Cover songs versus the original track, which ones are better?

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In summary, the conversation discussed which songs were performed, arranged, or produced better in a cover than the original version. They also debated which songs should have been left alone and whether restricting covers to released singles limits interesting comparisons. The discussion also touched on the subjectivity of judging which version is "better" and the importance of adding something unique to a cover. Examples of good and unnecessary covers were also mentioned. Overall, the conversation highlighted the different interpretations and emotions that can be evoked by a cover compared to the original version.
  • #1,226
fresh_42 said:
untalented Sinatra
I'm shocked!
 
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  • #1,227
pinball1970 said:
I'm shocked!
I know, not a popular point of view. I once read a short comment on this by my favorite author Ephraim Kishon. IIRC it was like this. Two Hollywood producers talked to each other and one said: "I bet I can make a star from anybody that comes around that corner!" He was unlucky. Sinatra came around the corner.

That made me think about it and I haven't found much contradicting this quote. Some "artists" are simply a result of good PR rather than their own talent. The list is long, and nowadays even longer than ever.
 
  • #1,228
I didn't like him for a long time. Then my Mom had a Sinatra CD and I had to admit he had something. I still don't care for his hit songs.

 
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  • #1,229
fresh_42 said:
I know, not a popular point of view. I once read a short comment on this by my favorite author Ephraim Kishon. IIRC it was like this. Two Hollywood producers talked to each other and one said: "I bet I can make a star from anybody that comes around that corner!" He was unlucky. Sinatra came around the corner.

That made me think about it and I haven't found much contradicting this quote. Some "artists" are simply a result of good PR rather than their own talent. The list is long, and nowadays even longer than ever.
He is bit before my time and I was probably introduced to him via film.

On the Town is still real fun, as is High society.

“It was a very good year” is a great song.
 
  • #1,230
pinball1970 said:
He is bit before my time and I was probably introduced to him via film.

On the Town is still real fun, as is High society.

“It was a very good year” is a great song.
These different perspectives show one thing: we are all the product of our specific experiences, often in childhood, and socialization. I'm probably an Elvis fan because my sister has been and I heard his music very early in my life. And I mean not only his popular titles. I like his blues songs or some gospels a lot more than I like e.g. Hound Dog.
 
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  • #1,231
[THREAD HIJACKING]
Hornbein said:
French pop music is unique. Lots of bathetic ego ballads. Not a bone of rock and roll in their bodies.
To get a rock sound in French - truly coming from the guts - you have to go to the other side of the pond:
Maybe more of a ballad, but so good:
[/THREAD HIJACKING]
 
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  • #1,232
  • #1,233
jack action said:
[THREAD HIJACKING]

To get a rock sound in French - truly coming from the guts - you have to go to the other side of the pond:
Maybe more of a ballad, but so good:
[/THREAD HIJACKING]
Its fine, that's great thing about music. Music is so powerful it rarely exists in isolation.
It is connected to all the things we associate with events.
I thought I was objective enough, smart enough and a good enough musician to find a good piece. Say why it is good technically, recording, sounds, chord progression all that jazz but that is just the nuts and bolts.
What was happening to my brain at the time? Was I growing up? What was happening in my life?
@phinds said it and @fresh_42 the formative years are key and I will add really significant times can define what you like in music.
I think mine just happened earlier 2-11 ISH.
 
  • #1,234
If you were looking for perfection, you would end up with Callas.
 
  • #1,235
This one is to bring a smile to everyone.

A little backup story first. In the 50's, with the popularity of the radio and the success of rock'n'roll in the US, English songs were eclipsing the French culture in Canada. So, in the 60's, the artists began to translate the popular songs of the time to win back the market. These were done fast and cheap as soon as the hits were coming from the US and the UK. This group, Les Baronets, specialized in covering the Beatles' songs. This is their version of Hold Me Tight.

The anecdotal thing is that the guy on the left is René Angélil, Céline Dion's manager and husband. (You know, before she was even born.)

​


Of course - you don't have to say it - everyone prefers the original.
 
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  • #1,236
Most people won't accept any new music after they reach 25. I used to hang out with an online group of recording engineers. They had stories like "when I mixed 'Billie Jean'" and "Maria Carey hogged the bathroom". None of them liked anything they first encountered after age 25. There were at least a hundred of them : no exceptions. It was impossible to get any of them to like anything that was new. The great majority of my friends and family are the same.

It's easy to guess why. For most people music is a mating thing, and in nature that's over by age 25. Here in Bali you are supposed to get married at age 25 for men, 24 for women. If you miss the boat you are out of luck. Same in Japan. You don't want to be "after Christmas cake" (the 25th). It pressures the young to get married and greatly reduces bewildering excesss of choice.

