The song was originally written and performed by Dolly Parton in 1974. She wrote it for her mentor and partner Porter Wagoner after leaving their band.
Fun fact - In the film The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston plays a famous singer who’s being stalked and her new bodyguard, Kevin Costner’s character, brings her to one of his bars… a country n western place. They dance to the Dolly Parton song and this is kinda the start of their relationship and they fall in love.
Fast forward to the end, and Whitney Houston’s character decides to cover the song in a new album and goes on tour and it’s a massive hit.
Good film by the way, worth a watch even it’s a bit cheesy. The stalker guy is actually lowkey terrifying lol
What’s weirding me out is that I know at least two-thirds of those from the original. And I was only aware of maybe half of the more recent covers.
I am old.
She wrote Jolene on the same night that she wrote I Will Always Love You.
I saw in an interview that Dolly first heard Whitney’s version while in the car and had to pull over because she thought it was beautiful and got a little misty-eyed.
Most recorded songs are written by Dolly Parton.
The rest are written by Bob Dylan.
Or Prince.
Or Sia
Really!? Did he write some unexpected ones?
Why would they have to be unexpected? Want a list to see if something surprises ypu?
Because most people know him for the music he released as a pop star, e.g. Purple Rain, not as a songwriter.
More than a few popular songs are covers — especially back in the 60s and earlier, when it was customary to sell a song to multiple artists, often just months apart, if not weeks.
Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s ‘Cuban Pete’ is originally by Mantovani & His Tipica Orchestra.
The Tokens’ ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)’ is derived from Solomon Linda and The Evening Birds’ ‘Mbube’.
Pat Boone’s ‘Speedy Gonzales’ is by David Hess under the name David Dante.
Dick Dale’s ‘Misirlou’ is a traditional Mediterranean melody, recorded e.g. by Τέτος Δημητριάδης.
Marlene Dietrich’s ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone?’ was written by Pete Seeger in 1955 and recorded in 1960, with the melody taken from an Irish lumberjack song with the words ‘Johnson says he’ll load more hay’, and words inspired by the Cossack folk-song ‘Koloda-Duda’.
Shirley Bassey’s ‘Big Spender’ was written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields for the musical Sweet Charity, first performed in 1966. Peggy Lee was the first artist to record the song for her album of the same name.
Blue Swede’s ‘Hooked on a Feeling’ is originally by B. J. Thomas.
The Trashmen’s ‘Surfing Bird’ is an amalgamation of The Rivingtons’ ‘Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow’ and ‘The Bird’s The Word’.
The Mamas & The Papas’ ‘California Dreamin’’ was written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips in 1963 and first recorded by Barry McGuire. The Mamas & the Papas sang backup on the original version.
Robert Knight’s ‘Everlasting Love’ was covered by Love Affair the same year 1967, and by Sandra in 1987.
Righteous Brothers’ ‘Unchained Melody’ is originally by Todd Duncan, from the film ‘Unchained’.
Elvis Presley’s ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ is a cover of Carl Perkins, recorded iirc the same month when Perkins’ version came out, though released half a year later. I’ve vaguely heard that Presley probably recorded a whole bunch of covers, but I’m not that into his music as to investigate deeper.
Marilyn Monroe’s ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’ was written by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, with lyrics by Bert Kalmar, for the 1928 musical Good Boy, and performed by Helen Kane.
The Blues Brothers’ ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ is unsurprisingly a cover, of Solomon Burke.
The Beach Boys’ ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ is a half-cover: it’s a rewritten version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ with new lyrics.
Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’ is originally by Sonny Bono and Cher.
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s ‘Summer Wine’ was originally sung by Hazlewood and Suzi Jane Hokom.
Edwin Starr’s ‘War’ is by The Temptations.
while The Temptations’ ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ is originally by The Undisputed Truth.
‘Apache’ was written by Jerry Lordan and recorded by Bert Weedon, then covered by The Shadows, Incredible Bongo Band, and others.
Eruption’s ‘One Way Ticket’ was originally performed by US singer Neil Sedaka in 1959.
Shirley Bassey’s ‘Where Do I Begin (Love Story)’ is a cover of Andy Williams.
Los Lobos’ ‘La Bamba’ is a cover of Ritchie Valens.
Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ is originally by Gloria Jones.
Status Quo’s ‘In The Army Now’ is by Dutch duo Bolland & Bolland.
Grace Jones’ ‘I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango)’ is rather explicitly a reworking of Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Libertango’.
Blondie’s ‘The Tide Is High’ is by The Paragons.
Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ is by Robert Hazard.
Geri Halliwell’s ‘It’s Raining Men’ is a well-known cover of The Weather Girls.
George Harrison’s ‘Got My Mind Set On You’ is a cover of James Ray.
Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ is well-known, but is typically performed like John Cale’s piano version.
Opus III’s ‘It’s A Fine Day’ is an odd case using the song by Jane, which isn’t quite so happy.
Cher’s ‘The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)’ was written by Rudy Clark and recorded by Merry Clayton in 1963.
