Let’s talk about “cover versions”

[davey]

The subject has come up on two different threads this week. One is in the 70’s project thread where Loveless points out that songs like Summer Breeze and Strawberry Letter 23 are kind of a last gasp of the era in which a good song might be covered by dozens of artists.

The other thread is the one that starts with Mandy Moore doing Senses Working Overtime.

I think there’s a difference between the way the Isley’s covered Summer Breeze vs. Mandy Moore’s record. Essentially, the Isley’s are covering a song. Moore is covering XTC in a way similar to Peter Cetera donning a Bauhaus t-shirt. There’s an attempt at credibility theft going on, isn’t there?

When and how did it start happening that artists started covering bands, genres and/or cultural touchstones more often than actual songs? Or is that just my imagination?

[adamcoan]

When and how did it start happening that artists started covering bands, genres and/or cultural touchstones more often than actual songs?

From the get go. White mens blues, Elvis. I dunno, since my dear old mammy.
Credibility,homage and opportunity. It ain't nothing new.

[Sneelock]

Steve and Edie started it.



there's really no way to know, is there? maybe somebody told Steve and Edie to get with it and play something the kids would like. maybe Steve and/or Edie really liked "Can't Buy Me Love". Maybe Mandy Moore wanted to impress her boyfriend and maybe she actually liked XTC. it could happen!

[Sneelock]

How come I only recently found out that Joe South wrote & performed "Hush"?

I've heard Deep Purple & Billy Joe Royal. some posers in the 90's charted with it.I've even heard it in FRENCH!

I like Joe South. I was surprised!

so, if he didn't record it first, WHICH is the cover?

Elvis Costello said that HIS version of Shipbuilding was the cover since he WROTE it for Robert Wyatt.
is Elvis Costello full of shit?

[loveless]

Feb 28, 2024 19:48:19 GMT Sneelock said:

is Elvis Costello full of shit?

Generally, yes.

Possibly not, in this one instance.

[DarknessFish]

I'm not sure about the credibility theft idea, it might be an idea, but is there any proof it ever worked? I don't think Paul Young's critical acclaim soared after Love Will Tear Us Apart.

There are probably more examples of an underground band going in unexpected directions with a cover. The Sisters Of Mercy's Jolene is fairly straight-faced, and their version of Hot Chocolate's Emma is deadly serious.

[Charlie O.]

As I understand it, the term "cover version" originally meant somebody rushing out a version of a record that was already currently out and making some noise - whether hoping theirs would sell more than the other artists', or a white artist covering a black artist, or a pop artist covering a country artist (i.e., Tony Bennett's bestselling version of Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart" - which prompted the song's author to call Bennett demanding who the hell he thought he was, ruining his song?), and like that. It was not unusual in the '40s and '50s for multiple artists to have a hit with the same song at the same time.

So yeah, like Jimmy sez, these aren't new questions.

Most of the time, I don't have much use for someone basically just copying someone else's record. In Moore's case, I can believe that she just wanted to sing the song, and/or maybe even thought it was catchy enough to be a hit for a new audience, and that's fine - I don't need it, but maybe somebody else did. But I generally prefer the artist to find something new in a familiar song, to make it more personal to THEM. (That said, I never cared for the Isley's "Summer Breeze". I can respect it, I just don't like it much.)

And since Snee asked: yeah I'll buy that EC's version of "Shipbuilding" is a cover - the song really was tailored specifically for Wyatt from the outset.

[rayge]

Feb 29, 2024 0:30:18 GMT Charlie O. said:

As I understand it, the term "cover version" originally meant somebody rushing out a version of a record that was already currently out and making some noise - whether hoping theirs would sell more than the other artists', or a white artist covering a black artist, or a pop artist covering a country artist (i.e., Tony Bennett's bestselling version of Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart" - which prompted the song's author to call Bennett demanding who the hell he thought he was, ruining his song?). It was not unusual in the '40s and '50s for multiple artists to have a hit with the same song at the same time.

I've been banging that drum for a while now. When I were a lad, and it were all Gracie Fields around here cover was something quite specific, such as ghost covers, where white bread artists (Pat Boone I'm looking at you) put out tame versions of songs by black artists, or some local hero rushing out a version of something that's already a hit in another country/state: what they wre about were trying to take sales from the original versions. They were essentially competitive. When someone recorded another person's song a while after, or a standard - Elvis doing Hound Dog, for instance, they were called 'versions', not covers.
But that linguiistic ship has sailed now, I think. Pity, really, although it's only really a thing in history now, at least in the UK, as there's instant access globally tomost stuff.

[DayoRemix]

Feb 28, 2024 21:35:22 GMT DarknessFish said:

I'm not sure about the credibility theft idea, it might be an idea, but is there any proof it ever worked? I don't think Paul Young's critical acclaim soared after Love Will Tear Us Apart.

There are probably more examples of an underground band going in unexpected directions with a cover. The Sisters Of Mercy's Jolene is fairly straight-faced, and their version of Hot Chocolate's Emma is deadly serious.

Simply Red with "Money's too tight to mention" and "If you don't know me by now" sold big time and garnered decent critical notice, establishing his brand of light weight, white boy soul as the standard of the period, so I guess it worked...Once?..The aforementioned Paul Young at least scored financially by stealing the bland thunder of Hall & Oats with "Everytime you go away"