I'm a fan of covers too. Often, when I have a song that I really like, I tend to seek out cover versions to see how other artists interpret the song. For example, I have a number of versions of the song "Gentle On My Mind." In addition to Glen Campbell's hit version I also have versions by John Hartford (the song's writer), Leonard Nimoy (purchased out of curiosity), and Roger Miller (my favorite version).

Sometimes, a song is recorded by many artists before being a hit. An example of this is the song "Close To You." While the Carpenters had a hit with the song, per Wikipedia, the song was previously recorded by both Richard Chamberlain and Dionne Warwick, and the song has been covered by other many other artists since the Carpenters had their hit version.

Something else I've discovered when seeking out covers is that some songs undergo significant changes on they way to being a hit. An example is the song "Trying To Get The Feeling Again." While the song was a hit for Barry Manilow, per the SongFacts website (http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=6816) it was originally written for the Carpenters (their version was released in 1995). The Manilow version contains lyrics, such as the song's opening lines, that are signficantly different from the Carpenters version.

I'm Doomed.

Just as I went over to the 2009 charts to look at recent Hip-Hop (got the hyphen in there, this time) the CBC Radio 3 podcast kicked into Classified (Canadian;Indie;Hip-Hop;Rap). Psigh.

Saw Pitbull was tagged as Hip-Hop;Reggae, what the heck, I started this conversation about Reggae covers. Good news, Play Now interrupted Classified. Bad News, Podcast episodes are automatically bookmarked. Not bad, but, not something for my regular diet.

Well now, that's a darned good start [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_country_music]Texas Country[/url] grew out of Outlaw Country and Willie & Waylon are the god-fathers of that genre.

My Hip Hop is only here by accident and largely unplayed. I conciously collected every Billboard Year End 100 track since day 1, well actually I have been working it back to the jukebox charts of the 30's. Main time that it gets played is when my Auto-DJ is on Rating >=3star & Play Count < 2. Anything that year end charted is at least a 3star rating. :o

two hours of ol' waylon in mine and two hours of willie, and some david allen coe, and four hours of ET. and about 4 hours of asleep at the wheel. do that count for texas country :D

Don't look to me for help. I probably have about as much Hip Hop in my library as you have Texas Country in yours. :)

I'm nowhere near a "Junkie" when it comes to Covers, in fact I honestly rarely pay attention to them. Though, that is likely due to the fact that I'm more of a Hip-Hop listener (and thus samples or remakes are more common than an actual Cover), but even with the Pop, R&B, Country & Rock I have, covers are likely at a minimum.

One exception would be when it comes to Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight," as I tend to at least listen to any cover or sample of the song I come by. Got a playlist set up for the instances of it I have in my Library. It's only 9 tracks though.

[list]
[*]2Pac ft. Outlawz - Staring Through My Rear View
[*]DMX - I Can Feel It
[*]GrewSum ft. Damico - Home Wrecker
[*]Krayzie Bone - Silent Warrior
[*]Kris Allen - Heartless
[*]Nonpoint - In The Air Tonight
[*]Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight
[*]Rihanna - Cold Case Love
[*]Thug Lordz - When It Comes To Get Money[/list]
Most are samples or have the feel of the song. The closest thing I have to a cover of the song would be the Nonpoint remake. But... yeah... anyone know of some other good ones, lemme know. :)

[url=http://coverville.com/archives/2010/03/coverville-655-album-cover-the-harder-they-come/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+coverville+%28Coverville%29&utm_content=Google+Reader]Latest episode[/url] of Coverville podcast is a Full Album cover episode of the sound track to Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come". Seminal album. Great cover set.

Sometimes the results can be bizarre, sometimes just unexpected.

I can remember listening to a CBC Ottawa weekend show which was running an informal call in contest for worst cover of a Leonard Cohen song.
Leonard Cohen won.

I rarely enjoy a cover, unless it's a parody, those can be great if they're funny. Sometimes it's in reverse and I like the cover instead of the original. It normally depends on which version I heard first.

Yep it's funny when you consider most have no idea what a cover song is or was. If you're serious about music and respect artists it even funnier :roll:
jimmy

:lol: This topic is heading in two different directions, Cover Music and Cover Art.

Hey Guys
I'm a bit of a cover freak with a small collection of Blues and Funk numbering 8000 to 8500 tracks, 500 are Albums the rest are CD and LP. I've started on my quest of getting all the music on HDD, scanning in the covers and tags. It's going to take quite a bit of time, just wondering if any of you share the same interest. I read where someone here said 5 to 10 years if I add pictures of the 70's to 2000 era it probably going to take a life time. Hoping some of you might want to compare notes
jimmy1one

Check out the [url=http://coverville.com/cover-search/]Coverville Cover Search[/url].

Great way to find back episodes you might like. They can all be downloaded from the archives even if they are not in the current feed.

Thanks for the coverville podcast, I always love to hear interesting covers/covers of my favorites as well! I've already gotten quite a few new tracks from just a few coverville podcast episodes! :D

I sort of came at it from both end's at once. I have always had an interest in Singer Songwriters, e.g. Tom Waits (he is my most played artist, or near to it, in every category on Last.fm).

Got interested in covers of Tom Waits songs. A lot of them are just terrible (but I keep them in the library anyway, rated as Bomb, but still there). Some great. e.g Neko Case - Christmas Card From a Hooker In Minneapolis. Petra Haden & Bill Frissel - I Don't Want To Grow Up, ...

Find it interesting that two of the recent Grammy Albums of the Year, River: The Joni Letters and Raising Sand were basically cover albums. Both of them are now among my most played albums. And were so well before their Grammy buzz.