There are exceptions (if you aren't a recording engineer). Economist and NYT columnist Paul Krugman likes Arcade Fire.
 
  • #1,237
jack action said:
Of course - you don't have to say it - everyone prefers the original.
Their singing is pretty good but their "dancing" very unskilled. (I live in Asia where dance is much more important as an art than in the West. )
 
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  • #1,238
Orig by Mike Stern.

With Dave Weckl on drums and an incredibly restrained Jaco Pastorius on ebass.



I think Mike is the great jazz composer since 1986 -- who else is there? -- but am not crazy about his screaming lead soloing style. So...

Cover by Tori Slusher.

The opposite. I don't care for the way she plays the head but think the soloing is great. I listen to it over and over, something I very seldom do. She also plays bass and pad drums.

 
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  • #1,239
If you're wondering what is the big deal about Mike Stern, here's Little Shoes. I think ballads are his highest strength.



Cover. The only cover I could find that didn't copy Mike's solo exactly.



Oh, and stern is German for star.
 
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  • #1,241
 
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  • #1,242
More blues badassery.



It appears she's lost weight. One hundred pounds maybe.
 
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  • #1,243
Original
 
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  • #1,244
morrobay said:
Original

Elvis did a great version of this.
 
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  • #1,245
And she is hard to follow...
 
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  • #1,246
fresh_42 said:
I'm probably an Elvis fan because my sister has been and I heard his music very early in my life.
From my mum I think.

"If I can dream" is still one of my favourite songs of all time.

I think I may have posted it already but Elvis' "Suspicious minds" cover by "the fine young cannibals" is truly truly awful.
 
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  • #1,247
morrobay said:
And she is hard to follow...

Not keen on it but this all about covers.

This is what you call minimal. (EDIT: Elvis Version) Double bass, finger click, bongos (played with sticks though? Sounds too staccato for fingers) and his voice with plenty of reverb. I wonder how they did that little triplet sizzle?

 
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  • #1,248
 
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  • #1,249
morrobay said:

I prefer this one.
 
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  • #1,250
pinball1970 said:
From my mum I think.

"If I can dream" is still one of my favourite songs of all time.

I think I may have posted it already but Elvis' "Suspicious minds" cover by "the fine young cannibals" is truly truly awful.
Thank you for the warning! I'm a big fan of the 7:42 (or so) version of Suspicious Minds.
 
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  • #1,251
I've been looking for this cover... And recognized the name from
the fever cover search
 
  • #1,252
pinball1970 said:
Elvis did a great version of this.
Yes, but the original already has it. The covers weren't really necessary. I cannot see that they actually added something new which is my personal criterion to accept a cover. And btw., the text is a catastrophe! We have a nice word for it: "zum fremdschämen". It cannot be translated. It is the feeling that you feel ashamed (in this case for the text) although you're not responsible for it. It is the feeling of overwhelming embarrassment for something someone else does or did. It's the crucial "fremd = stranger" part that makes it untranslatable.
 
  • #1,253
I saw Lawrence live at Rock Werchter, amazing band :)

 
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  • #1,254
And... another I got introduced to at Rock Werchter.. Imagine a stage (the slope, smallest stage) jam packed with some 5/10 thousand people, in the sun, and then a girl of 18 years steps on and fills the entire stage with just her and her guitar (and a piano) And starts singing like this... Just here and a guitar, I gotta admit it caught me off guard, I couldn't keep it dry...

 
  • #1,255
With Eva Cassidy it's more the question which cover to share. Pretty much all of them are better than the original...

 
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  • #1,256
Arjan82 said:
With Eva Cassidy it's more the question which cover to share. Pretty much all of them are better than the original...
A great loss!
 
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  • #1,257
Arjan82 said:
With Eva Cassidy it's more the question which cover to share. Pretty much all of them are better than the original...
And some very unexpected ones:




 
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  • #1,258
That's true. I was once in an Internet cafe in Bali. They were playing an album on loop. The second time through I said, I must know who this is. It was Eva Cassidy.

She wasn't much known until after her death one of her fans somehow got the BBC to play one of her songs. So many people called in asking who the artist was that she from then on was a presence in the UK. USA media is strictly pay to play so she has nothing there.

Her version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow is perhaps as widely covered as the original, something I would have thought impossible.
 
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  • #1,259
Savage and apocalyptic. Didn't know Lindsey had it in her.

Kevin Gilbert was one of those very few destined for stardom. He did his version of Kashmir in one night of multitracking. It was rejected for a Led Zeppelin tribute album. Somehow his version got on Los Angeles radio. So many listeners called in demanding to know who it was that it became a local hit. Kevin though died while still a young man.

 
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