Song #29 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, originally by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Here’s the original:
I have heard this version before, but I daresay I’m not alone when I say it’s not in the top two when I think of renditions of this song. Indeed, doing a search on just the song title in YouTube yields multiple versions – CCR, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Temptations – but not this one. I had to add “Smokey Robinson” after the song title to the search, and I found all of two videos, with maybe 13,000 total views combined. Hard to believe that one of the seminal Motown groups could be this little known for doing an all-time classic such as this, but there you have it. Here’s CCR:
Is this the longest song to get regular airplay on any non-classical music station? If it’s not it’s got to be close. It’s a great arrangement, but if you didn’t make it all the way through, I understand. I didn’t either.