10 Covers of ‘60s Songs That Were More Successful in the ‘80s
In October, I did a piece on covers of ‘60s songs that outperformed the originals and hit #1 in the ‘70s, and not surprisingly, in the 1980s, artists were still mining the ‘60s treasure troves for little-known gems to remake. Below, I’ve chosen 10 interesting covers of ‘60s songs that became hits in the 1980s, ranked in order of the originals that had the lowest chart positions to the highest.
1) “Got My Mind Set on You”
Original: James Ray (1962); did not chart
Cover: George Harrison (1987); Billboard Pop #1
James Ray didn’t have a very big catalog, having died from a drug overdose while in his early 20s. He only had one Top 40 hit, and it’s really a miracle that George Harrison had heard of him at all. But that he did, and the story goes that while Harrison was in the US visiting his sister Louise in 1963, he heard Ray’s original version of “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You” and bought a copy. Years later, when working on his Cloud Nine album in 1987, he decided to do a cover of the song, and it became his third #1 hit. It was also his only #1 not written by him and the last #1 hit any of the Beatles would have as solo artists. Today the song is a classic, all the more amazing because it came from an original that went nowhere and produced a cover that climbed all the way to the top of the charts.
2) “Tainted Love”
Original: Gloria Jones (1964); did not chart
Cover: Soft Cell (1981); Billboard Pop #8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJkbqjQvnk
Looking down this list, you see a lot of songs that were covered by very big artists such as George Harrison, Blondie, Billy Idol, Phil Collins, and others, and so perhaps it’s not all that amazing when their covers got initial airplay based on the artists’ star power alone. That makes what Soft Cell did pretty remarkable. Gloria Jones was an R&B artist who was fairly well known in England but barely known at all in the US; many know her more for her marriage to Mark Bolan of T.Rex fame rather than for her recording career (she never charted in the US).Seventeen years later, Soft Cell’s synthesized version of her song “Tainted Love” went to #1 in England, while in the US, it went to #8 and spent 43 weeks in the Hot 100 — a record at the time. And despite the fact that I’m a ’60s soul and R&B purist, I have to admit I actually like Soft Cell’s version better myself (it’s a slightly unsettling video though).
3) “The Tide is High”
Original: The Paragons (1967); did not chart
Cover: Blondie (1980); Billboard Pop #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1lMVre0pNM
This song was written by John Holt of the Paragons, a Jamaican group who were not very well known outside of their homeland. The group recorded “The Tide is High” as a B-side in 1967, and predictably, in America the song was little-known and did not chart. Blondie retained the reggae sound when they recorded it and released it on their Autoamerican album in 1980, and for them, it would go on to be their third #1 record. Several other groups recorded it after Blondie, but Blondie’s version remains the most successful.
4) “Red Red Wine”
Original: Neil Diamond (1968); Billboard Pop #62
Cover: Ub40 (1983); Billboard Pop #34. Re-Release (1988); Billboard Pop #1
With nearly 40 Billboard Top 40 hits, it’s pretty easy to overlook the Neil Diamond recordings that didn’t quite attain the upper reaches of the charts. When Diamond released “Red Red Wine” in 1968, he was just starting to become a chart force to be reckoned with, and though he’d had six Top 40 hits in 1966 and 1967, he was still about a year away from the explosion that would soon follow and last throughout the ’70s and most of the ’80s. To be honest though, the song — about a guy who drinks red wine to drown his sorrows — isn’t much like “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Cherry, Cherry,” “You Got to Me,” or those other ’60s charters, and as a result it peaked at #62. Initially, UB40 didn’t do a whole lot better when they released their reggae-fied remake in 1983 and it only went to #34. Five years later, they re-released the song, this time including a rap-like section that had been edited out of the first release. That version shot all the way to #1 and remains one of the ’80s’ most recognizable recordings.
5) “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”
Original: Lou Johnson (1964); Billboard Pop #49
Cover: Naked Eyes (1983): Billboard Pop #8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMAe31FFHbo
This excellent Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition has been immensely successful over time, and even though Dionne Warwick did a demo of it before anyone else got to it, Lou Johnson was the first one to record it, release it, and see it chart — though it only went to #49. Next Sandie Shaw did it and her version went to #1 in England and several other countries, then Dionne Warwick finally recorded it and her version peaked at #65 in 1968; the list goes on. Flash forward to the ’80s and Naked Eyes released a version that went to #8 and became their only Top 10 hit. Perhaps it’s a tribute to Bacharach and David that this well-crafted song sounds good in almost every incarnation.
