It often seems like the 70s decade was the biggest decade for cover songs.  I don't mean covers of 70s songs after the decade was over, but songs released in the 70s that were covers.  Feel free to post some of your favourites (with the original if you can as a comparison). 

Remember, two videos per post!

I'll begin with one I really enjoy alot.  Released in 1974, here is I Believe by a group called Songbird.  It was a cover of the 1972 Stevie Wonder song originally titled I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever).  Stevie never released his as a single, but the Songbird version peaked at #75 in Canada and was a well played radio favourite!

1974:  Songbird - I Believe
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1972:  Stevie Wonder - I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever)
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I was listening to this funky rendition (1971) on the way home today  :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB24z00ajU4

and the not-too-shabby original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asf8KLYQh60

8)

I've always liked James Taylor's 1975 cover of Marvin Gaye's 1964 hit "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQdRz-HlJw

Art Garfunkel - Since I Don't Have You (1979)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySD26vrzIk4

Linda Ronstadt ~ Tumbling Dice (1978)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIpxLot2BNU

Original was from the Rolling Stones, 1972.

April Wine ~ Bad side of the moon (1972)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK5VlKLrwgI

Original was from Elton John, 1970

Linda Ronstadt ~ Tumbling Dice (1978)

Original was from the Rolling Stones, 1972.

April Wine ~ Bad side of the moon (1972)

Original was from Elton John, 1970


I really like these two alot.  The interesting thing about the April Wine cover was Elton's original was the B-Side to 'Border Song', a song that's not well known world-wide as it only saw the Top 40 in very few countries, Canada and Holland being two of them, but the UK and US not among those


Art Garfunkel - Since I Don't Have You (1979)



I quite like this one.  I'd forgotten Art did this, as I am so used to the Don McLean version from the 80s as the go-to cover for that

Two covers that did really, really well on the charts. Back then I didn't know they were covers

Manfred Mann's Earth Band ~Blinded By The Light (1976/9177)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2-GqYkwjTM

(Original was from Springsteen in 1973)



This is probably my favorite cover version of any song:

Harry Nilsson ~ Without You (1971)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J72JXf8k7qE

(Original was from Badfinger in 1970)

Here's a cover that I hear on my local radio station quite often:  From 1976, it's Into the Mystic by a group called Jackson Hawke.  This missed the Top 40 in Canada, but that's quite an achievement considering the 1970 Van Morrison original was only an album track.

1976:  Jackson Hawke - Into the Mystic
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1970:  Van Morrison - Into the Mystic
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Here's a cover that I hear on my local radio station quite often:  From 1976, it's Into the Mystic by a group called Jackson Hawke.  This missed the Top 40 in Canada, but that's quite an achievement considering the 1970 Van Morrison original was only an album track.

1976:  Jackson Hawke - Into the Mystic



I hear Jackson Hawke's version all the time. It's a good song. I remember hearing it way back when shortly after it was released. Another surprise for me it didn't reach the top 40.


I really like these two alot.  The interesting thing about the April Wine cover was Elton's original was the B-Side to 'Border Song', a song that's not well known world-wide as it only saw the Top 40 in very few countries, Canada and Holland being two of them, but the UK and US not among those



I didn't know "Bad side of the moon" was a cover until I had the greatest hits album (and found out April Wine didn't write it)
Was it really the B-Side to Border song? Cool. I liked that song.  That was the first single Elton had that reached the charts.

I didn't know "Bad side of the moon" was a cover until I had the greatest hits album (and found out April Wine didn't write it)
Was it really the B-Side to Border song? Cool. I liked that song.  That was the first single Elton had that reached the charts.


I was surprised to learn it was a cover as well until I too saw the writing credit on the 1979 Greatest Hits album they released.  It was a really good version.  I still hear it on the radio alot



Here's Chilliwack and their 1978 hit Arms of Mary.  It is a cover of the 1976 song of the same name by Sutherland Brothers and Quiver.  The original was a big hit in Europe, but only a minor hit in North America.  Chilliwack's cover was a Top 40 hit in Canada, and though it never made the Top 40 in the US, it charted higher than the Sutherland Brothers original.

