While I was housecleaning today, a playlist brought along the original 1970 version of the Kinks’ “Lola,” which I hadn’t heard in a while. (Yes, I understand the song is problematic.)

I’d forgotten how relatively gentle an arrangement it was, probably because I was first exposed to the song by the 1980 harder-rocking live “One for the Road” album. Tracks from this were all over the radio in my formative high school listening years, and this version clearly imprinted on me before I heard the original studio version.

What other songs exist in your mind like this?

Cover versions of songs are another matter: I heard Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect” by Otis Redding long before I got to hear Otis’s original.