Cover version
Encyclopedia
In popular music
, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance
or recording
of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song. It can sometimes have a pejorative
meaning implying that the original recording should be regarded as the definitive or "authentic" version, and all others merely lesser competitors, alternatives or tributes (no matter how popular). Originally, Billboard
and other magazines which track the popularity of the musical artists and hit tunes measured the sales success of the published tune, not just recordings of it. Later, they tracked the airplay that songs achieved, for which some cover versions are the more successful recording(s) of the particular song(s). Cover versions of well known, well liked, tunes are often recorded by new artists to achieve initial success when their unfamiliar original material would be less likely to be successful. Prior to the onset of Rock 'n' Roll in the 1950s, songs were published and several records of a song might be brought out by singers of the day, each giving it their individual treatment. Any singer who appeared to be copying an already successful version of the song would be viewed with disfavour. The trend, however, became for records to be produced, usually with particular background noises, and no other group would attempt a version.
On occasion a cover becomes more popular and well-known than the original. One such example is Bob Dylan
's "All Along the Watchtower
," which is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix
recorded. The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan's original, became a Top 10 single in 1968 and was ranked 48th in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
' 1949
hit tune "The Hucklebuck" and Hank Williams' 1952 song "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
." Both crossed over to the popular Hit Parade and had numerous hit versions. Prior to the mid-20th century the notion of an original version of a popular tune would, of course, have seemed slightly odd — the production of musical entertainment being seen essentially as a live event
, even if one that was reproduced at home via a copy of the sheet music
, learned by heart, or captured on a shellac recording disc
.
In previous generations, some artists made very successful careers out of presenting revivals or reworkings of once popular tunes, even out of doing contemporary cover versions of current hits. Musicians now play what they call "cover versions" (e.g. the reworking, updating or interpretation) of songs as a tribute to the original performer or group. Using familiar material (e.g. evergreen hits, standard tunes or classic recordings) is an important method in learning various styles of music. Most albums, or long playing records
, up until the mid-1960s usually contained a large number of evergreens or standards to present a fuller range of the artist's abilities and style. (See, for example, Please Please Me
) Artists might also perform interpretations ("covers") of a favorite artist's hit tunes for the simple pleasure of playing a familiar song or collection of tunes. A cover band
plays such "cover versions" exclusively.
Today there are broadly three types of entertainers who depend upon cover versions for their principal repertoire:
Tribute acts or bands are performers who make a living by recreating the music of one particular artist. Bands such as Björn Again
, Dread Zeppelin
, The Fab Faux
, The Australian Pink Floyd Show and Iron Median are dedicated to playing the music of ABBA
, Led Zeppelin
, The Beatles
, Pink Floyd
and Iron Maiden respectively. There are also tribute acts that salute the Who
, The Rolling Stones
and many other classic rock
acts. Most tribute bands attempt to recreate another band's music, but there are some such bands who introduce a twist. Dread Zeppelin's performs reggae
versions of the Zeppelin catalog, and Beatallica
creates heavy metal fusions of songs by the Beatles and Metallica
.
Cover acts or bands
are entertainers who perform a broad variety of crowd-pleasing material for audiences who enjoy the familiarity of hit songs. Such bands draw from Top 40 hits of different decades to provide a pleasurable nostalgic entertainment in bars, on cruise ships and at events such as weddings, family celebrations and corporate functions.
Revivalist artist
s or bands are performers who are inspired by an entire genre of music and who are dedicated to curating and recreating that genre and introducing it to younger audiences who have not experienced that music first hand. Unlike tribute bands and cover bands who rely primarily on audiences seeking a nostalgic experience, revivalist bands usually seek new young audiences for whom the music is fresh and has no nostalgic value. For example: Sha Na Na
started in 1969 as a celebration of the doo-wop
music of the 1950s, a genre of music that was not initially fashionable during the hippie counter-culture era. The Blues Brothers
started in 1978 as a living salute to the blues, soul and R&B music of the 1950s and 1960s that was not in vogue by the late 70s. The Blues Brothers' creed was that they were "on a mission from God" as evangelists for blues and soul music. The Black Crowes
formed in 1984, initially dedicated to reviving 1970s style blues-rock. They subsequently started writing their own material in the same vein.
, in the United States there has been a right to record a version of someone else's tune, whether of music alone or of music and lyrics. A license can be specifically negotiated between representatives of the interpreting artist and the copyright holder, or recording of published tunes can fall under a mechanical license
whereby the recording artist pays a standard royalty to the original author/copyright holder through an organization such as the Harry Fox Agency
, and is safe under copyright law even if they do not have any permission from the original author. Other agents can also help facilitate clearance including Limelight, the online mechanical licensing utility powered by RightsFlow
. The mechanical license was introduced by Congress in order to head off an attempt by the Aeolian Company
to monopolize the piano roll
market.
While a composer cannot deny anyone a mechanical license for a new recorded version, he or she has the right to decide who will release the first recording of a song; Bob Dylan
took advantage of this right when he refused his own record company the right to release a live recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man
".
Live performances of copyrighted songs are typically arranged through performing rights organizations such as ASCAP or BMI
.
record label
s, if any company had a record that was a significant commercial success, that other record companies would have singers or musicians "cover" the "hit" tune by recording a version for their own label in hopes of cashing in on the tune's success. For example, Ain't She Sweet, was first popularized in 1927
by Eddie Cantor
(on stage) and by Ben Bernie and Gene Austin
(on record), was repopularized through popular recordings by Mr. Goon Bones & Mr. Ford and Pearl Bailey
in 1949, and later still revived as 33 1/3 and 45 RPM records by the Beatles
in 1964. Since there was little promotion or advertising involved in the earlier days of record production, other than at the local music hall or music store, when the average record buyer went out to purchase a new record, he usually asked for the tune, not the artist. In addition, distribution of records was highly localized in many cases. So, a quickly-recorded version of a hit song from another area by a locally popular artist could reach an audience before the version by the artist(s) who first introduced the tune in a particular format—the "original", "introductory" or "popularizing" artist—was widely available, and the highly competitive record companies were quick to take advantage of these facts.
, when a bobby soxer
went looking for a recorded tune, say "In the Mood
", typically she wanted the version popularized by her favourite artist(s), e.g. the Glenn Miller
version (on RCA Victor's cheaper Bluebird label), not someone else's (sometimes presented on a more expensive record company's label). This trend was marked closely by the charting of record sales by the different artists, not just hit tunes, on the music industry's Hit Parades. However, for sound commercial reasons, record companies still continued to record different versions of tunes that sold well. Most audiences until the mid-1950s still heard their favorite artists playing live music on stage or via the radio
. And since radio shows were for the most part aimed at local audiences, it was still rare for an artist in one area to reach a mass audience. Also radio stations tended to cater to broad audience markets, so an artist in one vein might not get broadcast on other stations geared to a set audience. So popular versions of Jazz, Country and Western or Rhythm and Blues tunes, and vice versa, were frequent. Consider Mack the Knife
(Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer): this was originally from Bertholt Brecht's 1928 Die Dreigroschenoper
. It was popularised by a 1956 record Hit Parade
instrumental tune, Moritat, for the Dick Hyman Trio, also recorded by Richard Hayman & Jan August, but a hit also for Louis Armstrong
1956/1959, Bobby Darin
, 1959, and Ella Fitzgerald
, 1960, as vocal versions of Mack The Knife.
Europe's Radio Luxembourg
, like many commercial stations, also sold "air time"; so record companies and others bought air time to promote their own artists or products, thus increasing the number of recorded versions of any tune then available. Add to this the fact that many radio stations were limited in their permitted "needle time
" (the amount of recorded music they were allowed to play), or were regulated on the amount of local talent they had to promote in live broadcasts, as with most national stations like the BBC in the UK.
frequently cut both rhythm and blues
and country and western versions of novelty songs like "Good Morning, Judge" and "Don't Roll those Bloodshot Eyes at Me". This tradition was expanded when rhythm and blues
songs began showing up on pop music
charts.
In the early days of rock and roll
, many tunes originally recorded by R&B
and Country musicians were still being re-recorded in a more popular vein by other artists with a more toned-down style or professional polish. Given the reluctance of radio stations to play formats outside their own target audience group's taste, this was inevitable. By far the most popular style of music in the mid-1950s / mid-1960s was still the professional light orchestral unit, so that was the format sought by popular recording artists.
For many purists these popular versions lacked both the raw, often amateurish, earthiness of the original introducing artists. But mostly they did not have the added kudos
craved by many rebellious teenagers, the social stigma - or street credibility - of rock and roll music; as most of these were performed by the type of black artists not heard on the popular mass entertainment markets, some having also been written by them. The bowdlerized popular cover versions were considered by most parents in audiences at the time to be more palatable for the mass audience of both parents and children as a group audience. Therefore the artists targeting the white-majority family audience were more acceptable to programmers at most radio and TV stations. For this reason singer-songwriter Don McLean
has called the cover version a "racist tool." Many parents in the 1950s - 60s, whether intentionally racists or not, felt deeply threatened by the rapid pace of social change. After all they had for the most part shared entertainments with their parents in ways that their own children had become reluctant to do. The jukebox and the personal record disc player
were still relatively expensive pieces of machinery - and the portable radio
a great novelty, allowing truculent teenagers to shut themselves off.
Tunes by introducing or "original" niche market artists which were then successful on the mass audience Hit Parade charts are called crossovers
as they "crossed over" from the targeted Country, Jazz or Rhythm audience. Also, many songs originally recorded by male artists were rerecorded by female artists, and vice versa. Such a cover version is also sometimes called a cross cover version, male cover, or female cover. Incidentally, up to the mid-1930s male vocalists often sang the female lyrics to popular songs, though this faded rapidly after it was deemed decadent in Nazi Germany. Some songs like "If Only for One Night" were originally recorded by female artists but covered by mostly male artists.
Reworking non-English language tunes and lyrics for the Anglo-Saxon markets was once a popular part of the music business. For example, the 1954 worldwide hit The Happy Wanderer was originally Der fröhliche Wanderer
, to this must be added Hymne a l`amour, Mutterlein, Volare, Seeman, "Quando, Quando, Quando", L'amour est bleu, etc.
's version of "Light My Fire
" (recorded after the original had disappeared from sales charts) was distinct from The Doors
' version. Some producers or recording artists may also enlist the services of a sample replay company such as Scorccio, in order to replicate an original recording with precision detail and accuracy.
A song may be covered into another language. For example, in the 1930s, a recording of Isle of Capri
in Spanish, by Osvaldo Fresedo
and singer Roberto Ray, is known. Falco
's 1982 German
-language hit "Der Kommissar" was covered in English by After the Fire
, although the German title was retained. The English version, which was not a direct translation of Falco's original but retained much of its spirit, reached the Top 5 on the US charts. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight
" evolved over several decades and versions from a 1939 Zulu
a cappella song. Many of singer Laura Branigan
's 1980s hits were English-language remakes of songs already successful in Europe, for the American record market. Numerable English-language covers exist of "99 Luftballons
" by German singer Nena
(notably one by punk band Goldfinger
), one having been recorded by Nena
herself following the success of her original German version. "Popcorn
", a song which was originally completely instrumental, has had lyrics added in at least six different languages in various covers. During the heyday of Cantopop
in Hong Kong in the late 1970s to early 1990s, many hits were covers of English and Japanese titles that have gained international fame but with localised lyrics (sometimes multiple sets of lyrics sung to the same tune), and critics often chide the music industry of shorting the tune-composing process.
