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July 10, 2025 10 mins
What happens when your most iconic song… isn’t even your own?In this music-packed, nostalgia-fueled episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray dive into a fascinating and often hilarious discussion about bands and artists whose biggest hits were actually cover songs. From Aretha Franklin to Alien Ant Farm, the crew explores the surprising origins of some of the most beloved tracks in music history—and the unexpected stories behind them.Whether you’re a music trivia nerd, a karaoke king, or just love a good laugh, this episode is a must-listen. It’s a celebration of the songs you thought you knew—and the artists who made them famous (again).
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ninety seven point won the Eagle. Tomorrow Chock Talk Casino
in Resorts in Durant, Oklahoma. We will be there three
two six. Do not miss it doing the show and
having fun. We hope to see you there right now.
It's time for this.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
This thing's big.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Because I often have access to the internet, I found
this twenty five songs were a cover became the band's
most popular hit. Now we're not gonna go through all
twenty five because we don't need to, but very quickly
I found one number twenty one on here gets ranked
by this person doesn't matter Respect by Aretha Franklin. Yep,

(00:41):
that's her biggest hit, and I just writing song is
her biggest hit.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I think it is okay, And there's a certain irony
there because it became a female anthem. Yeah that was
I didn't realize that was a cover. Yeah, Otis Redding
saying it he wants respect when he gets home. Get
in their woman, get me in my respect. I don't
know if I've ever even heard that. Oh it's badass.
And then you want to hear something crazy. One of
Otis Redding's biggest hits was I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

(01:06):
From the Rolling Stones. Huh, like in an era where
all the white British bands were taking you know, Southern
American black r and being doing covers. Otis Redding did
I can't get no satisfaction by the Stones and he
killed it.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
It was great, Whitney Houston. I Will Always love You, Dolly.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Parton, although I think a late in life, big pop
in popularity for I want to dance with somebody that
might challenge. Yeah, the legacy might challenge. Is her most
popular song. I don't know maybe, but I mean that
was mas.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
That's the thing that nobody could sing like her, right,
that's the thing that showed that all right, I can
win mill dunk on all of you.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
No one can sing this like me.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I wonder how many of these songs are going to
be Bob Dylan songs on this list.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Seriously, you guys want to know something. But I Will
Always Love You though, is her third most popular her song.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
On spot is that right?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Really? What is it?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Number two?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Higher Love because she Steve Winwood, And then one I
want to answer someone, Okay, doubling it so High Love
is a cover?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Yeah, o Kat vindicated.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I'll take it.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
I'll take it number seventeen Joe Cocker, anyone know.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, I get by with a little help from my friends.
Beatles song from that Yes, Ringo sings it.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
The theme song the Wonder Years too, by the way, Yeah,
I never really watched that show. A good show.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Wonder Years is good. It's got a good nostalga. It's
double nostalgia. Nostalgia for people our age growing up, and
then nostalgia for people that were our parents' age.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Alan thinkey, isn't it. I think? Say the dad is
Fred Savage.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Moly Moly.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, you know, Alan think is always trying to garnish
everyone's wages, and I just don't get it, Okay, Cindy
Lauperls just want.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
To have fun. That's a cover song by a guy
named Robert Hazzard. Oh, Bobby Hazzard, Robert the Duke Hazard.
I had no idea that was a cover song. I've
never heard of Robert Hazzard, have you no?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
All right, it's.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Tiffany, I think we're alone now on there.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Uh, we'll find out. Red red Wine by You be forty.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, almost all their stuff is cover stuff?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Who did the original Red red Wine? Red Red One?
You make me feel so fun.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's your guy, dude.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
You sing just like him the Standards Eddie Grant, Neil Diamond.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
That was a Neil Diamond Red.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Surprise, Red Red Wine. You make me feel so fine?

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, so he might he might be on there several
times because the Monkeys did day Dream Believer, and that's
a Neil Diamond song.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Blinded by the Light.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's a Bruce Springsteen song that the man for band's band.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
And it's wrapped up like a douche? Did we ever
fear that?

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Just like a douche. It's like a motorhead talk guy,
you know, gearhead guy. It's like a deuce, but it
sounds like, yeah, it sounds like dude. Both bad, Yeah,
both terrible.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, there's nothing you can do at that point.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
I talking about a diaper that's been sealed, used diaper
wrapped up just like a.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Deuce ram jam.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
The original was by a band called Lead Belly back
in nineteen thirty nine.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Lead Belly is a blues artist, not a band.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Okay, well, expecting me to know that were almost one
hundred years on the anniversary of lead Belly being a thing.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
It's just fine that you thought there was bands in
the thirties.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Oh yeah, I guess it's It's pretty.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
The Boys of Summer by the Ataris, which play here
on the Eagle occasionally.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
The Boys of Summer Don Henley. Yeah, Okay, how's that go?
How's it again?

