Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

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Tagged: Jefferson Airplane

1970s, Rock

Count on Me

Written and first recorded by Jesse Barish (1978).
Hit version by Jefferson Starship (US #8/MOR #15/CAN #9/NZ #24 1978).
Re-recorded by Marty Balin (1999).

From the wiki: “‘Count On Me’ was a 1978 song and single by Jefferson Starship for the album Earth, written and first recorded by songwriter Jesse Barish. The Jefferson Starship single gave Starship their second US Top-10 hit of the ‘Seventies, after their 1975 hit ‘Miracles’.

“Barish played flute with the seminal experimental band The Orkustra in San Francisco in the mid 60’s and also played flute with ‘Papa’ John Phillips on Phillip’s Wolf King of L.A. tour. In 1971 Jesse was signed to Shelter Records by Denny Cordell and released the album Jesse, Wolff and Whings with guitarist Billy Wolff and drummer Kevin Kelly. Landing in Marin County in the early ’70s, Jesse became friends with Marty Balin who would go on to record ‘Count On Me’ later in 1978 with Jefferson Starship (among other songs) and, in 1980, wrote ‘Hearts’ for Balin’s first solo album for EMI Records.

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1960s, Rock

Wooden Ships

First recorded (as demos) by David Crosby (1968), Stephen Stills (1968).
Hit album versions by Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), Jefferson Airplane (1969).

(Above: David Crosby demo.)

(Above: Stephen Stills demo)

From the wiki: “‘Wooden Ships’ was written by David Crosby, Paul Kantner, and Stephen Stills. The song was composed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a boat named ‘Mayan’ owned by Crosby, who composed the music, while Kantner and Stills wrote most of the lyrics. ‘Wooden Ships’ was first recorded as a demo by Crosby in March 1968 with the melody but no lyrics. Stills recorded his own demo the following month with most of the lyrics in place.

“On the original Crosby Stills & Nash release in 1969, Kantner could not be officially credited as one of the joint authors-composer due to legal issues. Crosby later said, ‘Paul called me up and said that he was having this major duke-out with this horrible guy (Matthew Katz) who was managing the band, and [Katz] was freezing everything their names were on. ‘He might injunct the release of your record,’ [Kanter] told me. So we didn’t put Paul’s name on it for a while. In later versions, we made it very certain that he wrote it with us. Of course, we evened things up with him with a whole mess of cash when the record went huge.’

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1960s, Folk

(Let’s) Get Together

First recorded (as a demo) by Dino Valenti (1964, released 1996).
First commercial release by The Kingston Trio (1964).
Also recorded by Jet Set (1964), Jefferson Airplane (1966), H.P. Lovecraft (1967).
Hit versions by We Five (US #31 1965), The Youngbloods (US #62 1967| US #5 1969), Dave Clark Five (UK #8 1970).

From the wiki: “‘Get Together’, also known as ‘Let’s Get Together’, was written in the early 1960s by American singer-songwriter and future Quicksilver Messenger Service lead singer Chet Powers (aka Dino Valenti), and first recorded by him as a demo in 1964. Valenti’s demo would see its commercial release in 1996.

“The first commercial release of ‘Let’s Get Together’ was in 1964, recorded by the Kingston Trio in 1964 for their album Back in Town. In 1965, the first cover to break into the Top 40, peaking at #31, was recorded by We Five as the follow-up to their Top 10 hit ‘You Were on My Mind’.

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1980s, Pop

Set the Night to Music

First recorded by Starship (MOR #9 1987).
Hit version by Roberta Flack & Maxi Priest (US #6/MOR #2/CAN #9 1989).

From the wiki: “‘Set the Night to Music’ was written by Diane Warren (Laura Brnaigan’s ‘Solitaire‘, Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’), the first songwriter in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have had seven hits, all by different artists, on the singles chart at the same time.

“‘Set the Night to Music’ was originally recorded by Starship for their 1987 album No Protection. It was then covered in 1989 by Roberta Flack as a duet with Maxi Priest, peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.”

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1960s, Rock

White Rabbit

First recorded by The Great Society (1966, released 1968).
Hit version by Jefferson Airplane (US #8 1967).

From the wiki: “The Great Society made its debut at the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco’s North Beach section on October 15, 1965 and continued to perform throughout 1966.

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1960s, Rock

Somebody to Love

Originally recorded (as “Someone to Love”) by The Great Society (1966).
Hit version by Jefferson Airplane (US #5 1967).

From the wiki: “Written by The Great Society guitarist Darby Slick and first performed by that band, which included his then-sister-in-law Grace Slick on vocals, the song made little impact outside of the club circuit in the Bay Area.

“The song was released in 1966 as a single on the North Beach subsidiary of Autumn Records and received minimal circulation and radio airplay outside of San Francisco.

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