Although modern cover versions are often produced for artistic reasons, some aspects of the disingenuous spirit of early cover versions remain. In the album-buying heyday of the 1970s, albums of sound-alike covers were created, commonly released to fill bargain bin
s in the music section of supermarket
s and even specialized music stores
, where uninformed customer
s might easily confuse them with original recordings. The packaging of such discs was often intentionally confusing, combining the name of the original artist in large letters with a tiny disclaimer like as originally sung by or as made popular by. More recently, albums such as the Kidz Bop
series of compact discs
, featuring versions of contemporary songs sung by children, have sold successfully.
In 2009 the American musical comedy-drama television series Glee
debuted, featuring several musical performances per episode. The series featured solely cover songs until near the end of its second season with the episode "Original Song
". The series still primarily uses cover songs of both chart hits and show tunes, occasionally as mashups
or distinct variations. The show's musical performances have been a commercial success, with over twenty-one million copies of Glee cast single releases purchased digitally, and over nine million albums purchased worldwide.
" was originally introduced in the film The Hollywood Revue of 1929
. The famous Gene Kelly
version was a revision that brought it up to date for a 1950s Hollywood musical, and was used in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain. In 1978, it was covered by French
singer Sheila
accompanied by the B. Devotion group, as a disco
song, once more updating it to suit the musical taste of the era. During the disco era there was a brief trend of taking well known songs and recording them in the disco style. More recently "Singin' In the Rain" has been covered and remixed by British act Mint Royale
for a television commercial for Volkswagen
. Another example of this, from a different angle, is the tune "Blueberry Hill
", many mistakenly believe the Fats Domino
1956 release to be the original recording and artist. In fact, it was originally introduced on film by Gene Autry
and popularised on the record Hit Parade of 1940
by Glenn Miller. The Fats Domino rock and roll
version is the only one that might currently get widespread airplay on most media. Similarly, "Unchained Melody
" was originally performed by Todd Duncan
, featured in the 1955 film Unchained
(based on the non-fiction story Prisoners are People by Kenyon J. Scudder); Al Hibbler
having the biggest number of worldwide record sales for the vocal version with Jimmy Young's cover version rival outdoing this in the UK, Les Baxter's Orchestra gaining the big instrumentalist sales, reaching the US Hit Parade number one spot in May 1955, but The Righteous Brothers
' later version (top five on the US Hit Parade of September 1965 stalling at number 14 in the UK in August) is by far the wider known version, and especially so following its appearance in the 1990 film Ghost
.
Director
Baz Luhrmann
has contemporised and stylised older songs for use in his films. New or cover versions such as John Paul Young
's "Love Is in the Air" occur in Strictly Ballroom
, Candi Staton
's "Young Hearts Run Free" appear in Romeo + Juliet, and adaptations of artists such as Nat King Cole
, Nirvana
, Kiss
, Elton John
, Thelma Houston
, Marilyn Monroe
, Madonna
, T. Rex
, David Bowie
, Queen
and The Police
are used in Moulin Rouge!
The covers are carefully designed to fit into the structure of each film and suit the taste of the intended audience.
Other artists release new versions of their own previous songs, like German
singer Nena
who recorded an entire album with great success, with new versions of older hits. British singer Kim Wilde
also re-recorded some old songs and returned to the top 20 with a remake off her big 1988 hit "You came
", in a 2006 version called "You came 2006".
and its counterparts in other countries. It is also a means by which the public can more easily concentrate upon the new performer without the need to judge the quality of the songwriting skills.
However, some new artists have chosen to radically rework a popular song to exemplify their approach and philosophy to music. Prime examples include Joe Cocker
's soul
reworking of The Beatles
' originally-jaunty "With a Little Help from My Friends
", the band Devo
's radical reconstruction of the Rolling Stones
' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", or Marilyn Manson
's version of the Eurythmics
' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
". Many musicians have other goals, such as to create publicity as in Sid Vicious
' notorious version of "My Way
".
) or performing tunes associated with their favourite influential musician(s) in their own live performances for variety. For example U2
has performed ABBA
's "Dancing Queen
" live, and Kylie Minogue
has performed The Clash
's "Should I Stay or Should I Go
" - songs that would be completely out of character for them to record, but which allow them artistic freedom when performing live. These performances are often released as part of authorised "live recordings".
Since the late twentieth century, unrelated contemporary artists have contributed individual reworkings of tunes to tribute album
s for well established artists who are considered to be influential and inspiring. This trend was spawned by Hal Willner
's Amarcord Nino Rota
in 1981
. Typically, each project has resulted in a collection of the particular artist's best recognised or most highly regarded songs reworked by more current performers.
The soundtracks to the films I Am Sam
and Across the Universe
are examples of this: they consisted of Beatles songs redone by various contemporary artists. Some more notable examples are Conception: The Interpretation of Stevie Wonder
Songs; Common Thread an album of contemporary country artists performing hit singles by the Eagles; the Rhythm, Country and Blues
album where a country
artist duets with a rhythm and blues
artist on a standard of either genre. Two notable tribute albums to the Grateful Dead
are Wake the Dead, with Celtic
-style covers, and Might As Well, by The Persuasions
.
In some cases this proves to be popular enough to spawn a series of cover albums being released for a band, either under a consistent branding such as the two Black Sabbath
Nativity in Black
cover albums and the industrial themed "Blackest Album
" cover albums of Metallica
songs, or in the form of releases from a number of different companies cashing in on the trend such as the many Metallica
cover albums released in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Metallica
itself is known for doing covers; their original album, Kill 'Em All
, included a couple of covers (Diamond Head
's "Am I Evil?" and Blitzkrieg
's "Blitzkrieg"), the original The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited
was a collection of covers paying homage to a number of mostly obscure bands, which were later combined with additional new covers on the double album Garage Inc.
, which among other things included covers of Black Sabbath
("Sabbra Cadabra"), Bob Seger
("Turn the Page"), Blue Öyster Cult
("Astronomy"), Mercyful Fate
(a medley of different songs of the band), and numerous Motörhead tracks. In an interesting turn around there were even a couple of releases of The Metallic-era CDs collecting tracks from bands that Metallica had covered, both the original versions of the covered songs, and some additional songs by the same artist.
A different type of all-covers album occurs when one artist creates a release of covers of songs originally by many other artists, as a way to recognize their influences or simply as a change of pace or direction. An early example of this was David Bowie
's album Pin Ups
, featuring songs from groups with which he had shared venues in the 1960s. Since these bands included The Who
and The Kinks
many of the tracks would have been at least familiar to his audience. Other more recent examples of this type of album include Renegades by Rage Against the Machine
featuring covers of songs originally performed by diverse artists including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Afrikaa Bambaataa, and Erik B and Rakim, as well as the EP
Feedback
by Canadian rock band Rush
. Tori Amos
' album Strange Little Girls
features covers of songs originally performed by male artists sung from the perspective of thirteen female characters she created (including a rather unexpected version of Slayer
's "Raining Blood
"). Manfred Mann
did albums with more covers than original songs, following the mould of Vanilla Fudge
. More rarely, bands will do an entire album of cover songs originally by a particular artist, such as The The
's Hanky Panky, which consists entirely of Hank Williams songs, or Booker T. & the M.G.'s
' album McLemore Avenue
which was a cover of The Beatles
' Abbey Road, or Russ Pay's tribute to Manchester legends Joy Division
.
There are also bands who create entire albums out of covers, but unlike Tin Pan Alley
-style traditional pop
singers, they often perform the songs in a genre completely unlike the original songs. Examples include The Moog Cookbook
(alternative and classic rock songs done on Moog synthesizer
s), Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine
(top 40, including punk
, heavy metal
, teen pop
and indie rock
performed in a Vegas
lounge lizard style), and Hayseed Dixie
(a play on the name AC/DC
, they started covering AC/DC songs and progressed to other classic rock, playing them as bluegrass
songs, similar to The Gourds
' version of "Gin and Juice".) Also notable are Dread Zeppelin
, who take Led Zeppelin
songs and cover them in a reggae
fashion with the added twist of an Elvis Presley
impersonation on the lead vocal; Nine Inch Elvis, who take Elvis Presley
songs and rework them in an industrial fashion similar to Nine Inch Nails
; and Beatallica
, who "mix up" songs from The Beatles
and Metallica
into Metallica-sounding songs with humorous lyrics referring to both bands' works.
In that same category, The Blues Brothers
have recorded only covers on their three most famous albums, Briefcase Full of Blues
, Made in America
and the motion picture soundtrack The Blues Brothers
. They covered blues
, R&B, soul
, country and rock'n'roll songs, but with their own particular, fresh and raw style of interpretation, a successful blend of the Memphis sound provided by MGs band members Steve Cropper
and Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the New York City sound from the horn section (Alan Rubin
and Lou Marini
, for example). The outcome sometimes gave a new life to songs. Some became even more popular after The Blues Brothers
had played them, than before. The best example is "Soul Man
", more remembered as a hit by The Blues Brothers
rather than by the original singers, Sam & Dave
. The same can be said of "She Caught the Katy
" (originally written by Taj Mahal
and Yank Rachell
) and "Jailhouse Rock
" (sung by Elvis Presley
) or "Sweet Home Chicago
" (Robert Johnson), acknowledging the fact that covers can become even more famous than original performances.
Recent years have seen well-established artists (especially those mostly active in the 1980s) release cover albums, such as Poison
(Poison'd!
), Tesla
(Real to Reel), Queensrÿche
(Take Cover), and Def Leppard
(Yeah!), revealing a wide range of musical influences.
Some cover albums take the unusual tack of doing classical versions of rock and metal songs. The unusual band Apocalyptica
which comprises four classical cellists started out performing classical arrangements of Metallica songs. In a similar vein, there have also been many string quartet tributes
to popular rock and metal bands, most notably Tool
, Black Sabbath
, Breaking Benjamin
, New Order
/Joy Division
, the Cure
, Muse
, the Beatles
, and even Slayer
.
One more type of cover album is when a cover of the entire album is done, rather than a collection of songs. A notable band to earn acclaim this way are the Easy Star All-Stars
, who covered The Dark Side of the Moon
by Pink Floyd
in their album Dub Side of the Moon
and OK Computer
by Radiohead
in their album Radiodread
. Both albums were radical departures from the original albums, being redone in reggae
/dub
. Another album which radically remade an original album in a new genre is the 2001 Rebuild the Wall
, in which Luther Wright and the Wrongs
covered the entire double-album The Wall
by Pink Floyd
as a country/bluegrass piece. Camper Van Beethoven
covered Fleetwood Mac
's Tusk
album in its entirety. Beck
's Record Club
project has covered The Velvet Underground and Nico, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Oar, Kick, and Yannii Live at the Acropolis by The Velvet Underground
, Leonard Cohen
, Skip Spence
, INXS
, and Yanni
, respectively.
genre cover songs by their predecessors to gain public interest, although more established bands have also recorded covers. HammerFall
, Metallica
, Napalm Death
, Entombed
, Iced Earth
, Between the Buried and Me
, Overkill
, Slayer
, Marilyn Manson
, Fozzy
, and Def Leppard
have released entire albums of covers, for example. In specific subgenres of metal, covers generally reflect the genre the band is in. The Norwegian
black metal
band Mayhem
have recorded several Venom
covers, while Mayhem themselves have been covered many times: their song "Deathcrush
" has been covered around 140 times, according to Encyclopaedia Metallum
.
Another approach taken by several metal bands, including Children of Bodom
, is to cover songs generally not listened to by metal fans, such as pop, punk, or classic rock songs. Children of Bodom's cover of Britney Spears
' "Oops! I Did It Again
" was originally recorded as an in-joke amongst the band members but ended up being released as a bonus track on one of their EPs, as well as Andrew W.K.
