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

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Sam Cooke (w Levi Stubbs) Bring It On Home



 
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Ibix said:
Off topic - one I heard today as background music in a cafe which was just awful. It seemed to be from an album of covers in a slow, relaxed style with dreamy female vocals. Not necessarily a bad thing (see the excellent cover of California Dreamin' upthread), but to my mind wildly inappropriate for Paint It Black.
Sounds like Elevator music. We had K-tel in the UK in the 70s who released compilation cover albums. They were awful!
 
Fifty years ago I heard (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction over a PA while shopping, played by a violin soloist who had no feel for the music. This scarred me.
 
Original Spain by Return to Forever. My fave epiano solo ever.



Cover by Tori Slusher. She doesn't play the melody in order to avoid copyright.

The only person who to me has as much mastery of exotic scales as did Chick. Miles maybe, but he played notes, not scales. Pete Cosey, but he's SO out there.
 
pinball1970 said:
We had K-tel in the UK in the 70s who released compilation cover albums. They were awful!
What!!! My first album - at least, that wasn't meant for children - was K-Tel "Danser", the French Canadian version of "Dancer":

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Boy, did I listen to that album, and yes I still have it!

How would I have appreciated Double Dutch Bus without K-Tel:

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SSSSHH - Sugar!

To keep this post on track with the thread, here are some covers:


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jack action said:
What!!! My first album - at least, that wasn't meant for children - was K-Tel "Danser", the French Canadian version of "Dancer":

​


Boy, did I listen to that album, and yes I still have it!

How would I have appreciated Double Dutch Bus without K-Tel:

​


SSSSHH - Sugar!

To keep this post on track with the thread, here are some covers:


​

I suppose it was a cheaper way back then to release albums of covers rather than have to pay to those individual artist publication, Royalty and broadcasting rights. Certainly for all the department stores who had them on loop!
 
Hornbein said:
Fifty years ago I heard (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction over a PA while shopping, played by a violin soloist who had no feel for the music. This scarred me.
Probably how I felt playing the first contribution to this thread, "Satisfaction" by the Residents by non other than @Hornbein !
 

XTC - The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead​



Crash Test Dummies - The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead (Official Video) ft. Ellen Reid​


 
Hornbein said:

It reminded me of a cover I forgot about. In 1978, KISS released a solo album for each of their four members. When You Wish Upon a Star was on the Gene Simmons' album:

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I think I found a song that is a cover for two songs at the same time!

Phunk Junkeez - I Love It Loud:


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Kiss - I Love It Loud:


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M|A|R|R|S - Pump Up The Volume:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Ice_Baby (Aug 1990)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_Ice

Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (Official Music Video)



(Feb 2 1991) "White, White, Baby" - Vanilla Ice Parody from In Living Color (Season 2, Ep 15)

(higher quality - Jim Carrey as Vanilla Ice) - Vanilla Ice REACTION to Jim Carrey on In Living Color

(2015) Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice | Marty Ray Project Cover | Marty Ray Project


(2013) Ice Ice Baby by Old Man Whickutt



(2013) HOPE- Ice Ice Baby (Vanilla Ice COVER)



(2000) Vanilla Ice - Too Cold (Official Music Video) - Nu Metal



Honorable mention:
 
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robphy said:
Was it one of these?
No - all those versions are good in different ways. The Stones and Ciara are very different reactions to a personal loss, or are at different stages of grief. The Hidden Citizens and Valerie Broussard versions turn it into loss on a grander scale, like for all the people who died in an alien invasion movie. Wednesday's version is more foreboding than lamenting. The PMJ version is a technical challenge.

The version I heard was just elevator music (as @pinball1970 put it). I was slightly taken aback by the implied existence of a thought process that wants to make elevator music and decides to start with such a emotionally loaded song.
 
The orig.



Cover



Hasbro has a line of colored plastic fillies called My Little Pony, and started a cartoon show for little girls to promote the product. The show stunk and was unpopular. At this juncture cartoonist Lauren Faust approached Hasbro about marketing a line of dolls based on Hermeticism (an ancient form of thinking combining astrology and alchemy). Executive Lisa Licht said no, but offered her the failing My Little Pony show. Faust made the bargain and revamped the whole thing on alchemical principles, with one of the fillies a student of ancient Hermetic texts.

Since the whole show is an advertisement it made sense to release it to Youtube, where this girl's show surprisingly became a hit with men. One could make some sort of psychological analysis, but I think its just plain good drama. It isn't easy to build an attractive imaginary world. In watching one may for a while see the world with different eyes. I never understood the horse fascination my sisters had, but the animators have clearly studied horses with love and captured their movements, and even I can see the beauty. Today I came across a heavy metal guitarist in Iron Maiden T shirt and covered with tattoos playing the theme song. Faust left after two years, but the story line and characters are strong enough that the show goes on. Also the show teaches how to have a friend, such education sadly lacking in the world of many young men. That could be the attraction.

Faust made a bargain with Licht[Light]! It hardly seems real.

The basic view of Hermeticism is that good and evil are to some degree illusory, that both ultimately serve the purpose of good. In the first season the conflict is an attempt by the queen's evil sister to usurp the throne. She is defeated. Now here comes the difference. The next season focuses on her rehabilitation. They have to help her reintegrate into society. Not easy, as everyone is terrified of her. But it has to be done. This is a lot more realistic than the trope where they just kill everybody, problem solved.
 
Hornbein said:

The flute solo was included but I should not be surprised.
 
We had the orig of Red Rubber Ball, here's a cover. The guy with the 6-string guitar co-wrote the song with Paul Simon when he was still a folkie.



When I was a kid folk music was a big deal. It's still around but more or less underground, completely excluded from mainstream media. Too bad.
 
Hornbein said:

Yousician is a music instructional program, not a real band. Huh. Pretty good song.