I'd like to think that the Chilliwack version would have made the US Top 40 if they'd had backing from their record label, but to be fair, their label at the time (Mushroom Records) was going through financial problems due to a legal battle with the Wilson Sisters of Heart

1978:  Chilliwack - Arms of Mary
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1976:  Sutherland Brothers and Quiver - Arms of Mary
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Sutherland Brothers, you say?

Here they are again, minus Quiver, back in 1972 - with a song that simply...bombed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDjuRlaNAg

But then, three years later in a much more mellower vein, it became a monster hit for young Roderick, but oddly, it meant nothing Stateside...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ooq7WPqd5s

Here's a good pair - this fabulous cover is by Santana (1977):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjKYhcck9o4

and the ahead-of-its-time IMO original (1964):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5IRI4oHKNU

8)

Here's a good pair - this fabulous cover is by Santana (1977):


and the ahead-of-its-time IMO original (1964):


8)

Great pick... I actually like both the cover and the original. 8) O0

Linda Ronstadt - Blue Bayou

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qqvdOwoN-Y

The original was from Roy Orbison in 1963.

"Spooky" as performed by Atlanta Rhythm Section (1979):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w804N8q_RQ

Original was performed by the Classics IV in 1967.

Eleven year old me (at that time) loved this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUFAW2Yjm0U

here's the original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbFT7k4jp7Q

:D

The original from 1972...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ScOhNlngY

...which was covered less than a year and a half later...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d5ZOgWZAmQ

The original was originally the bigger hit, but the cover is the one that you normally hear these days!

Both good versions, so I'm not that fussed...

Wow!  I had no idea Summer Breeze had a cover, but after a quick listen, I have heard the Isley version before.  Strange I didn't put the two together.  I like when a cover song is so different, you almost don't recognize it is a cover.



Here's one from the world of blues music called 'Flip, Flop and Fly' by the Downchild Blues Band.  This was a Top 40 hit in Canada in 1973

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'Flip, Flop and Fly' is one of the most famous and most covered songs in Blues music.  The original was by Big Joe Turner in 1955 and remains the best known version world-wide, but the cover above can still be heard on radio stations in Canada.  Here is Big Joe Turner with his 1955 original ...

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Katfish - Dear Prudence {1975} (Beatles cover)


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5 Stairsteps - Dear Prudence {1970} (Beatles cover)

Note: The 5 Stairsteps had a smash hit in 1970 called O-o-h Child




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Katfish - Dear Prudence {1975} (Beatles cover)

5 Stairsteps - Dear Prudence {1970} (Beatles cover)


Meant nothing at all to us British, but the song DID eventually become a successful cover here in the hands of legendary goth/punk band Siouxsie & The Banshees in 1983...

...and that probably means nothing to you!  ;)

Linda Ronstadt ~  Ooh, baby, baby (1978)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dfc9EZShRw

Cover of a Smokey Robinson song from the 1960s.

Van Halen, "You Really Got Me" (1978):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB8WHA3WWz0

Original was performed by The Kinks in 1964.

Some great suggestions posted above. I am impressed. I will add to the Linda Ronstadt – truly the queen of the cover song – list: "You're No Good," originally done by Betty Everett; and "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me" and "Ball and Chain," both of which were written and originally sung by Karla Bonoff. Also, Aretha's "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)" was originally recorded by Stevie Wonder in the 1960s.

My favorite is kind of a cheat. I was a Top 40 devotee through the early 1970s, not really starting to drift over to FM album rock until 1973-74. I was introduced to Led Zepplin via "Whole Lotta Love" hitting the Top 40 in late 1969 and then "The Immigrant Song" in late 1970. In early 1972 "Stairway" was so huge that the AM Top 40 station I listened to included it in their rotation, even though the song was never released as a single. Where I am going here is that it was very, *very*, late in the day before I finally encountered the first Zepplin album. "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" became and remains my favorite Zepplin song. It was released in early 1969, but I did not hear it until well into the 1970s. The song was covered by Joan Baez and many others before the Zepplin released their classic version. A very different take on the song to be sure, but a cover nonetheless.