's "She Is Beautiful
". Blind Guardian
has covered surf-rock hit "Surfin' USA
" as well as 50's hit "Mr. Sandman
" and oldies rock and roll staples "Barbara Ann
" and "Long Tall Sally
". Yngwie J. Malmsteen
covered ABBA
's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
" renamed "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Love After Midnight)" the song features the same lyrics, with minor edits, and the same music with a more powerful metal feel. Thrash metal
band Megadeth
covered Nancy Sinatra
's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
on their 1985 debut album Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!
, but is more often recognized as a parody rather than a true cover, and is considered controversial because song writer Lee Hazelwood deemed Megadeth's version to be "a perversion of the original". Also, nu metal
band Korn
have covered Public Enemy's "Fight the Power
" for the xXx: State of the Union
soundtrack
; and Cameo
's "Word Up!
" and Pink Floyd
's "Another Brick in the Wall
" for their Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
compilation album
.
songs, most frequently in concert and typically in a style radically different to the originals. Snoop Dogg
, XV
, Busy Signal
, Kanye West
Rock City
have all recorded covers of hip-hop songs.
The band Mindless Self Indulgence
recorded a cover of the song "Bring the Pain
" by Method Man
in which they completely change the entire rhythm and sound of the song. The only part of the original song retained in their cover is the lyrics.
have recorded several covers of legendary R&B artists like Aretha Franklin
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
", Chaka Khan
(Sweet Thing), and Rose Royce
"I'm Going Down
". In 1995 D'Angelo
remade "Cruisin'
" originally recorded by Smokey Robinson. K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci
recorded a remake of "If You Think You're Lonely Now
" by Bobby Womack
. Lionel Richie
and various contemporary artists recorded and released a remake of "We Are The World
" for Haiti
in February 2010. In 1994 Aaliyah
recorded a cover of The Isley Brothers
classic "At Your Best (You Are Love)" on her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number
. In 2001, Christina Aguilera
, Mýa
, Pink
and Lil Kim recorded a remake of "Lady Marmalade
", originally recorded by Labelle
, for the Moulin Rouge!
soundtrack.
was known as swamp pop
. Contemporary and classic rock, R&B, and country songs were re-recorded with Cajun
audiences in mind. Some lyrics were translated to French
, and some were recorded with traditional Cajun instrumentation. Several swamp pop songs charted nationally, but it was mostly a regional niche market.
specializes in remaking famous songs into orchestra-style melodies. Their debut album, Orinoco Flow: The Music of Enya, was a collection of songs originally created and sung by Enya
.
has done several song covers, most notably, the song "Yellow
" by Coldplay
. Youth Group
recorded a cover of the Alphaville
song "Forever Young
". Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power
) is known for covering other musicians' songs in her own, unique style. Canadian indie artist Feist covered "Inside and Out
" (originally by the Bee Gees
) for her album Let It Die
. Archangel have recently done a cover version of "Do It Again" by Steely Dan, and have released it as a single.
, Sex Pistols
, Burning Heads
, and hundreds of others. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
is a punk band that only does cover songs. BYO Records
has also BYO Split Series with bands such as NOFX
, Anti-Flag
, Rancid, Alkaline Trio
, and The Bouncing Souls
in which two bands on each disc cover each other's songs.
Since 2000, Fearless Records
has released a series of CDs in which various rock bands perform covers of songs from other genres or time-periods. The deviations from this theme are Punk Goes Acoustic
and Punk Goes Acoustic 2
(in which the featured bands recorded acoustic versions of their own songs); Punk Goes Pop 1
, 2
, 3
and 4
; and Punk Goes Classic Rock
.
is one of the best example of covering other artists' song to becoming their own hits. They covered few songs and they became their hit, such as "Always on My Mind
", "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)
", "Somewhere
", "Go West
", etc.
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
or recording
Recording
Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....
of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song. It can sometimes have a pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
meaning implying that the original recording should be regarded as the definitive or "authentic" version, and all others merely lesser competitors, alternatives or tributes (no matter how popular). Originally, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
and other magazines which track the popularity of the musical artists and hit tunes measured the sales success of the published tune, not just recordings of it. Later, they tracked the airplay that songs achieved, for which some cover versions are the more successful recording(s) of the particular song(s). Cover versions of well known, well liked, tunes are often recorded by new artists to achieve initial success when their unfamiliar original material would be less likely to be successful. Prior to the onset of Rock 'n' Roll in the 1950s, songs were published and several records of a song might be brought out by singers of the day, each giving it their individual treatment. Any singer who appeared to be copying an already successful version of the song would be viewed with disfavour. The trend, however, became for records to be produced, usually with particular background noises, and no other group would attempt a version.
On occasion a cover becomes more popular and well-known than the original. One such example is Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "All Along the Watchtower
All Along the Watchtower
"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song, which has been included on most of Dylan's greatest hits compilations, initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Over the past 35 years, he has performed it in concert more...
," which is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
recorded. The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan's original, became a Top 10 single in 1968 and was ranked 48th in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
History
The term "cover" goes back decades when cover version originally described a rival version of a tune recorded to compete with the recently released (original) version. The Chicago Tribune described the term in 1952 this way: "trade jargon meaning to record a tune that looks like a potential hit on someone else's label." Examples of records being covered include Paul WilliamsPaul Williams (saxophonist)
Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was an American blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist and songwriter. In his Honkers and Shouters, Arnold Shaw credits Williams as one of the first to employ the honking tenor sax solo that became the hallmark of rhythm and blues and rock and roll in the 1950s and...
' 1949
1949 in music
-Events:*February 4 – Ljuba Welitsch makes her Metropolitan Opera début in Salome.*September 5 - Wagnerian tenor Walter Widdop appears at The Proms, singing "Lohengrin's Farewell", the day before his sudden death at the age of 51....
hit tune "The Hucklebuck" and Hank Williams' 1952 song "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
"Jambalaya " is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952...
." Both crossed over to the popular Hit Parade and had numerous hit versions. Prior to the mid-20th century the notion of an original version of a popular tune would, of course, have seemed slightly odd — the production of musical entertainment being seen essentially as a live event
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
, even if one that was reproduced at home via a copy of the sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
, learned by heart, or captured on a shellac recording disc
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
.
In previous generations, some artists made very successful careers out of presenting revivals or reworkings of once popular tunes, even out of doing contemporary cover versions of current hits. Musicians now play what they call "cover versions" (e.g. the reworking, updating or interpretation) of songs as a tribute to the original performer or group. Using familiar material (e.g. evergreen hits, standard tunes or classic recordings) is an important method in learning various styles of music. Most albums, or long playing records
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, up until the mid-1960s usually contained a large number of evergreens or standards to present a fuller range of the artist's abilities and style. (See, for example, Please Please Me
Please Please Me
Please Please Me is the debut album by the English rock band The Beatles. Parlophone rush-released the album on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of singles "Please Please Me" and "Love Me Do" .Of the album's fourteen songs, eight were written by Lennon–McCartney...
) Artists might also perform interpretations ("covers") of a favorite artist's hit tunes for the simple pleasure of playing a familiar song or collection of tunes. A cover band
Cover band
A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...
plays such "cover versions" exclusively.
Today there are broadly three types of entertainers who depend upon cover versions for their principal repertoire:
Tribute acts or bands are performers who make a living by recreating the music of one particular artist. Bands such as Björn Again
Björn Again
Björn Again is a tribute show to the Swedish pop group ABBA founded in 1988 in Australia, but now involving multiple touring troupes performing under the Björn Again name...
, Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin is an American band best known for performing the songs of Led Zeppelin in a reggae style as sung by a 300 pound Vegas Elvis impersonator. Over the years they would also perform songs originally by Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and The Yardbirds. The group toured extensively around the...
, The Fab Faux
The Fab Faux
The Fab Faux is a musical tribute band performing the works of The Beatles. The group was founded by Will Lee, bassist for Late Show with David Letterman, and features Jimmy Vivino, bandleader for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Other members include Rich Pagano, Frank Agnello, and Jack Petruzzelli...
, The Australian Pink Floyd Show and Iron Median are dedicated to playing the music of ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
and Iron Maiden respectively. There are also tribute acts that salute the Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and many other classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
acts. Most tribute bands attempt to recreate another band's music, but there are some such bands who introduce a twist. Dread Zeppelin's performs reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
versions of the Zeppelin catalog, and Beatallica
Beatallica
Beatallica is a mash-up band that plays music made from combinations of songs of The Beatles and Metallica. A Beatallica song is typically a blend of a Beatles song and a Metallica song with a related title Beatallica is a mash-up band that plays music made from combinations of songs of The Beatles...
creates heavy metal fusions of songs by the Beatles and Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
.
Cover acts or bands
Cover band
A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...
are entertainers who perform a broad variety of crowd-pleasing material for audiences who enjoy the familiarity of hit songs. Such bands draw from Top 40 hits of different decades to provide a pleasurable nostalgic entertainment in bars, on cruise ships and at events such as weddings, family celebrations and corporate functions.
Revivalist artist
Revivalist artist
A revivalist artist or revivalist band is a musical group, singer, or musician dedicated to reviving interest in a musical genre from an earlier era....
s or bands are performers who are inspired by an entire genre of music and who are dedicated to curating and recreating that genre and introducing it to younger audiences who have not experienced that music first hand. Unlike tribute bands and cover bands who rely primarily on audiences seeking a nostalgic experience, revivalist bands usually seek new young audiences for whom the music is fresh and has no nostalgic value. For example: Sha Na Na
Sha Na Na
Sha Na Na is an American rock and roll group. The name is taken from a part of the long series of nonsense syllables in the doo-wop hit song "Get a Job", originally recorded in 1957 by the Silhouettes....
started in 1969 as a celebration of the doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
music of the 1950s, a genre of music that was not initially fashionable during the hippie counter-culture era. The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
started in 1978 as a living salute to the blues, soul and R&B music of the 1950s and 1960s that was not in vogue by the late 70s. The Blues Brothers' creed was that they were "on a mission from God" as evangelists for blues and soul music. The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in 1989. Their discography includes nine studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer George Drakoulias and released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, the...
formed in 1984, initially dedicated to reviving 1970s style blues-rock. They subsequently started writing their own material in the same vein.
U.S. copyright law
Since the Copyright Act of 1909Copyright Act of 1909
The Copyright Act of 1909 was a landmark statute in United States statutory copyright law. It became Public Law number 60-349 on March 4, 1909 by the 60th United States Congress, and it went into effect on July 1, 1909...
, in the United States there has been a right to record a version of someone else's tune, whether of music alone or of music and lyrics. A license can be specifically negotiated between representatives of the interpreting artist and the copyright holder, or recording of published tunes can fall under a mechanical license
Mechanical license
A mechanical license is a license that grants certain limited permissions to work with, study, improve upon, reinterpret, re-record something that is neither a free/open source item nor in the public domain....
whereby the recording artist pays a standard royalty to the original author/copyright holder through an organization such as the Harry Fox Agency
Harry Fox Agency
The Harry Fox Agency is the United States of America's largest agency collecting and distributing mechanical license fees on behalf of music publishers.-External links:*...
, and is safe under copyright law even if they do not have any permission from the original author. Other agents can also help facilitate clearance including Limelight, the online mechanical licensing utility powered by RightsFlow
RightsFlow
RightsFlow is an American company that provides organizations, bands, songwriters and individuals with music licensing services and royalty payment solutions. It was founded in 2007....
. The mechanical license was introduced by Congress in order to head off an attempt by the Aeolian Company
Aeolian Company
The Æolian Company was a manufacturer of player organs and pianos.- History :It was founded by New York City piano maker William B. Tremaine as the Æolian Organ & Music Co. to make automatic organs, and, after 1895, as the Æolian Co. automatic pianos as well. The Æolian Company was a...
to monopolize the piano roll
Piano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
market.
