Cover songs versus the original track, which ones are better?

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Here's the original. I can't decide which is better.

 
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Zepparella -- When The Levee Breaks
 
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Hornbein said:


Zepparella -- When The Levee Breaks

Not as good as Zeppelin’s cover of the song. The original is quite good though

 
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A non-cover-band cover of an original Zeppelin tune

 
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This is great. No expensive video, just the guys playing. No semi nudity, gyration or lingual protrusion, just great singing.
Beautiful little trills, lovely tone. It is missing those high harmonies which are perfect but the whole package is great.



Original but this is a stripped down live. No harmony.

 
pinball1970 said:
This is great. No expensive video, just the guys playing. No semi nudity, gyration or lingual protrusion, just great singing.
Beautiful little trills, lovely tone. It is missing those high harmonies which are perfect but the whole package is great.Original but this is a stripped down live. No harmony.

My favorite version. I don't like Miley very much.

 
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Hornbein said:


Here's the original. I can't decide which is better.


The arrangement is pretty much the same so besides his tone and recording, little in it.
 
BWV said:
Not as good as Zeppelin’s cover of the song. The original is quite good though


Drums are wrong. Ignoring technique for the minute, the snare sound is flat. More boom required on toms and bass drum too.
Also 5:24? That is the drum moment. The roll before it more obvious (but wrong, goes to rack too soon) but 5:24 is the Bonham moment for me. 2nd and 3rd beat of a triplet on his BD. She misses it out.
 
fresh_42 said:
My favorite version. I don't like Miley very much.


Forgetting who she is (Miley) I was shocked how good that actually was. It was also honest music.

Anyway, OLJ you love her even more than Lemmy!
I have never heard this before. Obviously she was a great singer but those little glottal things she does are just beautiful. Almost Yodel like.

The words do not work though, "Your beauty is beyond compare..."
Yeah right. You're Olivia Newton John! I spent the first few bars just staring at the image of her. Stunning.
 
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I hated prince when he came out. Everything I detested about the 80s in one artist.
When I found out he wrote this I was gob smacked. Everything you want to tell someone you love in one song (after you have split that is!)
Anyway, I am not keen on the original but I totally appreciate the writing. Words and music. Brilliant.

 
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I thought the Roberta Flak was the original but it was this.

 
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I always thought this was chromatic enough to be 1960s.

 
pinball1970 said:
Anyway, OLJ you love her even more than Lemmy!
I have a weakness for sopranos, preferably coloraturo soprano.
 
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fresh_42 said:
I have a weakness for sopranos, preferably coloraturo soprano.
I had to look that up, I thought you meant contralto! I know you do not like Miley Sirus but she actually displays some coloraturo features in that performance. Trills, range tone... Surprising.
 


Kanade Sato plays Spain w/ anonymous government officials.
 
Japanese fusion version of Earth Wind and Fire's In The Stone.

 
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Tokyo plays Tower of Power's The Oakland Stroke. Well, it's an extended version that includes that bass riff and drum beat.

When I lived in Tokyo there were about a dozen musicians whom I saw every chance I got. Three of them are in this band.

 
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Turn Your Love Around (George Benson) I remember George from before he started to sing.

 
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Hornbein said:
Turn Your Love Around (George Benson) I remember George from before he started to sing.


Thanks for these @Hornbein I will definitely check them out
 


Everlasting Love was a hit when I was a kid. It appears they extracted the vocal then had session men copy the original parts exactly. Sounds a lot better. So...is it a cover?
 
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The distinction does not work for Jazz as the definition of ‘original’ does not really work. Like most stuff about music it presupposes everyone is talking about rock and rock and pop.

what is the best ‘cover’ of this original?

 
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@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
 
symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
Stella by Starlight was from the 40s and is one of the most played jazz standards, most of which are Tim pan alley tunes of the 20s -40s

 
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symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
Many of today's jazz standards were originally famous popular tunes. This made it easier for the audience to relate to. Heck, John Coltrane and Miles Davis played Disney tunes. Now the originals are forgotten while the jazz versions live on. Very common also was to write a new melody over the chords of a popular tune. All this went out of style with modern jazz. However Japanese jazzers still often play the popular tunes of today. Not coincidentally jazz is a lot more popular in Japan than in the USA.

There are so many versions of Stella by Starlight -- thousands? -- that I'll just pick a trusted one. I went to this gig but showed up late, was given a seat by the drummer, couldn't hear a thing, got my money back and left.



Her command of harmony is wonderful.
 
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symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
A beautiful and dramatic piece that well deserves its immortality. The European style is now no longer popular but remains preserved in "classical" music. There's a reason people have gone to so much trouble to keep it going. It's called love.
 


Voivod -- Astronomy Domine
 
Hornbein and BWV,
I am not too knowledgeable about Jazz, although I have heard some. Some forms or types I do not know how to recognize. Some pieces, I might miscategorize as something else.
 
symbolipoint said:
Hornbein and BWV,
I am not too knowledgeable about Jazz, although I have heard some. Some forms or types I do not know how to recognize. Some pieces, I might miscategorize as something else.
I don't worry about genres. Either I like something or I don't.
 
symbolipoint said:
@BWV, you gave a video example of Stella By Starlight, as being of Jazz, but my senses tell me that the example given is something other than Jazz - but what category, I am not sure. Your example seems like nice smooth mostly unexcited music; the kind of music that one would have expected as filler music played in a movie theatre in the 1960's and 1970's just a few minutes before the featured movie was to be started.
When someone says Jazz it has connotations to it but really it is like saying "classical"
There is a world of difference between Stravinsky and Mozart. They both use an orchestra.

Jazz for me is Piano, bass, drums with or with out brass, vibes, flute or voice.
Virtuoso playing, often with complex chord structure/key changes/time signature but that is fast and loose.

I learned from TV because I grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s. So films from the late 40s-60s had jazz themes it was great. Even the cartoons, listen to "Spiderman" arrangement, lots of brass stabs and vocal chord at the end. (Vocal Chord ha ha!- sound like a name for an acapella group)

I will check out the above.

There some nutty jazz versions of rock tracks used for a series called "sugar rush" I will dig a few out.
 
Speaking of jazz....