6 Artists Who Re-recorded Their Songs
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
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Either for expressive reasons or legal reasons, artists will sometimes re-record their own tracks. Whether it's John Lennon's uncompromising perfectionism or Taylor Swift's bitter battle with her ex-record label, the reasons behind re-records can vary, but they always offer us an interesting insight into previously unexplored sides of classic songs.
SOURCES:
Interview with Joni Mitchell: • The Joni Mitchell Inte...
“Both Sides Now” performed 1970: • Joni Mitchell - Both S...
“Both Sides Now” performed 2000: • All Star Tribute to Jo...
Interview with Herbie Hancock: • Herbie Hancock - Water...
Bill Summers on “Watermelon Man”: • Bill Summers & beer bo...
NPR interview with Herbie Hancock: www.npr.org/transcripts/35487...
Explanation of the Pygmy Hindewhu flute: • Francis Bebey at Real ...
Interview with George Martin: • George Martin intervie...
MacDonald, I., Revolution in the head (1995)
Nigel Godrich on “Nude”: web.archive.org/web/201107030...
Lewisohn, M., The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988)
Early version of “True Love Waits”: • Radiohead- True Love W...
Early version of “Nude”: • Nude (early version) O...
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0:00 Introduction
0:24 Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now"
3:41 John Lennon's perfectionism
8:40 Radiohead's perfectionism
10:35 Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man"
14:07 Taylor Swift's ownership battle
15:50 The Righteous Brother's questionable re-record
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I have a suggestion for a video: "Songs which aren't recorded in concert pitch" (A ≠ 440 Hz)
You touched this topic in your "Songs which use microtonality" but in depth it will be interesting for sure :)
Another great video David!
Another amazing video as per usual! It would mean the world to us if you could review our album! "The Letter" on Spotify and the album is called the same❤️❤️
@@letimo6721 I have considered that topic 🙂 I talked about it a bit more in my “Why is Strawberry Fields in A half-sharp” video
You know what, usually I don’t really care about the sponsorships/reads, but I’ll definitely check this out. Especially if it’s supporting your channel
I'm so glad he included a Beatles and Radiohead example for once. They are so often overlooked.
XD
my favorite underground band, *the beatles*
@@sthirteen 😭
@@sthirteen At least he didn't say they were underrated--that's the usual complaint.
Hee hee hee!
4:24 "John's dreams were always dreams"
You may say he was a dreamer.
But you're not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us.
And the world will be as one
SEMOLINA PILCHARD
LOL😂
Kate Bush rerecorded the vocal for Wuthering Heights in 1986 for a best-of compilation. The difference is staggering, especially if you're used to one version and the other takes you by surprise.
I like her re-doing it, she sounds amazing, but personally I still prefer the original, I think the backing track and song overall fit the more brittle/fragile voice she had in the beginning.
Jay! I love you man! I showed your England north/south divide video to my geography class a few years ago and my teacher loves your videos!
When she starting hollering at the end of the remake, I went "Nope, I made a CD version of "The Whole Story" with the original 1978 version. Why remake a song that's already perfection?
You re-recorded the map men thing like 20 times when you changed it
Her voice hadn’t completely developed yet when she did the original. The remake wasn’t necessarily better but it was very good and sounded more like Kate. The remakes she did on her Director’s Cut album, not so much. I still have no idea why she felt like she needed to remake so many songs off of Sensual World and Red Shoes. No improvements were made, except maybe lyrically in some cases.
One example I know is when Brian Wilson finally released “SMiLE” under his own name, not with The Beach Boys. There were songs in SMiLE that were already released by The Beach Boys and the copyright was owned by Mike Love. To escape the money going to Mike Love, Brian changed certain aspects of the song so Mikey wouldn’t make a cent from SMiLE. Very smart on Brian’s behalf.
When I hear Brian and Smile together, I usually think of Sir Brian May. But interesting story
“As you can hear, it’s a drastically transformed version of the song.”
🎶 number nine. number nine. number nine.🎶
I think I'm the only person who really enjoys that song.
@@rome8180 "song"
if with 'song' you mean "library of sound effects", then yes, only you
@@rome8180 Nope, you're not the only one.
@@sthirteen you and the other guy in this thread should expand your definition of the word "song." You don't have to like it, but people have been making experimental music like this for a century or so.
A David Bennett video with both the Beatles and Radiohead? I am shocked, shocked!
Well, not that shocked.
I’m more shocked that Muse wasn’t included!
A David Bennett video without the Beatles would be a bigger shock :)
Blondie released three different versions of "Heart Of Glass" in the 1970s. The first two were titled "Once I Had A Love", as the line "Heart Of Glass" was not yet in the song. The first release was much slower, and came out in 1975. The second was faster, and a little closer to the popular version. In 1979, the song was now retitled "Heart Of Glass", and had a much more disco beat to it. The vocals were doubled over and the line "Heart Of Glass" was now added to the lyrics. This became the popular version most people are familiar with, with a single version (radio hit) and a longer album edit of the same recording.
"Both Sides Now" is very much a song about looking back on life, and it's extraordinary that Joni Mitchell wrote it so young. I've heard many versions by many singers, young and old, and loved most of them. But the version Joni recorded in her 50s is definitive.
She had a talent way beyond her years.
I fully and 100% support Taylor's decision to re-record and re-release all her back catalogue up to Reputation her 2017 album. Every artist deserves to fully own their own music. And you can here the difference in Fearless Taylor's Version. It feels sleeker and more polished and you can here the maturity in her voice. I am very much looking forward to Red Taylor's version in November. One of her best albums.