While a composer cannot deny anyone a mechanical license for a new recorded version, he or she has the right to decide who will release the first recording of a song; Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
took advantage of this right when he refused his own record company the right to release a live recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
".
Live performances of copyrighted songs are typically arranged through performing rights organizations such as ASCAP or BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
.
Multiple versions in various formats or locations
From early in the 20th century it was common practice among phonographPhonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s, if any company had a record that was a significant commercial success, that other record companies would have singers or musicians "cover" the "hit" tune by recording a version for their own label in hopes of cashing in on the tune's success. For example, Ain't She Sweet, was first popularized in 1927
1927 in music
-Events:* January 8 - Alban Berg's Lyric Suite is premiered in Vienna.* April 21 - Electric re-recording of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra directed by Nathaniel Shilkret, with Gershwin at the piano....
by Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
(on stage) and by Ben Bernie and Gene Austin
Gene Austin
Gene Austin was an American singer and songwriter, one of the first "crooners". His 1920s compositions "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and "The Lonesome Road" became pop and jazz standards.-Career:...
(on record), was repopularized through popular recordings by Mr. Goon Bones & Mr. Ford and Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
in 1949, and later still revived as 33 1/3 and 45 RPM records by the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
in 1964. Since there was little promotion or advertising involved in the earlier days of record production, other than at the local music hall or music store, when the average record buyer went out to purchase a new record, he usually asked for the tune, not the artist. In addition, distribution of records was highly localized in many cases. So, a quickly-recorded version of a hit song from another area by a locally popular artist could reach an audience before the version by the artist(s) who first introduced the tune in a particular format—the "original", "introductory" or "popularizing" artist—was widely available, and the highly competitive record companies were quick to take advantage of these facts.
Rival outlets and popularized recordings
This began to change in the later 1930s, when the average age of the now greatly increased record-buying public began to expand to include a younger age group. During the Swing eraSwing Era
The Swing era was the period of time when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though the music had been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Moten, Ella Fitzgerald,...
, when a bobby soxer
Bobby soxer
Bobby soxer is a 1940s sociologic coinage denoting the over zealous, usually teenage and young adult girls from about 12 to 25, fans of singer Frank Sinatra, the first singing teen idol. Fashionable adolescent girls wore poodle skirts and rolled down their socks to the ankle...
went looking for a recorded tune, say "In the Mood
In the Mood
"In the Mood" is a big band era #1 hit recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. Joe Garland and Andy Razaf arranged "In the Mood" in 1937-1939 using a previously existing main theme composed by Glenn Miller before the start of the 1930s...
", typically she wanted the version popularized by her favourite artist(s), e.g. the Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
version (on RCA Victor's cheaper Bluebird label), not someone else's (sometimes presented on a more expensive record company's label). This trend was marked closely by the charting of record sales by the different artists, not just hit tunes, on the music industry's Hit Parades. However, for sound commercial reasons, record companies still continued to record different versions of tunes that sold well. Most audiences until the mid-1950s still heard their favorite artists playing live music on stage or via the radio
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
. And since radio shows were for the most part aimed at local audiences, it was still rare for an artist in one area to reach a mass audience. Also radio stations tended to cater to broad audience markets, so an artist in one vein might not get broadcast on other stations geared to a set audience. So popular versions of Jazz, Country and Western or Rhythm and Blues tunes, and vice versa, were frequent. Consider Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
(Die Moritat vom Mackie Messer): this was originally from Bertholt Brecht's 1928 Die Dreigroschenoper
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
. It was popularised by a 1956 record Hit Parade
Hit parade
A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined by sales and/or airplay. The term originated in the 1930s; Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936...
instrumental tune, Moritat, for the Dick Hyman Trio, also recorded by Richard Hayman & Jan August, but a hit also for Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
1956/1959, Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
, 1959, and Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, 1960, as vocal versions of Mack The Knife.
Europe's Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
, like many commercial stations, also sold "air time"; so record companies and others bought air time to promote their own artists or products, thus increasing the number of recorded versions of any tune then available. Add to this the fact that many radio stations were limited in their permitted "needle time
Needle time
Needle time was created in the United Kingdom by the Musicians' Union and Phonographic Performance Limited, in order to restrict the amount of recorded music that could be transmitted by British Broadcasting Corporation during the course of any 24-hour period. Until 1967 the BBC was allowed to...
" (the amount of recorded music they were allowed to play), or were regulated on the amount of local talent they had to promote in live broadcasts, as with most national stations like the BBC in the UK.
Incentives to make duplicate recorded versions of a song
In the USA, but not in most other countries, authors and publishers are paid royalty by broadcasters and artists are not, so there is an incentive to record numerous versions of a song, particularly in different genres. For example, King RecordsKing Records (USA)
King Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History:At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a...
frequently cut both rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and country and western versions of novelty songs like "Good Morning, Judge" and "Don't Roll those Bloodshot Eyes at Me". This tradition was expanded when rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
songs began showing up on pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
charts.
In the early days of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, many tunes originally recorded by R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and Country musicians were still being re-recorded in a more popular vein by other artists with a more toned-down style or professional polish. Given the reluctance of radio stations to play formats outside their own target audience group's taste, this was inevitable. By far the most popular style of music in the mid-1950s / mid-1960s was still the professional light orchestral unit, so that was the format sought by popular recording artists.
For many purists these popular versions lacked both the raw, often amateurish, earthiness of the original introducing artists. But mostly they did not have the added kudos
Kudos
Kudos is an English word meaning acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement.Kudos may also refer to:* KUDOS, a vocational-counseling computer program* Kudos , a chocolate-covered cereal bar...
craved by many rebellious teenagers, the social stigma - or street credibility - of rock and roll music; as most of these were performed by the type of black artists not heard on the popular mass entertainment markets, some having also been written by them. The bowdlerized popular cover versions were considered by most parents in audiences at the time to be more palatable for the mass audience of both parents and children as a group audience. Therefore the artists targeting the white-majority family audience were more acceptable to programmers at most radio and TV stations. For this reason singer-songwriter Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...
has called the cover version a "racist tool." Many parents in the 1950s - 60s, whether intentionally racists or not, felt deeply threatened by the rapid pace of social change. After all they had for the most part shared entertainments with their parents in ways that their own children had become reluctant to do. The jukebox and the personal record disc player
Dansette
Dansette was a British manufacturer of portable mono record players with a built-in speaker. Some models also had a BSR autochanger allowing several records to be loaded at once, and played in succession. It was first manufactured in 1952 and at least one million were sold in the 1950s and...
were still relatively expensive pieces of machinery - and the portable radio
Transistor radio
A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver using transistor-based circuitry. Following their development in 1954 they became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s...
a great novelty, allowing truculent teenagers to shut themselves off.
Tunes by introducing or "original" niche market artists which were then successful on the mass audience Hit Parade charts are called crossovers
Crossover (music)
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...
as they "crossed over" from the targeted Country, Jazz or Rhythm audience. Also, many songs originally recorded by male artists were rerecorded by female artists, and vice versa. Such a cover version is also sometimes called a cross cover version, male cover, or female cover. Incidentally, up to the mid-1930s male vocalists often sang the female lyrics to popular songs, though this faded rapidly after it was deemed decadent in Nazi Germany. Some songs like "If Only for One Night" were originally recorded by female artists but covered by mostly male artists.
Reworking non-English language tunes and lyrics for the Anglo-Saxon markets was once a popular part of the music business. For example, the 1954 worldwide hit The Happy Wanderer was originally Der fröhliche Wanderer
The Happy Wanderer
"The Happy Wanderer" is a popular song by Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller written shortly after World War II. It is often mistaken for a German folk song, but it is actually an original composition...
, to this must be added Hymne a l`amour, Mutterlein, Volare, Seeman, "Quando, Quando, Quando", L'amour est bleu, etc.
Modern cover versions
Cover versions of many popular songs have been recorded, sometimes with a radically different style, sometimes virtually indistinguishable from the original. For example, José FelicianoJosé Feliciano
José Feliciano is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad".-Childhood:...
's version of "Light My Fire
Light My Fire
"Light My Fire" is a song by The Doors which was recorded in August 1966 and released the first week of January 1967 on the Doors' debut album. Released as a single in April, it spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and one week on the Cash Box Top 100, nearly a year after...
" (recorded after the original had disappeared from sales charts) was distinct from The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
' version. Some producers or recording artists may also enlist the services of a sample replay company such as Scorccio, in order to replicate an original recording with precision detail and accuracy.
A song may be covered into another language. For example, in the 1930s, a recording of Isle of Capri
Isle of Capri (song)
"Isle of Capri" is a popular song.The music was written by Wilhelm Grosz , the lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy. The song was published in 1934....
in Spanish, by Osvaldo Fresedo
Osvaldo Fresedo
Osvaldo Fresedo , nicknamed El pibe de La Paternal was an Argentine songwriter and director of a tango orchestra. He had the longest recording career in tango, from 1925 to 1980.- Career :...
and singer Roberto Ray, is known. Falco
Falco (musician)
Johann Hölzel , better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper. He had several international hits: "Der Kommissar", "Rock Me Amadeus", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home " and posthumously, "Out Of The Dark"...
's 1982 German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-language hit "Der Kommissar" was covered in English by After the Fire
After the Fire
After the Fire are a British rock band that progressed from playing progressive rock to new wave over their initial twelve-year career, while having only one hit in the United States, and one hit in the United Kingdom .-Early career:Keyboard player Peter Banks originally formed the band in the...
, although the German title was retained. The English version, which was not a direct translation of Falco's original but retained much of its spirit, reached the Top 5 on the US charts. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh" and originally as "Mbube", is a song recorded by Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers,...
" evolved over several decades and versions from a 1939 Zulu
Zulu music
The Zulu are a South African ethnic group. Many Zulu musicians have become a major part of South African music. A number of Zulu-folk derived styles have also become well-known across South Africa and abroad.-Mbube and Isicathamiya:...
a cappella song. Many of singer Laura Branigan
Laura Branigan
Laura Ann Branigan was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-certified hit "Gloria" and in Europe for the number-one single "Self Control"...
's 1980s hits were English-language remakes of songs already successful in Europe, for the American record market. Numerable English-language covers exist of "99 Luftballons
99 Luftballons
"99 Luftballons" is a protest song by the German pop-rock band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. Originally sung in German, it was later re-recorded in English as "99 Red Balloons" for their album 99 Luftballons in 1984...
" by German singer Nena
Nena
Gabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...
(notably one by punk band Goldfinger
Goldfinger (band)
Goldfinger is a Los Angeles pop punk/ska punk band that formed in 1994. Currently, the band is composed of vocalist/guitarist John Feldmann, guitarist Charlie Paulson, bassist Kelly LeMieux, and drummer Darrin Pfeiffer...
), one having been recorded by Nena
Nena
Gabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...
herself following the success of her original German version. "Popcorn
Popcorn (instrumental)
"Popcorn" is an early electronic pop instrumental, originally composed by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 on his album Music to Moog By. The same year this tune was released and recorded at Audio Fidelity Records label in New York City....
", a song which was originally completely instrumental, has had lyrics added in at least six different languages in various covers. During the heyday of Cantopop
Cantopop
Cantopop is a colloquialism for "Cantonese popular music". It is sometimes referred to as HK-pop, short for "Hong Kong popular music". It is categorized as a subgenre of Chinese popular music within C-pop...
in Hong Kong in the late 1970s to early 1990s, many hits were covers of English and Japanese titles that have gained international fame but with localised lyrics (sometimes multiple sets of lyrics sung to the same tune), and critics often chide the music industry of shorting the tune-composing process.
