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
Bizarre Love Triangle. The original is some very bad pop music. New Years Day brought it not only to rock, but into being really good too.
Taste aside, some of y’all really need to learn the definition of obscure.
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 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. The link above is the only version I can find on the internet, which is instrumental. The version on the record I have has vocals and is cleaner. I hope somebody works to preserve Louis Prima’s catalog from the 40s digitally, there’s so much old music at risk of being lost!
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
Gloria Jones originally performed Tainted Love in the ‘60s. It didn’t hit until Soft Cell covered it in ‘81.
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Holy shit. Mind blown
Wow, this is why I’m here.
“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
You want obscure? Here’s a cover of a song by Joe Glazer, written in the 1940s 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.
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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Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun was originally Robert Hazard’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun
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Robert Hazard’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun
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Wow. Again, mind fucking blown
I had no idea. This slaps.
God Gave Rock and Roll To You was a hit for Kiss.
Original by Argent: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QsG5V-o6uxY&pp=ygUdZ29kIGdhdmUgcm9jayBhbmQgcm9sbCB0byB5b3U%3D
And I only knew the Wyld Stallyns version!
Dax Riggs covering Bonnie Prince Billy’s Grand Dark Feeling of Emptiness
This cover by the Afghan Whigs of the song “Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash is really good:
Dude, London Calling (the Clash album this song is from) sold over 5 million copies. They are in no way obscure.
For real, they’re The Only Band that Matters.
Ah. Sorry.
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
Edit to add - i didn’t know Peace, Love, and Understanding was Nick Lowe’s.
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.
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.
Probably The Man Who Sold the World covered by Midge Ure, which I find much better than Bowies original or the famous Nirvana cover.
Also really like Renegades cover by 36 Crazyfists.
Good song, but Bowie is not obscure.