@limelight81 Honestly speaking that was something that made me a bit disappointed with the re-recording of Fearless at first because i was actually expecting a whole new version of the album that fans would never expect Taylor would do but i came to a realization that it might as well go against the main purpose of the re-recording to begin with. Plus, it would alienate the fans from the original work and she definitely would not want that to be the case because the re-recording projects should serve as the one that "replaces" the original versions in Taylor's contextual situation. Whatever that is i do believe that all of the newer versions of Taylor's previous works involved here would for the definitely for the most part becoming a better version of the original work. I can't wait to listen to the re-recordings of 1989 and Reputation especially because those are the albums which are created perfectly for their respective era production wise in my point of view.
@@mohamadfirdausbinmat2577 You can deffo hear the difference in the new version of Fearless it's subtle but it's there. The important thing is that she owns it and will earn and own all the money she makes from these re-recordings rather the Scooter getting the money.
As far as I'm concerned the old ones are dead to me even though I own copies of the old ones. It's a really smart decision not only because she will gain autonomy over her life's works, it will also mean bigger cuts in royalties for her and she gets to reintroduce her discography to a newer listeners especially in the age of streaming.
@@lorenziloso5169 exactly. And her addition of the From The Vault tracks on these albums is her fully making the album she actually wanted because she said that her previoys record label had a lot of control over her albums and how they wanted them to sound meaning she had so many that wete written and reorded but she wasn't allowed the use them because the label shot them down but now she is adding them onto these re recordings and we get to hear all yhese hidden gems like Mr Perfectly Fine and we are also finally going to be able to hear the full 10 minute version of All Too Well. One of het best hits of all time. Her label made her cut it down because she put so muc raw emotion into that song it ended up ebing 10 minutes long. They cut it down to just over 5 minutes.
@limelight81 I imagine re-recording all these old.tracks is probably cathartic because it confronts a lot of emotions
I feel like calling Revolution 9 "a version of Revolution 1" is kinda silly, as it's clearly turned in to a different song at that point, to me at least.
Kinda like that conundrum from philosophy about the ship, if you replace parts, when does it "become" a new ship.
For me, I kinda feel like Revoluton 9 passed that threshold.
Revolution 9 is an extended version of Revolution 1's coda with additional sound effects.
It's like calling the Ford Maverick truck a new version of the 1970s Ford Maverick car. Same name, but you'd have to move every molecule (and add a bunch) to get from one to the other.
I think he mostly included Revolution 9 because it's interesting and not necessarily because it fits perfectly into the video concept, it felt a bit tongue-in-cheek to me when he was calling it a new version.
The single version is a re-recording of Revolution 1.
The singl b side of revolution is distorted
I like that David Gilmour re-recorded "Money" for Pink Floyd's "Collection of Great Dance Songs", due to copyright issues, with him playing pretty much every instrument.
Paul McCartney re-recorded Here There and Everywhere and For No One as part of a medley for Give My Regards to Broad Street. It’s different instrumentation but not hugely different. His voice is a bit older (40 vs 20 something). But then during one of his live shows in his early 70s he performed Here There and Everywhere with piano backing and for some reason that night it just hit me. His voice is definitely older but there was a beautiful depth of emotion because by then he’d been widowed, gone through a tough divorce and had recently married again. Reminded me of the Joni example where having had those experiences he brought a whole different flavor to the same lyrics that his young self couldn’t.
Elton John re recorded a more pop version of Skyline Pigeon.
Also, candle in the wind he re recorded in 1997
@@nickwall2497 I'd say that's more than a re-recording since the lyrics are also changed
he also did this with grey seal
I really don't like the original version of it but the rerecording is my favorite song of all time
I love the piano version of skyline pigeon
I'd honestly love many artists to rerecord their albums in the style of their more recent albums
Muse didn't do a rerecording, but more of a re mix of Origin of Symmetry, it's much greater now!
Especially artists who wrote great music early in their careers but didn't have the recording budget or technical chops to pull it off.
I imagine it's artistically uninteresting from the musician's point of view to return to something you did years ago when you were another person, and do it again. Rather express yourself in new ways. But I agree that it can be cool for listeners. The metal band Alcest did it with their debut EP. It's particularly interesting if the musicians were never satisfied with the original work in the first place and get to tweak the things with new abilities and resources.
I was surprised you didn't include The Police, who had a hit twice with two different recordings of "Don't Stand So Close To Me". Sting has also often performed his older songs both with The Police and solo with new arrangements, most notably "Roxanne".
PS - As someone who was in his 20s in 1990, I very much enjoyed listening to you explain how record buying worked back then. RIP 45 RPM.
The plan was to redo the whole album with new versions of their biggest hits
but for some reasons those 3 dummies just couldn't get along in the studio.
It's a pity because I love the band and would have loved to hear new takes on those tunes.
On his first solo album, Sting recorded a different version of the Police song “Shadows In The Rain”
@@valvenator Stewart fell off a horse and broke his leg, so he was unable to drum that session. Hence the stiff drum machine production. No one wants to hear Police with a drum machine. I'm shocked they even bothered. I think it was released just to sell the Greatest Hits. I don't know anyone who likes that version.
The Police song that really needs to be rerecorded with Sting's vocals is "Someone To Talk To," one of Andy's better songs that Sting refused to sing. Andy does his best but it sounds like a mediocre B-side (besides the guitar and drums, which are inspired). If Sting had sung that and polished the verses, it could have been something special. Sting's picky.🤷♂️
The ‘86 version is the one that I grew up with, so naturally I have a certain fondness for it. The darker tone does fit the song’s content matter well too. But the production is clearly very ‘80s and it sounds more dated now than the original does. I did like that The Police played a blend of the two versions live during their reunion tour in 2007.
