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

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The discussion centers around the merits of cover songs compared to their originals, exploring which covers are considered better and which should have been avoided. The subjective nature of evaluating music is emphasized, with opinions varying widely based on personal taste. Notable examples include Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower," which many argue surpasses Bob Dylan's original, and Johnny Cash's rendition of "Hurt," which evokes deep emotion. Other covers, such as those by Eva Cassidy and the Bare Naked Ladies, are praised for their unique interpretations that enhance the originals. Conversely, some covers are criticized for lacking originality or failing to add anything new, with specific songs mentioned as examples of covers that should have been left alone. The conversation also touches on the broader implications of musical interpretation, the role of the listener in evaluating art, and the complexities of genre classification, particularly in jazz. Overall, the thread highlights the rich landscape of music covers, showcasing both celebrated interpretations and those deemed unnecessary.
  • #1,251
I've been looking for this cover... And recognized the name from
the fever cover search
 
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  • #1,252
pinball1970 said:
Elvis did a great version of this.
Yes, but the original already has it. The covers weren't really necessary. I cannot see that they actually added something new which is my personal criterion to accept a cover. And btw., the text is a catastrophe! We have a nice word for it: "zum fremdschämen". It cannot be translated. It is the feeling that you feel ashamed (in this case for the text) although you're not responsible for it. It is the feeling of overwhelming embarrassment for something someone else does or did. It's the crucial "fremd = stranger" part that makes it untranslatable.
 
  • #1,253
I saw Lawrence live at Rock Werchter, amazing band :)

 
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  • #1,254
And... another I got introduced to at Rock Werchter.. Imagine a stage (the slope, smallest stage) jam packed with some 5/10 thousand people, in the sun, and then a girl of 18 years steps on and fills the entire stage with just her and her guitar (and a piano) And starts singing like this... Just here and a guitar, I gotta admit it caught me off guard, I couldn't keep it dry...

 
  • #1,255
With Eva Cassidy it's more the question which cover to share. Pretty much all of them are better than the original...

 
  • #1,256
Arjan82 said:
With Eva Cassidy it's more the question which cover to share. Pretty much all of them are better than the original...
A great loss!
 
  • #1,257
Arjan82 said:
With Eva Cassidy it's more the question which cover to share. Pretty much all of them are better than the original...
And some very unexpected ones:




 
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  • #1,258
That's true. I was once in an Internet cafe in Bali. They were playing an album on loop. The second time through I said, I must know who this is. It was Eva Cassidy.

She wasn't much known until after her death one of her fans somehow got the BBC to play one of her songs. So many people called in asking who the artist was that she from then on was a presence in the UK. USA media is strictly pay to play so she has nothing there.

Her version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow is perhaps as widely covered as the original, something I would have thought impossible.
 
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  • #1,259
Savage and apocalyptic. Didn't know Lindsey had it in her.

Kevin Gilbert was one of those very few destined for stardom. He did his version of Kashmir in one night of multitracking. It was rejected for a Led Zeppelin tribute album. Somehow his version got on Los Angeles radio. So many listeners called in demanding to know who it was that it became a local hit. Kevin though died while still a young man.

 
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  • #1,260


 
  • #1,261
Original by Bobby Freeman



There is a TV show where he performed as a ringmaster in johdpurs, boots, and a top hat, singing it as a duet with a baby elephant. I find it weird in a painful way.

Covers by Cliff Richard, The Mamas and the Papas, Johnny Rivers, Del Shannon, and the Ramones. The most commercially successful cover was by the Beach Boys, but Cliff Richard's more recent version maybe has the most going for it.

 
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  • #1,262
fresh_42 said:



Why these games with the spoiler button?

His German pronunciation is really good.
 
  • #1,263
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Qu'appelle Valley Saskatchewan

​


And a fantastic cover by Holcombe Waller that just brings the song to a whole new level:

​
 
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  • #1,264
So who only just heard about Joanne Shaw Taylor?

☝️....

But Joe Bonamassa always attracts my attention :)

 
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  • #1,265
Arjan82 said:
So who only just heard about Joanne Shaw Taylor?

☝️....

But Joe Bonamassa always attracts my attention :)


New to me. She's real good!
 
  • #1,266
jack action said:
[THREAD HIJACKING]

To get a rock sound in French - truly coming from the guts - you have to go to the other side of the pond:
Maybe more of a ballad, but so good:
[/THREAD HIJACKING]
This is a gas! Stuff I had no clue existed too.
 
  • #1,267
Hornbein said:
His German pronunciation is really good.
I'm not sure in which market he was more successful but he was very successful in Germany, mainly by the elderly. He often sang songs in German. However, I observed the difference in his timbre. He sounded much more confident in English and a bit lost in German. The same effect can be heard in this German folksong where it is more obvious because of the change of language that took place within the lyrics:

 
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  • #1,268
! I know that song in German. Elvis?!?

