What does the word "cover" mean to you?

[Canada Jim]

In order to not influence any answers, I'd like to simply ask, "What does the word cover mean to you when referring to a song?"

 

[Wiggy]

You are performing a song that someone else made famous made someone else famous.

 

[Brian PacNW]

My thoughts…

Anything re-representation of the original song by someone else. Doesn’t have to be exactly the same, but melody and chord progression should be easily recognizable. If there are lyrics, they should be very very similar.

If you stray way way too much from these, it becomes a different song based on the original rather than a cover. Not sure where the division is, but I would lean toward calling something a cover if /heavily/ based on the original.

 

[KohanMike]

For me it's a song written by someone else, and not so much made popular by a performer. You can change the arrangement to your liking, but it's still a cover. Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a perfect example, written by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg, made popular by Judy Garland in 1939 from The Wizard of Oz, then very popular again in 2011 with a different arrangement (and botched lyrics) cover by Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole). Or very different arrangements of Heard it Through the Grapevine as big hits for Gladys Night & The Pips and for Marvin Gaye.

Another interesting example is the hard rock song Walk This Way by Arrowsmith in 1975, then rearranged and recorded as Rap/Rock mix by Arrowsmith together with Run DMC in 1986.

To support what @Brian PacNW says, songs with changed lyrics the way Weird Al Yankovic does are usually called parodies. My group does a parody of the opening section of We Will Rock You, changing the lyrics and title to We Will Uke You, usually the first or second song of a set.

---

Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
4 tenor thinline cutaway ukes, 4 thinline acoustic bass ukes
•Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
•Member Cali Rose & The CC Strummers: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

 

[mikelz777]

For me a cover is a new recording/performance of a song originally recorded/performed by someone else. In my mind it should be a pretty faithful rendition of the original but it can vary to reflect the aesthetic of the person doing the cover. If it does vary it should still be readily identifiable as the original song.

 

[spongeuke]

Often when I "cover a song" the order, lyrics and chords change. Not by design.

 

[greenfrog]

I was obsessed with reading about horses as a kid, so I learned the veterinary sense of the word (it’s what a stallion does to a mare) years before I ever heard of “covering” a song. I still occasionally get the giggles when I see that term in a musical context.

But when I’m not being immature, I see “covering” a song as referring to recording or performing a song that has already been recorded/performed by someone else.

 

[Jerryc41]

My thoughts…

Anything re-representation of the original song by someone else. Doesn’t have to be exactly the same, but melody and chord progression should be easily recognizable. If there are lyrics, they should be very very similar.

If you stray way way too much from these, it becomes a different song based on the original rather than a cover. Not sure where the division is, but I would lean toward calling something a cover if /heavily/ based on the original.

You and Wiggy took the letters right off my keyboard. And from the way I've heard it used, the original doesn't have to have been a very popular recording. Pat Boone sang a cover of a pop song written and recorded by the composer. The original didn't do too well, but Pat's version did much better. He refers to it as a cover, so I'll accept that definition.

I found it -
"Starting that year [1956], Boone remade three of Little Richard’s signature songs: “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Rip It Up.” In a sign of how segregated the music business was at the time, his “Tutti Frutti” was far more embraced on pop radio, hitting Number 12 (Little Richard’s version only made it to Number 17.)

Pat Boone Remembers Little Richard: 'He Knew He Had to Be Different'

Singer Pat Boone, who recorded a string of mild, but more successful, covers of Little Richard's songs, remembers the rock architect.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[Canada Jim]

It does seem to be a more modern term for performing a song that you didn't write.
We don't often see Frank Sinatra's version of My Way, the song he learned from Paul Anka referred to as a cover,
nor Roberta Flack's version of Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face called a cover.
These days it's often used as a pejorative.

 

[UkingViking]

I consider it rather established what a cover song is. To me, the interesting question is when a cover can hardly be considered a cover.

Like when you record a traditional song. You are not really covering anybody, because nobody knows who wrote it. Not a cover in my book.

What about an symphony? Are orchestras sound Beethoven covers? Or do the performance need to be more focused on the performer before it is a cover? Does the musical act need to have been associated with another artist before it is a cover?

Some jazz standards have been recorded so many times that few people know who really wrote it or recorded it first. Since you can usually track down the composer, it is a cover... But what if the composer never recorded it themselve?

 

[Poul Hansen]

It does seem to be a more modern term for performing a song that you didn't write.
We don't often see Frank Sinatra's version of My Way, the song he learned from Paul Anka referred to as a cover,
nor Roberta Flack's version of Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face called a cover.
These days it's often used as a pejorative.

Exactly. In the 70es we just played a tune/song it was only later that someone started using the word "coversong" derogatoryly as if it wasn't as good/valuably as the original. But I have heard several covers that were better than the original, so.........

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

IMHO, “cover” infers that one is earning money by performing a song written and copyrighted by an artist who is entitled to gain royalties by virtue of paying dues to organizations such as ASCAP. I’m interested to know if I’ve always misunderstood that situation.

