MotownSubdivision said:

On another tangent, it's kinda intriguing how today's names never cover each other's music. Back in the day there could be 2 or more versions of the same song getting airplay around the same time. An artist could take an obscure, unknown song and make a hit out of it (i.e. "Always Something There to Remind Me", "Tainted Love","I Will Always Love You", Huey Lewis and the News' "Heart and Soul") and if the song was a hit in the past, could bring it back to relevance (i.e. "Keep Me Hanging On", Phil Collins' "Can't Hurry Love") or possibly make a bigger hit out of it (i.e. "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "War", "Superstition" etc.). At worst, if the cover wasn't a hit, it provided a different flavor in which to enjoy the song. That doesn't happen anymore.

It happens sometimes but it usually just promotional or in concert. I think sampling culture changed "the cover".

Here is BANKS covering Aaliyah (RIP), Static Major (RIP), and Timbaland's "Are You That Somebody".

Cinny said:

MotownSubdivision said:

On another tangent, it's kinda intriguing how today's names never cover each other's music. Back in the day there could be 2 or more versions of the same song getting airplay around the same time. An artist could take an obscure, unknown song and make a hit out of it (i.e. "Always Something There to Remind Me", "Tainted Love","I Will Always Love You", Huey Lewis and the News' "Heart and Soul") and if the song was a hit in the past, could bring it back to relevance (i.e. "Keep Me Hanging On", Phil Collins' "Can't Hurry Love") or possibly make a bigger hit out of it (i.e. "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "War", "Superstition" etc.). At worst, if the cover wasn't a hit, it provided a different flavor in which to enjoy the song. That doesn't happen anymore.

It happens sometimes but it usually just promotional or in concert. I think sampling culture changed "the cover".

Here is BANKS covering Aaliyah (RIP), Static Major (RIP), and Timbaland's "Are You That Somebody".

most of the time though, the covers were not nearly as good as the classic version for various reasons. Who knows why? maybe because the times change and the production doesn't match up with the song. I never liked hearing 60's pop with cheesy 80's production. However, in the very early days of rock, the white artists would cover black artists (again, usually inferior copies) all the time and have bigger hits but that was because of the culture then. Only Elvis stands alone as making covers better than the originals.

Goddess4Real said:

EmmaMcG said:

Goddess4Real said:

The 2 Bruce Springsteen cover versions of Fire by The Pointer Sisters (1978) and Pink Cadalic (1988) by Natalie Cole. [Edited 2/14/18 9:43am]

Neither of those were covered by Bruce Springsteen. He wrote both of those songs. In fact, he wrote "Fire" for Elvis and sent him a demo tape but Elvis died before receiving it.

i think they were saying that the pointer sisters was better than bruce's which is true. they did a great version. Elvis would have loved it, it was based on songs like "little sister" and "maries the name of his latest flame". Pink Cadillac was never a fave tune of mine either way.

MotownSubdivision said:

On another tangent, it's kinda intriguing how today's names never cover each other's music. Back in the day there could be 2 or more versions of the same song getting airplay around the same time. An artist could take an obscure, unknown song and make a hit out of it (i.e. "Always Something There to Remind Me", "Tainted Love","I Will Always Love You", Huey Lewis and the News' "Heart and Soul") and if the song was a hit in the past, could bring it back to relevance (i.e. "Keep Me Hanging On", Phil Collins' "Can't Hurry Love") or possibly make a bigger hit out of it (i.e. "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "War", "Superstition" etc.). At worst, if the cover wasn't a hit, it provided a different flavor in which to enjoy the song. That doesn't happen anymore.

There used to be contemporaneous cover versions of songs, but with more crossover of audiences, there's less need to have covers of different songs for different audiences.

As for resurrecting old songs, perhaps sampling has assumed a lot of that role. I can't remember significant ones in the last 20 years or so besides the Fugees' "Killing Me Softly" and Alicia Keys' "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore."

