Paul Simon-"I Am A Rock" (released on The Paul Simon Songbook in the UK and Canada a few months before the S&G version)
Dolly Parton went to #1 on the country charts with two completely different recordings of this song - still the only artist ever to do so. Then Whitney Houston massacred it, and the rest is history. Here is the 1974 version of "I Will Always Love You." (She re-recorded it for the soundtrack of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982.)
Dang! I knew I had heard a version faster than the Grass Roots and here it is. Thanks! This is a fantastic thread bringing up all kinds of old memories.
Wow. Very cool. But I think Them's cover from 1964 might actually be better known than the Amboy Dukes cover.
Then listen to 'Lucky Lou' by Jody Williams which preceded 'All Your Love (I Miss Loving)' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmYW7iSiqNo
Here's a MUCH better version of "Close To You". An album track fr0m '64. It isn't the original version but we need something better than the Chamberlain version. It's still years earlier than the hit version.