So, how much do I like cover versions?

[ckd]

If you ask me to play each of the following songs, how many different artists (including the original artist) will I have available in iTunes? (Not including parodies, but including instrumental-only versions.)

[Poll #1479153]

Comments

[kodi]

Wow, I think I have at least one version of every song listed except Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want. I only have original versions of Stairway to Heaven, Wuthering Heights, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Spirit in the Sky, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Ever Fallen In Love (assuming this is the Buzzcocks song).

[ckd]

assuming this is the Buzzcocks song

That is correct.

[tober.livejournal.com]

Huh. This list includes three songs I wasn't even familiar with ("Ever Fallen In Love", "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want", and "Wuthering Heights") and for most of the rest I am not familiar with any covers - the one major exception being "Hallelujah", which is one of my favorite songs and for which I am aware of a lot of covers... and a fair number of (sad) people who believe the original artist is Rufus Wainwright (I like his cover, but...)

Somebody needs to compile a comprehensive list of songs where the best-known version is a cover. Maybe somebody has already but my google-fu seems to be weak tonight. For example, the most popular version of "Blinded By The Light" is by Manfred Mann's Earth Band but the original artist is Bruce Springsteen.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

This works startlingly well as a list of songs which I am boggled that anyone likes. I'm not sure if that's a sign that I should not be making effort in this area, or a sign that I really should.

[ckd]

That anyone likes in the original version, or in any version? Some of the covers are very different....

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Being the age I am, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the member of the list I've heard covered most. Some of them are dada and self-aware enough to amuse me occasionally - TMBG's, for instance.

Mostly, though, covering a dumb song does not make it any less dumb.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I actually have heard and can identify, and even moderately liked, a full five songs on this list, which considering my detachment from pop music is mind-bogglingly high for me. (One of those five, however, I only know because Weird Al did a good parody of it, and for that, one is a low number for me.)

[barondave.livejournal.com]

For a long time, there was a range of songs that I had at least two different parodies of and not the original. In some cases, I have filled in. Still, every now and then, I'll be listening to the radio and a familiar tune will come on but I'll say to myself, "those aren't the lyrics. These are boring."

None of those you listed, however.

[ckd]

Don MacLean's kids played "Weird Al" Yankovic's "The Saga Begins" so often that he reportedly has to be careful not to sing the wrong set of lyrics to "American Pie" now.

[irilyth]

How many of them are a capella?

[ckd]

Good question. I don't have very much a capella in general; I think the answer is "none of them for the listed songs".

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Wow, there are three songs there I actually know, and I think a fourth that I've heard OF.

For which reason I will not be attempting to answer the actual question you ask.

[aedifica]

I don't know for the quiz, but I hope you have Michael Hedges' version of "All Along the Watchtower"--it's a good one. (Instrumental.)

[ckd]

I don't; I'll have to check it out.

[aedifica]

Apparently I commented without voting! I still don't know, but now I've voted (for the fun of it).

[xthread.livejournal.com]

Right. Don't forget that the performances that we are most familiar with of Where Did Our Love Go and Ball of Confusion are not by their original artists.

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

I do hope you've got Dolly Parton's cover of "Stairway to Heaven". :)

[ckd]

Yup. I'll post the answers soon.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I want like a list of the songs you have for some of these.  (All Along, Don't Fear, Stairway.)

In return:

http://myoldkyhome.blogspot.com/2006/05/hallelujah.html
http://plasticshards.com/blog/archives/tag/nescover