Seven Seas of Rhye by Queen first appeared on their debute album Queen in 1973. One year later, a version with lyrics was added to their second album Queen II. This version was also released as a single and became their first song entering the UK charts.
Paul McCartney recorded a few of his well known songs including Yesterday for Give My Regards to Broad Street.
@@rxmxnxff what’s wrong with Give My Regards?
@@rxmxnxff yeah, what are your thoughts on Paul’s overall post Beatles work?
@@rxmxnxff I agree. I think that is true of a lot of his stuff in the 80’s.
I like his work with Wings though and Ram is probably his masterpiece.
Do you think most of their early post Beatles work could have been Beatles records?
@@rxmxnxff I’m gonna try that with Uncle Albert, it pretty much already is a micro medley a lot like You Never Give Me Your Money.
@@rxmxnxff Apart from Back on My Feet, all the songs he wrote with Costello sound the most dated of all his solo catalogue.
My favorite, which my dad showed me, is Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do". The original is very of its time and upbeat, which distracts from the quite meaningful lyrics. Many years later, Sedaka re-recorded the song in the style of his ballads and the song hits in the feels, perfectly portraying the pain and desperation in the lyrics. The change also gives new meaning to the title. No longer does the title feel like an objective fact/lesson, but now a contributing line to his hurtful plea of how hard this experience is for him because he loves her.
I could gush forever. Definitely my go to hard time breakup song. The song has a special place in my heart.
One of the reasons Sedaka re-recorded "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" was because Lenny Welch recorded a more mellow and crooner style version
I like the juxtaposition of a sad lyric and a happy melody. In the early 60s pop was pretty much high energy except for a few.
The lyrics to the song don't stand up to a slower version. They're too pop.
Thanks for sharing these stories David.
The great Roy Orbison had his heyday in the late 50s / early 60s, but re-emerged in the 80s when his song 'In Dreams' was featured in the classic film Blue Velvet. He capitalised by releasing a double album re-recording his biggest and best songs, which also served a secondary purpose of preserving his songs when his old record label was threatening to destroy the master tapes over legal issues. He went on to join the Traveling Wilburys and release the solo album Mystery Girl, which including the hit 'You've Got It'.
This channel has always been exceptional but feels like it's getting even better in terms of analysis, presentation and delivery. I can see this on BBC 4 without a problem
If only!
There's also "The Sound Of Silence" by Simon And Garfunkel, re-recorded for there second album. The 1966 version is quite close to the first 1964 version, but the guitar is now an electric guitar and there are drums added to the song...
Is that a re-recording? I thought Tom Wilson overdubbed the guitar and drums on the original recording to make it more appealing as a single.
@@ugeanspyrll6816 You are correct, I believe S & G were even split up at the time after the stress of their album flopping and had no knowledge of the updated track being made.
@@ugeanspyrll6816 Yes, you're right, but as every instrument except vocals were re-recorded, it could fit in the "re-recordings" category... But it's a little different from the other examples in the video.
@@mariusmoisan5563 The original version only had vocals and acoustic guitar. The second version was just the first version with drums, bass, and electric guitar added. Nothing was re-recorded at all.
Remix
My personal favourite re-recording is George Harrison's 2000 version of My Sweet Lord, I prefer the more Indian sound to it with the sitar and the drone
I like that version a lot, too.
I prefer The Chiffons version!
I love his new slide guitar parts on the 2000 version.
@@arthurgordon6072 Nah, the Chiffons version sucked. They got the words all wrong :)
@@arthurgordon6072 Actually, he re-did it exactly because of the lawsuit, changing the melody to prove that it wasn't only a case of plagiarism. And it still works. So he could have avoided the drama, had he just changed a few notes back in 1970. Different times.
Wow. I'm finishing work on an album with a couple of re-worked songs as I'm watching this video. Hearing Joni's revisit of "Both Sides Now" is making feel more comfortable about the way I'm revisiting my old material. Thanks David!
Thanks, David. Another top video. I absolutely love Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now'. It'll always be a classic.
Make a video about The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus
Yes!!!
Red has not been re-released yet. Here's to hoping Nov 19th comes soon!
The man in "this clip" at 12:37 is the late Francis Bebe, a famous and important Cameroonian musician. Really worth mentioning
Gordon Lightfoot’s two Gord’s Gold compilations are a really cool way of updating songs to match an artist’s growth, and to create a best of
Completely agree, and I think the remarkable thing about Lightfoot's re-recordings is that even though I was a fan in the 1960s, I still love the redone versions. Often, fans just don't want to hear any changes, but Lightfoot performed the new versions so beautifully that he won me over immediately.
Imagine you buy a dope song from your childhood, pop it into your cd player after a long, grueling day at work to relive some nostalgia from your adolescence and it's completely different 😭
Ive had this with The Joker - Steve miller band. The version played on radio in Norway is not the original, its a copy! So annoying
This happened to me with Neil Diamond. I bought a Greatest Hits of his and discovered he had rerecorded "Red,Red Wine" using the UB40 version instead. I was so disappointed as I thought UB40 had ruined it.
Pink Floyd (aka David Gilmour) re-recorded Money for the “Collection of Great Dance Songs” greatest hits album due to it originally being owned by a Capitol records and the rest (1975-on) being Columbia/CBS records.