Although modern cover versions are often produced for artistic reasons, some aspects of the disingenuous spirit of early cover versions remain. In the album-buying heyday of the 1970s, albums of sound-alike covers were created, commonly released to fill bargain bin
Bargain bin
A bargain bin refers to an unsorted selection of merchandise, particularly softwares, tools and CDs, which have been discounted in price. Reasons for the discount can range from the closure of a production company to a steep decline in an item's popularity in the aftermath of a fad or scandal....
s in the music section of supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s and even specialized music stores
Record shop
A record shop or record store is an outlet that sells recorded music. Although vinyl records and audio cassettes are no longer sold in the majority of music stores, in favour of compact discs and home video recordings products, people in some countries, like the UK, still use the term "record...
, where uninformed customer
Customer
A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
s might easily confuse them with original recordings. The packaging of such discs was often intentionally confusing, combining the name of the original artist in large letters with a tiny disclaimer like as originally sung by or as made popular by. More recently, albums such as the Kidz Bop
Kidz Bop
Kidz Bop is a brand of compilation albums featuring child session musicians performing contemporary music. The series was developed by Razor & Tie co-founders Cliff Chenfeld and Craig Balsam in 2001...
series of compact discs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, featuring versions of contemporary songs sung by children, have sold successfully.
In 2009 the American musical comedy-drama television series Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
debuted, featuring several musical performances per episode. The series featured solely cover songs until near the end of its second season with the episode "Original Song
Original Song
"Original Song" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the 38th episode overall. It was written by Ryan Murphy, directed by Bradley Buecker, and premiered on Fox in the United States on March 15, 2011...
". The series still primarily uses cover songs of both chart hits and show tunes, occasionally as mashups
Mashup (music)
A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
or distinct variations. The show's musical performances have been a commercial success, with over twenty-one million copies of Glee cast single releases purchased digitally, and over nine million albums purchased worldwide.
Updating older songs
Cover versions (as the term is now used) are often contemporary versions of familiar songs. For example "Singin' in the RainSingin' in the Rain (song)
"Singin' In the Rain" is a song with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown, published in 1929. However, it is unclear exactly when the song was written with some claiming that the song was written and performed as early as 1927. The song was listed as Number 3 on AFI's 100 Years.....
" was originally introduced in the film The Hollywood Revue of 1929
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is a 1929 part Technicolor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer American musical-comedy film. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of the earliest ventures into the talkie format. Produced by Harry Rapf and directed by Chuck Riesner, the film brought together some...
. The famous Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
version was a revision that brought it up to date for a 1950s Hollywood musical, and was used in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain. In 1978, it was covered by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
singer Sheila
Sheila (singer)
Sheila is a French pop singer, who became successful as a solo artist in the 1960s and 1970s and later fronted a disco act called Sheila and B. Devotion. Sheila has sold over 24,000,000 copies of records in France and was the top selling artist in France in the 1960s and 1970s...
accompanied by the B. Devotion group, as a disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
song, once more updating it to suit the musical taste of the era. During the disco era there was a brief trend of taking well known songs and recording them in the disco style. More recently "Singin' In the Rain" has been covered and remixed by British act Mint Royale
Mint Royale
Mint Royale is a big beat electronic music act from Manchester, England. They were originally founded by the duo Neil Claxton and Chris Baker in 1997; the latter left the band in 2004, but Claxton continues to produce music using the Mint Royale name.-Career:...
for a television commercial for Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
. Another example of this, from a different angle, is the tune "Blueberry Hill
Blueberry Hill (song)
"Blueberry Hill" is a popular song published in 1940 best remembered for its 1950s rock n' roll version by Fats Domino. The music was written by Vincent Rose, the lyrics by Al Lewis. It was recorded six times in 1940...
", many mistakenly believe the Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
1956 release to be the original recording and artist. In fact, it was originally introduced on film by Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
and popularised on the record Hit Parade of 1940
1940 in music
-Events:*July 20 - Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart".*May 27 - Quartetto Egie make their debut performance.*August - Edmundo Ros forms his own rumba band.*November 23 - Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet is premièred....
by Glenn Miller. The Fats Domino rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
version is the only one that might currently get widespread airplay on most media. Similarly, "Unchained Melody
Unchained Melody
"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. It has become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, by some counts having spawned over 500 versions in hundreds of different languages....
" was originally performed by Todd Duncan
Todd Duncan
Robert Todd Duncan was an American baritone opera singer and actor.-Biography:Todd Duncan was born in Danville, Kentucky in 1903. He obtained his musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis with a B.A. in music followed by an M.A...
, featured in the 1955 film Unchained
Unchained (film)
Unchained is a 1955 prison film based on the non-fiction book Prisoners are People by Kenyon J. Scudder. The film is most remembered for its theme song, "Unchained Melody", which was a #1 R&B hit for both Al Hibbler & Roy Hamilton in 1955, with Hibbler's version also reaching #3 on the Billboard...
(based on the non-fiction story Prisoners are People by Kenyon J. Scudder); Al Hibbler
Al Hibbler
Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...
having the biggest number of worldwide record sales for the vocal version with Jimmy Young's cover version rival outdoing this in the UK, Les Baxter's Orchestra gaining the big instrumentalist sales, reaching the US Hit Parade number one spot in May 1955, but The Righteous Brothers
The Righteous Brothers
The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They recorded from 1963 through 1975, and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003...
' later version (top five on the US Hit Parade of September 1965 stalling at number 14 in the UK in August) is by far the wider known version, and especially so following its appearance in the 1990 film Ghost
Ghost (film)
Ghost is a 1990 romantic drama film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.-Plot:...
.
Director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
has contemporised and stylised older songs for use in his films. New or cover versions such as John Paul Young
John Paul Young
John Paul Young is an Australian pop singer who had a 1978 worldwide hit with "Love Is in the Air"...
's "Love Is in the Air" occur in Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann and produced by M&A Productions. The film is the first installment in The Red Curtain Trilogy, Luhrmann's trilogy of theatre-motif-related films; the follow-ups were Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
, Candi Staton
Candi Staton
Candi Staton is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.-Early years:...
's "Young Hearts Run Free" appear in Romeo + Juliet, and adaptations of artists such as Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston
Thelma Houston is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She scored a number-one hit in 1976 with her cover version of the song "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.-Early life & career:Houston is the daughter of a cotton picking mother...
, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, T. Rex
T. Rex (band)
T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
and The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
are used in Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...
The covers are carefully designed to fit into the structure of each film and suit the taste of the intended audience.
Other artists release new versions of their own previous songs, like German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
singer Nena
Nena
Gabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...
who recorded an entire album with great success, with new versions of older hits. British singer Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1987 she had a major hit in the United States when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...
also re-recorded some old songs and returned to the top 20 with a remake off her big 1988 hit "You came
You Came
"You Came" is the second single from the Kim Wilde album Close.The single became one of the biggest hits of her long career. Although it did not continue her US success, it topped charts throughout Europe and reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart....
", in a 2006 version called "You came 2006".
Introduction of new artists
New artists are often introduced to the record buying public with performances of well known, "safe" songs as evidenced in American IdolAmerican Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
and its counterparts in other countries. It is also a means by which the public can more easily concentrate upon the new performer without the need to judge the quality of the songwriting skills.
However, some new artists have chosen to radically rework a popular song to exemplify their approach and philosophy to music. Prime examples include Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
's soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
reworking of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' originally-jaunty "With a Little Help from My Friends
With a Little Help from My Friends
-Joe Cocker version:Joe Cocker's version was a radical re-arrangement of the original, in a slower, 6/8 meter, using different chords in the middle eight, and a lengthy instrumental introduction...
", the band Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
's radical reconstruction of the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", or Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
's version of the Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
-Personnel:*Annie Lennox – vocals, keyboards, synthesisers, flute*David A. Stewart – guitar, keyboards, synthesisers, programming, backing vocals-Additional personnel:*Robert Crash - Guitar/ E-Drums/ Synth/ Robotic vocals...
". Many musicians have other goals, such as to create publicity as in Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
' notorious version of "My Way
My Way (song)
"My Way" is a song popularized by Frank Sinatra. Its lyrics were written by Paul Anka and set to music based on the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed in 1967 by Claude François and Jacques Revaux, with lyrics by Claude François and Gilles Thibault. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the...
".
Tributes, tribute albums and cover albums
Established artists often pay homage to artists or songs that inspired them before they started their careers or musicians who in some way helped them enter show business by recording their own versions of tunes associated with that artist (See, for example, I Remember TommyI Remember Tommy
I Remember Tommy... is an album by Frank Sinatra, released in 1961. It was recorded as a tribute to bandleader Tommy Dorsey, and consists of re-recorded versions of songs that Sinatra had first performed or recorded with Dorsey earlier in his career...
) or performing tunes associated with their favourite influential musician(s) in their own live performances for variety. For example U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
has performed ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
's "Dancing Queen
Dancing Queen
"Dancing Queen" is a pop song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in August 1976, but was first performed two months earlier, on 18 June 1976, during a Royal Variety Show in Stockholm the evening before the Swedish royal wedding. It was the follow-up single to the hit "Fernando"...
" live, and Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
has performed The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
's "Should I Stay or Should I Go
Should I Stay or Should I Go
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash, from their album Combat Rock. It was written in 1981 and featured Mick Jones on lead vocals. It became the band's only number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, a decade after it was originally released. In November...
" - songs that would be completely out of character for them to record, but which allow them artistic freedom when performing live. These performances are often released as part of authorised "live recordings".
Since the late twentieth century, unrelated contemporary artists have contributed individual reworkings of tunes to tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
s for well established artists who are considered to be influential and inspiring. This trend was spawned by Hal Willner
Hal Willner
Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...
's Amarcord Nino Rota
Nino Rota
Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
in 1981
1981 in music
See also:* Timeline of musical eventsThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1981.-January–April:*January 10 – A revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance opens at Broadway's Uris Theatre, starring Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith.*January 24 –...
. Typically, each project has resulted in a collection of the particular artist's best recognised or most highly regarded songs reworked by more current performers.
The soundtracks to the films I Am Sam
I Am Sam
I Am Sam is a 2001 American drama film written and directed by Jessie Nelson, and starring Sean Penn as a father with a developmental disability, Dakota Fanning as his inquisitive seven-year-old daughter, and Michelle Pfeiffer as his lawyer...
and Across the Universe
Across the Universe (film)
Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...
are examples of this: they consisted of Beatles songs redone by various contemporary artists. Some more notable examples are Conception: The Interpretation of Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
Songs; Common Thread an album of contemporary country artists performing hit singles by the Eagles; the Rhythm, Country and Blues
Rhythm, Country and Blues
-Production:*Produced By Tony Brown & Don Was*Executive Producers: Tony Brown, Al Teller, Kathy Nelson*Recorded, Engineered & Mixed By Bob Clearmountain*Mastered By Doug Sax-Personnel:*Drums: Kenny Aronoff, Ricky Fataar, Curt Bisquera, Paul Leim...
album where a country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
artist duets with a rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
artist on a standard of either genre. Two notable tribute albums to the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
are Wake the Dead, with Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
-style covers, and Might As Well, by The Persuasions
The Persuasions
The Persuasions are an a cappella group that began singing together in Brooklyn, New York in the mid 1960s. They have performed interpretations of both secular and non-secular music, and have covered a wide range of musical genres....
.
In some cases this proves to be popular enough to spawn a series of cover albums being released for a band, either under a consistent branding such as the two Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
Nativity in Black
Nativity in Black
Nativity in Black is the name of two Black Sabbath tribute albums that came out in the 1990s and 2000s. The albums were recorded with various heavy metal bands paying tribute to Black Sabbath for their influence on the heavy metal genre of rock music....
cover albums and the industrial themed "Blackest Album
The Blackest Album: An Industrial Tribute to Metallica
The Blackest Album: An Industrial Tribute to Metallica is the first in a series of tribute albums featuring various industrial and electronica bands covering songs of Metallica.-Track listing:# "Nothing Else Matters" - Apoptygma Berzerk...