Cher’s ‘Walking In Memphis’ is originally by Marc Cohn.
Urge Overkill’s ‘Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon’ is originally by Neil Diamond.
Boney M.'s ‘Hooray! Hooray! It’s a Holi-Holiday’ is an adaptation of children’s song ‘Polly Wolly Doodle’.
Coolio and L.V.'s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ lifted the entire backing track from Stevie Wonder’s ‘Pastime Paradise’.
Joe Cocker’s ‘Unchain My Heart’ was written by Bobby Sharp and recorded first in 1961 by Ray Charles and in 1963 by Trini Lopez.
Gigi D’Agostino’s ‘The Riddle’ is a cover of Nik Kershaw’s song from 1984.
Bloodhound Gang’s ‘Along Comes Mary’ was composed by Tandyn Almer, and recorded by The Association in 1966.
Lenny Kravitz’s ‘American Woman’ is originally by The Guess Who, from 1970.
The White Stripes’ ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself’ was written by Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, performed by Dusty Springfield in 1964.
Kylie Minogue’s ‘The Loco-motion’ was originally recorded by Little Eva in 1962, also covered by Grand Funk Railroad in 1974.
Shaft’s ‘Mambo Italiano’ is originally by Rosemary Clooney, from 1954, covered by Sophia Loren in 1955.
A Touch of Class’ ‘Around the World (La La La La La)’ is a cover of Russian band Ruki Vverkh (‘Hands Up’).
Westlife’s ‘Uptown Girl’ is a cover of Billy Joel.
Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and P!nk’s ‘Lady Marmalade’ was written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan for The Eleventh Hour, and charted in 1974 as recorded by Labelle. Also covered by All Saints in 1998.
Cascada’s ‘Everytime We Touch’ is a cover of Maggie Reilly.
The Doors’ ‘Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)’ was written by Bertolt Brecht, translated to English by Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925, set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny.
Joan Jett’s ‘I Love Rock 'N Roll’ was written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and recorded by the Arrows in 1975.
Deep Purple’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ is a cover of Ike & Tina Turner.
Deep Purple’s ‘Hush’ was originally recorded by Billy Joe Royal in 1967.
The Youngbloods’ ‘Get Together’ was originally written by Chet Powers circa 1963, under the stage name Dino Valenti.
(To be continued.)
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) was originally by The Four Lads
I should’ve guessed, because the song does feel very much like a mid-century novelty song, which I can only tolerate in rather limited quantities.
The Mamas & The Papas’ ‘California Dreamin’’ was written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips in 1963 and first recorded by Barry McGuire. The Mamas & the Papas sang backup on the original version.
John and Michelle Phillips were in The Mamas & The Papas tho. Edit: Oh, I think I understand… It was first recorded by someone else (Barry McGuire). I guess I misread.
Regarding Hallelujah: John Cale basically co-wrote the song. My understanding is that he wrote like 100+ verses for it or some shit, many of which Leonard Cohen himself took and added to his own version.
Coolio and L.V.'s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ lifted the entire backing track from Stevie Wonder’s ‘Pastime Paradise’.
This is called “sampling,” and if you’re going to list those, then pretty much every hip hop track ever is going to be here and that would be silly.
John and Michelle Phillips were in The Mamas & The Papas tho.
True, the thing is that Barry McGuire wasn’t.
This is called “sampling,” and if you’re going to list those, then pretty much every hip hop track ever is going to be here and that would be silly.
Sampling is when one takes a ‘sample’ from another composition, not the whole thing. Pray tell how many hiphop tracks have an entire other song as the instrumental. Plus iirc the chorus vocal melody is also the same.
Yeah see my edit, I misread the first one. The way it was written kind of made it seem like you were saying Ms&Ps and Phillips’ were two different entities
TBF I didn’t pay attention to whether the Phillipses were in the band, since it was common for someone outside to write songs back then.
I believed you after the 50th listed example ;-)
Nirvana’s ‘Love Buzz’ is a cover of Shocking Blue.
Art of Noise’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ is a reworking of the ‘Robinson Crusoe Suite’, theme for the 1964 tv series. (Just like they did with ‘Peter Gunn’ and ‘Dragnet’, but this time afaik rather out of the blue and without any involvement from anyone else.)
Madness’ ‘One Step Beyond’ is originally by Prince Buster, from 1964.
Frank Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ was written in 1954 by Bart Howard, recorded by Kaye Ballard.
Björk’s ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ is Originally a German song ‘Und jetzt ist es still’ performed by Horst Winter in 1948. English lyrics written by Bert Reisfeld, performed by Betty Hutton in 1951.
Army of Lovers’ ‘Let The Sunshine In’ is a Cover of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” from the musical ‘Hair’ (1967) and the recording release “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” by The 5th Dimension.
The Clash’s ‘I Fought the Law’ was written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets, released in 1960, and popularized by a cover by The Bobby Fuller Four in 1966.
The Specials’ ‘A Message To You Rudy’ is a cover of Dandy Livingstone.