Fascinating stuff......great presentation and even better analysis.....kudos to you
David Bowie re-recorded some of his songs during the nineties, such as Fame, Quicksand, Aladdin Sane or Stay. He also enjoyed playing different versions of his songs live, rather than doing the same thing. Bowie also did a cover of Across the Universe featuring Lennon on backing vocals, so does that count as a re-recording? 🤔
George Harrison released Not Guilty on his self titled album in 79, but there were demos of this song for the White Album. Circles was also from that era, and got officially released on Gone Troppo in the eighties. Both songs got there Beatle official releases on later years, always as 'demo versions'. Same happened with John's Jealous Guy, then known as 'Child of Nature', and Paul's Junk.
George also had "All Things Must Pass," "Isn't It A Pity," "Let It Down," and "Hear Me Lord" at the 1969 "Get Back sessions" (later to become LET IT BE) but eventually released on his own All Things Must Pass album in 1970.
Same with McCartney's Teddy Boy (from McCartney), Another Day (single) and Back Seat of My Car (from RAM) - all recorded during the same 1969 sessions. Also, One After 909 had been written by John and Paul somewhere between 1957 - 60, was first recorded by the Beatles in March 1963 but never released (until Anthology 1) and pulled off the shelf for those same 1969 sessions and finally released on LET IT BE.
Panic in Detroit and Space Oddity were also rerecorded for the Scary Monsters album. At least the version I have has them featured.
@@alanjamesh.zamorano1677 the 1969 album/single version of Space Oddity was already a re-recording of the original 1968 version wich has its music video. Bowie also re-recorded his 1970 single The Prettiest Star (ft. Marc Bolan on guitar) for the 1973 album Aladdin Sane. The album version of the song Candidate (from 1974 Diamond Dogs) Is instead completely different from the original 1973 demo.
He also re-recorded Cat People (written with Giorgio Moroder) with Stevie Ray Vaughen on guitar for the album Let's Dance (1983).
David Bowie Cat People - ua-cam.com/video/Z9GbGO7CKdQ/v-deo.html
David Bowie Cat People - ua-cam.com/video/n4xpdaIZyzs/v-deo.html
and there is Bowie's John i'm only dancing and John i'm only dancing (again), he recorded this song in two totally different styles
You could have also mentioned "The One After 909," also by John Lennon. It was recorded by The Beatles several times over their career (there's an old version on the anthology), but it was the version from Let It Be that was originally released.
Good point!
Ah, but One After 909 was never released -- the older versions you hear of it were bootlegs. The same is true of Ringo's Don't Pass Me By. The Beatles tried it numerous times, but it wasn't released until The White Album.
never released
How many versions of Get Back are there?
@@fredparker7403 Beatles Anthology 1, Disc 1, Track 26. Not a bootleg.
I love that the content and the comments are very informative. So thanks y’all !
Thanks for watching!
Such great content in a very professionally put together video like always! Keep up the great work!
Whenever you hear "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" by Wizzard these days you're listening to a re-recorded version made in 1981, not the 1973 original. The record company decided to re-release the song in 1981, but found that original master tapes had been lost, and there wasn't a good enough version around to make copies from, so Roy Wood went into the studio and recorded a new version in a week, as close to the original as he could make it, and that's the version you hear everywhere these days.
At least we don't have to hear "Wombling Merry Christmas" much these days.
Headhunters is the gold standard in Jazz Fusion for me. Chameleon was our encore track.
Andrew Bird has re-recorded and reworked a bunch of his songs, for example:
I -> Imitosis
Skin -> Skin Is, My
Pulaski at Night -> Pulaski
Lit from Underneath -> Chemical Switches
Orpheo Looks Back -> Orpheo
Anonanimal -> See the Enemy
Tenuous -> Ten-You-Us
Thank you David. I always find your channel so interesting. I have a request. The next time you do something like this, I would enjoy hearing more of the songs as you talk about them and just have a little space to listen & compare before moving on to the next song. Many thanks!
I’ve been really into “Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan lately. The remake he does with Johnny Cash brings the song to a new level and I’m sure there’s a reason he picked that song to do with Cash. Dylan’s first version sounds like a beautiful message blowing in the breeze, but when Cash’s vocals come in on the remake, that message becomes a statement, solid as a rock and it’s not moving
I love this song too
the Cash version is so out of sync but it's so good
it sounds like they recorded the vocal tracks without knowing the other person was recording too
@@dimitreze Exactly, its so funny to listen to that song. They are both so unique in their singing style and both horrible at harmonizing. Not exactly beach boys :o)
Dylan also rerecorded "Romance in Durango" with a totally different tune.
Love that one.
I remember when The Police redid Don't Stand So Close To Me for their greatest hits album. I'm not sure why they did that. The first one is the only one I ever hear on the radio.
That second version wasn't good!
They were trying to get inspiration for a new album. The conflicts during the recording sessions drove the band apart.
Sting wanted the band to rerecord the old hits in a new sound. Only "Don't Stand..." was finished, and the band's mutual animosity against each other finally overcame their mutual respect for each other's playing.
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” = classic
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me ‘86” = dated
Sting revisited another Police song on his first solo album and killed it! "Shadows In The Rain" was a weird, spooky sounding track as a Police song. Sting's driving, fast rhythmic version on Dream Of The Blue Turtles is fantastic!
(I've been a Police fan since 1980, but this was one track I only came to love after it was re-recorded by Sting.)
I’ve heard re-recordings of old Motown songs and they are terrible. They just haven’t got the sound that the original had I’m not sure what the reason for the re-recording was. In my experience the original is always best. And I love that Pygmy flute!
