Has hearing a cover first ever impacted your opinion of the original?

Sookie :)

Happy Monday afternoon :)

The best example I can give is this one :~

I heard the Blackmore's Night live cover of Rainbow's song

'16th Century Greensleeves' about a month before I got the original. So, because I *love* the cover, I was expecting good things... but, for me, the original was a terrible let-down.

The music sounds dull and flat, and the vocal is just so 'down'. Having hoped for something at least as good as the cover, I was so disapointed!

The only other occasions where I heard a cover first was :~

'In A Broken Dream' ~ Thunder {orig. Python Lee Jackson}

When I finally heard the original, I was pleased to add it to my collection.

'Blinded By the Light' ~ Manfred Mann's Earth Band

{orig. Bruce Springsteen}

It's hard to believe they got such an excellent cover from that awful original!

Almost definitely, yes. It's difficult to say because, not having heard the original first, there's no way for me to know what my opinion would have been of it had I been ignorant of the cover - so, there's no way to judge how significantly my opinion was actually impacted.

However, there are a number of cases where I've been exposed to a cover of a song prior to hearing the original, and in most cases, if I like the song at all, I almost always seem to prefer the version that I had first heard - be that the cover or the orginal. So, I have to suspect that hearing a cover first has a real impact on how I view the original.

It works the same with live or studio versions of songs by the same band. I'm more apt to prefer the version which I had become familiar with first.

The first time I heard "Drive My Car" by The Beatles was by The Donnas. I loved it- but I knew it wasn't their's. But when I checked out the original cover I must say both are actually really great. The Donnas didn't try to make the song something it wasn't, and a lot of bands doing covers forget that they're dealing with an original song. Be it a hit or not. So the way it affected me was good, definitely not bad.

Sookie!!! It's nice to see you! I've missed not seeing you around! Hope you've been doing well :)

I usually find that which ever version I hear first and get used to is the version that I like more. When I hear a version after, whether it be a cover or even the original I still tend to sway towards the one I got used to hearing first. This isn't in all cases, just in most. There are also songs that I can listen to and come to the conclusion in my head that both the original and the cover are just as good as eachother, just different. I did this with Cat Steven's song, "Wild World." Mr. Big covered it and did an amazing job and I would rank it equally as good as the original.

Hey! LTNS!!

Anyway, to answer your question, (and great question, by the way...you have been missed), what comes to mind is The Race Is On.

I'd always just kind of assumed that this was an original Dead song, and it had always been one of my favorites. Until recently. I don't know if you're familiar with the Johnny Cash Show, but it was a variety show that he had where he had lots an lots of various artists perform. Which I guess you would expect from a variety show. Anyway. My sister had gotten some DVDs of this for Christmas, and she'd been watching it and she made me come over to watch some of it. One of the guests she wanted me to see was George Jones, which was funny in the first place. I don't know if you've ever seen George Jones, but he looks like a Bobblehead. Like his head is so disproportionate it's like a joke. Also he is creepy. The singer of the country song "behind closed doors"? That's him. So, I was sitting there laughing my head off when all of a sudden, he breaks into The Race Is On. As in He Sang It First. Lets just say I can't listen to that song ever again.

Hey Sookie! It's great to see you.

I saw a local punk band cover Kiss Off by The Violent Femmes before I heard the original. Needless to say, they did a great job and now I probably like the original more than I would have if I never heard the cover.

Alkaline Trio covered a song for their New Years 7 inch record entited Off My Mind, originally done by the Smoking Popes, and the Smoking Popes covered an Alk. 3 song which is Blue Carolina. Both covers are wonderful and very different from the originals.

Worst: GnR-Live and Let Die GnR-Knockin' on Heaven's Door Limp Bizkit-Behind Blue Eyes (also Kid Rock-Feel Like Making Love & Gimme Back My Bullets are horrible) 2: Voodoo Child-SRV, All Along The Watchtower-Hendrix

Sookie, long time....good to see you.

This may be hard to believe, but Got to get You Into My Life was covered by Earth Wind and Fire and I heard that long before I heard the Beatles version. So I was programmed for the EWF style and I do not like to listen to the origional.

Others help you see how great the Beatles were.

Aerosmith's - Come Together is awful

etc.

Welcome back, Sookie. Happy Monday and Happy St. Paddy's Day.

When i first heard Limp Bizkit's attempt at "Behind Blue Eyes", i didn't know it was originally by The Who until a friend told me. I thought "That can't be right, The Who are a GOOD band. They couldn't have written something that bad, surely". After i heard the original a few times, it slowly grew on me and has become a favourite of mine. But the Bizkit version still sucks.