I don't know why, but it seems there were more good cover songs in the '70s than in any other decade.

To start, I've got two,

Jet Airliner
Steve Miller in 1977,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGF_0AcHaGs
Paul Pena in 1973,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjr5U7g6aiA

Rainy Night in Georgia
Brook Benton in early 1970,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDRbF80NKDU
Tony Joe White in 1969,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2uZh4ezBtM

I thought this 1974 reggae hit was the original as a kid, how naive I was...  :)

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This was the original by the group Bread from 1972.

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In all fairness, they are both great. I don't mind the Boy George version from 1987 after getting over the disgust that he copied it from Ken Boothe...who actually copied it from Bread...

I thought this 1974 reggae hit was the original as a kid, how naive I was...  :)

Most probably a lot of people around at the time did, because although Bread did have a minor hit with it in Britain, this was the version that sold and therefore most would have thought that it WAS an original!  (See also 'Bye Bye Baby' and 'Sailing'...)

I tend to lean towards the Bread version and as for Boy George...I'll pass!  :P

I was introduced to Led Zepplin via "Whole Lotta Love" hitting the Top 40 in late 1969 and then "The Immigrant Song" in late 1970. In early 1972 "Stairway" was so huge that the AM Top 40 station I listened to included it in their rotation, even though the song was never released as a single.


I never really 'got' Zeppelin in the more revered way that some people do - that said, they could bang out a good tune. Nothing of their canon was released singles-wise in Britain until many years later, so this timely cover job had a free run on the British charts - helped along by the fact that it was also used as the nation's #1 chart show (''Top Of the Pops') for many years thereafter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9GS3SofhdU

Good arrangement - if it were a choice between this and RP's tedious orgasmic moaning, this would win every time! Sorry, 'revered' purists!

I notice some of the songs in this thread are not 70s songs that were covers of 70s songs, but just 70s songs that were covers.  So much for a 2nd topic idea lol

Alot of Big british hits that were not popular in North America, were made popular here in Canada through cover versions by Canadian artists.  Here's a most notable one ...


Here is Barry Blue with his 1973 UK #2 hit Dancin' on A Saturday Night ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9iVVdn2LN8

Here is a group called Bond with their 1975 version which made it to #15 in Canada ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbdepWciMuQ

Here is John Williams with the Love Theme to the 1976 Jack Nicholson/Marlon Brando film 'The Missouri Breaks' ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-PcNbBB7A

That same year, the late great Hagood Hardy beautifully covered it and made it a #21 hit in Canada ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGRGB3AQhkM

Here is Barry Blue with his 1973 UK #2 hit Dancin' on A Saturday Night ...

Here is a group called Bond with their 1975 version which made it to #15 in Canada ...


Obviously familiar with the first, but not the second...competent enough, but it'll always be the original for me...

The song was co-written by Lynsey De Paul, who sadly passed on recently... :(

The Barry Blue version of Saturday Night is quite catchy!

Here is another Canadian take on a British classic ...

In 1974, Leo Sayer hit #4 in the UK with his 4th single titled Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance).  By 1975, it became his first hit in North America where it reached #9 in the US and #18 in Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptXQ1A0nRi4

In 1975, a Canadian group called Shooter mixed it up a little with their version titled I Can Dance (Long Tall Glasses) which made it to #22 in Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVQPAZ42ZA8

Bad Side of the Moon is a 1970 song by Elton John.  Never released as a single in itself, it served as the B-Side to Border Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-c99iI85yM

Border Song was not a hit in the US or UK, but it did reach the Top 40 in Canada, so for those in Canada who bought the single probably knew the B-Side.  April Wine were one such group of individuals and seeing promise with it, they recorded a version and in 1972, made it to #16 in Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut-9Xnnw6kE

Art Garfunkel - Since I Don't Have You (1979)


I had forgotten about this one until I heard it on SiriusXM "Love" not too long ago. Good pick. O0