Name a song you heard a cover of before you heard the original of.

I fought the law by The Clash, originally by Colin Farrel/Sonny Curtis.

Watching a documentary about Disco Music, I found out that “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor was the B side of her first single. The A side was called “Substitute” which I had only ever heard performed by girl group Clout

Strumming my paaaain with his fingeeeers...

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros covering The Harder They Come by Jimmy Cliff, 1999.

It kickstarted my love of Jimmy Cliff… saw him live twice. Bought all his quality albums from back in the day.

Tainted love, original by Gloria Jones.

Be Not So Fearful was performed by Jeff Tweedy in Union Chapel London back in 2010… It is a song by the late great Bill Fay who’s work as a result I went on to admire, like and listen to a lot.

Bill joined Jeff on stage for it .

Nothing compares to you, a Prince song.

Hounds of Love by Kate Bush, covered by Futureheads

For a long time I thought Make You Feel My Love was written by Adele but it's another one from Bob Dylan.

Dylan songs are everywhere.

As already mentioned here Mr Tambourine Man, Knocking on Heavens Door, All Along the Watchtower.

"It's all over now" was covered by Them and that version sampled by Beck.

One of my favorites is the Sinead Lohan version of To Ramona, which I heard long before the original Dylan version.

But probably the most obscure is Wagon Wheel, the popular Nathan Carter song.

It's originally "Rock me Mama" by Dylan.

And while I'm here one of the best tracks on the Pulp Fiction OST is "Girl you'll be a woman soon" by Urge Overkill, but it's originally a Neil Diamond song.

Step On by the Happy Mondays, a cover of Hes Gonna Step On You Again by John Kongos. I'd only found out about the original about 15 or so years ago. It was used in the true crime drama the Serpent more recently.

Red Red Wine - UB40 (Original Neil Diamond)

Three steps to heaven - Showaddywaddy (Original Eddie Cochran)

The man who sold the world - Lulu (Original David Bowie)

Ruby Tuesday - Melanie (Original The Rolling Stones)

Thank you for the days - Luke Kelly (Original Ray Davies The Kinks)

Knocking on Heaven's door - Eric Clapton (Original Bob Dylan)

Tell him - Hello (Original Gil Hamilton, also The Exciters)

This one isnt a cover though

People Are Strange, Echo & The Bunnymen and of course The Doors.

A new England Kirsty McCall, originally recorded by Billy Bragg

Downtown Train Rod Stewart, originally recorded by Tom Waits

The moon and the stars originally recorded by peggy Seeger and later covered by Roberta Flack and Johnny Cash.but the first time I heard it was in the form of a trance tune 'the gift' by way out west in the 90's.

Amy Winehouse singing Valerie was a cover of a Zutons song. Of course Mark Robson and Amy did the definitive version

I was big into electronic music as a teenager so I would have heard a lot remixes before the originals.

Aurora ft. Naimee Coleman - Ordinary World

Frankie goes to Hollywood - Power of Love - Rob Searle remix

And of course Maniac 2000.

That's just a few off the top of my head.

David Bowies 'wild is the wind' was a cover of the Nina Simone song by the same name and both versions are beautiful in their own way. But both are also covers of the original performance by Johnny Mathis from 1957

https://youtu.be/cpGA0azFdCs?si=1LhXduJfzte85wwb

Several of those already mentioned were definitely true for me (hearing the cover before the original). Particularly the many Bob Dylan songs - he really is a songwriting genius. In fact this thread is the first time I'm learning that The Happy Mondays Step On is a cover!

Others where I only learned of the original after the fact would be:

I Will Always Love You- heard Whitney do it first when I was a child, then my dad introduced me to Dolly's superior version.

I definitely heard Nirvana's Man Who Sold The World before hearing David Bowie do it.

A rake of big hits in the 1980s...

Tiffany I Think We're Alone Now, originally a minor 1950s hit

Paul Young - Love of the Common People (Johnny Hurley), Wherever I lay My Hat (Marvin Gaye)

And also:

Because the Night - I heard the 10,000 Maniacs version before the original Patti Smith version

Which is a Bruce Springsteen song, not sure if he ever recorded it though.

I just remembered another :

Bye Bye Baby - The Bay City Rollers (Original The Four Seasons)

The roller's version is so embedded in my memory that I thought The Four Seasons version was a cover.