Appropriation of untouchable song titles: The "wait, this isn't a cover!" thread

1. Catherine Wheel, "Strange Fruit"
2. Swervedriver, "A Change is Gonna Come"

Wait, these aren't covers! What's going on here?

The Catherine Wheel one had already become one of the indelible songs of my life (when I need picking up, it or PSB's "So Hard" is always the song I want to hear) long before I considered the band's audacity in using a song title so strongly associated with another artist/feeling/history/context/etc.

So should a song title at a certain level of significance be immune from repurposing? Can a different artist's use of it be merely incidental, or give it an altogether different meaning? Or must it mean something as provocation or tribute? Have we talked about this before?

You don't have to answer those. Let's just come up with more examples. Most, like Dawn Richard's recent "Billie Jean," will likely involve some kind of meta element or POV shift that make them not very much subject to my questions. But a catalog of the phenomenon should be interesting.

3. Leon Russell: Give Peace A Chance
4. Leon Russell: I Put A Spell On You

5. Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Aretha Franklin
6. Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John & Kiki Dee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmv564lliro

Produced by the prolific Black Eyed Peas hitmaker, “I'm So Excited” (sadly not a Pointer Sisters cover) is a promising debut in that it sounds ...

“Cadillac Song” and “Too Close” (sadly not a Next cover) retreat to distinctly middle of the road territory. In fact, both retro R&B-lite anthems ...

The B-sides are a jokey lounge-jazz number called 'Whiplash', sadly not a Metallica cover, about someone called Fred's bad driving and, ...

You can definitely hear seeds of Beam's future work in some tracks, with 'Loretta' (sadly not a Townes van Zandt cover) being based on a progression which ...

mp3: Rich Homie Quan – “Stop Breathing”. This new Rich Homie Quan joint is sadly not a Pavement cover, but it's nonetheless…

To celebrate the announcement, Murphy has shared 'Gone Fishing', which is sadly not a Weezer cover (it was inspired by the documentary, ...

You'll find some intriguingly warped chord sequences ("Step By Step" - sadly not a NKOTB cover) as well as some surprisingly progressive musical composition ...

OWS ft. Pusha T – Waterline. Sadly not a Jedward cover…

From the cascading multi-layered chorus of 'Why Try' (sadly not a Limp Bizkit cover), to the rich crooning tones she employs on 'Best Mistake', ...

The closing track 'The Frog Prince' is sadly not a Divine Comedy cover, but it is catchy and brings out the child in Keane, with a reference to Shrek amongst the ...

Things pick up with “Kerosene”, sadly not a Big Black cover but a skittering mass of pitched-vocals and foreboding synths that passes like a ...

Cody Simpson has just released his killer new single 'Surfboard' – sadly not a Beyonce cover – and now he's found the time to perform it live for the first time at ...

Below, watch the zombie-heavy video for the first single from Panic of Girls, the sparkly dance-pop track "Mother". It is, sadly, not a Danzig cover ...

... never gets much rowdier than on the rollicking trifle "Do It Again"-- sadly not a Beach Boys cover, but with some of that same nostalgic feel.

“Holler,” one of the glittery cuts from the collection — sadly, NOT a Spice Girls cover — is a rave anthem that sees the girls cheekily flirting on ...

WHAT IS LOVE (sadly not a Haddaway cover), has a divine moment of inspiration where Nakata creates a wonderfully harmonious blend of ..

... Clairy Browne to the relationship-mending duet “Let The Music Play” (no, sadly not a Shannon cover) with Drag Race judge, Michelle Visage.

The shows will launch her new single 'Who Are You' – sadly not a Who cover – which was recorded London's RAK Studios and Peter Gabriel's ...

London indie rockers have a new album called Glow & Behold, and from it we get Lose My Breath, which is sadly not a Destiny's Child cover.

“Across The Universe” is sadly not a John Lennon cover, but is a nice strung-out industrial song. The title track has some of the most traditional ...

The album closes with a song called “I'll Be You,” which is sadly NOT a Replacements cover, thus Versus will be docked points for this (and ...

pere ubu to thread.

jimmy eat world's "authority song"

i've almost started this thread several times except the gist would've been "songs that share the exact names of other songs as a direct reference to those songs"

Pretty sure Sinatra did a song called "tonight (I am fucking you)" before Enrique Iglesias

Duke Ellington - "Ko-ko"
Charlie Parker - "Ko-ko"

The Black Keys - "Never Gonna Give You Up"

I was always disappointed that Katie Melua didn't actually cover "Piece By Piece" the Slayer song.

XP That Black Keys track IS a cover of a Jerry Butler hit from the late '60s.

Drake's "Wu Tang Forever" (sadly not a cover of the entire album)

Neil Young has an unreleased song called "Born to Run" which he apparently wrote at about the same time as the Springsteen song came out, so might just be a coincidence.

Pretty sure Sinatra did a song called "tonight (I am fucking you)" before Enrique Iglesias

― brimstead, Friday, March 20, 2015 10:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

irl lol

jaymc did you already have that list saved up and formatted or ??

After the success of Naked Eyes' first hit single "Always Something There to Remind Me", which WAS a Bacharach/David cover, it was a bit of a surprise that their next single "Promises, Promises" was unrelated to the Bacharach/David tune of the same name.