A lot of Motown artists were signed to a label called _Motorcity_ in the late 80’s. The re-recordings sounded cheap and karaoke-ish
Oh man - there's a hall of shame of artists recording 'modern' dance versions of their own classic songs. Curtis Mayfield's' Superfly 1990 (with Ice T) and downhill from there. Europeans may renember the unlistenable 90s house version of Rocco Granata's classic Marina - and scored a big dance hit.
It begins with mic technique and location! A lot of motown songs were recorded with a microphone hanging in an attic, with the floor cut out around it.
@@marlmachine The floor cut out? Like, so the mic would hang from the attic into the below floor? interesting
@@WilliamAndrea yeah, check out the motown museum and photos of it. Another reason for why those records have that special sound is that the recording equipment was largely in mono on smaller tape, and harmonies were usually done on one track, all at once.
The first thing that comes to mind is Neil Sedaka and "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" - originally recorded in 1965 as an uptempo pop number of the day, in 1975, Sedaka re-recorded it as a smooth piano ballad that begins with a clip from the original recording and a new couplet that acts like a "verse" from the Tin Pan Alley era songs.
Jeff Lyne re recorded a bunch of ELO songs.
ELO also re-recorded "Do Ya?" which had been sort of an "FM hit" (to un-earth an anachronistic expression) in the USA by The Move, Lynne's old group that also included "Wizard" Roy Wood. The ELO version was fine, but it was just another ELO song; the version by The Move was more of an experience.
And only he understands why.
Yep great example
I like the The Move's "Do Ya“ version
They aren't very good
The first song Todd Rundgren wrote was Hello It's Me which was released as the b-side o' the single Open My Eyes by his band Nazz in 1968. It was also on the first Nazz lp. In 1972 Todd re-recorded Hello It's Me which was released on his solo album Something / Anything. He then released this version as a single in 1973 which went to No. 5 on the singles charts. Simon & Garfunkel released their 1st album Wednesday Morning, 3 AM in 1964 which included the songs The Sound Of Silence and He Was My Brother. The album failed to chart and Paul Simon went to England in hopes o' beginnin' a solo career. He released his first solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook, in 1965 which included re-recordings o' He Was My Brother 'n The Sound Of Silence from the first Simon & Garfunkel album as well as many songs which were later re-recorded for inclusion on subsequent Simon & Garfunkel albums. For me, the original versions o' Kathy's Song 'n Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall from The Paul Simon Songbook are the definitive versions. Early versions o' I Am A Rock, Leaves That Are Green, April Come She Will, A Most Peculiar Man 'n others are also essential listenin'.
Pink floyd re-recorded Money for "A great collection of dance songs" compilation in 1981
Really great video!
Andrew Bird is always re-recording his older material, which is pretty cool because you can really get a sense of his evolution as a musician over the years.
Additionally, the tracklist for Peter Gabriel's album "New Blood" reads like a greatest hits compilation, but in actuality it's a series of re-recordings with a backing orchestra. Really great listen, especially if you're already a Peter Gabriel fan.
I can't believe you made me listen to the full list of thank yous at the end by putting such a banger of a track behind it.
i genuinely cant imagine fitting nude in any album that isn't in rainbows. and the bass line is my favorite part of the song so It makes me so happy that they decided to go that way
Welcome to paradise by green day was recorded and released in 1992, but was re-recorded and released in 1994 on their next album, due to the band wanting it on the album because it was so good, and because they could record it in much better quality.
And it has a waaaay better instrumental break (thanks Mike for that beautiful bassline)
also '409 in your coffeemaker' in the basket case single
There are several versions of "Across the Universe" kicking around as well! Bowie's done it quite a bit: "John, I'm Only Dancing" has a couple versions. "Rebel Rebel" has an American single version. "The Prettiest Star" has an older single version that I think is a lot better than the Aladdin Sane version. "Space Oddity" has the iconic version, but there is a rougher early version, and a re-recording in 1979 that really doesn't have the magic of the original. There is a really interesting early version of "1984" combined with an unreleased song called "Dodo". I think there are multiple Bowie versions of "All the Young Dudes". There are acoustic versions of several: "The Supermen", "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud", etc. "Quicksand" has an alternative version. I'm realizing I may have had an unhealthy obsession with Bowie at some point.
I don't know if it counts as a re-recording, but Seven Seas of Rhye from Queen was both on Queen I and Queen II, with the version on Queen I being instrumental and much shorter than the hit version on Queen II.
That’s more because the song wasn’t finished yet when they made their first album but they needed something to cap it off, so they simply recorded what they had at the time. For Queen II the song was fully developed and finished.
I thought you might have mentioned Lennon’s attempt to slow “Help!” down to a piano ballad, although I know that was never released…
Sounds like the John Farnham cover version.
Or the Deep Purple cover. John was a fan of it so they recorded We Can Work It Out for their second album.
I think I heard it somewhere on youtube but now I can't find it. Apparently John wanted "Help!" to be slow but everyone else wanted it to be their next big single so they did it faster.
David Gilmour re-recorded all the parts of Money himself (minus sax and maybe drums?) for the hilarious Pink Floyd 1981 compilation album Great Songs to Dance To, because PF didn’t have the legal rights to re-release it on the latter album’s record label.
This is the example that came to mind for me too.
The album name was A Collection of Great Dance Songs, and a couple of the other tracks are also rerecorded. Also, the need to quickly release a Best Of type album was brought on because PF had tax bills to pay.
@@kenshilcock7198 I believe the other songs were only alternate mixes. Money was apparently the only song that was actually re-recorded: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Collection_of_Great_Dance_Songs
Gilmour played the drums on that version, but I don't know about the sax part.
