Without You"

woops, forgot about that one, sorry!

those poor guys can never get a break