Musical Youth’s ‘Pass The Dutchie’ is a cover of The Mighty Diamonds.
This Mortal Coil’s ‘Song To The Siren’ was written by Tim Buckley and Larry Beckett, first recorded by Tim Buckley in 1970.
In a kind of a curious inversion, Jackson Browne recorded a cover of the song ‘These Days’ written by Jackson Browne and originally recorded with Jackson Browne on the guitar — but sung by Nico. Apparently there were a bunch of such cases.
Adding to this extensive list (thanks for doing this - TIL about Misirlou!)
Hound Dog by Elvis was a cover of the Big Mama Thorton version. Elvis was a prolific thief of songs from Black musicians.
Like 1/3 of Sublime songs were covers.
Half-cover, Boney M’s Rasputin is built around a hook that is a Balkan song that is debated as to the origin. The documentary about it is sort of hilarious.
Nirvana’s Man Who Sold the World was a David Bowie cover
Sinead O’Conner’s Nothing Compares 2U is a Prince cover (hers is better), and both are covers of an earlier version by The family
Louie Louie by the Kingsmen was a cover of a 1957 version by Richard Berry
All Along the Watchtower originally by Bob Dylan.
Respect was originally by Otis Redding, not Aretha
House of the Rising Sun was an oooold folk song that the Animals just did really well.
Me and Bobby McGee…Lady Marmalade…Proud Mary…Video Killed the Radio Star…Tainted Love…Bette Davis Eyes…Taco’s weird version of Puttin’ On the Ritz…Cum On Feel the Noise… all the popular ones are covers.
I could go on, but covers are just really common. That’s the beauty of art, it can be an interpretation of something in a new way.
Nirvana’s Man Who Sold the World was a David Bowie cover
David Bowie apparently got a lot of comments for “covering a Nirvana song” despite the Nirvana Unplugged recording ending with Cobain saying “That was a David Bowie song.”
Probably fueled his legal battle with Vanilla Ice.
‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was written by Prince, as The Family was his band. Not sure if Prince released a solo version before O’Connor: Wikipedia only mentions a live version from three years later.
‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ was written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, and Bruce Woolley, and released by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club, and three months later by Horn and Downes’ band The Buggles, which initially also included Woolley. So it’s a weird case of two versions more than a cover.
‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was written by Prince, as The Family was his band. Not sure if Prince released a solo version before O’Connor: Wikipedia only mentions a live version from three years later.
Thanks for the clarification. I had always thought it was Prince and just figured some other band got mixed up in there i just wasnt aware of. Turns out Prince’s band’s name was my blind spot.
I had to look that up, actually, because it’s typically asserted that Prince wrote the song for O’Connor. I’m not into his music, so didn’t know about The Family before.
Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ is by Robert Hazard.
Because who would know better what girls want than THIS gal?
Lauper’s version has some lyrics changed, so one can conveniently examine what Hazard got wrong.
When Houston covered it, Parton put the proceeds she earned to helping black communities. Classy lady.
Just wait until you hear about Johnny Cash and Ring of Fire.
Or Johnny Cash and Hurt
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI&pp=0gcJCTMBo7VqN5tD
Nice, this version feels more fitting to the theme of the song imho
Whitney’s was great, no doubt, but nothing top’s Dolly’s version.
Strong Songs has a good episode on this song.
https://strongsongspodcast.com/blogs/episodes/s01e28-i-will-always-love-you-by-dolly-parton
I knew this but Whitney’s is better.
I heard that back in the 50s kind of era people would be releasing “cover” versions of songs that were still in the charts. Apparently it wasn’t unusual to have several different versions of the same song in the top 50. I don’t know how that worked.
Back in the day singles were targeted to juke boxes in bars. So the charts kinda depended on who shipped a bunch of vinyl to a bunch of bars, and not just on what people wanted to listen to.
This was also somewhat exacerbated by the fact that the different diameter of the center hole in vinyls was made solely to lock the purchaser of a jukebox to the label’s releases (namely iirc RCA make the wide hole for that).
I’m more used to the Whitney version so the original is more interesting. But I agree that the song and Whitney’s performance match perfectly.
I don’t know how to describe it but there feels like a more “personal” or “honest” touch to Dolly Parton’s. With Whitney’s, her version is so beautiful because her voice is like an instrument and she plays it beautifully. However with Dolly’s … I could hear her words more.
That’s just to me, obviously everyone takes things differently.
It’s a good’n!
Fun fact: The person Whitney Houston will ACTUALLY always love is the guy who invented Christmas. Which I guess by default makes her a christian, because that would mean she loves Jesus. But she’ll love anyone to get that holiday music royalty check.
Yeah. That’s right. I did it. I waited until February to remind you of that song. Just as you finally settled down, and it’s not been played near you for at least 3 weeks, and you thought you were safe for at least 10-11 months, BAM! I bring it right back into your brain!
drops mic
Peace out!
Whitney Houston =/= Mariah Carey
Also Whitney has been dead for almost 14 years.
Amen. Whitney > Mariah every day.
