My friend Dick Rosemont has moved his amazingly extensive database of original recording information online. Basically, the site is devoted to finding the original artist of a popular song that was possibly made famous by someone else. You probably know that "Hound Dog" was first recorded by Big Mama Thornton and "Take Me To the River" is an Al Green original, not Talking Heads. Dick, however, has uncovered some real interesting finds. As an example, here are my top 5 "weird Originals"
1) "Magic Bus" originally done by Pudding (The Who)
2) "In The Ghetto" Sammy Davis Junior (Elvis)
3) "Just Dropped In (to See What Condition my Condition..) Jerry Lee Lewis (!) (Kenny Rogers and the First Edition)
4) "Am I The Same Girl?" Barbara Acklin (better known as "Soulful Strut" and as an instrumental)
5) "I'm Henry the VIII" Harry Champion (I guess I knew this was a cover, but what's really interesting is that it was first recorded in 1911!)
Have some fun looking at all the titles:
The Originals Project
(http://www.originalsproject.com/)
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