Deniece Williams "It's Going to take a Miracle"

311 - "Lovesong"

Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"

Nirvana - "The Man Who Sold the World"

MotownSubdivision said:

On another tangent, it's kinda intriguing how today's names never cover each other's music. Back in the day there could be 2 or more versions of the same song getting airplay around the same time. An artist could take an obscure, unknown song and make a hit out of it (i.e. "Always Something There to Remind Me", "Tainted Love","I Will Always Love You", Huey Lewis and the News' "Heart and Soul") and if the song was a hit in the past, could bring it back to relevance (i.e. "Keep Me Hanging On", Phil Collins' "Can't Hurry Love") or possibly make a bigger hit out of it (i.e. "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "War", "Superstition" etc.). At worst, if the cover wasn't a hit, it provided a different flavor in which to enjoy the song. That doesn't happen anymore.

Probably because a lot of modern hits are rap songs. Rap songs are generally tailored to the act performing it and doesn't really fit someone else doing it. It's not like Michael Bolton is going to do a remake of Stanky Legg. Weird Al does rap parodies though. Also a lot of hits are played more constantly on the radio so people might not want to hear another version. There are many Youtube covers today, Hey Ya! by OutKast has a lot of them. There classical, gospel style, & metal versions of Bodak Yellow. Some of the Youtube versions get a lot of views. As far as a well known act doing a cover, Nelly did one a couple of years ago that was originally by the country singer Thomas Rhett.

I think it's mostly veteran acts who do remakes and covers albums. I don't think that's a thing with the currently popular pop acts. Miley Cyrus did Jolene by Dolly Parton, but that's from the 1970s.

Pop music has been sounding so SAMEY this decade so far that I don't know if it is worth covering a song if the sound's the same.

namepeace said:

MotownSubdivision said:

On another tangent, it's kinda intriguing how today's names never cover each other's music. Back in the day there could be 2 or more versions of the same song getting airplay around the same time. An artist could take an obscure, unknown song and make a hit out of it (i.e. "Always Something There to Remind Me", "Tainted Love","I Will Always Love You", Huey Lewis and the News' "Heart and Soul") and if the song was a hit in the past, could bring it back to relevance (i.e. "Keep Me Hanging On", Phil Collins' "Can't Hurry Love") or possibly make a bigger hit out of it (i.e. "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "War", "Superstition" etc.). At worst, if the cover wasn't a hit, it provided a different flavor in which to enjoy the song. That doesn't happen anymore.

There used to be contemporaneous cover versions of songs, but with more crossover of audiences, there's less need to have covers of different songs for different audiences.

As for resurrecting old songs, perhaps sampling has assumed a lot of that role. I can't remember significant ones in the last 20 years or so besides the Fugees' "Killing Me Softly" and Alicia Keys' "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore."

.

Lana Del Rey has made a career out of sullen Hot Topic versions of older hits.

.

Frank Ocean just released a cover of Moon River. Me'shell made a whole album of covers.

.

Writer/singer MNEK did a string of re-versions of tunes by Janet, Sade, Atomic Kitten/Des'ree, Queen, etc. and made a decent modern pop career out of it with credits for Beyonce and Madonna amongst others.

.

Triple J (radio Australia) has a fantastic feature called (appropriately) "Like A Version" where folks like 6lack cover Erykah Badu and Joey Bada$$ can cover Prince. IMO a cover version has a lot stronger impact when performed live by a unique talent (someone else cited Nirvana's "The Man Who Sold The World" earlier).

gandorb said:

I prefer Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah to Leonard Cohen's. Both are wonderful though.

Jeff kinda stole John Cale's version and interpretation.
He was the first to strip it down to bare bones.
Not to diminish Jeff's talent, but what's fair is fair.

PeteSilas said:

Comser said:

Im sure Im the only one but....

here are a few:

Stacy Lattisaw - Love On A Two Way Street (better than The Moments)

If I Can't Have You - The Bee Gees is alright...but I loved Yvonne Eliman & Kim Wilde much better

Celine Dion did better with "The Power Of Love" than Jennifer Rush, Laura Branigan, Air Supply

Whitney's The Greatest Love Of All is better than George Benson version

Thats What Friends Are Fpr by Dionne & Friends is better than Rod Stewart version

i will always love you by whitney is far superior to the writer/singer Parton's version.

