4 Smash Hits From 1989 You Might Not Realize Were Covers

Artists from the 80s had a way of putting their own distinctive spin on anything that they did. Production techniques could distinguish them from the pack. And that was even the case for the songs they didn’t initially record.

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These four songs were all major hits in 1989. And each of them was recorded by an artist who didn’t do the song the first time around.

“Rock On” by Michael Damian

The train taking soap opera stars to recording success was quite packed in the 80s. Rick Springfield opened those gates wide with “Jessie’s Girl” and a whole host of hits. Jack Wagner scored with “All I Need”. And then it was Michael Damian, known for his work on The Young And The Restless. Damian already had started his music career even before he joined that show. “Rock On”, in all its stop-and-start glory, gave him by far his biggest hit. And it was far enough removed from the original version, done by the British singer David Essex in 1973, for it to sound fresh. Essex’s version did quite well also, making it to No. 5 back in the day.

“If You Don’t Know Me By Now” by Simply Red

Mick Hucknall made quite the impression with his singing chops in the 80s. The soul belter brought Simply Red to the limelight with the No. 1 hit “Holding Back The Years”, which he co-wrote. Since “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”, which gave the band another chart-topper in 1989, moved along at the same crawling pace as the previous and once again put the spotlight on Hucknall’s towering vocals, many assumed that it was also a Simply Red original. But the first version of the song actually came from Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. That group possessed their own belter supreme in Teddy Pendergrass. His 1972 vocal set the template for what Hucknall was able to achieve.

“Once Bitten, Twice Shy” by Great White

Hair metal bands often proved quite savvy about how they navigated the mainstream waters in the late 80s. Most knew that a well-timed power ballad released after the inevitable party rocker to start the album could win over the fans. And some understood that the best way to break through might be to do so with material that had been tested. In the case of Great White, they were four albums into their career without a song hitting the pop survey higher than No. 57 when they released the boogeying “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”. It surged to No. 5. And it left many fans none the wiser that Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople first wrote and recorded the song in 1975.

“I Drove All Night” by Cyndi Lauper

This one might feature the trickiest of all the scenarios involving these cover songs. Written by ace pop tunesmiths Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, “I Drove All Night” first made an appearance on Cyndi Lauper’s 1989 album A Night To Remember. The song seemed an interesting choice for Lauper, with a high-drama melody that allowed her to come swooping in with all kinds of vocal pyrotechnics. Only later did we find out that the song was written for and initially recorded by the great Roy Orbison. Orbison did his take in 1987. But it didn’t get its first release until four years later. Give credit to Lauper for hanging in the ballpark with Orbison’s vocals, note for glorious note.

Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns