My theory: When an artist releases an album of covers, it kills the zeitgeist of their career (for lack of better phrasing).

Consider George Michael's covers album. Sinead's covers album (which I really like, but that's another story). Duran Duran's covers album. Annie Lennox's covers album (which might be the most successful of the bunch).

Has a covers album ever boosted or supplemented a pop artist's career in this day and age?

Just a thought I had recently...

Hmmm...I can't think of many off hand, but The Isley Brothers' cover album Givin' It Back actually jumpstarted their '70s rock/funk era. It featured their version of Love the One You're With that did just about as well as the original did.

The only career-killer there is the Sinead one. Annie went double platinum and George's career was already in the shitter when he released that.

Anxiety said:

Define 'this day and age'. Didn't Bowie's 'Pin Ups' do okay? And I think the Banshees' 'Through The Looking Glass' wasn't the worst album they released. But those were long ago. I can't think of any recently that really put an artist's name on the map.

sextonseven said:

do try to keep in mind the fact that i'm not making an argument. i'm just asking a question. i'm probably wrong.

i don't think that 'pin-ups' was a smashing success, but at the time bowie was releasing a couple of albums a year, so the stakes were probably a bit different.

and by 'this day and age', let's just say the rock era, or a little more specifically, the 'pop' era (post beatles, perhaps?).

and don't forget duran duran's 'thank you' album. they had enjoyed a pretty sweet comeback with the wedding album, and after 'thank you' tanked, they've never really been able to get a good momentum back.

I just thought of one. Rod Stewart has recently struck gold (or platinum) with his albums of standards. They were so successful he released them three times. Sure, his career was already established, but these three albums provided him with a bit of a comeback.

that's true! and they're crap, to boot!

of course, it could be argued that these aren't merely covers album for the sake of releasing covers albums, but they've served as a way for ol' rod to repurpose his career from sleazy rock skag to smooth retro-lounge crooner that can be marketed to aging boomers who wanna see the stars of their wild days mellow into something "classy"...did that make any sense?

but technically, you are right. good example.

How about Rod Stewart? His album proir to those "American Songbook" only debuted at 50 and then went nowhere after that. And then he released these albums and each one did better than the next (I think the last one was his first number one album or first number one album in a great many years). In that case, he certaintly isn't reinventing the wheel or having any hit singles, but it certaintly helped his careeer and I wouldn't be shocked if when he releases a new new original album (he's always done a number of covers here and there, but the "Songbook" CDs are all covers, so I mean any album with new songs) it probably will at least debut better than number 50.


Shit, Sexoteen beat me to it....I ain't deleting this though....

To go with Anxeity's argument, I would consider adding Tori Amos "Strange LIttle Girls". I wouldn't say it killed her career but was her first real album to under perform (and I don't think "Scarlet's Walk" performed much better).

VinnyM27 said:

yes! i was thinking about that album last night - in fact, it's what got me on this tangent. i saw a poster in tower for tori's new album, and i remembered when a new album by her would be considered an 'event', and people would get excited about it...now she has a new album AND a book out, and i'm barely hearing about it. what happened? and i tried to trace when she started to taper off in popularity, and i figured it was around the time her covers album came out...which made me think of all the other less-than-smashing-success cover albums that have come out....

Anxiety said:

I'm not sure if it was quite suicide but I remember buying that album and I wasn't excatly a huge Tori fan either but was very dissapointed by it and am now pretty wary of buying her stuff. The only album from her that I have and really like is "Choirgirl".

Anxiety said:

good question. one that comes to mind is this here:



Natalie Cole didn't have a big chart success for years and stepped back into the spotlight with "Unforgettable"

mabye there's more examples, I'll think if I can come up with some others... but you're right Anx, in most cases those albums failed

I liked Joan Osbourne's covers cd.

Anxiety said:

interesting that you're not hearing about it... There was a prominent review in USA Today yesterday (very positive, as well), and it's the featured new release this week at many large chains, including Borders. There has been alot of media attention about it. The book is #14 on the NYT Bestseller List.

As for Strange Little Girls, it debuted in the Top 10, like all of her albums have since she first hit after Little Earthquakes.

