Let's list the earliest known covers of iconic pop and rock acts!

For example, who was the first person to cover the Beatles and what was the song? Who was the first person to cover Bob Dylan, and what was the song? Etc.

Pretty sure I've got Beatles covers that go right back to '64, but I don't know what the first was. Buddy Miles' "Down by the River" might be the first Neil Young cover, although someone may have covered one of this Buffalo Springfield songs earlier.

First Beatles cover might be Billy J. Kramer's version of "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" from 1963

Del Shannon's From Me To You (1963)
Beach Boys's I Was Made To Love Her (1967)

Forgot about Del Shannon; I thought "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" was written specifically for Billy J. Kramer, but you're right.

I've got lots of contemporaneous garage-band covers of the Rolling Stones from '65 and '66--don't know if there's anything going back to '64. Speaking of which...the Rolling Stones covered "I Wanna Be Your Man" in '63! But their version came out slightly ahead of the Beatles', so I guess that doesn't count.

Yeah, Lennon and McCartney gifted it to them didn't they?

Fever Tree covered "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" on their debut in '68:

This is kind of a tough concept, since pop music used to be almost entirely based on artists doing songs written by professional songwriters, and people used to immediately cover hits all of the time, hoping to get a regional hit with a copycat version.

It's not really that tough. I'm not talking about playing songs written by someone else, or just any old hit. I'm talking about covers of iconic acts. That is to say, I suppose, acts still being covered to this day.

Peter, Paul and Mary's "Blowin' in the Wind" single was released 3 weeks after Freewheelin'

What's an iconic act though? I mean, the Beatles themselves covered Buddy Holly in 1958 as the Quarrymen. It also depends on how you define pop, since I'm sure there are millions of covers of artists like Sinatra dating back to the '40s and much earlier. The idea of covering iconic pop acts was kind of the standard thing to do before it became common for artists to write all of their own material.

Jerry Lee Lewis' first album in 1957 has covers of Elvis (Don't Be Cruel), Hank Williams (Jambalaya), and other standards.

Wait, I think I misunderstood the question. You didn't mean "what are the earliest examples of artists covering iconic pop and rock songs" did you? You meant, pick some iconic act and list the first released cover of one of their songs?

Fever Tree covered "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" on their debut in '68

And the carpenters covered it on their first album in '69.

You meant, pick some iconic act and list the first released cover of one of their songs?

Yes.

gotcha, sorry.

I'll try to get this rolling with some educated guesses.

The Beatles: Spanish group Los Mustang covered "My Bonnie" in 1963, which I'm sure they got from the Tony Sheridan/Beatles record, which was
credited "Traditional, Arranged by Tony Sheridan"
The Kinks: Jimmy Page released a solo single called "She Just Satisfies" in early 1965 which was basically the Kinks' tune "Revenge" with words added;
Both Peggy Lee and Cher recorded "I Go to Sleep" in 1965 but they were working from a Ray Davies demo not intended to be a Kinks release;
I suspect some band must have covered "You Really Got Me," possibly for a foreign market
The Doors: "Light My Fire," José Feliciano, 1968
Led Zeppelin: "Your Time Is Gonna Come," Sandie Shaw, 1969

Jazz bandleader Woody Herman covered "Dazed and Confused" in 1968 - a year before Sandie Shaw's "Your Time Is Gonna Come", although it's probably based on the original Jake Holmes version rather than Zep's - hard to tell without lyrics. At that time he liked to cover leading-edge rock including the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and James Brown.

I think Nico (!) was the first to record a Jackson Browne song (3 of 'em).

^^^Oh yeah, Jackson was boffing her at the time.

as were both Lou Reed and John Cale. Not sure in which order, or maybe more than one @ a time?

I bet Tori Amos was the first to cover Nirvana

unless u count Weird Al, haha

Neither of these fit the exact criteria of the thread, but I thought about them already and etc

Yesterday, I read about Petula Clark covering Beatles "Please Please Me" in 1963, in French. I haven't heard it yet.

unrelated, about Gene Pitney, from wikipedia

The Jagger/Richards song "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday" was a UK hit for Pitney in 1964; it was the first tune composed by the Rolling Stones to become a Top 10 hit in the UK.

these are both probably interesting examples of "early" as opposed to "first".

Randy Newman and Gene Pitney are probably interesting paths to follow.

back on to the actual purpose of the thread, Pat Benatar covered John Cougar's "I Need a Lover" in 1979.