And it's "muss ich den".
 
  • #1,270
BB King did the orig. but I prefer these.

Ernestine Anderson



Joe Bonamassa. Great sax break in there.

 
  • #1,271
fresh_42 said:
And btw., the text is a catastrophe!
What text?
 
  • #1,272
Hornbein said:
Her version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow is perhaps as widely covered as the original, something I would have thought impossible.
No one touches the astonishing performance from the 17 year old Judy Garland.
 
  • #1,273
pinball1970 said:
What text?
Captain Smith and Pocahontas
Had a very mad affair
When her daddy tried to kill him
She said, "Daddy, oh, don't you dare"
He gives me fever
With his kisses, fever when he holds me tight
Fever! I'm his missus, daddy, won't you treat him right?
Now you've listened to my story
Here's the point that I have made
Chicks were born to give you fever
Be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade
They give you fever
 
  • #1,274
pinball1970 said:
No one touches the astonishing performance from the 17 year old Judy Garland.
Ok, I will! I'm a big Eva Cassidy fan.

 
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  • #1,275
fresh_42 said:
I'm not sure in which market he was more successful but he was very successful in Germany, mainly by the elderly. He often sang songs in German. However, I observed the difference in his timbre. He sounded much more confident in English and a bit lost in German. The same effect can be heard in this German folksong where it is more obvious because of the change of language that took place within the lyrics:


He was stationed there in 1958, probably picked up some tips.
 
  • #1,276
pinball1970 said:
He was stationed there in 1958, probably picked up some tips.
I know. They are still mad there about Elvis.

maxresdefault.jpg



But my comment was about Roger Whittaker and that I didn't know whether he was more successful in Great Britain or in Germany.


1024px-Roger-Whittaker-1971.jpg
 
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  • #1,277
fresh_42 said:
But my comment was about Roger Whittaker and that I didn't know whether he was more successful in Great Britain or in Germany.
We liked him in the 1970s. He sang about Durham!
 
  • #1,278
fresh_42 said:
Ok, I will! I'm a big Eva Cassidy fan.


I just watched it and she is a good guitarist, I like what she did with it. Her voice is expressive but not my thing, completely. Adele could probably do similar.
They did not play with tunes as much in the 1930s.

JG had one in a million tone, for a 17 year old? Incredible.
EC nice arrangement, just voice and guitar is impressive.
JG had that early film arrangement feel, magical to me now.
 
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  • #1,279
Hornbein said:
This is a gas! Stuff I had no clue existed too.
You may also like Harmonium. In 2015, their album Si on avait besoin d’une cinquième saison was ranked 36 on the Rolling Stone's 50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time list. Dixie was most likely the greatest commercial hit of that album.

But songs from their first album are most likely their greatest hits:
There is also Beau Dommage, but their success lies more in the poetry of their lyrics with each song telling a story. Sadly it would all be lost in translation. For example, most likely their greatest hit, La complainte du phoque en Alaska, is a guy telling the story of a seal in Alaska, crying over the fact his girlfriend joined a circus in the continental US. The chorus goes like this (again, rhymes and powerful images are lost in translation):

"It's not worth it
To leave those we love
To go and spin
Balls on its nose

It makes the children laugh
It never lasts long
It doesn't make anyone laugh anymore
When the children are grown"

It ends with something like this:

"Sometimes I feel like it's me
Who is sitting on the ice, with both hands in my face
My love left and I miss her"

Or their song Le picbois ("The Woodpecker") where a city guy visiting the country, admires the beauty of nature while listening to a woodpecker. The chorus goes something like this (again, a lot is lost in translation):

"Don't let me come back to town
Hit me on my wooden head
Woodpecker, don't leave me alone
Woodpecker, I don't want to leave"

And then he adds:

"When you were born on concrete
You don't know the names of birds
I don't know them by their names
I'm going to sit down without saying a word

At a time when people wake up
I went into the woods
To wash my ears
By listening to the woodpecker"

It just might be worth it to learn French - the Quebec variety - just to enjoy those songs!
 
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  • #1,280
The original suffers from poor recording, so this semi-original.

Custard Pie -- The Black Crowes



This is ostensibly a Larkin Poe original, but I thought "Custard Pie."



Jazz festival? Whatever. 16 days?!? It appears a pass is $1111. I wanna go! 2025, here I come.

That's the best blues-rock since Led Zeppelin. Megan Lovell was always great but little sister Rebecca has caught up. The singer is what counts in pop music so that makes a big diff. Now the sky's the limit.
 
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  • #1,281
pinball1970 said:
I just watched it and she is a good guitarist, I like what she did with it. Her voice is expressive but not my thing, completely. Adele could probably do similar.
They did not play with tunes as much in the 1930s.

