Songs You May Not Have Realized Were Covers, also known as another excuse for me to praise Tom Waits

Blender magazine published a list of Songs You Didn't Know Were Covers. (source: ALOTT5MA)

Despite the fact that Blender is to music journalism what Bush (the Gavin Rossdale led band) is to Grunge, the list does have some interesting info, such as who actually originally did "I Love Rock and Roll" and "Tainted Love' . Here's a supplementary list of some songs you may have assumed were originals from the artists who popularized them:

You may be more familiar with the the criminally under appreciated Tom Waits than you thought: "Jersey Girl" performed by Bruce Springsteen, "Downtown Train" performed by Rod Stewart and "Ol' 55" performed by the Eagles are all covers.

“(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”, usually associated with Elvis Costello, is a song written by English musician Nick Lowe

“All Along the Watchtower’ is familiar to most due to Jimi Hendrix, written by Bob Dylan. I never realized that until I googled the song after I heard it used it so well on the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. Hearing that song in that context was “WTF Moment #5” of that episode.

Oddly enough, I’ve found some people assumed “The Man Who Sold The World” was a Nirvana song, and aren’t aware it was originally done by David Bowie. Nirvana's cover on their MTV Unplugged in New York album re-introduced it to a new generation of music fans:

"In the wake of this cover, Bowie bemoaned the fact that when he performed the song himself he would encounter "kids that come up afterwards and say, 'It's cool you're doing a Nirvana song.' And I think, 'Fuck you, you little tosser!'"[1]”

I’ve always preferred The Clash version of “I Fought the Law”, but the original was first played by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets (Buddy Holly’s band). It was used in a "Cheers" episode, as Sam played it relentlessly to get under Rebecca's skin about her jailbird boyfriend Robin Colcord.

I only recently discovered that “Dirty Old Town”, one of my favourite songs and one I always associate with The Pogues, was originally done in 1949 by The Dubliners. And we come full circle back to Tom Waits, who apparently has played this live several times. I’d love to hear that in person, or at least have a copy.