I was just listening to White Summer by Led Zeppelin / the Yardbirds.
As many of you will know, this is a well-known 'take' (some might say rip-off?) by Jimmy Page from an old Irish folk song called She Moved Through The Fair, thought to have been 'pieced together' by Padraic Colum and Herbert Hughes at the start of the 20th century. Many famous artists have recorded a version of this gorgeous song, for example: Fairport Convention, Van Morrison and the Chieftains, and Davey Graham:
This melody was also worked later by Simple Minds as Belfast Child which, unlike the Yardbirds / Led Zeppelin's version White Summer, was seen as giving sufficient accreditation to the old Irish folk song She Moved Through The Fair:
(Of course, Led Zeppelin are well known to have 're-interpreted' / 'nicked' previous songs as their own - sometimes giving credit and sometimes not, a case in point being Bert Jansch's Black Waterside)
Anyway, what famous songs do you know (and maybe like) which are a re-interpretation of an older known song, yet have a different name?
Cheers,