What song has had the most covers done? [And stuff like “well, X number of orchestras have played [insert famous classical piece here]” doesn’t count]
Apologies if this has been asked before but I did do a search and didn’t find anything.
For some reason, it stick in my mind that “Something” by George Harrison had made it into Guinness as the most recorded song in history.
I remember hearing that “Yesterday” is the most covered song… but no official cite for that.
Amarinth is right AFAIK.
I wouldn’t be surprised if “Yesterday” is the most covered song, but everyone and their dog seems to have covered “Across the Universe”.
I don’t know where I heard this, so it is probably not true at all, but for some reason I have it in my head that “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” is one of the most covered songs.
(FYIW, I have three versions of the song on my MP3 list, only one of which is by U2, so I am inclined to think there are more versions out there, as well as numerous live covers.)
What, it’s not Louie, Louie?
Say it ain’t so, Joe!
According to this site,, it’s Who do you love?, by Bo Diddley.
I have the Beatles songbook (two volume set in vivid red and white stripes on the covers), and an unofficial count shows that “Yesterday” was the most-covered Beatles song.
A recent story
in the National Post offers this candidate:
“In the Fifties, the LP era, you could pretty much guarantee any album you bought would have three things: a hole in the middle, a cardboard sleeve, and “My Funny Valentine” somewhere round about Side 2 Track 3. There are tales of record buyers going in stores and asking if they had any LPs that didn’t have My Funny Valentine. Even now, there are 100 different recorded versions just by one guy – jazzman Chet Baker. Tony Bennett does it, and Elvis Costello, and some art-rock combo called Miranda Sex.”
Great story about Richard Rogers, btw, a sad man who wrote great songs.
Most sources would agree that “Yesterday” is the most covered song of all time. “Something” is the second most-covered Beatles song.
I don’t know how you decide something is a cover. “Who Do You Love” has been ‘covered’ a lot of times, but often it is substantially changed, either musically or lyrically. Or just pieces of it are played. The main beat to the song has become known as “The Bo Diddley Beat”, and it’s featured in hundreds of songs.
Some of the older crooner-type songs have been covered zillions of times. Sometimes the same singer covers the same song half a dozen times. Sinatra sang multiple versions of the same songs continuously. I’ll bet you could find ten different versions of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” - all by Sinatra. So do those count?
And if we’re going to include spirituals and old blues tunes, lots of them will have the Beatles beat. How many versions of “How Great Thou Art” or “Peace in the Valley” do you think there are?
Most of the cites people are posting are not authoritative. Their opinion sites, or collections of cover songs with the “Most Covered” being just the number of songs that particular web site has collated.
I’ll guess “Happy Birthday”, by whomever, Alex.
Most standard reference books say the most recorded song ever is “Yesterday” by the Beatles, but I remain unconvinced.
Think about this: every year, since the invention of recording, there have been dozens or even hundreds of new Christmas albums released, and most of them rely on the same old Christmas standards. My guess is that “Silent Night” or “O Come All Ye Faithful” or some similarly popular Christmas carol has been recorded more than any pop/rock song.
Agreed. But Jesus only had one birthday. Granted his b’day ditty gets played a lot one month out of the year.
But “Happy Birthday” - well, that bad-boy gets played an awful lot during the course of an ENTIRE year.
Now, who wrote that bitch, anyway?
Err, uh, I believe Jesus had about 33 birthdays. He only had one birth, however, and I think it was around September. We just celebrate it in December. 
astorian stole my answer about Christmas songs. I was going to suggest “Jingle Bells” or “White Christmas”. Lot of gospel songs too but I don’t listen to much of that. If we’re including non established music artists then I’d have to say most English-speaking people have probably sung “Happy Birthday” out loud at one time. Kids songs like “London Bridge” and “Pop Goes The Weasel” would be right up there too. If we go outside the English language and include world music then the answer is sure to be something else. But I’m no expert there.
Oops, can’t forget the Master on this one. He has answered the question about the origin of “Happy Birthday” in one of his columns but it doesn’t seem to be in the archives. He mentions it in this column though:
And as for the OP (from the same column):
Soooooooo…do I win, or what?
That doesn’t count. I mean like radio type songs.
Like, :rolleyes:
fer shure.
duude.