Cover Version

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Cover Version

Postby jon » Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:03 pm

Craig wrote:I can't tell you how many times I've heard "You Beat Me to the Punch" by Charity Brown. Unfortunately, this song gets played to death on Canadian oldies stations (thanks to CanCon). Believe it or not - I had no idea this song was originally performed by Mary Wells.

A few months back, Cousin Brucie asked listeners to send him the names of their favourite Cover Versions of songs so he could play the most popular on (part of?) an upcoming show.

Since then, I've thought a lot about just what a Cover Version is. And, as usual, decided that there is no universally accepted definition. The complexity of the question was contiually brought home to me as I listened to Norm N. Nite each weekend when he so often tells you who wrote the song, what year it was written, who recorded previous hit versions, and when, of the song he just played or is about to play.

Cover Version had a bad name as a result of the mid- to late 1950s habit of having White artists record songs that were R&B hits by Black artists. It was done, of course, so that many Radio Stations would play the song that would not otherwise, more often from fear of outrage from their White listeners, rather than Bigotry within the station itself. Not that some stations weren't run by Racial Bigots.

I have a hard time condemning what might well be called Cover Versions: Hit Pop songs with no R&B or Rock flavour to them, that were adapted into huge Rock and Roll hits. "Blueberry Hill" and "I Only Have Eyes for You" are my favourite examples. Fats Domino and The Flamingos had their biggest hits with these two songs.

But:
  • Glenn Miller had a #2 Pop hit with "Blueberry Hill" in 1940, as did Fats Domino in 1957;
  • Ben Silva had a #2 Pop hit with "I Only Have Eyes for You" in 1934 while the movie Dames was still popular, for which Harry Warren and Al Dubin originally wrote the song; the Flamingos version made it to #3 on the R&B charts and #11 on the Hot 100.
The Singer/Songwriter era of the late 1960s and early 1970s makes it even more confusing. There are a number of cases where the Songwriter releases his/her/their version of the song AFTER it becomes a hit for someone else, especially if the Songwriter records it after the song is well on the way to becoming a hit.

My favourite incident is "Wild World" by Cat Stevens. Before he had any hits that did anything but Bubble Under the Hot 100, Cat Stevens wrote that song and produced it for Jimmy Cliff. Jimmy's version peaked at #8 in England but failed to make the Hot 100 in North America. So, Cat Stevens then recorded and released it himself and got his first bonafide hit out of it.

So, which is the original and which is the Cover Version?

With the coming of CanCon, it became fairly common in the early 1970s to have the Canadian songwriter record and release their own version of a song that a well known (usually Canadian) singer already had a hit with. For example, "It Takes Time" was a Canadian hit for Anne Murray that was later released by its writer, Shirley Eikhard. Not sure who else played it, but it got consistent airplay on CBC at the time.

And, of course, there is Woodstock by Crosby Stills & Nash. Joni Mitchell wrote it, but her recording of it never received any amount of airplay until after CS&N had their hit.

So, what's your take on Cover Versions?
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Re: Cover Version

Postby freqfreak2 » Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:52 pm

Another Cat Stevens twist:

"The First Cut Is the Deepest"

Written by Stevens, it was released by P. P. Arnold in the U.K. in the spring of 1967.

Stevens' own version of the song first appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967.

This makes Stevens' own song a cover of the P. P. Arnold hit.

Keith Hampshire had a later Can-con hit with it in 1973, Rod Stewart released it in 1976, and Sheryl Crow also enjoyed success with it in 2003.
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Re: Cover Version

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:27 pm

I rarely listen to CBC but I remember being engrossed in a show while driving home from Kelowna to Vancouver one summer night a couple of years ago.
The hosts had researched some songs to their origins and had recordings of the various versions from then until today along with comments about which version had been the most popular through all of the eras.
Really well done as they played the clips so you could make a comparison of the various versions.
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