i.e.; songs that sound so much like the original that you wonder why they they were made.
311- Love Song
Weezer- Africa
To me, both of these sound so much like the original The Cure and Toto, respectively, versions that they are essentially useless.
Any others?
I used to have some covers albums (LPs) which were along the lines of top 40 hits from 1974, sung by bands that did a passable job at producing reasonably exact copies of the originals. At the same time you could also buy 1974 Top 40 compilations by the original artists.
While I agree that there seems to be no point, I thought it had something to do with royalties. Perhaps cheaper to pay for public or commercial use of the fake band’s cover of Abba songs than to pay the royalties for the real thing, or to get licensing approval? A fairly meaningless exercise now with instant streaming, perhaps it was different back then.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this here, but when I’m in charge, a lot of things will change. Every bar will be able to make a decent Old Fashioned, a batter won’t get to hit an unlimited number of foul balls, and…
… a band won’t be allowed to do a cover unless it’s different, and better.
I haven’t found confirmation but I have to assume that Weezer’s Africa cover being a carbon copy of the original was part of the joke. It exists because a Twitter user decided, for unknown reasons, that Weezer should do it. It became a meme, and Weezer responded by covering Rosanna by Toto. A little tongue and cheek. They eventually did do the Africa cover but it was memes all the way down.
Does this apply to classical music too? How many more covers do we need of Beethoven’s symphonies?
Well, when I’m in charge, bands will be required to do whatever covers their fans demand! Whether they are good at them or not!
See you at the debate.
When I first heard the Ataris’ version of ‘Boys of Summer’ I wondered what was the point of covering it. Other than changing the line “I saw a Dead Head sticker on a Cadillac” to “I saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac” it just sounded like a cover performed by the numbers, by a mediocre bar band.
Is a cover ever really useless? It’s an exercise in musical skill, and something most musicians do.
Ehhhhh, learning the cover is the exercise in skill. Recording and releasing it, not so much. I know lots of cover songs I’m not willing to play live, much less record and release. Most of the time, that’s because we’re not doing anything new with the song.
Yeah, I assume “useless” for the purposes of this thread means useless to listeners (as opposed to musicians).
I wouldn’t call it useless, in fact I like it, but Tom Petty’s cover of the Byrds’ “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” is very close to the original. Both the instrumental and vocal arrangements are identical and even the guitar solo is intact.
Todd Rundgren’s 1974 cover of Good Vibrations. Rundgren is a masterful musician and producer, and the work is technically brilliant, and just slightly different enough to have you asking, “Wait, is that the Beach Boys???” But not different enough to really add anything to the song.
Per the intent of the OP, I think the only truly useless covers are of Christmas songs. Does everyone need to make a Christmas album? How many copies of White Christmas do we need? Or god help us, Santa Baby.
Covers that are different, even if you or I don’t like them, aren’t really useless. Manfred Mann made a career out of covers. Judas Priest has some killer covers of songs no one would associate with the metal genre… If you don’t like metal, one might say they are useless. I wouldn’t even if I didn’t like them, because thy bring something new.
That was my point. The two examples I gave aren’t different from the originals, IMHO. In fact, I like both covers since I liked the originals.
Tom & crew were the ultimate covers band! I’m a fan, not like a diehard I know all his catalog fan, but I tried to see him live whenever I could. He put on a great live show, and always played some great covers, often garage rock songs.
That Weird Al Yankovic did lead vocals for the song should be a hint.
Weezer’s Africa is the Leslie Neilsen of cover songs.
There was a period in the late 90s where every single boy band or solo kids artist did a cover of “Kids in America” presumably because that was the thing to do and they all sounded alike.
The Heartbreakers are at their garage/cover band best on the Live at the Fillmore 1997 box set. Highly recommended.
Pearl Jam did a lackluster Last Kiss, a song I heard on the radio when it first came out, and thought would never go away.
I remember that song. That song was really, really bad.