Vanessa Paradis did not cover The Ronettes "Be My Baby", nor did U2 cover Metallica's "One".

imagine some people were peeved at Queen for their Jefferson Airplane appropriation in the 70s

Neil Young has an unreleased song called "Born to Run" which he apparently wrote at about the same time as the Springsteen song came out, so might just be a coincidence.

He has a track called 'Little Wing' on the 'Hawks and Doves' album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uZ7nlN26zs

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

Cursive - "Staying Alive" (not posting the boring song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bsXRqI1WbI

humorous for obvious reasons

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

The Who - "We're Not Gonna Take It"
Twisted Sister - "We're Not Gonna Take It"

jaymc did you already have that list saved up and formatted or ??

― groundless round (La Lechera), Saturday, March 21, 2015 12:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just did a Google search on "sadly not a * cover" and pasted some of the results.

Rihanna just released a song called "Dancing in the Dark"

(maybe not quite 'untouchable') Fish And Chips by Denim isn't a cover of the song from Charlie Girl, though it does kind of borrow the tune, I get the feeling that the 1970 Jack Wild version was the inspiration?

bruce springsteen has made a pretty good career of this.

-dancing in the dark (later, as noted above, re-appropriated by rihanna)
-all or nothing at all
-mansion on the hill (later re-appropriated by neil young)
-walk like a man
-wreck on the highway
-downbound train
-reason to believe
-out in the street (he removed the plural "s" from the shangri-las title)
etc.

he also likes to appropriate film titles.

"mansion on the hill" already a hank williams hit :)

oh nvm I just realized that was your point

The "wait, this isn't a cover!" thread

-out in the street (he removed the plural "s" from the shangri-las title)

There's also the Who's "Out In The Street."

David Bowie, "Day-In, Day-Out" - sadly not the Rube Bloom/Johnny Mercer standard

Black Flag, "Black Coffee" - sadly not an homage to Peggy Lee

Elvis Costello's "You Belong to Me" is not a bad song, but it should not be allowed to step on the toes of the Chilton Price "You Belong to Me" ("See the pyramids along the Nile...")

Oh, I got one:

Nick Cave - "Do You Love Me?"

Mention of Elvis Costello reminds me of his "I Want You".

The Cars ("Bye Bye Love","Maybe Baby")

Sadly, Metallica's "One" was not a cover of Three Dog Night/Harry Nilsson

Morrissey / Dagenham Dave / The Stranglers

(xp) sadly, u2s "one" was not a cover of metallica.

Prince - Cinnamon Girl sadly is not the Neil Young song.
Bass-o-matic - Fascinating Rhythm is sadly not the old standard of that name.
And neither Nik Kershaw's or Prefab Sprout's Wild Horses are the Jagger/Richard song ('tho the Sprouts' song ain't bad at all).

As for Neil Young, I believe he wrote a whole album of songs with well-known titles, but it was never released. There's those mentioned above; 'Goin' Back from 'Comes a Time' has to be another.

Dave Clark Five "Everybody Knows" is not the same as "Everybody Knows" by the Dave Clark Five.

Yep, they released two songs as a-sides that had the same title.

^ Leonard Cohen as well.

Crack The Sky's "Surf City" a good example of appropriating a famous song title with the intent of turning it on it's head

JAMC's "Dream Lover" not a cover of Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover."

More sadly, that dog's "Never Say Never" not a Romeo Void cover.

-out in the street (he removed the plural "s" from the shangri-las title)
There's also the Who's "Out In The Street."

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, March 21, 2015 9:52 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

UFO as well

Beyoncé's "Sweet Dreams", not a Eurythmics cover.
Madonna's "Whos's That Girl", not a Eurythmics cover.
Eve's "Who's That Girl", not a Madonna cover.

Saves The Day's Through Being Cool not the Devo song.

Timberlake's "Cry Me A River" not the torch song made famous by Julie London.

Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" is not the Four Seasons song (both huge hits).

Rihanna "Bitch Better Have My Money" sounds nothing like the AMG song of the same name.

The Cure - "Play for Today"
Belle and Sebastian - "Play for Today"

Neil Young's been mentioned; Yo La Tengo have also done it more than once ("I'll Be Around," "I Should Have Known Better," "We're an American Band").

Oh, "I should have known better" Wire, obv.

Also:

Jess Glynne has topped the UK singles chart for the first time as a solo artist with her track Hold My Hand.

not the Rutles classic, I assume.

wonder girls, be my baby

The Jam, "That's Entertainment." Not a cover of the song from the 1953 MGM musical The Band Wagon.

"Accidents Will Happen" by Elvis Costello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klsbzC9V0Yg

Always found N Gallagher naming a song 'Stand By Me' particularly audacious.

pixies did a song called "stormy weather"

I Should Have Known Better is really common

I only knew two (now three)

What's sort of unsettling is when you only know the 'other' one like when someone says "We are going to sing "Rock of ages" nd you go yeah! "BET YOU THINK ITS FUNNY WHEN YOU'RE SPENDIN ALL MY MONEY BUT I DON'T! WAA HAA!"

One time on Blockbusters, the question was "What's the third line of "God save the Queen"?" and I said "They made you a moron"

Not the answer on the card..

Chris Isaak - "Wicked Games"
The Weeknd - "Wicked Games"

First one is singular.