" cover albums of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
songs, or in the form of releases from a number of different companies cashing in on the trend such as the many Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
cover albums released in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
itself is known for doing covers; their original album, Kill 'Em All
Kill 'Em All
Kill 'Em All is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on July 25, 1983. Since its release, it has been certified 3x platinum by the RIAA, having sold over 3 million copies in the United States alone.-Music:...
, included a couple of covers (Diamond Head
Diamond Head (band)
Diamond Head are an English heavy metal band formed in 1976 in Stourbridge, England. The band is recognised as one of the leading members of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and is acknowledged by later bands like Metallica and Megadeth as an important early influence.-Early history:Formed by...
's "Am I Evil?" and Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg (band)
Blitzkrieg are a heavy metal band from Leicester formed in 1980, consisting of Brian Ross , Ken Johnson , Guy Laverick , Paul Brewis and Phil Brewis ....
's "Blitzkrieg"), the original The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited
The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited
At the end of "Last Caress"/"Green Hell" are a few bars of Iron Maiden's song "Run to the Hills", but is played out of key. Iron Maiden responded to this on a b-side cover of the Montrose song titled "Space Station No...
was a collection of covers paying homage to a number of mostly obscure bands, which were later combined with additional new covers on the double album Garage Inc.
Garage Inc.
-Disc two:These tracks are a collection of B-sides from artists Metallica were inspired by, throughout the early years of the band.-Personnel:* James Hetfield – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar on "Whiskey In the Jar"...
, which among other things included covers of Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
("Sabbra Cadabra"), Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
("Turn the Page"), Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
("Astronomy"), Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate was a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen. Initially active from 1981 to 1985, they reunited in 1992. The band went on hiatus again in 2000, when frontman King Diamond decided to continue his solo career...
(a medley of different songs of the band), and numerous Motörhead tracks. In an interesting turn around there were even a couple of releases of The Metallic-era CDs collecting tracks from bands that Metallica had covered, both the original versions of the covered songs, and some additional songs by the same artist.
A different type of all-covers album occurs when one artist creates a release of covers of songs originally by many other artists, as a way to recognize their influences or simply as a change of pace or direction. An early example of this was David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's album Pin Ups
Pin Ups
- Personnel :* David Bowie – vocals, guitar, tenor and alto saxophone, harmonica, arrangements, backing vocals, Moog synthesizer* Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, vocals, arrangements* Trevor Bolder – bass* Aynsley Dunbar – drums- Additional personnel :...
, featuring songs from groups with which he had shared venues in the 1960s. Since these bands included The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
and The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
many of the tracks would have been at least familiar to his audience. Other more recent examples of this type of album include Renegades by Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
featuring covers of songs originally performed by diverse artists including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Afrikaa Bambaataa, and Erik B and Rakim, as well as the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Feedback
Feedback (Rush album)
Rhapsody praised the album, calling it one of their favorite cover albums. Allmusic reviewer Thom Jurek called the tracklist "amazing" and said "None of these tunes are done with an ounce of camp...
by Canadian rock band Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
. Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
' album Strange Little Girls
Strange Little Girls
Strange Little Girls is a concept album released by singer-songwriter Tori Amos in 2001. The album's 12 tracks are covers of songs written and originally performed by men, reinterpreted by Amos from a female's point of view. Amos created female personae for each track and was photographed as...
features covers of songs originally performed by male artists sung from the perspective of thirteen female characters she created (including a rather unexpected version of Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
's "Raining Blood
Raining Blood
"Raining Blood" is a song by the American thrash metal band Slayer. Written by Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King for the 1986 studio album Reign in Blood, the concept deals with religion, specifically said to be about overthrowing Heaven...
"). Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...
did albums with more covers than original songs, following the mould of Vanilla Fudge
Vanilla Fudge
Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band. The band's original lineup – vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalist Carmine Appice – recorded five albums during the years 1966–69, before disbanding in 1970...
. More rarely, bands will do an entire album of cover songs originally by a particular artist, such as The The
The The
The The are an English musical and multimedia group that have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer/songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member.-Early years :...
's Hanky Panky, which consists entirely of Hank Williams songs, or Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B band that was influential in shaping the sound of southern soul and Memphis soul. Original members of the group were Booker T. Jones , Steve Cropper , Lewie Steinberg , and Al Jackson, Jr....
' album McLemore Avenue
McLemore Avenue
McLemore Avenue is a 1970 album by Booker T. & the MGs consisting entirely of mostly instrumental covers of songs from the Beatles' album Abbey Road...
which was a cover of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' Abbey Road, or Russ Pay's tribute to Manchester legends Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
.
There are also bands who create entire albums out of covers, but unlike Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
-style traditional pop
Traditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
singers, they often perform the songs in a genre completely unlike the original songs. Examples include The Moog Cookbook
The Moog Cookbook
The Moog Cookbook is the name of an electronica band made up of Brian Kehew and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. as a parody/tribute to the novelty "Moog records" of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The duo performs exclusively on analog synthesizers, especially Moog synthesizers...
(alternative and classic rock songs done on Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
s), Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine
Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine
Mark Jonathan Davis , known by his stage name Richard Cheese, is an American musician and comedian. He was born in New York...
(top 40, including punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, teen pop
Teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....
and indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
performed in a Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
lounge lizard style), and Hayseed Dixie
Hayseed Dixie
Hayseed Dixie is an American band which began in the autumn of 2000 with the release of their first album, A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC. The band performs a mixture of cover versions of hard rock songs and original compositions in a style that is a unique fusion of bluegrass and rock music and are...
(a play on the name AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
, they started covering AC/DC songs and progressed to other classic rock, playing them as bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
songs, similar to The Gourds
The Gourds
The Gourds are an American alternative country band that formed in Austin, Texas during the summer of 1994.-Career:Primarily evolving from the Picket Line Coyotes and the Grackles, The Gourds original line-up consisted of Kevin Russell , Jimmy Smith , Claude Bernard , and Charlie Llewellin...
' version of "Gin and Juice".) Also notable are Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin is an American band best known for performing the songs of Led Zeppelin in a reggae style as sung by a 300 pound Vegas Elvis impersonator. Over the years they would also perform songs originally by Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and The Yardbirds. The group toured extensively around the...
, who take Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
songs and cover them in a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
fashion with the added twist of an Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
impersonation on the lead vocal; Nine Inch Elvis, who take Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
songs and rework them in an industrial fashion similar to Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
; and Beatallica
Beatallica
Beatallica is a mash-up band that plays music made from combinations of songs of The Beatles and Metallica. A Beatallica song is typically a blend of a Beatles song and a Metallica song with a related title Beatallica is a mash-up band that plays music made from combinations of songs of The Beatles...
, who "mix up" songs from The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
into Metallica-sounding songs with humorous lyrics referring to both bands' works.
In that same category, The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
have recorded only covers on their three most famous albums, Briefcase Full of Blues
Briefcase Full of Blues
-External links:* *...
, Made in America
Made in America (Blues Brothers album)
Made in America is the third album by The Blues Brothers. The second live album by the band, it was released in December 1980 as a followup to their hit film released that year, The Blues Brothers. Commercially and critically it did not fare as well as their previous two albums, 1978's Briefcase...
and the motion picture soundtrack The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
. They covered blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, R&B, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, country and rock'n'roll songs, but with their own particular, fresh and raw style of interpretation, a successful blend of the Memphis sound provided by MGs band members Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper , also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T...
and Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the New York City sound from the horn section (Alan Rubin
Alan Rubin
Alan Rubin , also known as Mr. Fabulous, was an American musician. He played trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet....
and Lou Marini
Lou Marini
Lou Marini, Jr. is an American saxophonist, arranger and composer. He is noted for his work in the jazz, rock, blues and soul music traditions.-Early life and range of musical experience:...
, for example). The outcome sometimes gave a new life to songs. Some became even more popular after The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
had played them, than before. The best example is "Soul Man
Soul Man (song)
"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, first successful as a #2 hit single by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave.-Song history and background:...
", more remembered as a hit by The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
rather than by the original singers, Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave were an American soul and rhythm and blues duo who performed together from 1961 through 1981. The tenor voice was Samuel David Moore , and the baritone/tenor voice was Dave Prater .Sam & Dave are members of...
. The same can be said of "She Caught the Katy
She Caught the Katy
"She Caught the Katy " is a blues standard written by Taj Mahal and James Rachell. The song was first recorded for Taj Mahal's 1968 album The Natch'l Blues, and is one of Mahal's most famous tunes...
" (originally written by Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
and Yank Rachell
Yank Rachell
James "Yank" Rachell was an American country blues musician, dubbed an "elder statesman of the blues."-Career:...
) and "Jailhouse Rock
Jailhouse Rock (song)
"Jailhouse Rock" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit for Elvis Presley. The song was released as a 45rpm single on September 24, 1957, to coincide with the release of Presley's motion picture, Jailhouse Rock...
" (sung by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
) or "Sweet Home Chicago
Sweet Home Chicago
"Sweet Home Chicago" is a popular blues standard in the twelve bar form. It was first recorded and is credited to have been written by Robert Johnson...
" (Robert Johnson), acknowledging the fact that covers can become even more famous than original performances.
Recent years have seen well-established artists (especially those mostly active in the 1980s) release cover albums, such as Poison
Poison (band)
Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. To date, Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100,...
(Poison'd!
Poison'd!
Poison'd! is the seventh studio album from the American glam rock/glam metal band Poison, released June 5, 2007. The 14-track album features recordings of Poison's favorite rock classics...
), Tesla
Tesla (band)
Tesla is an American hard rock band formed in Sacramento, California in 1984. They have sold 14 million albums in the United States.-Formation and Mechanical Resonance :...
(Real to Reel), Queensrÿche
Queensrÿche
thumb|250px|right|Queensrÿche's classic line-up performing at the [[Sauna Open Air Metal Festival]] 2011 in [[Tampere]], [[Finland]]. Left to right: bass Eddie Jackson, lead vocals Geoff Tate, drums Scott Rockenfield and guitars Michael Wilton....
(Take Cover), and Def Leppard
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
(Yeah!), revealing a wide range of musical influences.
Some cover albums take the unusual tack of doing classical versions of rock and metal songs. The unusual band Apocalyptica
Apocalyptica
Apocalyptica is a band from Helsinki, Finland, formed in 1993. The band is composed of classically trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu Kivilaakso and drummer Mikko Sirén...
which comprises four classical cellists started out performing classical arrangements of Metallica songs. In a similar vein, there have also been many string quartet tributes
The String Quartet Tribute
The Vitamin String Quartet is a group of Los Angeles musicians widely known for its series of tribute albums to rock and pop acts. Their albums are released through Vitamin Records and primarily performed by a string quartet, though other instruments have been used...
to popular rock and metal bands, most notably Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
, Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
, Breaking Benjamin
Breaking Benjamin
Breaking Benjamin is an American rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, currently consisting of Benjamin Burnley and Chad Szeliga. The band has released four studio albums to date and a greatest hits album that was released on August 16, 2011. The group initially went on indefinite hiatus due...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
/Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
, the Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
, Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
, the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, and even Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
.
One more type of cover album is when a cover of the entire album is done, rather than a collection of songs. A notable band to earn acclaim this way are the Easy Star All-Stars
Easy Star All-Stars
Originally formed as a studio band for the label's earliest recordings, Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective with a rotating roster of musicians and singers founded by the co-founders of New York City-based Easy Star Records in 1997...
