[riptorn]

3

Just like the title describes, post some songs you didn't realize were cover versions 'til you'd lived with them for some time.
A few to get the ball rolling...

Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation - Warning (1967) as covered by Black Sabbath on their debut LP



Hollywood Stars - King Of The Night Time World (1974) as covered by Kiss on 'Destroyer'



Lorence Hud - Sign Of The Gypsy Queen (1972) as covered by April Wine on 'The Nature Of The Beast' & Kobra & The Lotus on 'Words Of The Prophets'

[Strappado]

Skyhooks (Aus) - Women In Uniform (1978) (covered by Iron Maiden)

[nucleus]

What is the truth? The story of Jazz Sabbath.
Black Sabbath invented heavy metal in 1970 with their self-titled debut album, but it turns out they totally stole all their ideas from a band called Jazz Sabbath. Jazz Sabbath recorded their self-titled debut album in 1969 and were set to release it in February 1970, though things got derailed when founding member and pianist Milton Keanes was hospitalized with a massive heart attack. Here’s the tale of Jazz Sabbath.
Jazz Sabbath (1968) were considered to be at the forefront of the new English jazz movement. Their self-titled debut album would be released on 13 Feb 1970, but on Feb 12th founding member and pianist Milton Keanes was hospitalised with a massive heart attack; leaving him fighting for his life. The record company shelved the album and cancelled the scheduled release out of financial uncertainty of releasing a debut album from a band without its musical leader.
When Milton was released from hospital in September 1970, he found out that a band from Birmingham, conveniently called ‘Black Sabbath’, had since released two albums containing so-called metal versions of his songs. His recalled albums had been destroyed in a warehouse fire in June 1970; leaving only a few bootleg tapes of Jazz Sabbath’s live performances as proof of existence.
The master tapes, believed to be lost in the fire, were found last year. These songs will now finally be heard; proving that the heavy metal band worshipped by millions are in fact nothing more than musical charlatans, thieving the music from a bedridden, hospitalised genius.
A Jazz Sabbath documentary is online now. In this documentary bandleader Milton Keanes is interviewed by renowned actor Robert Powell, discussing the rise and fall of Jazz Sabbath and the (re)release of their debut album.

[Strappado]

has to be fake

https://jazzsabbath.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.reddit.com/r/blacksabbath/c ... z_sabbath/

Don_Shetland:
The man behind this project, Milton Keanes, is actually Adam Wakeman. Adam is the long-time keyboard & guitar player for Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. The main recording band consists of Adam, Jerry Meehan (Robbie Williams) and Ash Soan (Adele, Cher, etc). A Jazz Sabbath tour is planned later in 2020.

[nucleus]

(think) has to be fake

I don't know. What is the point of such a scam?

[Deathdancer]

The full story is there and available to read, it's been linked on every article I've seen related to the guy and he talks about it openly in interviews. It's pure marketing, whether it's good or bad marketing is up to the individual but he's not scamming people.

[Bloopy]

This happened a lot really, except for reading that it's a cover in advance or recognising the song/title immediately. More so when I was a clueless kid listening to non-metal on the radio though. With some bands like Girlschool I recognised one or two of the covers so I just knew that they recorded a lot of covers, but didn't always check which songs those were. Here's some more specific examples though:

Judas Priest - The Green Manalishi. Didn't know it was a cover until I saw the same song title next to Fleetwood Mac's name, which was probably also the first time I'd heard of Fleetwood Mac.

Danzig - The Hunter. Didn't know it was a cover until I noticed that Led Zeppelin had covered some of the same lyrics.

Tank - Crazy Horses. This is just one where I wasn't paying attention as I'd actually already heard the band Warners play the same song, so I should've clicked that it was a cover. I had no clue it was from The Osmonds until last year though.

Megadeth - I Ain't Superstitious. Again, just not paying attention. I probably could've guessed it was a cover, but Peace Sells is my least favourite of Megadeth's classic albums and I've just about tuned out by this point.

Pentagram - Little Games. Also one where I wasn't listening closely but probably could've guessed was a cover. I only know a couple of Yardbirds songs though.

Overkill - Frankenstein. Didn't know until now. Harder to tell with instrumentals though.

Budgie - I Ain't No Mountain. Truly no clue until I looked it up just now! Hearing this is so weird to me:

[riptorn]

(think) has to be fake

I don't know. What is the point of such a scam?

You're kidding us on, you never believed that. Nice poker face!

[riptorn]

This happened a lot really, except for reading that it's a cover in advance or recognising the song/title immediately. More so when I was a clueless kid listening to non-metal on the radio though.

Same experience for most of us i guess, none of us are aware of the history of the music that's gone before at the point where we're bitten by the musical bug, everyone's playing catch up. Forever!
I've become much more interested in the original versions in recent years particularly as you can usually now hit youtube or similar and instantly hear them.
I'm always fascinated to hear what elements of the original the covering band chooses to focus it's attention on and what they add or subtract from the originals. For example, the Sabbath version of Warning added a full 7 minutes of running time which is pretty much all of their own creation, yet they still didn't take a co-writing credit*. Or the instance of 'Women In Uniform' where the elements that Maiden subtracted from the Skyhooks version wouldn't have fitted them at all, and so the song (to me) is greatly improved by their omission.
Good songwriters/arrangers in bands who have a strong sense of their own identity seem best able to reshape the raw materials from others work and rebuild them in their own image with enjoyable results, like the Priest examples mentoned. I'd love to know where the seed of the idea to cover 'Diamonds & Rust' came from. On paper it seems like a complete non-starter, yet the Priest fellas knew exactly how to do it.
I'm far less keen on the 'paint by numbers' approach though where every band member just learns the parts as written/played on the original and gives it nothing new of their own. Unless your band has such a unique or distinctive sound of it's own that it transforms the music by that mere fact alone, then what's the point?

(*Unlike Sabbath's peers in Led Zeppelin who were shamefully 'generous' in awarding the songwriting credits to themselves in instances where they often added very little. In regards to this thread we should perhaps leave Zeppelin alone though as it would require it's own individual sub forum to go through all their forgetful borrowing of other peoples songs, riffs & lyrics).