6) “Together”
Original: The Intruders (1967): Billboard Pop #48
Cover: Tierra (1980) Billboard Pop #18
There’s a reason most of these songs charted higher when released the second time around in the ’80s, and usually it’s because the latter version was simply better. Maybe it was the vocals or instrumentation or production, but in the first five songs I examined above, the ’80s version was pretty clearly an improvement on the ’60s original. Not so with this one, and the mystery is not only how this great Gamble and Huff composition recorded by the Intruders failed to score a Top 40 hit when it was released in 1967, but how the remake did better. The Intruders had quite a few hits, most notably the Top 10-charter “Cowboys to Girls,” but this very fine song just didn’t wow audiences. Jump ahead to 1980, and Tierra surpassed the orginal as their fairly uninteresting rendition of “Together” went all the way to #18. It would be their one and only Top 40 pop hit.
7) “I Forgot to Be Your Lover”
Original: William Bell (1968); Billboard Pop #45
Cover: Billy Idol (1986); Billboard Pop #6 (re-titled “To Be a Lover”)
William Bell was one of Stax Records’ most consistent artists in the 1960s, and when he recorded “I Forgot to Be Your Lover” in 1969, it was a slow, soulful ballad, in the Stax tradition that produced R&B classics that arguably were second in quality only to those produced at Motown. The song didn’t crack the Top 40, but Billy Idol apparently heard something there he thought he could work with. He retitled the song, set it to a pulsating beat, and added those strong, near-screaming vocals that characterized so many of his songs. His version went all the way to #8 in 1986.
8) “Hazy Shade of Winter”
Original: Simon and Garfunkel (1966); Billboard Pop #13
Cover: The Bangles (1987); Billboard Pop #2
This song was first released by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966 and has that almost philosophical feel to it that characterized so many of their songs. It’s a bit different in that it has a bit more of a rock-like edge to it than some of their folksier efforts, and in the end it performed fairly well, topping out at #13 on the pop charts. Jump ahead to 1987 and the Bangles released their version for the soundtrack of the film Less Than Zero. Apparently it was a song the band had been performing since their early days, and unlike most of their songs which had only one lead vocal, this song allowed all of the group to share lead. Ultimately the song — which most agree is better than the original — went all the way to #2 on the charts.
9) “Mony Mony”
Original: Tommy James and the Shondells (1968); Billboard Pop #3
Cover: Billy Idol (1987); Billboard Pop #1
Tommy James and the Shondells were churning out the hits when “Mony Mony” was released in 1968. The song — with an almost nonsensical title that James got the idea for when he saw a Mutual of New York sign from his apartment window — went all the way to #3, at the time their highest charting record since 1966’s #1 hit “Hanky Panky.” When Billy Idol covered it in 1981, it did well on the dance charts, but just bubbled under on the pop charts at #107. When re-recorded live and released in 1987, his cover of his own cover went all the way to #1. Oddly enough, it would be his only #1 song, and odder still it would replace another cover of a Tommy James and the Shondells song at the #1 position: Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now.”
10) “A Groovy Lind of Love”
Original: The Mindbenders (1965); Billboard Pop #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXeBFEpNSVU
Cover: Phil Collins (1988); Billboard Pop #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dBgK9xH3I0
It’s pretty hard to top a record that peaks at #2, but somehow the 1988 cover of “Groovy Kind of Love” did just that. In 1965 when Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager first wrote the song, reportedly the word “groovy” had never been used in a song before, so the Mindbenders made history when they released it that year as their first single; it promptly shot up to #2 on the both the US and UK pop charts. Despite the fact that the word “groovy” had long dropped from standard conversational English in 1988, you can’t beat a good melody, or so Phil Collins apparently thought. His intuition was spot-on, and his release of the song that year surpassed the Mindbenders’ version by going to #1 on both the US and UK charts.
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roberb7
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Larry Lee Moniz