I Won't Sing It...Singers Who Turned Down Hit Songs

Exactly how does this work? Are copyright holders able to prevent the release of a song they own? If I announced I intended to cut a rap version of "Like A Rolling Stone" backed by barking dogs and a kazoo band, could Dylan stop me?

 

was it ever confirmed she turned it down? I can't recall coverdales specific comments but what I remember he made it sound more like he wrote it to give to her but for whatever reason the song never made it to her

 

You don't need an artist's permission to cover a song, but you're not allowed to change the lyrics without permission. You also need a permission for rearranging. Minor stuff like changing the key does not count as rearranging, but I reckon your suggestion would.

 

So the Moody Blues could have stopped this if they'd wanted to?

 

Not sure where they draw the line, and it might be different in different countries, but here's something I found about U.S. copyright law:

"the cover artist may make limited changes to the musical arrangement to reflect the cover artist’s style. This arrangement, however, cannot change the basic melody and structure of the original song. ... A more substantial rearrangement of copyrighted music constitutes a derivative work. If the new composer does not own the copyright in the original song upon which the arrangement is based, he must obtain permission from the copyright holder to create such a work."

 

Why would they stop it? It's great!

 

The songwriter(s) and/or publisher have the right to approve the first version of the composition that is commercially released.

 

Both of the songwriters, Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, call BS on this claim. The Monkees had their showdown with Don Kirshner in '67, and "Sugar, Sugar" wasn't written until at least 1968. That's when Barry and Kim started working together regularly on songs. That said, I do believe The Monkees were offered a song with that title. It may have been "(Never Get Enough Of) Sugar" by Neil Sedaka. The lyric has a "sugar, sugar" refrain. The Monkees (more specifically, Davy Jones) did record two Sedaka songs: "When Love Comes Knocking At Your Door" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (lyrics by Carole Bayer-Sager).

 

This sounds like what happened with Devo's version of The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction." According to a book of covers featuring the song, they had to get Mick Jagger's permission to release their version of the song because it was such a change from The Rolling Stones' original.

They also mention an issue with "Weird Al" Yankovic's polka medleys that he has included with most of his albums: Normally, he'd have to pay the full fee to include a small part of a song in the medley. Due to this the cost would normally be too much to use the songs in the medley.

His way of dealing with the issue is to calculate the amount of time each song appears in the medley, and then pay a percentage based on how much of the entire medley each song takes, if the copyright holders agree. As an example, if the time a song in a medley takes is 5% of the time of the entire medley, then he'd pay the copyright holder of the song 5% of the normal fee. This way, he pays the cost of one song for all of the songs in the medley. But as mentioned above it depends on the approval of the copyright holders.

 

The Beach Boys version of "Seasons In The Sun" is far inferior to Terry Jacks version.

 

Probably could have inserted Lennon themed lyrics into His Name Is Legs, gotten Paul and Ringo to join in, and scored a hit that year.

 

Bryan Ferry, The Fixx and Billy Idol -Don’t You Forget About Me

 

Jim Kerr's vocal sounds very much like Billy Idol - must have regretted turning it down.

John Farnham turned down "We Built This City" and "From A Distance"



Category: | Herald Sun

 

I could hear Bryan Ferry singing that song.

 

Yeah they chose Don't Look Back instead and Landau forbid them releasing it, making it the sole outtake from Get The Knack, and they had to remove it from the Carnegie Hall laserdisc as well.

 

WOW.

I never knew that before, or heard it (obviously). Oh my God...
Definitely one of the best discoveries I've found on this site. Thank you.

 

I know some of Doc Pomus's songs were turned down by the original intended artists.
Elvis turned down Turn Me Loose, which became a hit for Fabian of course.

 

Pretty much the same arrangement though, and Terry Jacks produced it (And changed a lot of lyrics from Rod McKuen, who in turn changed a lot of the French lyrics from Jacques Brel).

 

Aerosmith turned down Diane Warren's "Blue Eyes Blue" which was eventually recorded by Eric Clapton for the "Runaway Bride" soundtrack

Aerosmith also turned down Warren's "Painted On My Heart" which was eventually recorded by the Cult for the "Gone In 60 Seconds" soundtrack.




Blue Eyes Blue - Steven Tyler

 

I suspect there's similar rules in UK/EU law - I recall the Portsmouth Sinfonia (a sort of punk orchestra assembled of people who had never played their instruments before, including Eno on clarinet and Michael Nyman on Euphonium) were threatened with legal action for an unlicensed re-arrangement of Also Sprach Zarathustra, but successfully pleaded that they hadn't re-arranged it, they were just very very bad at playing it.

 

Sinatra turned down Mona Lisa

 

Kylie Minogue turned down what would become Britney Spears' best singles, Toxic.

 

Moe Bandy turned down a number of Texas-themed songs in favor of songs with other topics. Some of the songs he turned down included the Alabama hit 'If You're Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band)' in addition to the George Strait hits 'Amarillo By Morning,' 'Does Forth Worth Every Cross Your Mind' and 'All My Exes Live In Texas.'

 

Patti LaBelle wrote that she turned down the ballad and club hit “Nobody’s Supposed To Be Here,” which was cut by Deborah Cox and became a record-setting R&B no.1.

 

isn't there a version of aerosmiths "painted on my heart"?