, who covered The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
in their album Dub Side of the Moon
Dub Side of the Moon
Dub Side of the Moon is a dub reggae tribute to the Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon, co-produced by Easy Star All-Stars founder's Michael G and Ticklah . Dub Side of the Moon has remained on the Billboard Reggae Charts since its release in 2003...
and OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
by Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
in their album Radiodread
Radiodread
Radiodread is a 2006 album by the Easy Star All-Stars, a collaboration of reggae and ska artists. They have released one album previously, Dub Side of the Moon, a reggae take on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon...
. Both albums were radical departures from the original albums, being redone in reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
/dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
. Another album which radically remade an original album in a new genre is the 2001 Rebuild the Wall
Rebuild the Wall
Rebuild the Wall is a 2001 album by Canadian alternative country band Luther Wright and the Wrongs. The album is a cover of Pink Floyd's progressive rock classic The Wall, reimagining each track as a bluegrass country song.-Track listing:...
, in which Luther Wright and the Wrongs
Luther Wright and the Wrongs
-History:The band began as a side project for Wright when he was a member of Weeping Tile. When that band amicably parted ways following their 1998 recording This Great Black Night, the Wrongs became Wright's primary band. The band membership has shifted a number of times since its inception...
covered the entire double-album The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
as a country/bluegrass piece. Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven is an American alternative rock group formed in Redlands, California in 1983.An eclectic band, Camper Van Beethoven mixes elements of pop, ska, punk rock, folk and alternative country, as well as various types of world music. Their aggressive musical pluralism created a...
covered Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
's Tusk
Tusk (album)
Tusk is the 12th album by the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1979, it is considered experimental, primarily due to Lindsey Buckingham's sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of punk rock and New Wave on his production techniques...
album in its entirety. Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
's Record Club
Record Club
Record Club is a musical project initiated by Beck Hansen in June 2009.The purpose of the project is to cover an entire album by another artist in one day, using an informal and fluid collective of musicians...
project has covered The Velvet Underground and Nico, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Oar, Kick, and Yannii Live at the Acropolis by The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
, Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Skip Spence
Skip Spence
Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence was a Canadian-born musician and singer-songwriter. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's Oar, and then largely withdrew from the music industry...
, INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
, and Yanni
Yanni
Yanni , born Yiannis Hrysomallis is a Greek self-taught pianist, keyboardist, and composer who has spent most of his life in the United States.He earned Grammy nominations for his 1992 album, Dare to Dream, and the 1993 follow-up, In My Time...
, respectively.
Metal
Many up and coming bands in the metalHeavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
genre cover songs by their predecessors to gain public interest, although more established bands have also recorded covers. HammerFall
HammerFall
HammerFall is a power metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden. The band was formed in 1993 by ex-Ceremonial Oath guitarist Oscar Dronjak.- Early days :...
, Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
, Entombed
Entombed (band)
Entombed is a Swedish death metal band which formed in 1987 under the name of Nihilist. Though Entombed began their career as an early pioneer of Scandinavian death metal which initially differed itself from its American counterpart with its distinct guitar tone, by the early 1990s their sound had...
, Iced Earth
Iced Earth
Iced Earth is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida. Originally formed under the name "Purgatory" in 1984, Iced Earth has released a total of ten studio albums, one live album, three EP's, two compilations and boxsets...
, Between the Buried and Me
Between the Buried and Me
Between the Buried and Me is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina. They have released a total of five studio albums, as well as a cover album, an EP and a live DVD/CD...
, Overkill
Overkill (band)
Overkill is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1980 in New Jersey. They have gone through many line-up changes, with singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and bassist D.D. Verni remaining from the original lineup. Along with Anthrax , the band is one of the most successful East Coast thrash metal...
, Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
, Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
, Fozzy
Fozzy
Fozzy is an American heavy metal/hard rock band, formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999. Lead singer Chris Jericho , who is also a professional wrestler, resides in Florida, while the rest of the band lives in Georgia. The band is currently signed to Riot! Entertainment...
, and Def Leppard
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
have released entire albums of covers, for example. In specific subgenres of metal, covers generally reflect the genre the band is in. The Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band Mayhem
Mayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
have recorded several Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
covers, while Mayhem themselves have been covered many times: their song "Deathcrush
Deathcrush
Deathcrush is an EP by the influential Norwegian band Mayhem. It was released in 1987 and was the first studio release by any band of the Norwegian black metal scene. "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" was voted Most Gruesome Lyrics Ever by Blender Magazine. Though influential to black metal, its lyrics and sound...
" has been covered around 140 times, according to Encyclopaedia Metallum
Encyclopaedia Metallum
Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives is a website which lists bands from various forms of heavy metal music...
.
Another approach taken by several metal bands, including Children of Bodom
Children of Bodom
Children of Bodom is a Finnish heavy metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993, the group currently consists of Alexi Laiho , Roope Latvala , Janne Wirman , Henkka Seppälä , and Jaska Raatikainen...
, is to cover songs generally not listened to by metal fans, such as pop, punk, or classic rock songs. Children of Bodom's cover of Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
' "Oops! I Did It Again
Oops!... I Did It Again (song)
"Oops!... I Did It Again" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. The song was written and produced by Max Martin and Rami for Spears' second studio album, Oops!... I Did It Again . It was released on March 27, 2000 by Jive Records, as the first single from the album. "Oops!.....
" was originally recorded as an in-joke amongst the band members but ended up being released as a bonus track on one of their EPs, as well as Andrew W.K.
Andrew W.K.
Andrew W.K. is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, entertainer, and motivational speaker. He is the host of the television series Destroy Build Destroy.-Early life & career:Andrew Wilkes-Krier was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
's "She Is Beautiful
She Is Beautiful
"She Is Beautiful" is the second single released by Andrew W.K. in 2002. It contains four previously released tracks and the video for "She Is Beautiful". This song was used in the introduction of American Pie: Band Camp and also appears on the soundtrack to the films Out Cold and Freaky Friday . ...
". Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres...
has covered surf-rock hit "Surfin' USA
Surfin' USA (song)
"Surfin' USA" is a song with lyrics written by Brian Wilson for The Beach Boys, set to the melody from Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen". Berry received co-writing credit for composing the song after litigating. "Surfin' USA" was recorded by The Beach Boys and released as a single on March 4,...
" as well as 50's hit "Mr. Sandman
Mr. Sandman
"Mr. Sandman" is a popular song written by Pat Ballard which was published in 1954 and first recorded in that year by The Chordettes. The song's lyrics convey a request to "Mr...
" and oldies rock and roll staples "Barbara Ann
Barbara Ann
"Barbara Ann" is a song written by Fred Fassert and performed by The Regents in 1961. The recording reached a peak position of #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart....
" and "Long Tall Sally
Long Tall Sally
"Long Tall Sally" is a rock and roll 12-bar blues song written by Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, Enotris Johnson and Richard Penniman , recorded by Little Richard and released March 1956 on the Specialty Records label....
". Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Yngwie Johann Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became known for his neo-classical playing approach in heavy metal music which became a new musical style in the early 1980s.- Early life :...
covered ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ", originally titled "Been and Gone and Done It", is one of Swedish pop group ABBA's biggest disco hits. It was recorded and released in 1979 with "The King Has Lost His Crown" as the B-side. It appears on ABBA's Greatest Hits Vol...
" renamed "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Love After Midnight)" the song features the same lyrics, with minor edits, and the same music with a more powerful metal feel. Thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band Megadeth
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...
covered Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
Jessica Simpson recorded her own version of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" for the soundtrack to the film The Dukes of Hazzard . Simpson's cover was co-produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and was released as the soundtrack's first single in 2005)...
on their 1985 debut album Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!
Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!
Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! is the debut album by the American heavy metal band Megadeth, released in June 1985 through Combat and Relativity Records. During the beginning of 1985, the band was given $8,000 by Combat Records to record and produce their debut album, but this...
, but is more often recognized as a parody rather than a true cover, and is considered controversial because song writer Lee Hazelwood deemed Megadeth's version to be "a perversion of the original". Also, nu metal
Nu metal
Nu metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. It is a fusion genre which combines elements of heavy metal with other genres, including grunge and hip hop...
band Korn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
have covered Public Enemy's "Fight the Power
Fight the Power
"Fight the Power" is a single by American hip hop group Public Enemy. First released on the soundtrack for the film 1989 Do the Right Thing, a different version was released on the group's third studio album, Fear of a Black Planet . The single reached number one on Hot Rap Singles and number 20 on...
" for the xXx: State of the Union
XXx: State of the Union (soundtrack)
xXx: State of the Union is the soundtrack to the 2005 action film, xXx: State of the Union. It was released on April 26, 2005, through Jive Records and consisted of hip hop and alternative rock...
soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
; and Cameo
Cameo (band)
Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several...
's "Word Up!
Word Up! (song)
"Word Up!" is a funk/hip hop song written and originally recorded by Cameo in 1986. Due to its heavy play on American dance and R&B radio, as well as music video play on MTV , the single became the band's most well-known hit.From the album of the same name, "Word Up!" was Nick's first US Top 40...
" and Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's "Another Brick in the Wall
Another Brick in the Wall
"Another Brick in the Wall" is the title of three songs set to variations of the same basic theme, on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera, The Wall, subtitled Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3...
" for their Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Korn album)
-Bonus DVD: Live at CBGB's :-Chart positions:AlbumSingles...
compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
.
Hip-hop
In recent years, artists have begun covering hip-hopHip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
songs, most frequently in concert and typically in a style radically different to the originals. Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
, XV
XV
XV or Xv may refer to:* 15 in Roman numerals* XV , rapper from Wichita, Kansas, United States* XV , an album by King's X* Xv, a shareware image display and manipulation program for Unix...
, Busy Signal
Busy signal
A busy signal in telephony is an audible or visual signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection of that particular telephone call....
, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
Rock City
Rock City
Rock City is a roadside attraction near Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Lookout Mountain in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, located near Ruby Falls. It is well-known for the many barn advertisements throughout the Southeast and Midwest United States that have the slogan "See Rock City" painted on barn roofs...
have all recorded covers of hip-hop songs.
The band Mindless Self Indulgence
Mindless Self Indulgence
Mindless Self Indulgence is an American musical group formed in New York in 1997. Their music has a mixed style including rap, punk rock, alternative rock, electronica, techno and industrial...
recorded a cover of the song "Bring the Pain
Bring the Pain
"Bring the Pain" is a song recorded by the rap artist Method Man. It was the first single released from his debut album Tical.Comedian Chris Rock named his 1996 tour and television special "Bring the Pain" after this song...
" by Method Man
Method Man
Clifford Smith , better known by his stage name Method Man is an American hip hop artist, record producer, actor and member of the hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He took his stage name from the 1979 film The Fearless Young Boxer, also known as Method Man. He is one half of the rap duo Method Man...
in which they completely change the entire rhythm and sound of the song. The only part of the original song retained in their cover is the lyrics.
R&B
In R&B, remakes are common, often seen as tributes to the original artist. R&B artists such as Mary J. BligeMary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
have recorded several covers of legendary R&B artists like Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
(You Make Me Feel like) a Natural Woman
" A Natural Woman" is a 1967 single released by American soul singer Aretha Franklin on the Atlantic label. The record was a big hit for Franklin, reaching number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and became a standard song for her...
", Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
(Sweet Thing), and Rose Royce
Rose Royce
Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B band. The group is best known for several hit singles including "Car Wash," "I Wanna Get Next to You," "Wishing on a Star", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and "I'm Going Down".-Career:...
"I'm Going Down
I'm Going Down (Rose Royce song)
"I'm Going Down" is a Grammy Award-nominated 1977 R&B single written and produced by the late American singer-songwriter Norman Whitfield, as performed by R&B/soul band Rose Royce, the single is from the film, Car Wash and is featured on the film's soundtrack...