Strange Little Girls was a project designed to give the fans something new and interesting, without giving Atlantic Records any new compositions. Atlantic had all but abandoned her at that point, and they were openly warring. Atlantic did VERY little to promote the record. Tori already was ready to sign with Epic when SLG was recorded and released, and in fact Epic was so excited about the SLG project that they offered Atlantic a very substantial sum of $$$ to purchase the project. Atlantic refused. To the delight of everyone involved in the project, despite the paltry promotion, it debuted in the Top 10, and created enough buzz and leveredge that Tori was able to sign a very favorable deal with Epic/Sony.

So I wouldn't classify SLG as a failure in any way. In fact, she followed it up with Scarlet's Walk, another Top 10 success with the biggest radio hit, A Sorta Fairytale, of her career, and the most successful tour of her career.

JonSnow said:

I'm curious, where did it go after its debut? A lot of unsuccessful albums debut high and then take a quick tumble. I'm not wholly familiar with Tori's chart history, so I don't know if it did well after this.

I LOVED George Michael's "Songs From The Last Century", and never understood why people hate on this CD so much. You can actually hear his voice loud and clear, its not drowned out with trendy dance beats and goofy vocoder effects. He does very classy and lively covers of each song.

Joni's "Both Sides Now" was a mixed bag. I feel like I'm in a coma by the time I finish listening to it, not in love.

Chaka's new one, I only listened to it a few times. Nothing really stood out for me. I'll have to give that one another whir...

RipHer2Shreds said:

I'm not sure. I just know that from reading Tori's book, they were thrilled and surprised at SLG's success in the face of Atlantic basically ignoring the project, and preventing Epic from purchasing it and promoting it properly, and its success helped in negotiations with Epic.

JonSnow said:

Actually, I stand corrected. All of Tori's CDs since LE have not debuted in the Top 10. To Venus and Back, the double CD set, debuted at #12.

Strange Little Girls, the follow-up, and her last w/ Atlantic Records, debuted at #4 in the US.

VoicesCarry said:

Pun intended, I hope.

A year earlier his Best Of had settled itself at no.1 for eight weeks in the UK so he was still doing pretty good in certain markets. And Older was a huge album over here, too. It spent almost two years in the top 75 so I don't think it's fair to say his career was "in the shitter".

JonSnow said:

I was just about to correct you on that.

In general, I find cover-albums to be lazy.....you get bored real fast. Ofcourse there are exceptions, check out 'Let There Be Rockgrass' by Hayseed Dixie, www.hayseed-dixie.com

"Beatles for sale" was released in December 1964 with 50% covers ('cuz they ran out of good songs by then); their career never recovered from this misstep

Tom said:

I agree with you Tom. GM's covers cd was fantastic. He did all the songs so beautifully and his voice never sounded better.

Chaka's latest is just ok. Her voice sounds good, but the songs don't move me in any way.

JonSnow said:

Being a big Tori fan, I'm always excited when she's got a new CD coming. When I heard SLG would be a covers album, I was even more excited, as she'd done a lot of amazing covers up to that point ("Losing my religion" and "smells like teen spirit" are two of my favorites by her). I guess I was too excieted, as, after listening to it I thought it the worst album I'd ever heard. After hearing about the situation, I wonder if she intentionally (or subconciously) sabatoged the project...

jackflash said:

Yeah, but other than Hard Day's Night, their first couple of albums all had a fair few covers. The Stones were just as bad as the Beatles when it came to covers. Their first few albums were really cover heavy also.

amyhr said:

This was proof to me of what I already suspected. Covers are better reserved for singles and live performances. She was such a master at them. I was expecting a lot more out of SLG as well. It's good, but not great like it should've been.

GangstaFam said:

I love SLG. No, it's not as good as her original material, but I think there are some amazing things on it. I admire the fact that she gave her all and tried to make something interesting and different, rather than just do a standard covers album. I look at the album as a gift to the fans, since she really couldn't do an album of original material at the time. I don't think it works 100% of the time, but it was a fascinating project, IMO.

GangstaFam said:[quote]

amyhr said:

now, there are some songs that deserved to be covered...Simply Red does a great job of unearthing forgotten classics and reinterpreting them...the whole idear of covering someone's signature song is lost on me....

and im sorry but releasing an album of covers is just down right lazy!!! but if your gonna do it at least have a theme (like natalie's, bab's the broadway album)....

i hated that lennox followed up her smashing debut with Medusa....and while it might have been a hit in the UK it flopped in the states...

sosgemini said:

The thing is, I adored Medusa and all its b-sides. It took years for me to fully appreciate it. At the time I was disappointed. Not now.