Thanks .Great as always.!!!!
Styx re-recorded their 1972 song “Lady” in 1995. They were forced to do this when RCA Records refused to let them use the song in their 1995 Greatest Hits I album because that album was on A&M Records. So the band re-recorded the song and even named it “Lady ‘95” to make sure fans knew it was a new version of the song.
Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". The song is actually from Robert Hazard, but she did two distinct and original arrangements, the famous one in 1983, and a very different one in 1994 called "Hey Now" which was deeeeeeeep!
Joni's remake of Both Sides Now makes me cry. I *believe* her.
The whole album is purely magnoficent.
Car seat headrest rerecorded their song just what I needed after vinyl for teens of denial had already been pressed and in some cases shipped out. The result was the destruction of about 30000 copies of I remember. This is because the outro had a rendition of the cars just what I needed and they ended up not being allowed to have the rights to use their interpretation of it. They then recorded a new version with the outro being a rendition of an earlier csh song called sunburned shirts. Will Toledo says he likes the new version better but you can still listen to the original if you look well enough online for it
They also re recorded an entire album
Lemmy Kilmister re-wrote his song Motorhead when he was kicked out of the band Hawkwind and decided to form the band Motorhead. The two versions sound very different.
Olivia Newton John recorded "I Honestly Love You" in 1974, then re-recorded it in 1998. Also Queen recorded "Seven Seas of Rhye..." on their debut album as a taste of the concept of the song, then recorded the full track "Seven Seas of Rhye" on their second album as a fully-fleshed out song.
And whistle it on the start of the 3rd album...
kate bush is an artist that's very fond of reworking her old songs.
she made an entire album of just re-recordings, it's called The Director's Cut, however, they're all covers of songs from The Sensual World(1989) and The Red Shoes(1994).
in 1986 she also re-recorded wuthering height for a greatest hits compilation, and her live album Before The Dawn has tons of new versions of old songs, especially from Hounds Of Love.
Neil Sedaka re-recorded "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". I can't speak for his motive, but it was a hell of an upgrade. I actually found myself in the same corridor with Marvin Hamlish while this was playing in the background and we found ourselves doing a duet to it....my brush with genius
The Cure re-recorded “Boys Don’t Cry” in 1986 to promote their singles compilation “Standing on a Beach” and because they felt the song deserved a second chance at the charts. The new version is a more polished production for sure, but it loses a lot of the original version’s simplistic charm. It’s no surprise that the re-recording is mostly forgotten and the rendition most often heard on the radio and played live is the original one.
Only appeared on vinyl singles and the video, the original version was used on “Standing on a Beach” . So I suspect it kind of got lost in the shuffle.
The "new version" is really just the old version with new vocals and a new guitar part added.
I've been loving your recent videos! The Thom Yorke in the thumbnail just makes everything feel complete lmao
Guns n' Roses released "You're Crazy" on their debut album "Appetite for Destruction". But they later re-recorded it in an acoustic arrangement for "GN'R Lies", as this is how it was originally written.
In fact, they actually recorded this song many times and both Axl and Slash said in interviews that every time they recorded it, it came out differently and something different happened.
There’s also a 2022 version of November Rain to listen to
“Welcome to Paradise” (Dookie, 1994) is a re-recorded version of the same song that appeared on Green Day’s second studio album, Kerplunk (1991).
That example is particularly interesting to me because you can really hear the difference in production before and after they joined a major label
Along the same lines Blink 182's Buddha and Cheshire Cat are virtually the same album with a slightly larger recording budget in the later. -Chris
@@MakingaStink Been scouring the comment section for a blink comment. Not only was Buddha re recorded into Cheshire Cat but the demo of Mutt from 1998 sounds exactly like a track that was supposed to be on Dude Ranch until it was ultimately re-recorded for Enema of The State
@@DaleWalter96 there’s footage out there where Scott is playing Mutt with them live before enema was released. -Chris
@@MakingaStink Yes, live on a show called Recovery
Great video!
Thank you 😃😃
One angle to re-recording is the "Unplugged" craze of the 1990s... many artists re-recorded acoustic versions of their songs. e.g. Eric Clapton's "Layla". Sometimes the tunes were rockers and did not fare well in the new setting. Guns 'n' Roses foreshadowed this craze, somewhat, with "You're Crazy" (punk version on Appetite, acoustic on GnR Lies).
Thought "unplugged" generally pretty awful
I consider unplugged versions not as rerecordings but as live renditions.
“Unplugged” was very much meant as a challenge for musicians to reinterpret their own songs and present them in a new light. A lot of those ended up being forgettable, but a few artists really took on the challenge and ended up creating new classics. Eric Clapton’s “Layla” is a great example, as is Nirvana’s session.
When I saw John Lennon in the thumbnail, I thought you'd talk about his re-recordings of Across The Universe and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, the former of which at least seems to have been what he intended for the song, if the Let It Be outtakes are anything to go by.
Lennon didn't record these songs
Bowie and Elton John did with Lennon playing some instrument
it wasn't Lennon re recording his old songs
@@dimitreze Both Bowie and Lennon have cited dissatisfaction with the original recording as a reason for the cover.
Lennon: "I thought, great, because I'd never done a good version of that song myself. It's one of my favourite songs, but I didn't like my version of it." Bowie meanwhile called the Beatles' original version "very watery" and wanting to "hammer the hell out of it."
Considering Lennon's public dissatisfaction with the recording of Beatles songs, his expressed wish to re-record them and the fact at least some of the results seem to tally with his previous but unfulfilled intentions for the song, I think his involvement with these covers does qualify as a second shot of some kind, even if he didn't sing lead vocal.