JG had one in a million tone, for a 17 year old? Incredible.
EC nice arrangement, just voice and guitar is impressive.
JG had that early film arrangement feel, magical to me now.

Judy has that unique vibrato and the song reflected how she felt about her life. As Charlie Parker said you have to live it if you want it to come out of your horn. The orchestral arrangement is most excellent. It's from a day gone by that might never come again. It's no accident that SOTR was voted number one pop song of all time. That's why I'm so impressed that Eva could make as much of an impression as she has.
 
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  • #1,282
Hornbein said:
The original suffers from poor recording, so this semi-original.

Custard Pie -- The Black Crowes



This is ostensibly a Larkin Poe original, but I thought "Custard Pie."



Jazz festival? Whatever. 16 days?!? It appears a pass is $1111. I wanna go! 2025, here I come.

That's the best blues-rock since Led Zeppelin. Megan Lovell was always great but little sister Rebecca has caught up. The singer is what counts in pop music so that makes a big diff. Now the sky's the limit.

The Larkin Poe video has been privatized. Ha! I downloaded it while I had the chance, something I very seldom do. If there is ever a Greatest Blues-Rock Concert Ever contest it would get my vote.

Oops! Spoke too soon. Get a load of this. PhysicsForums software won't load a playlist so I had to mung up the URL.

https://www.y outube.com/watch?v=7jrozx4X6E8&list=PL6ogdCG3tAWgzfGYWB_2Wq3oLeC2zYbO0

It's like being run over by a loaded cement truck.
 
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  • #1,283
A double cover.

Orig : Boogie by John Lee Hooker. It developed gradually from a 1948 monotone riff. The whole thing isn't worth listening to so bail once John Lee has finished his bit.



Orig : Sloppy Drunk by Jimmy Rogers. NOT Jimmy Rodgers.



Double cover by ZZ Top.



The Boogie movement was a very big deal for a year or three. Canned Heat and Savoy Brown were the top exponents. They'd noodle over this riff for hours. Pre-stardom Fleetwood Mac joined in for the bucks. Then it was all over. The Boogie seems to have been completely forgotten.

I can't resist including this La Grange from a ballroom dance competition.

 
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  • #1,284
As for an uncoverable song I'd nominate Wooden Ships. Foxes and Fossils tried and fell somewhat short. If they couldn't do it, maybe nobody can.

By the way Steve Stills is great on that there ebass. Others in this class include jimi hendrix, Tom Scholz, Verdine White, and Jaco Pastorius. I'd recommend to all ebass players that they learn a chordal instrument, preferably keyboard. All five did that, four of them both guitar and keyboard.

Well, the Youtube robot was informed of my negativism. It decided to teach me a lesson.



Craig Corona, René Seidenkranz and Sanford Markley, CSM. CSM's other CSN covers are equally good. This one of Carry On is friggin great. (That's even better than great.)

 
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  • #1,285
Hornbein said:
As for an uncoverable song I'd nominate Wooden Ships. Foxes and Fossils tried and fell somewhat short. If they couldn't do it, maybe nobody can.
If you are talking sound I agree. F&F did an amazing version of Carry on, you introduced me too them. Brilliant.
The playing, arranging, singing is easy to them, getting CSN sound? Impossible. I still give them 9.5 out of ten though.

"America" by Simon and Garfunkel which they covered, was just too different. I did not like it, that whole album is nothing short of ethereal, so taking on one of the best tracks from one of the greatest albums of the 1960s, which includes every Beatles, Stones and Beach Boys album, was impossible.
 
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  • #1,286
Hornbein said:
As for an uncoverable song I'd nominate Wooden Ships. Foxes and Fossils tried and fell somewhat short. If they couldn't do it, maybe nobody can.

By the way Steve Stills is great on that there ebass. Others in this class include jimi hendrix, Tom Scholz, Verdine White, and Jaco Pastorius. I'd recommend to all ebass players that they learn a chordal instrument, preferably keyboard. All five did that, four of them both guitar and keyboard.

Well, the Youtube robot was informed of my negativism. It decided to teach me a lesson.



Craig Corona, René Seidenkranz and Sanford Markley, CSM. CSM's other CSN covers are equally good. This one of Carry On is friggin great. (That's even better than great.)


I listened at lunch, just a bit. I will do the whole lot
 
  • #1,287
Hornbein said:
As for an uncoverable song I'd nominate Wooden Ships. Foxes and Fossils tried and fell somewhat short. If they couldn't do it, maybe nobody can.

By the way Steve Stills is great on that there ebass. Others in this class include jimi hendrix, Tom Scholz, Verdine White, and Jaco Pastorius. I'd recommend to all ebass players that they learn a chordal instrument, preferably keyboard. All five did that, four of them both guitar and keyboard.

