Why don’t today’s bands simply remake all the big hits of the past 30 years for sure-fire way to fly to #1? Not saying it hasn’t been tried before, but only by a minority of rockers…
Perhaps somebody (the bands, labels, whoever) doesn’t think today’s audience would be interested. But then again, Britney Spears has covered the Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction and I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett. Both were supposed to be horrifyingly bad. Oh, and I see she also did a Sonny and Cher tune.
Yeah, Marley23, I was giving them a huge benefit of the doubt that they had any semblence of talent from the start. And, I am assuming they can recognize talent from those before them.
Who wrote that “Complicated” song? Avril Nobody? I love what Casey Casom quoted her as saying: “I taught myself guitar by playing the same [uno, solo, lone, one and only, swansong] song over and over and over and over…”. Yes, it shows! (IMHO)
But, overlooking all the above…looks like Uncle Cracker knows how to play the game quite well… - Jinx
It’s the semblence of talent you mentioned Jinx: in order to cover a song and have it be a sure-fire #1 hit, the group would have to cover it well. Otherwise they’ll just get mocked for butchering a classic. In addition, if the group has the ability to cover a song well, they usually also have the ability to create original material, which is typically viewed as more desirable by the audience.
For example, The White Stripes have done a cover of Dylan’s One More Cup of Coffee, and even though it’s quite good, I believe it was not as popular as it could be because listeners prefer new material; for whatever reason, it’s been my experience, (though not necessarily my opinion) that covers tend to get looked down on.
Certain types of bands - “jambands,” as much as I hate the title - seem to love doing covers as tributes to their influences and predecessors. Less so for other types of bands, perhaps.
You could also say that some artists might prefer to create new material, but that doesn’t hold true for many popular acts - any more than the term ‘artist’ is accurate for many of them.
Yeah, I would have to agree that Geateful Dead type bands aren’t afraid to do cover versions. I think that cover versions can be nice, as long as they aren’t exact remakes of the original song.
Absolutely. Why bother covering a classic song if you’re not going to try to take it somewhere new? You’ll never be able to live up to the original if for no other reason than it is the original. Who’d want to hear somebody who sounds almost exactly like Eric Clapton both vocally and on the guitar cover Layla when they could just…hear Eric Clapton play Layla?
Taking an old song and changing the tempo, swapping musical styles, switching a male for female vocalist, sing an optimistic song pessimistically, whatever. But change it. Show it from a different angle. I think the trademark of a good cover is when the covering band makes the song their own. Shows it from a different slant.
The formula seems to be that to hit the charts with a cover version (or I suspect to release a cover version) you need two things: (1) a very popular song to cover, and (2) an already-present fanbase.
Speaking of the British charts, bands like Take That and Boyzone had hits with whole series of cover versions; TT built up their popularity slowly on the basis of their teen appeal, which Boyzone sold their souls to the devil (acheived instant lasting fame with a mix of covers and original material and by looking cute and getting hyped). Faith No More’s biggest hit was probably their cover of Easy, but this was quite far on in their career. Other people like Gareth Gates and Will Young from Pop Idol (British American Idol), and Robson and Jerome (originally from the TV show Soldier Soldier) have hit the charts with covers on the back of TV shows.
It’s always gone on…
In the fifties in the UK there were regularly several versions of the same song in the charts.
The Rolling Stones first hit was ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, a Beatles cover.
And The Beatles did many covers, including “Til Their Was You”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Rock And Roll Music”, etc.
One of the more amusing covers the Beatles did is Boys.
Sure they changed some of the lyrics, but there’s no avoiding the clear interpretation of
It wasn’t exactly a cover, because the Beatles hadn’t even done the song yet. John and Paul wrote (or finished) the song with the Stones around, and Mick and Keef and co. were said to be very impressed.
Well, I think it happens quite often in popular music.
Recently, the Alien Ant Farm cover of Micheal Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” and the Atari’s cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” come right to mind. They might not be “#1 Hits” but they are certainly ubiquitous radio staples.
Also, if you expand “cover” to include the sampling that occurs in hip-hop (a familiar hook often puts these songs over the top), it appears even more common. Some of the more popular crossover artists like Hammer, P. Diddy, and Eminem have often sampled almost entire songs, changing only the backbeat…
The really sad thing is when a band you like only gets popular with a crappy cover. See the Atari’s mention in DaveX’s post.
It’s a lot tougher to make a living on covers than to make a living on origionals. A good chunk of the money from a cover goes to the origional artist, so even a number one hit may not make a lot of money.
I think DaveX is on the right track – it’s usually a marketing tool.
Not that that’s inherently bad, of course. I never would have bothered with Alien Ant Farm without their fantastic cover of “Smooth Criminal”, and I bought the CD just for that song. And their original songs turned out to be quite good as well…not really my style, but it was a worthwhile purchase.
On a different note, I also bought Orgy’s CD based solely on their AWESOME cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”. Unfortunately, their original songs were total suckage. It was worth buying the CD for the cover song, but I’m certainly not gonna spend any more money on that no-talent band.
And don’t EVEN get me started on those “tribute CDs” that are flooding the market…