Songs you thought were by a different artist upon first hearing

First time I heard Pat Benatar, I was a kid and "We Live For Love" was on the radio. I knew a Blondie single when I heard one ...

"Hungry Heart" - again long ago and probably didn't hear it "blind" but sped up slightly as it is, it's always been a convincing Jackson Browne vocal, imo, especially put up next to what Jackson had on radio around then. Just close your eyes, tell yourself it's him, and give it a play ...

 

Thought 'I'm On Fire' by Dwight Twiley was Bruce Springsteen.
Thought 'Yellow River' by Christie was Doug Sahm.
Thought 'Painted Ladies' by Ian Thomas was Neil Young.
Thought Eminem was Urkel from tv.

 

Oh, one more by me for sure.
I thought Billy Squire's Christmas Is A Time To Say I Love You was a Zeppelin holiday tune.

 

Funny, I thought for sure it was Andy Kim (of 'Rock Me Gently').

 

Neil Diamond too

 

Roll With It and A Little More Country Than That by Easton Corbin everyone thought was George Strait.

 

Thanks for that little tid bit Biff, I learned something today I've loved Slow Train Coming for years (a friend gave me a copy around '89/'90) and I've always marveled at the funk tight sound of this album especially the Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others) track.

 

There was a song by Dandy Warholes (don't remember the title) that I believed it was the Stones self-stealing from Gimme Shelter

 

For the longest time I though "Mother" by Danzig was some lost Doors/Jim Morrison song. Also thought "Fire Woman" by The Cult was by Danzig... go figure.

 

I thought Dylan or JJ Cale!

 

this thread has been done before and that is the song i always use

 

"Lies" by the Knickerbockers, and not by the Beatles

 

The first time I hear "Come Back to Me" by Vanessa Hudgens I thought it was Cannibal Corpse.

 

Could've sworn this was an early 60's Elvis album track when I first heard it. If it wasn't for the fact that it's mono, you could more or less seamlessly place it amongst Elvis tunes and most probably wouldn't notice the difference.

It's the opening line that's really convincing IMO, he has that almost 'crying yodel' thing Elvis had down to a T.

 

Only the voice. Nothing else is similar about the music.

 

The voice is part of my surprise! But hey, people do hear different things, right?

 

Why would you come to a thread with a subject that you're personally done with? Just skip it and find another thread? This happens to be a fresh subject for some of us.

You sound like the pub bore that barges into a conversation with "Excuse me, I think you'll find my friends and I discussed this very subject a few months ago...could you please change the subject and try and discuss something that I've personally never discussed before...?"

 

Did he say he's personally done with it? I didn't see anything negative in his post, I just took it as simply seconding your inclusion of that song.

 

A few people have mentioned songs they thought were the Rolling Stones, so I'll add one: "Lay Your Love On Me" by Roachford.

I've heard other songs by Roachford but this is the only one that sounds anything like the Stones. I think the singer must have been deliberately imitating Jagger's Englishman-trying-to-sound-American delivery.

 

And in case you didn't know, the song was written by Albert Hammond, he of "It Never Rains in Southern California" fame. He wrote quite a lot of songs for a lot of people, some good ones and a few real stinkers. He also - for obvious reasons - receives a significant percentage of the royalties for "Creep" by Radiohead.

 

When a young kid i heard All Right Now by Free.........
and thought it Rod Stewart or Steve Marriott singing

 

When I was a kid, we couldn't afford to buy a lot of records/tapes. Since I loved music, I had put a lot of mileage on records/tapes that my parents had. Luckily they had Beatles,Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel,Jim Croce,and a some compilation recordings. One day, a friend of my moms was cleaning out a house and found a stack of home recorded 8 tracks. It was a bunch of mix tapes that someone had made from records (probably 45's). Only problem was that no artists were listed on the tapes...only the song titles. When my moms friend gave me the box of tapes, it was like a box of pure gold to me. A few songs fooled me but when I heard Jay & The Americans "This Magic Moment", I could have sworn it was Roy Orbison. I didn't know it was Jay & The Americans for years.

 

The only singer whose voice has really fooled me into thinking it was Roy Orbison was Chris Isaak.

 

Good to know I wasn't the only one

Neil was so unamused by "Horse With No Name" he refused to meet America when Elliot Roberts was considering managing them.

 

Eagles "I Can't Tell You Why" - thought it was Carly Simon...