Well, the Youtube robot was informed of my negativism. It decided to teach me a lesson.



Craig Corona, René Seidenkranz and Sanford Markley, CSM. CSM's other CSN covers are equally good. This one of Carry On is friggin great. (That's even better than great.)


They changed stuff, violin, harmonica and some of the tune.
 
  • #1,288
Charles Berthoud plays Mission : Impossible.

 
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  • #1,289
Ya all up for an off shoot: Songs that are un - coverable , like Forgetaboutit.
 
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  • #1,290
Hornbein said:
As for an uncoverable song I'd nominate Wooden Ships. Foxes and Fossils tried and fell somewhat short. If they couldn't do it, maybe nobody can.

By the way Steve Stills is great on that there ebass. Others in this class include jimi hendrix, Tom Scholz, Verdine White, and Jaco Pastorius. I'd recommend to all ebass players that they learn a chordal instrument, preferably keyboard. All five did that, four of them both guitar and keyboard.

Well, the Youtube robot was informed of my negativism. It decided to teach me a lesson.



Craig Corona, René Seidenkranz and Sanford Markley, CSM. CSM's other CSN covers are equally good. This one of Carry On is friggin great. (That's even better than great.)


This is better, the harmony at 3.06? Wow.



For comparison

 
  • #1,291
morrobay said:
Ya all up for an off shoot: Songs that are un - coverable , like Forgetaboutit.

It was because of records like this that Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones signed with Ahmet Ertegün's Atlantic.
 
  • #1,292
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum_On_Feel_the_Noize
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slade

(1973) Slade - Cum On Feel The Noize • TopPop



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Riot
helped carry the album Metal Health to the top of Billboard album chart, making it the first American heavy metal debut album to reach No. 1 in the United States.

They Were the #1 Rock Band in the WORLD...1 Interview RUINED Them OVERNIGHT! | Professor of Rock
@2m40s - 7m46 discusses how Quiet Riot was convinced to record this song

(1983) Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize (Video Version)




(2024) Cum on Feel the Noize (Slade Cover) - Christian Casagrande


(2012) The Imagined Village - Cum on feel the noize (Lea/Holder) - Songs From The Shed Session


(2009) TWIN -'Cum On Feel The Noize'


(1995) Oasis - Cum On Feel The Noize (Live on Later... 1995) *Remastered Audio*
 
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  • #1,293
robphy said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum_On_Feel_the_Noize
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slade

(1973) Slade - Cum On Feel The Noize • TopPop










(1995) Oasis - Cum On Feel The Noize (Live on Later... 1995) *Remastered Audio*

I have to jump in, cannot help it sorry!
Such good memories with Oasis.
Every one was talking about them 94/95 and I just kept saying, "who the hell are Oasis!?"
A friend pointed out a track, "Live forever," which I heard before and liked very much without realising it was them.
After listening to the first two albums over and over and bought the chord book for "Morning Glory" totally hooked.

I saw them in 1996 at Knebworth and again in Manchester 2002 ISH with the same gf at Old Trafford Cricket Club (Liam and Noel insisted the words "Old Trafford" were not on the tickets, LCC)

My gf complained about the plastic pot throwing by drunken elements of the crowd, covering her in "beer."

I explained that some of it was probably beer, when we got back to the hotel and there was a bath meters away.
 
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  • #1,294
robphy said:
(1983) Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize (Video Version)
Why is this version age-restricted on YouTube!?

robphy said:
(2009) TWIN -'Cum On Feel The Noize'
Loved the energy in that one.
 
  • #1,295
This could go in the Bob Newhart thread, the jazz thread or arguably the fusion thread.



And for @ZapperZ , Bergeron works for Disney.
 
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  • #1,296
Vanadium 50 said:
This could go in the Bob Newhart thread, the jazz thread or arguably the fusion thread.



And for @ZapperZ , Bergeron works for Disney.

Very smooth. Note the extreme stereo on the electric piano. Each note is in a different place.
 
  • #1,297
Original:




Cover:



Why?
 
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  • #1,298
fresh_42 said:
Original:




Cover:



Why?

I remember the song, liked it, no idea it was called that. In terms of the cover?
If you have to keep flicking between the two spot the differences like I did then it's basically a carbon copy.
Snare is a bit higher on the original and the sax a bit softer in the cover, not sure could be lower in the mix? I'm not a sax player.

Only very small differences.
 
  • #1,299
Original.



Cover.

 
  • #1,300
Let's get smooth.

Orig



Cover from Thailand. Wonderful arrangement.



The electric "piano" must be the most successful invented instrument since trap drums. Though it has been almost replaced by more practical electronic copies, I say that still counts.

Varitda Bhirombhakdi appears to be from Bangkok and popular in Japan but her English and jazz are both perfect.



As a bonus the pianist is terrific.
 
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