Song #42 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Mr. Tambourine Man”, originally by Bob Dylan and covered by The Byrds. Here’s the original:
I’ve lost track of how many songs I’m familiar with that I didn’t know were Dylan covers. I should probably just assume any song whose provenance I don’t know was originally done by Dylan. Here’s the cover:
I’m hard pressed to think of a Dylan song that was popularized by another artist but for which the Dylan original version is better known. Any suggestions?
Tough question. Most of the ones for which his version is famous couldn’t possibly be done well compared to the original: “Like a Rolling Stone” will never be done by anyone as well as Dylan did it. Hmm.
Folk music’s great populizer and plagiarist…
I passed this question along to some more musically knowledgable friends than I. I agree with one who said “i find the question somewhat paradoxical. How could one version be ‘popularized’ and the other version be ‘better known’?” He then listed quite a few songs.
I think the closest to your criteria for me was: Guns n Roses – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.