By cover record, I don't mean a current artist doing a song that was a hit in 1967. By civer record, I mean the same song being released a few months after a song is a hit. There was a time in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s that this was common practice. Some songs would even battle it out on the Billboard Charts.

Smooth jazz acts do it all the time, although they're generally instrumental with maybe some female background singers doing the hook only. There's this:

They do it, it is called Muzack.

"If You Need Me" was originally done by Wilson Pickett. Solomon Burke released a version shortly after. Picket's version out first was #64 Pop and was passed up on the charts by Burke at #37. The same on the other side, #30 by Picket was passed up by Burke, almost topping the charts at #3.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

By cover record, I don't mean a current artist doing a song that was a hit in 1967. By civer record, I mean the same song being released a few months after a song is a hit. There was a time in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s that this was common practice. Some songs would even battle it out on the Billboard Charts.

Correct me if Im wrong, wasnt that practice steeped in racism or what record labels saw as the un-marketability or appeal of black artists?

If a song was undeniably great and had success or was well recieved it was sent to a white artist to re-record?

and the practise was also applied to any artist who had a great song but the label saw potential to make more money by having another more mainstream friendly artist record it?

If not what was the artistic merit of doing such a thing?

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[Edited 10/26/15 3:08am]

2freaky4church1 said:

They do it, it is called Muzack.

Muzack is at least a remake or interpretation.

What the OP is talking about is the practice of labels getting someone to re-create something to what appears to be simply for the purpose of replacing another which they have deemed unmarketable.

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[Edited 10/26/15 2:47am]

hausofmoi7 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

By cover record, I don't mean a current artist doing a song that was a hit in 1967. By civer record, I mean the same song being released a few months after a song is a hit. There was a time in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s that this was common practice. Some songs would even battle it out on the Billboard Charts.

Correct me if Im wrong, wasnt that practice steeped in racism or what record labels saw as the un-marketability or appeal of black artists?

If a song was undeniably great and had success or was well recieved it was sent to a white artist to re-record?

and the practise was also applied to any artist who had a great song but the label saw potential to make more money by having another more mainstream friendly artist record it?

If not what was the artistic merit of doing such a thing?

.

[Edited 10/26/15 3:08am]

That practice was followed by black artists too. Aretha Franklin's "Respect" follows Otis Redding's and the Vagrants' by less than a year. Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight have their versions of "Grapevine" on the chart at the same time.

There are also examples of Pat Boone doing whitened-up versions of "Tutti Frutti" and what not, during the 50s. Or songs like "Work With Me Annie" changed into "Dance With Me Henry". where it looks like they are trying to produce a safe white version of an R&B record. That did happen but I don't think that goes on much past the early 60s. White kids are buying black music by then. And by the mid 60s you have black artists doing their own take on popular songs by the Beatles and the Stones.

What was the artistic merit? Well... they were trying to have hit records. They woulda put out martian songs if they thought they would sell.

[Edited 10/26/15 11:55am]

You do have the recent example of Ryan Adams doing every song on "1989" and releasing it as an album... he was on Colbert doing it last month.

hausofmoi7 said:

I think today, remakes tend to happen more with jazz singers, than in Top 40. Since rap has been the main popular music over the last 20 years in the US, most of those songs don't really make sense in a remake. They're pretty much tied to the original act. Someone else doing Laffy Taffy wouldn't sound right. I think some of the younger audience consider remakes as ripoffs, but don't feel the same about sampling. Also I think Youtube singers are the ones doing the covers now. I don't know how many Hey Ya's are out there

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In the old days, records didn't last that long, and there were a lot of indie labels. This is where the remakes came from. The major labels were releasing showtune albums and crooner records like Johnny Mathis & Rosemary Clooney. That's the difference in the records Aretha Franklin did for Columbia (a major) and Atlantic (then an independent). Pre-1970s acts generally released 2 or 3 albums a year. They didn't milk them for 2 years like Thriller. Some of the indie records only became regional hits, so did not hit nationwide. They did not have the big money to get them elsewhere. So another version can become a hit in another part of the country.

bobzilla77 said:

You do have the recent example of Ryan Adams doing every song on "1989" and releasing it as an album... he was on Colbert doing it last month.

Yeah! I think it's excellent.

bobzilla77 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

As recent as the mid 80s cover tunes were the nirm I think. LaToya Jackson doin Princes Private Joy.

Was that a single? The answer song was somewhat popular too like Richard "Dimples" Fields or those UTFO Roxanne offsprings.

MickyDolenz said:

NorthC said:

Private Joy by Prince was never a single (unless I missed a one off release in a faraway country). And "answer" songs, that's also a good one, like P writing Rock & Roll Is Alive (And It Lives In Minneapolis) in response to Lenny Kravitz' Rock & Roll Is Dead.

I was talking about LaToya's version.

MickyDolenz said:

MickyDolenz said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

As recent as the mid 80s cover tunes were the nirm I think. LaToya Jackson doin Princes Private Joy.

Was that a single? The answer song was somewhat popular too like Richard "Dimples" Fields or those UTFO Roxanne offsprings.

Only in Japan: