Songwriters Singing Songs They Wrote for Other Artists

Just to make sure I understand the thread. A person writes a song, someone else popularizes it, then the songwriter records it later?
 
This is actually a tough category, because the radio often plays the original version after the cover is a hit. Like Manfred Mann's Earth Band doing Blinded by the Light. I never heard Bruce's original, but it was released first. However, it didn't get played on the radio until after the cover.
 
This will be fine:
Just a video of the songwriter actually performing the song made into a hit by another artist/or artists. Before or after it became a hit. And maybe identify the artist who had a hit with the song:

Like The Beatles (Paul McCartney) "Come and Get It" a hit for Badfinger
 
In August 1971, Three Dog Night recorded An Old Fashioned Love Song, written by Paul Williams. It peaked at #4 on the December 18 1971 Hot 100 and two weeks later went to number one on the adult contemporary chart. (Williams had first offered the song to the Carpenters, who had had hits with two songs he had co-written, We've Only Just Begun and Rainy Days & Mondays, but Richard Carpenter turned it down.) In October 1971, Williams recorded his own version and released it in December on an album cleverly titled Just An Old Fashioned Love Song.

 
So for Springsteen, there's:

Blinded by the Light, I Came for You, Spirit in the Night - Manfred Mann/Earth Band
Because the Night - Patty Smith Group
Fire - Pointer Sisters
Pink Cadillac - Natalie Cole
Light of Day - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (The Barbusters)
This Little Girl - Gary U.S. Bonds
The Ghost of Tom Joad - Rage Against the Machine
 
Joni Mitchell wrote Both Sides Now and recorded it on March 12, 1967, but did not initially release it. Judy Collins had a #8 hit with the song in December 1968 and it won a Grammy award for best folk record. Joni's version finally appeared in May 1969 on her album Clouds. That title is interesting because Dave Van Ronk had recorded the song for his April 1968 album Dave Van Ronk & The Hudson Dusters and changed the title to Clouds (From Both Sides Now) – and Joni was not happy about that.

 
Patsy Cline, backed by the Jordanaires, recorded Willie Nelson's Crazy on October 16, 1961. The song peaked at #2 on Billboard's January 20 1962 country chart (behind Carl & Pearl Butler's Don't Let Me Cross Over), got to #2 on the adult contemporary chart (behind Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling In Love) and reached #9 on the Hot 100. Willie recorded his own version on September 9, 1962, for his album ...and then I wrote with Hargus "Pig" Robbins on piano and the Anita Kerr Singers doing background vocals.

 
Channel98 said:
Joni Mitchell wrote Both Sides Now and recorded it on March 12, 1967, but did not initially release it. Judy Collins had a #8 hit with the song in December 1968 and it won a Grammy award for best folk record. Joni's version finally appeared in May 1969 on her album Clouds. That title is interesting because Dave Van Ronk had recorded the song for his April 1968 album Dave Van Ronk & The Hudson Dusters and changed the title to Clouds (From Both Sides Now) – and Joni was not happy about that.

Click to expand...

I kind of recall an interview in which Mitchell regretted Collins' interpretation of the song.
 
I've looked at the song from both sides now, from Joni's side and Judy's side. Joni was jealous of Judy's fame until she started getting royalty checks in her own name.

faroutmagazine.co.uk

Why Judy Collins called Joni Mitchell "jealous"

Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell both had only a single top ten hit in the United States, but according to Collins, Mitchell was jealous of Collins' hit.
faroutmagazine.co.uk faroutmagazine.co.uk
 
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