Cover Songs and Original Artists
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50 free Cover Songs and Original Artists trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Plenty of the most famous recordings in pop history are borrowed. A ballad everyone links to a film soundtrack began as a country farewell, a synth-pop hit started life as a B-side that flopped, and more than one chart-topper was written by a star who never had the hit. This quiz asks who sang it first. Each question names a well-known cover and gives a clue to where it came from, such as the album it appeared on, the writer behind it or the year of the earlier recording. Some run the other way and ask which act turned an older song into a hit. The answers range across soul, reggae, country, glam rock, synth-pop and heavy metal. It suits pub quiz teams, music fans settling an argument and anyone who has been surprised to learn that a favourite song was a remake. Every answer comes with a short explanation of how the original and the cover are connected.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You, from The Bodyguard, was written and first recorded by which country star?
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton wrote it in 1973 as a farewell to Porter Wagoner, the mentor and business partner she was leaving for a solo career.
Q 02Johnny Cash's late-career cover of Hurt reworked the closing track of The Downward Spiral, an album by which band?
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor wrote it, and after hearing Cash's version he praised its sincerity and said the song was no longer his.
Q 03Sinéad O'Connor's worldwide hit Nothing Compares 2 U was written by which star for his side project the Family?
Prince
Prince gave it to his funk band the Family for their only album in 1985, and his own 1984 demo was not released until 2018.
Q 04Aretha Franklin's signature song Respect was written and first recorded two years earlier by which soul singer?
Otis Redding
Otis Redding released it in 1965, and after Franklin's version took off he joked at the Monterey Pop Festival that a friend had taken his song away.
Q 05Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower covers a song first released less than a year earlier by which songwriter?
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan recorded it for his album John Wesley Harding, and he has since performed it live more than any of his other songs.
Q 06Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah, from the album Grace, was written by which Canadian who released it a decade earlier?
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen is reputed to have drafted at least 80 verses before releasing it in 1984, and the song drew little attention at first.
Q 07Gary Jules's stripped-down Mad World, a UK Christmas number one, covered a synth-pop hit by which British band?
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears reached number three with it in 1982; the sparse piano version was made for the film Donnie Darko and topped the UK chart at Christmas 2003.
Q 08Nirvana's MTV Unplugged set and a 1974 Lulu single both covered The Man Who Sold the World by which singer?
David Bowie
David Bowie said he was simply blown away to learn that Kurt Cobain liked his work, and that he had always wanted to ask him why he chose the song.
Q 09Elvis Presley's Hound Dog had already topped the R&B chart three years earlier for which blues singer?
Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton's 1953 original spent seven weeks at number one on the R&B chart; Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote it in about a quarter of an hour.
Q 10Which rock band covered Toto's Africa in 2018 after a teenage fan's persistent social media campaign?
Weezer
Weezer's cover became the band's first number one on Billboard's alternative chart in a decade, and Toto returned the favour by covering Weezer's Hash Pipe.
Q 11UB40's reggae hit Red Red Wine was written and first recorded as a sombre ballad by which American singer?
Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond released it in 1967, but UB40 knew only Tony Tribe's version and had no idea who wrote it; he has since performed it live in their reggae arrangement.
Q 12Manfred Mann's Earth Band topped the US chart with Blinded by the Light, a song from which singer's debut album?
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen released it on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. in 1973, and the cover gave him his first Hot 100 number one as a songwriter.
Q 13Santana's Black Magic Woman, from Abraxas, was written by Peter Green and first released by which British band?
Fleetwood Mac
Q 21Joe Cocker's Woodstock-era anthem With a Little Help from My Friends radically rearranged a song by which band?
The Beatles
The Beatles had drummer Ringo Starr sing the original on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Cocker's soulful rearrangement topped the UK chart in 1968.
Q 22Ike and Tina Turner's high-energy Proud Mary reworked a hit written by John Fogerty for which band?
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 original peaked at number two on the Hot 100, the first of five singles by the group to stall one place short of the top.
Q 23Counting Crows and Vanessa Carlton's Big Yellow Taxi covered a song which Canadian singer wrote on a trip to Hawaii?
Fleetwood Mac released it as a single in 1968, but Santana's version reached number four in the US and became the better-known recording.
Q 14Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun was written from a man's point of view by which Philadelphia rocker?
Robert Hazard
Robert Hazard wrote it in 1979 and got only local college radio play with his demo; Lauper changed some of the words for her 1983 hit.
Q 15Soft Cell's synth-pop hit Tainted Love was first recorded in 1964 by which American soul singer?
Gloria Jones
Gloria Jones cut it as a B-side that failed to chart, and it was rescued years later by DJs on Britain's Northern soul club scene.
Q 16Joan Jett first saw I Love Rock 'n' Roll performed on British television by which glam rock band?
The Arrows
The Arrows wrote and released it in 1975 and played it on their own UK television series; Jett's remake with the Blackhearts topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks.
Q 17Whose country cover of Fast Car made Tracy Chapman the first Black winner of the CMA Song of the Year award?
Luke Combs
Luke Combs took it to number one on the country charts in 2023, and Chapman joined him at the 2024 Grammys for her first live televised performance in nearly nine years.
Q 18Which heavy metal band's cover of Simon & Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence drew an admiring email from Paul Simon?
Disturbed
Disturbed released the cover in 2015, and Simon wrote to singer David Draiman after watching the band perform it on the talk show Conan.
Q 19Which hip-hop group's cover of Walk This Way, made with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, revived Aerosmith's career?
Run-DMC
Run-DMC's 1986 version was the first hip-hop single to reach the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, beating the number ten peak of the original.
Q 20The Fugees' Killing Me Softly reworked a 1973 number one, first recorded by Lori Lieberman, for which singer?
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack first heard Lieberman's original on an in-flight audio programme, and her own version won the Grammy for Record of the Year.
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell wrote it after waking in a Hawaiian hotel to a view of green mountains, then looking down at a parking lot that stretched as far as she could see.
Q 24Red Hot Chili Peppers' single Higher Ground, from Mother's Milk, covered an Innervisions track by which Motown star?
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder wrote and recorded it in a three-hour burst of creativity in 1973, shortly before a near-fatal accident left him in a coma.
Q 25Eric Clapton topped the US chart with I Shot the Sheriff, written and first released by which reggae star?
Bob Marley
Bob Marley released it with the Wailers in 1973, and Clapton's cover on 461 Ocean Boulevard a year later gave the guitarist a Hot 100 number one.
Q 26Van Halen's debut single covered You Really Got Me, a 1964 hit written by Ray Davies for which English band?
The Kinks
The Kinks got the single's distorted guitar sound after Dave Davies sliced the speaker cone of his amplifier with a razor blade.
Q 27Elvis Presley opened his debut album with Blue Suede Shoes, written and first recorded by which rockabilly singer?
Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins wrote it in 1955, and his own recording spent two weeks at number two on the Cashbox best-selling singles list.
Q 28Which pop rock band covered the Monkees' I'm a Believer for the soundtrack of the animated film Shrek?
Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth also had All Star on the soundtrack, and their cover reached number 25 on the Hot 100, 35 years after the Monkees took the song to number one.
Q 29Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children EP included a cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by which British act?
Eurythmics
Eurythmics made their worldwide breakthrough with the original, a synth-pop single that turned Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart into MTV stars.
Q 30Which nu metal band scored an international hit in 2001 with a cover of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal?
Alien Ant Farm
Alien Ant Farm had already recorded an early version, under the title Slick Thief, for a 1999 album two years before the single took off.