Little Willie John recorded “Fever” when he was 18 years old it was his fourth Top 10 R&B hit song and his first #1 in 1956.
Fever” was written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell. The Elvis Presley songs, “Don’t Be Cruel”, “All Shook Up” “Return to Sender” and more were written by Otis Blackwell. He also wrote “Great Balls of Fire” with Jack Hammer for Jerry Lee Lewis.
So it’s little wonder with that pedigree that the song is the most covered song from 1956 with over 600 versions. But we can’t give all the credit to the writers or the great original by Little Willie John.
If you listen to the original, then a year later this cover by Earl Grant in 1957 gives us the bridge to the most famous version.
Peggy Lee would put her own stamp on this song, it was largely her arrangement, her added lyric’s and of course the trademark sultry vocals that turned this song into a Rock and Roll hit and a Standard that spans genre. It feels in many ways like a completely different song when compared to the original, subsequent versions follow her lyrics and arrangement for the most part. Released in 1958 the song would reach #5 on the R&B chart and the UK Singles, #2 in Australia and #8 on the Hot 100. It was also nominated for three awards at the first Grammy presentations in 1959.
“Black and White” was first recorded by Pete Seeger and released in 1956. It was written by David Arkin (Alan’s father) and Earl Robinson. There are 27 versions of this song.
The songwriters were inspired by the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that outlawed Segregation in Public Schools. After being covered a few times in the US it made it’s way across the pond and was covered by a long standing Folk Group from Liverpool, The Spinners. It was then covered by a British based Reggae group called Greyhound in 1971. They had dropped the opening verse that made specific reference to the court ruling.
This Greyhound song was heard by Danny Hutton who would sing lead on the version by Three Dog Night. While they generally followed the Greyhounds rendition, they did use a children’s choir like the Pete Seeger original.
The Song peaked at #1 for Three Dog Night in 1972. It would be the third and last #1 for the band who would see several personnel changes starting with the departure of Danny Hutton in 1975. He would return and now fronts some iteration of the band that includes his son playing bass guitar.
Elvis on a demo with the original lyrics recorded in 1957
This is the heavily altered version Elvis released in 1958
This song was written by Dave Bartholomew and the original song credits include his wife’s name Pearl King. While she was involved with her husbands music it is unclear as to how much she contributed to the several songs on which she is credited. Adding a name of a spouse or a pseudonym was a common way to split the song royalties, usually to avoid paying income tax on the full amount. The name Pearl King is often confused with Earl King who was a New Orleans session guitar player and recording artist who was part of the same scene as Bartholomew, Smiley Lewis, Huey Smith and Fats Domino. To my knowledge he shared no writing credits with Bartholomew.
The Smiley Lewis original went to #11 on the R&B Chart in 1956. Two more of his original songs would have great popularity when covered. “Blue Monday” did very well for Fats Domino (1956) reaching #1 on the R&B chart and it was one of the first original R&B songs to chart on the Hot 100 at #5, it also hit #23 in the UK. “I Hear You Knocking” covered by Dave Edmunds (1970) hit #1 in the UK and #4 on the Hot 100. Both of these songs were also written by Dave Bartholomew.
Elvis wanted to release the song and as you can hear above he recorded a demo using the original lyrics. Without giving you the whole song, here is just the beginning of the changes that were made:
Original
One night of sin Is what I’m now paying for The things I did and I saw Would make the earth stand still Don’t call my name
Elvis Version
One night with you Is what I’m now praying for The things that we too could plan Would make my dreams come true Just call my name
Anita Steinman was an executive with a song/record Publishing Company, her name was added to the credits for the new lyrics but it is unclear whether she had anything to do with helping Elvis or more probably it was a business arrangement. The song was republished under Elvis Music Publishing and credited Steinman, Bartholomew and King.
While strictly speaking this is not a cover of a cover, it did get re-recorded, eventually resulting in two completely different covers of the song that now has 155 versions.
What also happened is that covers were made by listening to a previous version of the song and then recording it without the benefit of the lyrics or the sheet music.
In the case of Otis Redding’s 1965 cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, if he forgot some of the words he just made up his own. Steve Cropper had listened to the record and he wrote down what he thought were the words but he said the song was a bit hard to understand. Otis tossed the paper on the floor and proceeded to do his own soul version of the song. Regardless of the changes Redding would not be eligible to obtain a writing credit on his version of the song.
This song was written by Joni Mitchell and appeared on her 1971 album Blue
So, you’re a Scottish hard Rock band, you already released one hit album in 1973 and you are in the studio recording your second to be released that year. One small problem, you used up a lot of great songs on Razamanaz, and if the next album is to be Loud and Proud, well, you need more songs.
The boys in Nazareth were not much into covering songs but they needed material. However they did include one on their first album in 1971. It was “Morning Dew” originally by Canadian Folk Singer Bonnie Dobson, a song that had caught the ear of many in the UK. So much so it was also being played at live shows by Led Zeppelin, not to mention the Grateful Dead doing the same in the US. Being a fan of another Canadian Folk Singer named Joni Mitchell, and in particular they liked to listed to her 1971 album Blue while travelling around in the group van, this gave them an idea.
Without any plan at all they just started playing around with “This Flight Tonight” in the studio. They laid down a track that was, as Dan McCafferty put it, “Naza-fied”. As it happened both Joni Mitchell and Nazareth were at A&M Studio in Santa Monica while she was recording Court and Spark. The boys played it for her and got the Joni seal of approval.
They decided to put their version on Loud and Proud that also contained two other covers, “Teenage Nervous Breakdown” by Little Feat and “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” by Bob Dylan. “This Flight Tonight” became the biggest hit on the record and in many countries it is Nazareth’s most loved and recognizable song.
This song was not covered for another 16 years after Nazareth’s version, surely a tough act to follow and so it seems, based on some of the covers I listened to for this post. Of the 33 versions there are a couple of Heavy Metal attempts and some more along the line of Joni’s original. There’s even a Country cover of the song by Shane Chisholm from 2012.
Mostly Music Covers 