No way... When I first heard Dolly's version I went like, hey, this is in fact a good country song!

I don't mind Whitney, but this crap is the most demagogue slow syrupy jam ever commited to tape.
The affected pronunciation, the fake acapella, the looooong sustained note... The whole thing makes me wanna barf.

It's blatant pop hypocrisy, it's entirely made to appeal to the masses, and when I say masses,
I say housewives singing it while doing the dishes or ironing.
It's Daniele Steel, it's the Harlequin Books, it's popular ass-licking.
It's the scent of W.C. air fresheners. Artificial lavender stinking so bad, I'd rather smell feces.
The sales and awards collected by this calculated non-musical circus act prove me right.

[Edited 3/28/18 6:45am]

bonatoc said:

I say housewives singing it while doing the dishes or ironing.

What's wrong with housewives liking Whitney? They are an audience like any other. Music is for people to enjoy, not for music snobs & hipsters to judge whether it is "cool" enough to like. I listen to adult contemporary and easy listening. I have most of Whitney's albums and they're good to me.

MickyDolenz said:

bonatoc said:

I say housewives singing it while doing the dishes or ironing.

What's wrong with housewives liking Whitney? They are an audience like any other. Music is for people to enjoy, not for music snobs & hipsters to judge whether it is "cool" enough to like. I listen to adult contemporary and easy listening. I have most of Whitney's albums and they're good to me.

Nothing at all.
Whitney had a genuine talent, the kind where technique doesn't get in the way of emotion.
It was not an attack against Whitney. I'm eclectic and I consider popular music as important as "intellectual" music.
I was just expressing my dislike of her Dolly Parton's cover.

"Music is for people to enjoy": Absolutely, but let's not be naive here.
In pop music, and especially in the eighties, it was about reaching the Top 10,
it was about sales, and this cover reeks of commercial opportunism.

"I Will Always Love You" sounds calculated to appeal to the masses.
To me, it's striking: the original version is intimate, humble, melancholic and most of all, sincere.
The boombastic treatment the cover got moves the song into over-dramatic territories,
like delivered from the edge of a cliff, with fireworks.

Sorry for the condescendence, but yes, to me it's the kind of "music" that's made
to make women fantasize about an hypothetical impossible Prince Charming relationship.
David Foster's sonic interpretation of the song puts the woman back into hysterical clichés:
it's not about closure anymore, it's about yelling some kind of triumph, far from the original intent of the song.

Dolly's version is a testament to the feminine qualities of forgiveness and courage.
Whereas "The Bodyguard" states that a woman, no matter her wealth and success,
will always depend on a man for her safety and well-being.
Which sounds pretty macho to me, and perpetuates the dogma of sexual submission.

bonatoc said:

"Music is for people to enjoy": Absolutely, but let's not be naive here.

In pop music, and especially in the eighties, it was about reaching the Top 10,
it was about sales, and this cover reeks of commercial opportunism.

"I Will Always Love You" sounds calculated to appeal to the masses.
To me, it's striking: the original version is intimate, humble, melancholic and most of all, sincere.

Well that would be me since I'm the person here always talking about Billboard stats, record sales, and what the mainstream likes. I'm interested in that. I'm the mainstream Top 40 listener that liked and/or bought what was on it. I used to go to the library every week to read Billboard every week and watch Casey Kasem's American Top 10 TV show. Like I know Whitney had 7 #1s in a row and that Michael Jackson's Bad was the first album to have 5 #1s from 1 album. As far as trying to get the masses, that was pretty much Clive Davis' goal his entire career. Nothing wrong with that. It's called the music business, not the "music charity". The big commercial acts liike Whitney fund the music hipsters like since they generally have little commercial appeal and don't sell enough to keep the major labels in business. Like blockbuster movies fund "art films". I've never understood people having hostility for popular music. As far as a song being sincere or not, I don't know anything about that. I don't listen to music for that reason, it's entertainment for me. I don't get the idea that songs are supposed to have some personal meaning to the singer/band. That's why I can enjoy to listen to Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Mac and Katie Kissoon. I don't believe in "guilty pleasures" because I am not embarrassed by anything.

