When The Cover Song is The First One You Hear

A few years ago, my brother made me a mix CD of people performing covers - Billy Corgan singing "Landslide," K.D. Lang singing "Joker," etc. My favorite was Toots and the Maytals doing "Country Roads." West Jamaica!

Another song I loved off of this album was Social Distortion's version of "Ring of Fire." I'd never heard Johnny Cash sing it, and when I did, out of a jukebox at a bar, I thought it was too slow and, well, kind of boring. The fact that I had made it to my mid-twenties without becoming familiar with Johnny Cash was seen by some friends as blasphemous in and of itself. But to not like "Ring of Fire"?

I know I'm not alone. My mother knew the Fifth Dimension's version of "Wedding Bell Blues" before she knew that Laura Nyro had done it first.

We all have first loves. But sometimes your first love isn't technically first.