Or at least, it must count as much as different versions of the same song being made in the process of a first release, which is a very common thing. After all, the Beatles released two versions of Love Me Do, due to dissatisfaction with Ringo's drumming on the original, Hold Me Tight was recorded for two different albums, One After 909 was almost a single in 1963, I'm Looking Through You went through several different versions, over a third of Abbey Road has Let It Be versions which are quite different, etc, etc.
@David Bennett Piano great video as always!
As threatened before, I will add some examples to the subject of your video, focusing on Sting.
- There are some cases where Sting simply re-used some parts of a song, either musically or lyrically, in other songs (take the words of the 2nd verse of "every little thing she does is magic", they appear again both at the end of "oh my god" and "seven days", just with different music).
- It was mentioned in the comments before: The police re-recorded a version of "Don't stand so close to me" in an attempt to bring the band back together or even create a new album, but it failed since nothing else except this new version of an old song came out of it.
- Also, "Shadows in the rain" appeared on the police's "zenyatta mondatta", and a new very jazz influenced version was recorded for the Sting solo album "dream of the blue turtles".
- "Nada como el sol" was a mini album with spanish and portuguese versions to some of the songs on "nothing like the sun".
- He rearranged some of the songs of "soul cages" for the soundtrack to the imax movie "the living sea", among those some instrumental versions.
- The instrumental song "I miss you Kate", only a b-side, contains a part that was later recorded again as an instrumental bit in the song "St. Augustine in Hell", as background music for a speech from the devil ;)
- Although "all this time" (2001) was a live album, where you expect reworked songs from Sting, it is worth a mention because some of these have been heavily rearranged. Compare old and new versions of "Fragile", "all this time", "if you love somebody" and "brand new day", to name a few of the most remarkable changes.
- "if on a winter's night", a season themed album, has a new folky version of "hounds of winter" from the album "mercury falling". There is also a new version of "lullaby to an anxious child", which only used to be a b-side until then.
- The album "symphonicity" is a selection of songs recorded in the studio with big orchestra, and the beautiful arrangements by Rob Mathes with long instrumental passages can make you think you are at a classical concert.
- In 2019, the album "my songs" was released, some of the songs on there just got a new vocal track, others were also remixed, some slightly rearranged. For Sting's standards it was rather disappointing though, because better and more up-to-date sounding remixes, official (on b-sides) and inofficial ones had already been out there before.
Just some of the best examples I could think of right now, didn't mention occasional remixes or live versions except for the "all this time" album.
Keep up the good work!
THIS VIDEO WAS AMAZING KEEP GOING 👍🏽👍🏽
Thank you!
You missed a great one: James Brown's "There was a time" - two versions, very different feeling. Both amazing. I'd love to know the stores behind both.
And JB did 2 versions of 'Give it Up (turn it Loose)', once with the JB's and shortly afterwards with Bootsy, Catfish etc.
Brown also released 2 versions of "I Got You".
Kate Bush never liked her original vocals - recorded at age 19 - on 1979's "Wuthering Heights" and re-recorded the song in 1986 for her _This Woman's Work_ album.
The superior version, Kate's matured soprano better captures the deep romanticism & power of the song and sounds less like the schoolgirl musings of the original that everyone's familiar with.
Beat me to it. This was the first version I heard and fell in love with on an old cassette.
I love both versions, but the 1978 one sounds more haunting, her teenage high tone was beautiful
I much prefer the original version of Wuthering Heights.
When it was released, Wuthering Heights was something the likes of which had never been heard before. We were all "WTF was that".
Then when we saw her it was "Ah right, I thought it was a human singing but it's a sylph!" (go watch the video)
You can't re-record amazement.
Matt Bellamy re-recorded one of the most popular songs from Muse's first album "Unintended" as a solo piano song, and released it as a single under his solo career. it's so hauntingly beautiful
George Harrison re recorded My Sweet Lord in 2000 when he was remastering All Things Must Pass for its 30th anniversary. He also wanted it to sound different from the original release to avoid any claims of it sounding like The Chiffons "He's So Fine" and the messy law suit that ensued till 1976. He sang the song again and added a new guitar solo and added women singing too
Willie Nelson has a wonderful album called "Healing Hands of Time" where he rerecorded his old classics with beautiful string arrangements. It is a lovely album and definitely worth a listen!
I think Joni’s later version of the song sounds very bombastic and insincere. It was the purity of just her voice and the guitar that made the song charming.
I don't know, at 21 I think we do think we've had time to THINK we've learned from life. I know I did. Now I'm 50 and realize how much I didn't know.
I prefer Joni's older deeper voice to the folky high pitched voice of her first recordings.
Trash take
Very nicely done. Could you do a video on remasters? I somewhat understand them but you explained this so we'll it would be great to have it explained by you. Thanks again
Great Channel. You have improved my own music greatly. I just discovered this re- recorded song. Quiet Riot's 80s hit "Cum on feel the noise" was a decade-later self cover of a 1973 release. The tempo is very different yet it is still infectious with it's rock in major key sing along quality.
Rerecording hits is not that very common really, but I had found that it seems much more common with quite a few of my favorite Brasilian artists like Joao Gilberto, Elis Regina, Ivan Lins, Joyce, Chico Buarque, Djavan, Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil jump to mind as reflected in my CD collection.
What about Simon And Garfunkel - Sound of Silence?
Good point! Although, I believe it wasn't re-recorded from scratch, but instead a band were "bolted" on to the original recording.
