There was a time, up until the mid 80s’ where cover records were very common. And I mean very common. Artist were putting out complete albums of recent hits. It’s not done so much now if at all, why is that?

Artist from the 50’s to the 80s’ would cover the popular tune on the charts. And, they would cover it while it would sometime still be climbing the charts. I started this thread with the state “There Was a Time” on purpose. That title is a famous James Brown tune. Released as a single in late 1967, it peaked at #3 Soul and #36 Pop. Gene Chandler covered the track the next year to a #22 Soul showing.

What happened where this went out of style? Why aren’t the top starts today doing each others material?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

There was a time, up until the mid 80s’ where cover records were very common. And I mean very common. Artist were putting out complete albums of recent hits. It’s not done so much now if at all, why is that?

Artist from the 50’s to the 80s’ would cover the popular tune on the charts. And, they would cover it while it would sometime still be climbing the charts. I started this thread with the state “There Was a Time” on purpose. That title is a famous James Brown tune. Released as a single in late 1967, it peaked at #3 Soul and #36 Pop. Gene Chandler covered the track the next year to a #22 Soul showing.

What happened where this went out of style? Why aren’t the top starts today doing each others material?

'Cause it ain't worth covering.

purplethunder3121 said:

well, ryan adams just covered the entire taylor swift album "1989",
and he did a pretty good job too. (i'd never heard the swift version
until after ryan's cover).

Many hits in the modern era have been rap, and rap songs generally are tailored to whoever is performing it and don't really make sense with someone else remaking it (other than Weird Al ). Rap also seems to place a lot of importance on the rapper writing his or her own lyrics, hence looking down on rappers using ghostwriters. Nobody cared if Frank Sinatra or The Spinners wrote their own lyrics or not or if singers from decades ago sang the same standards. I think in the past there were easy listening singers and orchestras who remade current hits for a different audience like Jim Nabors and Percy Faith Orchestra. This includes the George Martin versions of Beatles songs, like on the USA version of the Hard Day's Night soundtrack. They were the kind of acts that you'd see on the Lawrence Welk Show.

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There's the case that songs on some radio stations today are played every 20 or 30 minutes, so there's already overkill and probably people don't want to hear another version. Also on Youtube, there's many people singing the songs in their bedrooms or playing the bass line or a guitar of some song. There's got to be hundreds of versions of OutKast's Hey Ya!. So that's the new cover record. Like this:

IstenSzek said:

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A relevant and relatively popular example of the previous decade would be Mark Ronson's Version album. Not all covers on it were based on then-recent songs, but two of the singles that promoted the album were: Oh My God, featuring Lily Allen and originally by Kaiser Chiefs, and most notably Valerie, with Amy Winehouse on vocals, originally performed by The Zutons. The latter single had so much success that it completely eclipsed the original to the point where most people do not even realize it's a cover.

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Also, Daniel Merriweather <3<3<3 (and yes, I realize this Smiths song was already 20 years old when Version came out)

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It's morph into sampling............

could be two things

- more artists write their own song

- the costs involved in compulsery license fees

A lot of the older older rock era acts started out releasing covers of R&B & blues songs, like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, etc. There were acts known for covering songs like Vanilla Fudge, 5th Dimension, Rare Earth, and Luther Vandross. Even today it's the veteran artists that usually release covers albums or participate in tribute albums. It's a different time than in the past. Back then it was possible to have hit singles with instrumental songs. But a Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass type of group wouldn't get airplay today on Top 40.

alandail said:

- the costs involved in compulsery license fees

It probably costs more to sample a song than to remake one, especially if the song contain multiple samples. Jazz perferformers today still remake songs and for the most part, jazz doesn't sell much, nor gets Top 40 airplay. I hear zydeco covers today too, and zydeco is probably less popular than jazz. So the costs can't be that much of a reason.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

IstenSzek said:

well, ryan adams just covered the entire taylor swift album "1989",
and he did a pretty good job too. (i'd never heard the swift version
until after ryan's cover).

That's true but it's anything but common in this day and age. I mean you're never gonna see Alicia Keys do a cover of a recent Mary J song.

oh no, i didn't mean to imply that either. i was just saying ryan did it.

i would like it if more artists did. it would be pretty cool. perhaps they
cover each others songs more often in concert? i don't know i'm not
that up to date these days, i'm getting too old i guess

I'd like to see someone do a "Best of Bieber" covers album in 10 years...

I've thought about this myself and the biggest conclusion i came to is because artists realized they don't make much money as artists, so they either have to write or co-write their songs to get paid more. Even if they don't actually write any part of the song, they'll still get paid for that.

I don't quite understand this thread. Many artists record cover albums.

However, they tend to record older songs, not songs that are on the chart right now.

I don't see what is so great about covering currently popular songs and why that should be missed. I think it's a good thing if a current artist can cover an older song that their fans may not be familiar with and make people aware of songs and artists they might not otherwise listen to.

Glindathegood said:

I think it's a good thing if a current artist can cover an older song that their fans may not be familiar with and make people aware of songs and artists they might not otherwise listen to.

I don't think that usually works, because many people don't know a lot of Whitney Houston songs were covers. Because she tended to remake obscure songs instead of old hits. Maybe people who heard the originals would know, but unless it's pointed out it's a remake, the average person doesn't know or care.

Glindathegood said:

people are more focused on writing their own these days. Album cuts area different sotry thoguh many like to do covers just as a album cut like Rihanna did with "Same Ol' Mistakes" or Mariah with "One More Try" recently.

Dubstep and EDM DJs recently have been remixing alot of 90s hits though like "Pony" and "This Is How We Do It" and "Alone No More" and turning it into hits.

Youtube happened. Get with it.

alphastreet said: