Famous songs attributed to the wrong bands/artists?

Question

Like Stuck in the Middle With You has often been creditted to Bob Dylan or Steve Miller Band when it was really by Stealers Wheel.

Any other examples?

Answer 1

People are Always mixing up Beatles/ solo Beatles tunes. I've seen people say "Imagine" was The Beatles.


* a well known one is people thinking America's "Horse with No Name" was by Neil Young. Admittedly, the main vocal sounds VERY much like Neil Young. You can see why that was a common error.

Answer 2

I understand what people are saying about people thinking the remake is the original. But, I don't think that is what Sarah is asking. She's asking about in original song from a band being mistaken for another band.

Long Cool Women - The Hollies, mistaken for CCR
Easy Livin' - Uriah Heep, mistaken for Deep Purple
Come And Get It & No Matter What - Badfinger, mistaken for The Beatles.



Above, actually Jake Holmes wrote Dazed And Confused, and Jimmy saw him perform it, liked it, rearranged and performed with The YardByrds, then with Led Zeppelin.
Jake Holmes has never received credit for writing the song.
On the album sleeve it Credits Page as the author.
I love Zeppelin, not downing them.Their version is far better.
Page was and still is a musical genius.
Check into it for yourself. Read the entire article, not just what Page said in the interview. I just found this web page, this is not my sole source. I had Holmes' version, which was released a few months before the YardByrds version, which was never released on a studio album, it was released on their live album in the spring of '68.
http://www.turnmeondeadman.net/Zep/DazedAndConfused.php


Good calls, Sarah
Who was the lead singer for Stealers Wheel?
He later had two solo hits in '78.
Also, what solo artist left The Steve Miller Band to have mediocre success as well?
Two big hits, a two hit wonder. His name's well known though.

Answer 3

A lot of people hear famous covers and assume it's the *original* version of the song, such as :~

'Blinded by the Light' ~ Manfred Mann's Earth Band
{Bruce Springsteen}
'All Along the Watchtower' ~ Jimi Hendrix
{Bob Dylan}
'In A Broken Dream' ~ Thunder
{Python Lee Jackson ~ vocal: Rod Stewart}

As Squishy said, someone asked on here where they could find Led Zeppelin's version o 'House of the Rising Sun'. I think they'd heard the Frijid Pink cover.





np: 'Ariel' (live) ~ Blackmore's Night {RB's Rainbow cover}

Answer 4

Some mention Manfred Mann's Earthband performing Springsteen's " Blinded by the light"

but they also performed Bob Dylan's
" Mighty Quinn" much better than the original btw.
I found out years later.

Answer 5

It's already been said, but the Manfred Mann Blinded By The Light thing drives me nuts. I'm not sure what my hang up is, probably just that I like the Springsteen version a lot and the Mann one doesn't really do anything for me, but it just bothers me.

********************
Count me as another person who thought Neil Young did the America tune for quite some time. I actually thought of it in a different way though. That was the only song by them that I had heard and assumed that America was a Neil Young project.

Answer 6

Jimi Hendrix - Wild Thing - original The Troggs

Quiet Riot - *** on Feel the Noise - Orignal Slade

Manfred Mann - Blinded by the Light - orginal Bruce Springsteen

The Yardbirds - Dazed and Confused - Jimmy Page wrote this song while with the Yardbirds and they performed it, however, Led Zeppelins performance of this song is far superior.

Edit: Thanks, Mello Yello, great info!!!

Answer 7

I used to think Iron Maiden wrote "Women In Uniform" until i read their biography and found out it was originally by an Australian band called Skyhooks.

Re "A Horse With No Name": everyone i knew, including me, thought it was by Neil Young at some point in their lives.

Answer 8

House of the Rising Sun is always credited to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, all sorts of crazy groups... when it was made famous by The Animals.

Stairway to Heaven was first performed by (insert 70's supergroup here), though it was really Led Zeppelin.

Answer 9

Vanilla Ice singing Ice Ice Baby that was a Queen/David Bowey song called Under Pressure which was a way better song

Answer 10

Cats in the Cradle, I have seen many times on here people say Cat Stevens did the song...even James Taylor but it was Harry Chapin