"Respect" comes to mind. Otis Redding recorded it in 1965, and in his version, it's pretty clear that respect means sex. Aretha Franklin re-arranged it and released her version two years later. She flipped the song to be from a woman's point of view, and it became one of the anthems of the women's rights movement of the late 60's and beyond.

Even though his version reached a decent #35 on Billboard, Aretha's version completely eclipsed it. Reportedly, Redding conceded that "it's her song now" (paraphrasing).