Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

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Tagged: April Wine

You Could Have Been a Lady

First recorded by Hot Chocolate (UK #22 1971).
Other hit version by April Wine (US #32/CAN #2 1972).

From the wiki: “The band was originally named ‘Hot Chocolate Band’ by Mavis Smith, who worked for the Apple Corps press office. This was quickly shortened to Hot Chocolate by Mickie Most. The group started their recording career making a reggae version of John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance’ (see below); told that he needed permission before releasing the song, band founder Errol Brown contacted Apple Records, discovered that John Lennon liked his version, and the group was subsequently signed to Apple Records. The link, however, was short-lived as The Beatles were starting to break up, and the Apple connection soon ended.

“Undeterred, Hot Chocolate signed with the RAK record label and began releasing tracks that became hits, such as ‘Love Is Life’ (UK #6 1970), ‘You Could Have Been a Lady’ (UK #22 1971) and ‘Brother Louie‘ (1973). ‘You Could Have Been a Lady’ would later be covered in 1972 by Canadian rock band April Wine, who would score with it the most successful Canadian single of their group career.”