Speaker 4 (05:08):
You?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah? Wrapped up like au.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
So that was that was the thing too, where it's
like when that song came out, you know, you're a
teenager and they're cramming Don Henley down your throat and
he's singing about the nostalgia of the Grateful Dead, and
you're like, I don't understand how this relates.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
To me when you're about fifteen or so.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I got that force sped to us a lot from
the Atari's. Yeah, number ten Hard to Handle by the
Black Crows.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Ois reading was just.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Reading number nine Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
I mean that's like a hymn, right. Uh oh it's
Leonard uh Bernstein anyway, Bernstein from blank I'm sorry, Leonard Cohen,
Sorry Leonard Cohen, Yeah, yes, yes, yes, fun fact real
quickly when it was after the election in twenty sixteen,

(06:05):
so Trump wins and all the girls at snl are
kind of throwing a bitch fit, and Lauren's like, we
have to the show.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Everyone stopped crying.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Kate McKinnon's Hillary Clinton and she was gonna do Imagine
by the Beatles, and Lauren was like.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
That's hackey.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
And there's a quote in this book called Lauren, which
I just finished, and he says, thank god Leonard Cohen died.
Leonard Cohen died that week. And he's like, do Hallelujah.
If you're gonna do it, don't do Imagine. And we
learned four years later that doing the song Imagine during
a tragic time or whatever you want to call it,
is a bad thing to do. Gal Gado remember her
zoom call. We sure to get everyone on during COVID

(06:42):
and do Imagine.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Everyone went, what are y'all doing?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
There? You go?

Speaker 4 (06:47):
It was good.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Number eight Smooth Criminal by alien An Farm. That's good.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
I actually love their rendition of that.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Jackson.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
We play it quite a bit here too.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Tank Love by Soft Cell.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Okay, I just recently. It's a song from the sixties
and I had never heard the original until the last
year or so. I never heard it. And the interesting
thing is, you know, it goes into uh supreme song
baby Baby worded Our Love Go. So it's two uh,
it's two cover songs matched together.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Gloria Jones is the original name Number six era once
Bitten twice Shy never heard this. Yeah, that's a great
White White is the I don't who's the original Ian Hunter?

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Okay, me and Bobby McGhee, Janas Choplin And that was
a Roger Miller song.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's the guy who did King of the Road.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
But Chris Christofferson wrote it, but Roger Miller performed it.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't think I knew that oddly spelled come On,
Fill the Noise by Quiet Riot, But.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
I don't know the original Neil Diamond by Neil Go.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Mom and Fish? Now who is the noise?

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Who is Feel the Noise?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Slade was the band? Oh real lad?

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Nineteen seventy three? Yeah or three? I think we're alone now.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Tiffany, Tommy Rowe, Tommy James, Tommy, Sean Bells.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
I love that album.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
I have great scene in the movie Ted Too where
the guy who kidnapped Ted is just dancing to Tiffany
in the living room.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Uh, I love rock and roll. Joan JiTT and the
Black Hearts.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
That song can die. I agree.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
What was the other person who's weird?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Al Yankovic, a band called The Arrows nineteen seventy five,
and then number one it's an original by Bob Dylan.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, it's either gonna be mister tambourine Man for the
Birds or it's gonna be all Along the Watchtower for
Jimmy Hendry.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
There you go Along the watch Tower.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Did they have the Birds on there?

Speaker 2 (08:53):
They did have it higher on the list. I just
kind of skipped it, blowing through it.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Interesting though, for that to be end up being your legacy,
you probably don't want that to be. You want your
own stuff to be the thing. If you're the person
who covered a song, you don't want that to be
the thing.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
One of the things that depends on the time period,
because one of the things that happened is like, did
you guys all see the Bob Dylan movie?

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well yeah, in the sixties, it was real common to
have multiple artists all released the same song. That was
a much crap out there. Either, it was very normal.
You had quote unquote songwriters and performers. It was almost
like the Hollywood system. Now as you get further in time,
and then bands became artists, right, and they would get

(09:35):
signed and all this sort of stuff. All of that changed.
But like Neil Diamond, the reason he's on this list
a bunch just because he started as a songwriter, and
so it wasn't that uncommon. So in that movie, Bob Dylan's,
you know, trying to just get some publishing going and
cranking out a bunch of songs. So man, he's covered
all over the place, so he'll have a version, and

(09:56):
then the band that did his version would have a
bigger version and make him a bunch of money. So
that wasn't that uncommon in the sixties and seventies. But
I think as you get older, you know, yes, you
don't want that to be your defining moment.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Man. I think a Weezer was dangerously close with this
by doing Africa. You got so big, it's played so much. Yeah,
here we go. I guess we'll do a show tomorrow
live at chalk Taw. I think that's a wonderful plan.
Join us tomorrow the chalk Tak Casino in resort and
during Oklahoma. I'll never forget the time KT looked at
Blackjack Dealer dead in his eye and he said, do your.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Job, go home, enjoy your night, turn around, do it again.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Die.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
That's life.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
And then he hit on an eighteen, Christina is going
to stick around and play music right here on the Eagle.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
There you going, well, I'm gonna get my sock bag.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
You play a great summer.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
That's your
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