It’s almost certainly because of Luke Combs and his amazing cover of Tracy Chapman’s classic “Fast Car”, but cover songs are back in the conversation now. I’m an aficionado of covers, I love a good one, so this is all right up my alley. I’ve been thinking about the AV Club’s recent list of 25 Best Cover Songs since it came out. It’s fine, there’s nothing I take strong issue with, but it was missing something for me, which was a sense of discovery. The Popdose list of 100 Greatest Covers is still the go-to for me, in that I found songs I didn’t really know before (“How Soon Is Now“, “Everybody Knows“) and some versions I didn’t know (Frente’s “Bizarre Love Triangle“, Gloria Jones’ “Tainted Love“, Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee”; the first is a cover, the second is the original, and the third was from a KBCO acoustic in-studio collection by the original songwriter, which I found very affecting). I didn’t get that from the AV Club, which was a disappointment even if the list overall was fine and probably had some new material to check out for people who are less obsessed with this subject.
I got less out of their companion list of 25 Worst Covers, partly because about half of the songs struck me as more novelties than anything actually serious, partly because I wasn’t particularly moved to find a new-to-me version of the songs in question. This list I did have some quibbles with – I actually kind of like the Ugly Kid Joe version of “Cat’s In The Cradle“, and I don’t understand at all their hate for Lenny Kravitz’s “American Woman“, the only tune on that list that I ever heard on the radio. But whatever, to each their own.
To me, a good cover song can be a faithful reproduction of the earlier work – Phil Collins’ “You Can’t Hurry Love“, for example – or a faithful version done in a different genre – Dwight Yoakum’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – or a reasonably faithful version of a classic done in a more contemporary style – The Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly“, or Bananarama’s “Venus” – or something completely new and different – CAKE’s version of “I Will Survive” is my favorite example of this, but of course famous covers from Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” to Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” all count. I’m a sucker for bands that can do complete transformations of songs into their own style – Manhattan Transfer’s “Unchained Melody“, the Austin Lounge Lizards’ bluegrass “Brain Damage“, the Asylum Street Spankers’ “Paul Revere“, the entire catalogs of Postmodern Jukebox and Scary Pockets, and so on. And of course, we can’t talk about cover songs without mentioning Coverville, which I’ve listened to for many years now (thanks, Ginger!) and which has given me many new songs to enjoy.
Anyway. The Luke Combs cover inspired Chris Molanphy to do an episode of “Hit Parade” about the history of cover songs on the Billboard charts, and it was terrific. It also gave me that bit of discovery that I always seek, in that it was in listening to that episode that I learned that Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” was a cover. Whatever your own history with cover songs, I say check it out. And I’ll close out with a cover that wouldn’t ever be on the charts but encapsulates much of what I say here in terms of being faithful to the original while also going someplace new:
Happy Fourth!
I’m annoyed at the Bottom 25’s inclusion of Shatner’s cover of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” when his cover of “Mr. Tamborine Man” is RIGHT THERE….
This is an interesting discussion. There are some great covers, and some covers that were hits and the original was unknown. I disagree with the Van Halen cover of “You Really Got Me” being included on both lists. It’s just not anywhere near as good as the raw simplicity of the original. Neither list included the Temptations song “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” covered by The Rolling Stones.