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

[Hornbein]

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.

 

[Hornbein]

Spoiler: Original, well, in a way ...

Spoiler: ... but I guess he had that version first ...

Spoiler: ..., however, this is definitely the cover

Why these games with the spoiler button?

His German pronunciation is really good.

 

[jack action]

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Qu'appelle Valley Saskatchewan

​

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

​

 

[Arjan82]

So who only just heard about Joanne Shaw Taylor?

....

But Joe Bonamassa always attracts my attention :)

 

[Hornbein]

So who only just heard about Joanne Shaw Taylor?

....

But Joe Bonamassa always attracts my attention :)

New to me. She's real good!

 

[Hornbein]

[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:

• Corbeau - Illégal
• Plume Latraverse - Bobépine
• Marjo - Provocante (singer of Corbeau solo)
• Martin Deschamps - Quand
• Marie-Chantal Toupin - Soirée de fille
• Éric Lapointe - Marie-Stone
• France D'Amour - Vivante

Maybe more of a ballad, but so good:

• Offenbach - Ayoye
• La Chicane - Calvaire

[/THREAD HIJACKING]

This is a gas! Stuff I had no clue existed too.

 

[fresh_42]

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:

 

[Hornbein]

! I know that song in German. Elvis?!?

And it's "muss ich den".

 

[fresh_42]

! I know that song in German. Elvis?!?

And it's "muss ich den".

It's dialect and "muss i denn" (do I have to (leave town)).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muss_i_denn (the translation here physically hurts)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muss_i_denn,_muss_i_denn_zum_Städtele_hinaus

 

[Hornbein]

BB King did the orig. but I prefer these.

Ernestine Anderson



Joe Bonamassa. Great sax break in there.

 

[pinball1970]

And btw., the text is a catastrophe!

What text?

 

[pinball1970]

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.

 

[fresh_42]

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

 

[fresh_42]

No one touches the astonishing performance from the 17 year old Judy Garland.

Ok, I will! I'm a big Eva Cassidy fan.

 

[pinball1970]

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.

 

[fresh_42]

He was stationed there in 1958, probably picked up some tips.

I know. They are still mad there about Elvis.

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

 

[pinball1970]

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!

 

[pinball1970]

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.

 

[jack action]

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:

• Pour un instant​
• Un musicien parmi tant d'autres​
• Harmonium​

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!

 

[Hornbein]

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.

 

[Hornbein]

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.

 

[Hornbein]

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.

 

[Hornbein]

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.

 

[Hornbein]

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.)

 

[pinball1970]

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.

 

[pinball1970]

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

 

[pinball1970]

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.

 

[Hornbein]

Charles Berthoud plays Mission : Impossible.

 

[morrobay]

Ya all up for an off shoot: Songs that are un - coverable , like Forgetaboutit.

 

[pinball1970]

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