# Song covers- are they evil? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 30, 2001, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369 "2001-01-30T04:30:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/21 "2001-02-01T11:14:26Z")
There have been times when the cover is better known than the original. Who (originally) had the bigger hit with ‘Blinded By the Light’? Bruce or the cover (Manfred Mann? I always liked Bruce’s better) Van Halen’s CAREER was built on covers. They didn’t really start getting the hits with the original stuff until a couple of years after they started. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/22 "2001-02-01T17:20:47Z")
You got it \*\* Mr. Blue Sky \*\* and as for Mr. Boone’s recent venture into heavy metal, complete with studs and leather jacket… Please, Mr. Boone, just go away, OK? Fade into the good night or whatever, just don’t try to be “relevant” because you weren’t even when you actually were selling records nearly half a century ago. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/23 "2001-02-01T17:44:56Z")
Well, I really like covers. Especially when I find covers of my favorite songs. A lot of times people do them simply as tributes to their favorite bands! Look at the Duran Duran Tribute CD. Those are bands I’ve never heard of, but the ‘lounge singer’ cover of Hungry Like The Wolf is GOLD. The Depeche Mode Tribute Album is really good as well…of course I’m biased, being that Rammstein covered Stripped…but they did it so well they took it on the road…it’s excellent. Check out Megaherz’s cover of Rock Me Amadeus, too. I think eighties songs are great for covering because that was such a distinctively weird time for music, and yet a lot of it translates well into the current trend…(Dope’s cover of You Spin Me or Orgy’s cover of Blue Monday for example) **Homer** I LOVE tenacious d! I’m going to have to find that House of The Risin’ Sun pronto! jarbaby ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/24 "2001-02-01T18:24:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by betenoir \* > **Why do people do covers anyway? Would have seemed and odd question to Elvis or any of his predicesors. For the concept of “cover” to mean anything you kind if have to have the idea of a songwriter preforming his own songs. And that didn’t really happen till the Beatles. The idea of an artist writing a song and then producing a definative version of it is fairly new.** I don’t know about that. I’d go back to at least, say, Cole Porter. I’d be more inclined to say that the idea of definitive and cover versions is more a result of the rise of adolescent culture in the 1950s, so much of which is tied up with popular music, movies and television. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/25 "2001-02-01T18:31:04Z")
Song covers often suck. Any cover Johnny Rivers did sucks ass, and no one can tell my any different. That bastard made a career on the backs of black artists. Some artists do covers because they are low on original material. Britney Spears’ cover of “Satisfaction”, for instance…need I say more? But I will be the first to admit that there are many good, and some excellent, covers out there. So, to echo everyone else here, it depends. For instance: Aretha Franklin’s version of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” was a cover of Otis Redding’s version, if I’m not mistaken; Marvin Gaye’s version of “Heard It Through The Grapevine” was a cover of Gladys Knight & the Pips’ version. But when you bring up either song, most people immediately connect the song with the cover artist. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/26 "2001-02-01T22:46:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zen101 \* > … and can’t stand the Ruttles either… That’s Ru **t** les, BTW. They were a parody band NOT a cover band. They did a helluva job RECREATING the Beatles sound, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/27 "2001-02-02T04:24:27Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \* **Homer** I LOVE tenacious d! I’m going to have to find that House of The Risin’ Sun pronto! [QUOTE] One of my favorite bands, too. Top 5, easy. Good luck, though. I’ve heard about it from the guys in the D’s mailing list, but nada on Napster. Good thing they allow free taping and distributing. I’ll have to pry it outta one of the list guys. Did you know the D are putting out a CD this spring? Or that they have a movie in development? Or that they’re playing in Minnesota in a few weeks? –Tim ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/28 "2001-02-02T05:23:27Z")
I’m usually pretty open-minded when it comes to remakes; I don’t think any song is so quintessential that somebody, somewhere won’t be able to bring something new to it. Of course, most of the time that person isn’t the one making the remake, viz. Madonna. I’m thinking about Aretha Franklin - a lot of what she sang was a remake, and it often blew the original out of the water. In all of the threads on this subject, no one’s mentioned the greatest remake of all: RESPECT. The original was for Otis Redding, as I recall, and was a minor hit about 18 months before Aretha redid it. Can you imagine a man singing it anymore? It’s such a feminist anthem now. I also prefer her version of “Say a Little Prayer” to the Psychic Friend’s. One of Aretha’s most interesting remakes is of Eleanor Rigby, which is so different from the original that it’s comparing apples and oranges. Some others I like: Frente’s version of Bizarre Love Triangle. It isn’t better than the New Order original, but it brings out new angles to the song. How many versions of “Take Me to the River” are there? I’m partial to the Talking Heads, but they’re the last in a long line. The most inappropriate remake: there was a disco version of the Cranberries’ Zombie a couple of years back. I almost cried when I heard it; there’s something so appalling about dancing to a great song about the Troubles, with its allusions to the Easter Rising. (A lighter note: I was dancing at a $100-a-head fundraiser in Fire Island Pines when a disco version of “Go Down, Moses” started playing. Great song, great to dance to, but it was a little sick to have a bunch of well-to-do, gay white men bopping our hearts out to a song about slavery.) ---
**Author:** ![Skarecrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Skarecrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skarecrow)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/29 "2001-02-02T05:38:29Z")
two words “me first and the gimme gimmees” er six words… ---
**Author:** ![servalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@servalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/servalan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/30 "2001-02-02T08:00:21Z")
How about Johnny Cash’s version of Nick Cave and The Bad Seed’s “Mercy Seat”? - great original, great but different cover… ---
**Author:** ![Alonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Alonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonist)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/31 "2001-02-02T10:29:50Z")
Whoa. The Residents did “Blue Suede Shoes”? What were the lyrics? ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369/32 "2001-02-02T16:33:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xtnjohnson \* > \*\*In all of the threads on this subject, no one’s mentioned the greatest remake of all: > > RESPECT. \*\* Uh, yes I did. To wit: > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Gundy_ > **But I will be the first to admit that there are many good, and some excellent, covers out there. So, to echo everyone else here, it depends. For instance: Aretha Franklin’s version of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” was a cover of Otis Redding’s version, if I’m not mistaken** Three posts and a few hours before yours. Just so, y’know, you know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-covers-are-they-evil/52369.md?page=1)