I don't know why we don't have a list for this. There's a list of the "Ten Best" cover songs and then a bunch of others in alphabetical order. And the top ten is pretty weird. Led Zeppelin's "You Shook Me" in the top ten? Really? And I don't think "All Along The Watchtower" over "Respect" is justifiable. Certainly not if we switch from "best" to "greatest", anyway.

Here's the current top ten:

1. All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
2. Respect - Aretha Franklin
3. Crossroads - Cream
4. With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
5. Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds
6. Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
7. You Shook Me - Led Zeppelin
8. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
9. Hurt - Johnny Cash
10. Statesboro Blues - The Allman Brothers

Surely we can do better.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine wasn't a Marvin original was it? That needs to be very high.

Louie Louie - Kingsmen
Proud Mary - Ike & Tina
Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino
Black Betty - Ram Jam

Wow, I thought "Blueberry Hill" was a Fats Domino original.

Sinéad O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"

How's this for a top five:

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin
2. I Heard it Through the Grape Vine - Marvin Gaye
3. Bucket T - The Who
4. Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds
5. Louie Louie - The Kingsmen

The Platters - "Only You"

James Taylor - "You've Got A Friend"
The Beatles - "Twist and Shout"
Soft Cell - "Tainted Love"

I didn't know that was a cover, either.

Edwin Starr's "War" is a Temptations cover.

Bill Haley & the Comets - "Shake Rattle & Roll"
John Lennon - "Stand By Me"

Blueberry Hill Sammy Kaye w/ Tommy Ryan 5-31-40

Victor 26643 Glenn Miller (6-13-40),
Gene Autry (8-20-40),
Louis Armstrong,
Fats Domino

While Gene Autry introduced the song in the film The Singing Hill, Kaye's was recorded before Autry's commerically-issued version.



Here's the Armstrong version, from 1949. It was re-released to compete with the Fats version and made the top 30 in 1956. It was the flip of Satch's version of "That Lucky Old Sun" that competed with Frankie Laine's monster hit in 1949.

A pop version as an alternative to Fats' rock and roll version:

Yep. He did this cover months later.

Not really a cover.

The Platters had recorded an earlier version for Federal before they went to Mercury, but the earlier version was only released AFTER the Mercury version became a hit.

I don't think you can call a second version by the same artist a "cover."

Besides, most of these items are not actually "covers" anyway. They are remakes.

A "cover" REALLY only means when an artist releases a version of a current hit song in an effort to steal away some of the popularity from the other version.

Record that are actually covers include "Little Darlin'" by the Diamonds and "Tutti-Frutti" by Pat Boone.

The Beatles did not release any actual covers, but the Stones did. They covered Irma Thomas's then current song "Time Is On My Side" in 1964 and also that year they covered the Valentino's then current R&B chart hit "It's All Over Now."

Also, for a record to be a "cover" is has to generally sound similar to the version it is copying, as both of those Stones records do. It will be obvious that the artist doing the cover version was trying to copy the first artist's arrangement and sometimes even their style.

Devo doing "Satisfaction" or instance, is in no way a "cover." The record came out like 12-13 years after the original version, and clearly is not trying to sound at all like the original version.

Despite the way the term is used nowadays, that is NOT a "cover."

I think its pretty clear thats not what is meant for this list. No one uses the term that way.

No, MOST people over a certain age use the term that (the proper) way.

Everybody at this place does:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.musi ... schg&hl=en