@@DavidBennettPiano Paul Simon made a “cover” album of his own songs, Into The Blue Light.
@@DavidBennettPiano Ah, okay. Thanks!
Very interesting David, Thank you.
I really enjoyed this video.
I don’t see Joni’s age as being an issue with the early version of Both Sides Now.
After all,
she wrote the song.
How could she not inhabit something she’d written?
Because she was such a great songwriter that she could write a song beyond her age using her craft and imagination? Being creative and well crafted allows you to create something beyond strict reporting of experience. So she wrote it at 21 but the point of view of the song is really of an older person. And a lot of great songwriters will write song for specific people, even other genders. So she's just making a point that the song deserves a rendition of a more experience person. Personally I think the second one is a bit over the top, would have likes a more spare piano based version, but hey, give her Grammy dammit!
Kate Bush made 'Director's Cut' album of re-recordings of several of her songs (she had also earlier in her career re-recorded her first hit 'Wuthering Heights') and I think Jean-Michel Jarre has recreated some of his earlier electronic albums to take advantage of improved recording technology.
I know JMJ did rerecord a few and included them on the "greatest hits" IMAGES album.
Tangerine Dream has rerecorded many of their earlier tracks. I think there's like a half dozen versions of "Love on a Real Train"
You featuring The Righteous Brothers made me even more excited about seeing them in concert next month! Of course Bobby Hatfield has passed away but Bill Medley found a partner in Bucky Heard who’s an accomplished singer in his own right. It’s going to be a great evening!
The whole "Valerie" (Steve Winwood) and "Call on Me" (Eric Prydz) is an interesting story in rights and re-recording. Also "Strutter '78" by Kiss, "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush (hated the re-record!) You should so do a part II for this!
A funny example, in 1981 Pink Floyd was taking way to long to complete their follow up too 'The Wall'. So pink Floyd decided to put out a compilation album, but legally had to put a "new song" on the album. So lead guitarist David Gilmour decided to re-record their song Money, but with him playing all the instruments. It's actually much more seem less than you'd think.
Pretty much every rock/pop musician does this in the form of live albums. It only gets interesting if the artist is interesting: e.g. Sting, Joe Jackson, or the aforementioned Zappa (who released King Kong a dozen of times, sometimes under a different title).
It's also pretty common practice in jazz, a great example to me is Corea's original version of Spain (Light as a Feather) vs the killer interpretation of Akoustik Band.
Other music genres that are not supposed to sound the same once also use that: a prime example is the number of recordings of Zorn's Cobra.
And finally, while those weren't their songs, the classical world also has some examples (in the context of this video closest to the Mitchell example): Gould's recordings of Die Goldbergvariationen (incidentally, his first and last album), or Fischer-Dieskau's Die Winterreise (five released versions, three of them studio albums, all with different pianists - Moore, Barenboim, Demus, Perrayah, Brendel).
Thank you for mentioning Watermelon Man/Headhunters version!
I have a cd collection of Colin Blunstone featuring new recordings of his classic songs.
Fairport Convention have at times made new studio recordings of classic songs (not live versions but new arrangements).
Gordon Lightfoot re-recorded a lot of his songs for copyright reasons. I love Gordon, but those second versions just don't measure up. Plus, when you become so attached to the original version, your radar goes off immediately when you realize that it's not the original.
I remember in the very early days of CD I listened to a Gordon Lightfoot greatest hits CD and it was jarring hearing the difference in the rerecorded songs.
Interesting to learn about how Paul and George urged John to redo Revolution for single release.
Great video- I enjoy your take on things. Green Day released “Welcome to paradise” on Kerplunk but rereleased it on Dookie. Similarly Staind released “Mudshovel” on the album Tormented but rereleased is on Dysfunction- both of these latter albums where the band’s first foray into the mainstream & show a desire to bring the song back to life in a more full and forefront way. There is also MetallicA’s S&M album with old songs including the symphony
There are, certainly, many other examples of this from Eric Clapton's lackluster reimagining of, "Layla" as an acoustic dirge to my favorite, Billy Joel's live album, "Songs In The Attic".
The latter was created because Billy's early albums were recorded with fine studio musicians who created completely forgettable versions of his songs. When his live band line up solidified with great musicians a passionate about the music as Billy, he wanted to re-record the early tunes as he imagined them. In a truly genius addition, he decided to record line performances in all types of venues, from small clubs to theaters to arenas to stadiums. He judged which songs to include based on which ones were transformed by the new recordings, as well as which venues best supported each song. Some were enhanced by an intimate setting, others were best accompanied by the roar of a huge, stadium crowd. "Piano Man" didn't make the cut because there was nothing particularly special about the live performance over the popular, studio version.
The entire album is truly special, but one song became popular because of this recording. "She's Got A Way" received enough radio play that any time it gets aired, it's the live version, now the one most every fan thinks of as THE version of the song.
What about Peter Gabriel - Here Comes the Flood, 1977 version (on hist first album) vs. 1990 version (on the Shaking the Tree greatest hits album)?
Completely different arrangements.
And PG's rerecording of "I Have The Touch" for the Shaking the Tree compilation.
Steve Winwood's 1982 "Valerie" had an update in 1987.
And he did a different version of Here Comes the Flood on Robert Fripp's Exposure album not long after his own first album
Strawberry fields forever chorus be like:
“Let me Take 2 now…”
Marianne Faithfull did revisit a couple of order songs on her last studio album Negative Capability (2019), As Tears Go By and Witches Song. Just like Joni Mitchell's case, they really suite the current age of the performer. Brilliant, poignant and updated versions