I felt like some teenaged garage band must have covered the Doors before Jose Feliciano, but it seems like Bob Thiele And His New Happy Times Orchestra with Gábor Szabó got there first in 1967.

I think Nico (!) was the first to record a Jackson Browne song (3 of 'em).

― Lee547 (Lee626), Monday, August 29, 2011 9:50 PM (18 minutes ago)

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was the first band to record a Jackson Browne song.

hmm, I was trying to figure out who first covered the Yardbirds and I find that supposedly the Yardbirds covered Waiting For My Man in 1968!? Listening to it now on youtube though and I'm skeptical.

Nazz was named for the Yardbirds song "The Nazz are Blue" from less than a year earlier, but I'm not aware of Nazz ever covering the Yardbirds.

The first band to cover the Yardbirds may well be Led Zeppelin ("Tangerine" in the studio, and a few of their songs in their early live act).

Either Les Fleur de Lys (with "Circles") or the Count Five ("Out In The Street," "My Generation") were likely the first to cover the Who, both in 1966.

The first band to cover the Yardbirds may well be Led Zeppelin ("Tangerine" in the studio, and a few of their songs in their early live act).

no way. A million teenage garage bands recorded I'm A Man before Led Zeppelin even existed.

If we're just talking about songs the Yardbirds wrote, the Jeff Beck Group did "Shapes of Things" in mid-1968 and Wiki says the Allman Joys (pre-Allman Brothers) recorded a demo of it in 1966.

Led Zeppelin's first album came out in '69 so Woody Herman must have been doing the Jake Holmes version of "Dazed and Confused."

I imagine "Heart Full of Soul" & "For Your Love" got done a bit as album filler in '66-'67.

Sonny & Cher covered "Leave Me Be" by the Zombies '66-'67-ish.

Was "I Love Her All the Time" by Camper Van Beethoven the first Sonic Youth cover? I don't know how to google that.

It may be splitting hairs, but "Heart Full of Soul" and "For Your Love" are both Graham Gouldman compositions.

^^True.

The Hassles (Billy Joel's pre-Atilla outfit) picked up Traffic's "Colored Rain" off of an acetate and had their version out before Heaven Is In Your Mind/Mr. Fantasy dropped in the US.

Is there an earlier Velvet Underground cover than Mott the Hoople's "Sweet Jane" in '72? I'm guessing there must be.

Hi,

The first cover version of a Beatles song, officially, is Kenny Lynch and "Misery"

Clemenza, someone upthread mentioned the Yardbirds cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man" already, which was from '68 iirc

and, of course, the Downliner's sect's version of "Why don't you cry now?" but that's only on VU bootlegs...

Thanks, missed the Yardbirds post. I've been looking around online, and it seems to have been a live cover, found only on bootlegs--don't think I'd count that myself. (If it showed up on an official live release, I guess I would.)

Bowie covered "I'm Waiting For The Man" live and for the BBC in '72 but those recordings didn't see release until much later

> Led Zeppelin's first album came out in '69 so Woody Herman must have been doing the Jake Holmes version of "Dazed and Confused."

― Josefa, Tuesday, August 30, 2011 2:27

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsjo92lJ9vg

>> The first band to cover the Yardbirds may well be Led Zeppelin ("Tangerine" in the studio, and a few of their songs in their early live act).

> no way. A million teenage garage bands recorded I'm A Man before Led Zeppelin even existed.

> ― the wheelie king (wk), Tuesday, August 30, 2011 1:49 AM

Was the first Madonna cover the Lords of the New Church version of "Like a Virgin" (1985)? Putting aside the fact Madonna didn't write that one...

On The Velvet Underground tip, IIRC in the discography in the VU Companion, it's mentioned that some little-known group either in Europe or Australia (I don't have my copy here to check) did (IIRC) "Run Run Run" b/w "There She Goes Again" on a single in '67/'68. The writers (the founder's of the VU Apreciation Society) say these were most likely the first VU covers, and they are pretty faithful, even getting most of the words right.

Thanks, missed the Yardbirds post. I've been looking around online, and it seems to have been a live cover, found only on bootlegs--don't think I'd count that myself.

I'm skeptical that it's even really them.

But "I'm A Man" is a cover of a 1950s Bo Diddley song.

Yeah, but it's obvious when a band is covering the Yardbirds rather than covering Diddley, just by listening to the arrangement. And for a song like For Your Love is obviously a Yardbirds song too even if they didn't write it.