Songs written by famous artists that were bigger hits

[blue'n'white]

Not qiute the same thing but The theme song Alfie for the Micheal Caine film everyone knows Cilla made it a hit and I think assumes Cilla sang it on the title film but it wasnt her on the film (Cant remember what the ladies name was that did)

According to Wikipedia it was Cher - can't say I have ever heard of that before

 

[fork me]

I Wanna Be Your Man,, the Stones second single was a Lennon-McCartney song. The Beatles did an album track version with Ringo on vocals.

In the words of Lennon:

"It was a throwaway. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. That shows how much importance we put on it: We weren't going to give them anything great, right?"

 

[Poyningsgull]

Frank Sinatra "my way" written bt Paul Anka

 

[robbie c]

A little help from my friends
a bigger hit for Joe Cocker than Ringo

loads of Van Morrison covers around but Rod The Mod's "Have I told you lately that i love you" was big stateside

 

[Manx Shearwater]

Manfred Mann's Blinded By The Light was a Springsteen song.
Every Time You Go Away by Paul Young was written by Daryl Hall who didn't have much of a hit with it.
David Bowie had a bigger hit with China Girl than Iggy did.

 

[Icy Gull]

John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote Rockin all over the world - thought by many to be a Status Quo orginal.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Never heard of her but a quick google reveals quite an impressive list of hits for other people

Year Song Artist UK US Hot 100
2000 "Never Had a Dream Come True" S Club 7 1 10
2001 "Have You Ever" 1 -
"Can't Get You Out of My Head" Kylie Minogue 1 7
2002 "Anything Is Possible" Will Young 1 -
2004 "Toxic" Britney Spears 1 9
2007 "About You Now" Sugababes 1 -
2008 "I Kissed a Girl" Katy Perry 1 1
2010 "Once" Diana Vickers 1 -

She was a B-list popstrel in her own right back in the 90s, and scored a few hits in her short lived career. As you say though, that's quite a list of writing credits.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

The beautiful "Here's Where the Story Ends" written and performed by The Sundays around 1991, but got to #7 in the charts when sung by Tin Tin Out in 1998

Sorry, but RIN TIN TIN or whoever they are, can DO ONE. If its not Harriet Wheeler, I'm not having it.

 

[Gazwag]

A little bit me a little bit you by the Monkees, written by Neil Diamond

And I'm a believer

Red Red Wine also as somebody has posted

He did cover He Aint Heavey He's my brother but didn't write it, neither did the Hollies who are most famous for it (

And You dont bring me flowers

 

[Manx Shearwater]

I believe R.E.S.P.E.C.T. was written by Otis Redding?
And on the subject of Aretha, Til You Come Back to Me was co-written by Stevie Wonder.

 

[Surrey_Albion]

Smile hit by the late great Nat King Cole, writen by the late great Charlie Chaplin

 

[Manx Shearwater]

According to Wikipedia it was Cher - can't say I have ever heard of that before

On the US FIlm Release only.

The UK film version of Alfie was sung by Millicent Martin who was also in the film.

 

[GullysGuy]

'Hurt' sung by johnny cash was written by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. Bonus fact...Reznor did not like the cash version until he saw the video.

 

[BlueSeagull]

What about the huge Liverpool FC anthem "You'll never walk alone" Gerry and the pacemakers made it famous by getting it to number 1 in '63, but it was written as a show tune in '45 by Rogers and Hammerstein, it's been released by lots of big artists including Elvis, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra etc

 

[Willow]

I Wanna Be Your Man,, the Stones second single was a Lennon-McCartney song. The Beatles did an album track version with Ringo on vocals.

In the words of Lennon:

"It was a throwaway. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. That shows how much importance we put on it: We weren't going to give them anything great, right?"

To be fair, the Stones fuzzed up version is great. Better than the Beatles version.

 

[Surrey_Albion]

And I'm a believer

Red Red Wine also as somebody has posted

He did cover He Aint Heavey He's my brother but didn't write it, neither did the Hollies who are most famous for it (

And You dont bring me flowers

Actualy I think you will find I pointed both out right at the start

 

[Manx Shearwater]

A lot of Hollies hits, including Bus Stop, and Herman's Hermits No Milk Today were written by a 16 year old boy called Graham Gouldman, who later formed a band called 10CC.

 

[Fozzyboy]

Nik Kershaw wrote the Chesney Hawkes song "I am the one & only"

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

Mad World was a hit for Tears for Fears - but nothing like as big both in the UK and globally as when Gary Jules covered it.

 

[Spider]

"Because The Night" Patti Smith Group. Written by B. Springsteen, there is a live version of it by him and the E-Street Band on "Live 1975-1985". It is awesome.

Agreed. You can add "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters and "Blinded by the Lights" by Mannfred Mann as Springsteen songs that are more famously recorded by others.

Does "All the Young Dudes" count?