bonatoc said:

MickyDolenz said:

What's wrong with housewives liking Whitney? They are an audience like any other. Music is for people to enjoy, not for music snobs & hipsters to judge whether it is "cool" enough to like. I listen to adult contemporary and easy listening. I have most of Whitney's albums and they're good to me.

Nothing at all.
Whitney had a genuine talent, the kind where technique doesn't get in the way of emotion.
It was not an attack against Whitney. I'm eclectic and I consider popular music as important as "intellectual" music.
I was just expressing my dislike of her Dolly Parton's cover.

"Music is for people to enjoy": Absolutely, but let's not be naive here.
In pop music, and especially in the eighties, it was about reaching the Top 10,
it was about sales, and this cover reeks of commercial opportunism.

"I Will Always Love You" sounds calculated to appeal to the masses.
To me, it's striking: the original version is intimate, humble, melancholic and most of all, sincere.
The boombastic treatment the cover got moves the song into over-dramatic territories,
like delivered from the edge of a cliff, with fireworks.

Sorry for the condescendence, but yes, to me it's the kind of "music" that's made
to make women fantasize about an hypothetical impossible Prince Charming relationship.
David Foster's sonic interpretation of the song puts the woman back into hysterical clichés:
it's not about closure anymore, it's about yelling some kind of triumph, far from the original intent of the song.

Dolly's version is a testament to the feminine qualities of forgiveness and courage.
Whereas "The Bodyguard" states that a woman, no matter her wealth and success,
will always depend on a man for her safety and well-being.
Which sounds pretty macho to me, and perpetuates the dogma of sexual submission.

Great post as usual, and you know what, I had never thought about it, but now that you say it, you're right.

namepeace said:

Isaac Hayes had a way with covers.

"Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Walk On By" surpassed the originals.

Nothing is better than the original Jackson 5 version, nothing.

ThatWhiteDude said:

I like MJ's version of "Come Together" waaaayyy better than the original.

Interesting, I love MJ but I can't stand that cover, all over-processed production and lame hard rock guitar attempts on it, gives me a headache.

Hamad

Yep. I also prefer EWF's take "Got to get you into my life".

definitely agree with this one though.

I saw it posited before that the Beatles were in one way the opposite of ABBA in that their music was flexible and lent itself to covers where people could change a lot of details while an ABBA cover pretty much always follows the original ABBA arrangement.

Anyway, my contribution:



I think they just had the time and the budget to give the song the sound it always deserved.

I liked P's version of "One Of Us"..he went to church on that one....The Isley's version of "Hello, It's Me" was great...(I dig the original too)...Lewis Taylor's cover of the Stylistics' "Stop, Look, Listen" was fantastic.

Maybe seems blasphemous, but I prefer El DeBarge's version of After The Dance:

http://prince.org/msg/8/448464

Strawberry Letter 23 - by The Brothers Johnson was better than Shuggie Otis' original version.

daingermouz2020 said:

Michael Jackson- Come Together

.

heavy metal band Disturbed did a Phenomenal & Spirit filled cover of The Sound of Silence....The first time I heard it I hand to stand up as I began to cry...No other Boy-Band, young or Old will be able to match it...

Nina Simone's covers of Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter and Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues.




Sign O' The Times... well, judge for yourself.....

Fair play, who'd have thought it was possible to make this song any good. Sparks have done some very funny covers over the years.

"Yesterday" is a set in stone classic but Marvin's cover of it blows the original away. I tear up every time I play it:

One of Marvin's greatest vocal performances IMO.

So let's shake the Lennon-Macca tree a bit.