The original version of the Waylon & Willie classic "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys":
This was actually a much bigger hit on the country charts than the Kenny Rogers & The First Edition's cover while more people nowadays remember the First Edition cover.
I posted that earlier, Joan's version was based on a folk singer who had transcribed it from a banjo player from a traditional song. Quicksilver also had a version.
The last we did this thread I mentioned Bob McGrath's version of "Sing" from Sesame Street predates The Carpenters.
Given that "Ronald" was a black teen and "Ruby" and adult white woman, it's kind of easy to see why the original of "Lollipop" didn't go as far as the Chordette's version in 1958. Plus it lacks the "pop".
Not completely obscure, as it did chart, but Coven's cover being used in The Legend of Billy Jack propelled two separate recordings by them into the chart a year later.
Country singer Wilma Burgess had the first recorded and released version of this song that would later be covered by many other country and pop singers, and yes, Wilma's version was a huge country hit, but now forgotten by most everyone but the most diehard country music historians and collectors:
Interestingly, The Shadows of the Knight's cover of "Gloria" was the hit, but Van Morrison's subsequent stardom has made Them's original the "go-to" version. Even more twisted, The Guess Who's cover of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shaking All Over " was the hit version, but if you hear it today, it's going to be The Who's version.
Sorry if this is already posted, but Ednaswap wrote and performed Torn before Natalie Imbruglia made it a hit.
The Kingston Trio did a cover of this and it was a hit, but radio stations refused to play it because of the word "Damm". I don't know whose version came out first. Their albums were both released in 1962, and I don't know when the singles were released.
Hoyt did it first, and the radio single of the Kingston Trio cover removed the word damn and replaced it with a guitar strum so that radio stations could play it.
Earlier in the thread, Exile's original version of "Heart and Soul," a hit for Huey Lewis & the News, was posted. But this wasn't the only song Exile recorded first that became a Top 20 pop hit for someone else. Here's "Take Me Down," recorded later in a very similar arrangement by Alabama:
Marianne Faithfull with her version of "As Tears Go By," which made the U.S. Top 40 in 1964. The Rolling Stones' own version would make the top 10 in early 1966 and is certainly better known today.
The original "Rivers of Babylon" by the Melodians, recorded in 1970. It became an international hit in 1978 by Boney M.
Many bluegrass and traditional country bands cover this Manfred Mann song to the point that most people think of it as a bluegrass and traditional country music standard
"Do Ya" by The Move, 1972. Barely made the Hot 100 in this version, the later remake by Electric Light Orchestra made the Top 40 in 1977.