". In 1995 D'Angelo
D'Angelo
Michael Eugene Archer , better known by his stage name D'Angelo, is an American R&B and neo soul singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is known for his production and songwriting talents as much as for his vocal abilities, and often draws comparisons to his influences,...
remade "Cruisin'
Cruisin' (song)
"Cruisin" is a 1979 single written, produced, and recorded by Smokey Robinson for Motown Records' Tamla label. One of Robinson's most successful singles outside of his work with The Miracles, "Cruisin'" was a Top 10 Billboard Pop hit, peaking at number four not only on the Billboard Hot 100 but on...
" originally recorded by Smokey Robinson. K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci
Jodeci
Jodeci is an American band, whose repertoire includes R&B, soul music, and new jack swing. The group consists of two pairs of brothers from Hampton, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina: Cedric & Joel Hailey and Donald & Dalvin DeGrate, all respectively known by their stage names: K-Ci & Jojo,...
recorded a remake of "If You Think You're Lonely Now
If You Think You're Lonely Now
"If You Think You're Lonely Now" is a song recorded and released as a single by American soul singer-songwriter Bobby Womack in 1981. It was released from his album The Poet...
" by Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack
Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 40...
. Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
and various contemporary artists recorded and released a remake of "We Are The World
We Are the World
"We Are the World" is a song and charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World...
" for Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in February 2010. In 1994 Aaliyah
Aaliyah
Aaliyah Dana Haughton , who performed under the mononym Aaliyah , was an American R&B recording artist, actress and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside...
recorded a cover of The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...
classic "At Your Best (You Are Love)" on her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number
Age Ain't Nothing But a Number received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Some writers noted that Aaliyah's "silky vocals" and "sultry voice" blended with Kelly's new jack swing helped define R&B in the 1990s. Her sound was also compared to that of female quartet En Vogue...
. In 2001, Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Mýa
Mya
-A person:* Bo Mya , Chief Commander of the Karen National Union* Mýa , American R&B singer-songwriter and actress** Mýa , a 1998 album by Mýa-A code:* Burmese language, ISO 639-3 code is mya* Moruya Airport's IATA code...
, Pink
Pink (singer)
Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....
and Lil Kim recorded a remake of "Lady Marmalade
Lady Marmalade
"Lady Marmalade" was also covered by Italian pop star Sabrina. It was released in 1987 as the album's second single by Baby Records. In some countries, including France and the Netherlands, the song was known as "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? " and was released in 1988.-Track listings:7" maxi#...
", originally recorded by Labelle
Labelle
Labelle is an American all female singing group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the Philadelphia/Trenton areas, the Ordettes and the Del-Capris, forming as a new version of the former group, later changing...
, for the Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...
soundtrack.
Swamp pop
A type of cover version that existed from the early 1950s to the late 1970s in LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
was known as swamp pop
Swamp pop
Swamp rock is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns and black Creoles, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French...
. Contemporary and classic rock, R&B, and country songs were re-recorded with Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
audiences in mind. Some lyrics were translated to French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and some were recorded with traditional Cajun instrumentation. Several swamp pop songs charted nationally, but it was mostly a regional niche market.
New Age
The Taliesin OrchestraTaliesin Orchestra
The Taliesin Orchestra is a British musical group that specializes in remaking famous songs into orchestra-style melodies. The band's first album, Orinoco Flow: The Music of Enya, was a collection of songs originally created and sung by Enya; it was released in 1996...
specializes in remaking famous songs into orchestra-style melodies. Their debut album, Orinoco Flow: The Music of Enya, was a collection of songs originally created and sung by Enya
Enya
Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...
.
Indie
Independent artists sometimes create covers for songs done by other independent artists. Petra HadenPetra Haden
Petra Haden is an American violinist and singer. She is or has been a member of several bands, including That Dog, Tito & Tarantula, and The Decemberists; has contributed to recordings by The Twilight Singers, Beck, Mike Watt, Luscious Jackson, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age,...
has done several song covers, most notably, the song "Yellow
Yellow (song)
"Yellow" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with British record producer Ken Nelson for their debut album, Parachutes...
" by Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
. Youth Group
Youth Group
Youth Group are a rock band based in Newtown, Sydney, Australia signed to Ivy League Records.- Biography :Youth Group formed in Sydney in the late 1990s. They have released four albums in Australia, with the three most recent albums also gaining releases worldwide...
recorded a cover of the Alphaville
Alphaville (band)
Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold , Bernhard Lloyd , and Frank Mertens Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold (real name Hartwig Schierbaum,...
song "Forever Young
Forever Young (Alphaville song)
"Forever Young" is the title track from German rock/synthpop group Alphaville's 1984 debut album of the same name. Though it was not the group's highest-charting European hit and failed to reach the American Top 40 despite three separate U.S...
". Singer-songwriter Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
) is known for covering other musicians' songs in her own, unique style. Canadian indie artist Feist covered "Inside and Out
Inside and Out
"Inside and Out" is a single released in 2005 by Canadian singer Feist. It is the third single from her 2004 album Let It Die. The song is a cover of the Bee Gees' 1979 hit "Love You Inside Out".-Song information:...
" (originally by the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
) for her album Let It Die
Let It Die
-Personnel:* Gonzales – piano, various instruments* Feist – guitar, vocals* Julien Chirol – trombone* Frédéric Coudere – saxophone-Album:...
. Archangel have recently done a cover version of "Do It Again" by Steely Dan, and have released it as a single.
Punk
Hundreds of songs have been covered by punk/pop punk bands, including the bands RancidRancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
, Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, Burning Heads
Burning Heads
Burning Heads is a melodic hardcore punk rock band from Orleans, France. The group formed in the late '80s, and started out releasing records independently before signing with Play It Again Sam in 1994. They became more popular in America with the release of their 1998 record, Be One with the...
, and hundreds of others. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in 1995. The Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. The band is named after a children's book of the same name by Gerald G. Jampolsky and Diane V. Cirincione...
is a punk band that only does cover songs. BYO Records
BYO Records
BYO Records is a Los Angeles, California based independent punk rock record label created by Shawn and Mark Stern, two of the three brothers of the seminal California punk rock band Youth Brigade . BYO stands for Better Youth Organization and aims to promote punk and other alternative youth...
has also BYO Split Series with bands such as NOFX
NOFX
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
, Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...
, Rancid, Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio is an American punk rock band that formed in McHenry, Illinois, in 1996. The band's line-up consists of Matt Skiba , Dan Andriano , and Derek Grant...
, and The Bouncing Souls
The Bouncing Souls
The Bouncing Souls are a punk rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 1987. By the time of their acknowledgment by the national punk rock scene, they had reignited a "pogo" element to New Jersey punk rock by playing fast light-hearted songs, a model followed by various other local...
in which two bands on each disc cover each other's songs.
Since 2000, Fearless Records
Fearless Records
Fearless Records is an alternative rock-oriented record label that has been signing artists since 1994. Fearless is based in Westminster, California and are best known for their early pop-punk moments captured in the Fearless Flush Sampler and Punk Bites releases, as well as additional releases by...
has released a series of CDs in which various rock bands perform covers of songs from other genres or time-periods. The deviations from this theme are Punk Goes Acoustic
Punk Goes Acoustic
Punk Goes Acoustic is a compilation album released by Fearless Records as part of the Punk Goes... series. It contains a collection of both previously released and unreleased songs by various artists performing acoustically. It was packaged with a bonus CD showcasing acts on the Fearless and...
and Punk Goes Acoustic 2
Punk Goes Acoustic 2
Punk Goes Acoustic 2 is a compilation album included in the Punk Goes... series by Fearless Records that features previously unreleased and acoustic versions of songs from various pop punk bands. It follows the original Punk Goes Acoustic, which was released in 2003.-Track listing:...
(in which the featured bands recorded acoustic versions of their own songs); Punk Goes Pop 1
Punk Goes Pop
Punk Goes Pop is a compilation album part of the Punk Goes... series created by Fearless Records. It contains a collection of songs by various artists performing covers of pop songs. It was released on April 3, 2002.-Track listing:...
, 2
Punk Goes Pop 2
Punk Goes Pop 2 is the eighth compilation album released from the Punk Goes... series created by Fearless Records to feature covers by various artists of pop songs, and is the eighth album in the series overall. It was released on March 9, 2009, in the United Kingdom, and March 10, 2009, in the...
, 3
Punk Goes Pop 3
Punk Goes Pop 3 is the tenth compilation album released from the Punk Goes... series created by Fearless Records to feature covers by various artists of pop songs, and is the tenth album in the series overall...
and 4
Punk Goes Pop 4
Punk Goes Pop 4 is the twelfth compilation album in the Punk Goes... series. It is scheduled to be released on November 21, 2011 through Fearless Records. It is the fourth album in the Punk Goes Pop series. It contains a collection of modern pop music covers performed by various metalcore,...
; and Punk Goes Classic Rock
Punk Goes Classic Rock
Punk Goes Classic Rock is the ninth album in the Punk Goes... series, released by Fearless Records. It was released on April 27, 2010. This also features Your Love by The Outfield for the second time to be covered. And also has a Bonus Sampler CD with it...
.
Pop
Pet Shop BoysPet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
is one of the best example of covering other artists' song to becoming their own hits. They covered few songs and they became their hit, such as "Always on My Mind
Always on My Mind
"Always on My Mind" is an American country music song by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, originally recorded by Brenda Lee in 1972.Allmusic lists over 300 recorded releases of the song in versions by dozens of performers...
", "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)
Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)
"Where the Streets Have No Name " is a 1991 single by UK synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. The song is a medley of covers of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", the 1960s single by Frankie Valli, though in an arrangement informed by the 1981 disco version of the song...
", "Somewhere
Somewhere (song)
"Somewhere" is a song from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story which was made into a film in 1961. The music is composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and takes a phrase from the slow movement of Beethoven's 'Emperor' Piano Concerto, which forms the start of the...
", "Go West
Go West (song)
"Go West" is a song by the 1970s disco group Village People. The song eventually found greater success when it was covered in 1993 by the synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys.-Village People version:...
", etc.
See also
- Appropriation (music)Appropriation (music)In music, appropriation is the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new piece, and is an example of cultural appropriation....
- Compilation albumCompilation albumA compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
- Compulsory licenseCompulsory licenseA compulsory license, also known as statutory license or mandatory collective management, provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of arbitration.- Copyright law :In a number of countries...
- Ed StarinkEd StarinkEd Starink , also known as Star Inc., is a Dutch composer, arranger, session musician and record producer. Since his childhood he was fascinated by music and taught himself to play many musical instruments....
- Joe CockerJoe CockerJohn Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
- WhoSampledWhoSampledWhoSampled is a website and database of information about sample-based music founded in London, United Kingdom.WhoSampled is an online sample-based music databases of music that compares original songs with covered songs or songs that "borrowed" samples, it serves as a historical line of where...
- MashupMashup (music)A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
- Parody musicParody musicParody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics — or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the result is often funny, and this is the usual intent — the term "parody" in musical terms also...
- RemixRemixA remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
- RepriseRepriseReprise is a fundamental device in the history of art. In literature, a reprise consists of the rewriting of another work; in music, a reprise is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the...
- SamplingSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
- Tribute act
- RemakeRemakeA remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
- MuseMuse (band)Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
- List of artists who have covered The Beatles
- List of Grateful Dead covers
- Traditional pop musicTraditional pop musicTraditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
, Jazz standardJazz standardJazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
, List of blues standards
External links
- "Cover This: What Makes for a Definitive version?", Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
(March 12, 2008) - Lifting the cover, a March 24, 2009 article from the Arkansas Democrat-GazetteArkansas Democrat-GazetteThe Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...
Northwest Edition. Accessed 2009-04-14 - Using cover song versions legally, US Music Copyright Laws from cleverjoe.com
- Metamuse - Remix and cover song database