When, on the other hand, I post my clearly- unprofessional uke solo instrumental of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” to my private You Tube channel and either post a link to UU or not, I didn’t “cover” the song. I simply learned / arranged the notes that seemed right to me and, in turn, asked YT to host a digital mini- recital.

 

[Kenn2018]

A cover is what we had to do in grade school when we had a Nuclear Bomb drill. First duck and then cover. Even a catchy song about it.

In jazz, there are a lot of clearly recognizable songs that have been changed slightly by another group or performer and renamed. Is it stll a cover?

Lots of obscure songs have been rediscovered and covered by a performer years later. An extreme example would be Emerson, Lake and Palmer covering classical music pieces such as Pictures at an Exhibition.

I think of a cover as being an interpretation of a piece written by someone else and previously performed by a musician/singer.

I don't think of acts like Elvis impersonators as performing covers of the songs they sing.

Some well known singers built entire careers singing songs written by other people. Others are singer/songwriters that do covers of some songs and their own work. Even people like Bob Dylan has recorded and performed songs written by other composers.

I don't consider Weird Al as doing covers of songs. He does parodies.

If you perform a cover of a copyrighted song/music for money, you are supposed to pay a royalty to the copyright holder.

One of my favorite covers was Joe Cocker singing, "With a Little Help from My Friends."

 

[Brian PacNW]

What a great question that brings up several interesting perspectives. I like that @Oldscruggsfan brings up whether we are doing covers when we try to reproduce songs on our uke. How each of us answers that question goes a long way to resolving our own personal definitions of the word. (I think it's a cover, but can easily see the perspective that it's not.)

Seems like we should have more English words to describe the various cases of not-purely-original songs.

 

[Canada Jim]

A cover is what we had to do in grade school when we had a Nuclear Bomb drill. First duck and then cover. Even a catchy song about it.

1-In jazz, there are a lot of clearly recognizable songs that have been changed slightly by another group or performer and renamed. Is it stll a cover?

Lots of obscure songs have been rediscovered and covered by a performer years later. An extreme example would be Emerson, Lake and Palmer covering classical music pieces such as Pictures at an Exhibition.

2-I think of a cover as being an interpretation of a piece written by someone else and previously performed by a musician/singer.
I don't think of acts like Elvis impersonators as performing covers of the songs they sing.

3 - Some well known singers built entire careers singing songs written by other people. Others are singer/songwriters that do covers of some songs and their own work. Even people like Bob Dylan has recorded and performed songs written by other composers.

I don't consider Weird Al as doing covers of songs. He does parodies.

If you perform a cover of a copyrighted song/music for money, you are supposed to pay a royalty to the copyright holder.

4 -One of my favorite covers was Joe Cocker singing, "With a Little Help from My Friends."

1-In many cases jazz players will use the changes from a standard and write a new melody to go over those changes eg -Charlie Parker's Scrapple From The Apple used tha changes from Honeysuckle Rose, but the melody is entirely unique.

2 -Or sometimes it can be a close to exact copy, including mistakes by a "Cover Band" or "Cover Artist" although the Elvis comment indicates that you don't agree with this.

3 -Yes, Bob Dylan started out as a folk singer and his first LP was entirely folk songs except for two, Talking New York, whichused Chris Bouchilon's Talking Blues chord and rhyme pattern and Song To Woody which used the tune and chords to Woody's 1913 Massacree.
Like Woody, Dylan often borrowed from other songs.
Since song-writing and performing are two entirely different skills, Many wonderful performers; Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Rush, Frank Sinatra. . . were not prolific song-writers, but left tha process to others. Many wonderful song-writers; Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen. . . were not known for their performing abilities. Occasionally we'll get a musician like Oscar Brown Jr, Joni Mitchell, Buffy St Marie, Marie-Lynne Hammond. . .who is talented in both areas and it's a pleasant surprise

4 -I have to agree that Joe Cocker did a fantastic job of this song.

 

[Jim in Oregon]

... We don't often see ... Roberta Flack's version of Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face called a cover.

 

[EDW]

For me it's a song written by someone else, and not so much made popular by a performer. You can change the arrangement to your liking, but it's still a cover. Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a perfect example, written by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg, made popular by Judy Garland in 1939 from The Wizard of Oz,

I always think that it is fun to point out that Arlen and Harburg also wrote "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" in 1939 for Groucho Marx in At the Circus. I always find it funny that you could not imagine two more different songs.

I often think about how generations back, there were many artists playing their versions of various popular songs. It is probably because songs were written by many composers and put out there for anyone to perform. Post Beatles, when artists focussed on playing their own material, the concept of ownership and consequently, "covers" became more of a thing.

 

[Jim in Oregon]

Oops. Apparently hit post without adding text. What I meant to say was: Jim, you amaze me. I had no idea The First Ever I Saw Your Face was written by the same guy as Dirty Old Town.

One more thing for the youngsters out there: I don't think I ever heard "cover" used like this until maybe the 1990s.

Jim

 

[ksiegel]

I was obsessed with reading about horses as a kid, so I learned the veterinary sense of the word (it’s what a stallion does to a mare) years before I ever heard of “covering” a song. I still occasionally get the giggles when I see that term in a musical context.

But when I’m not being immature, I see “covering” a song as referring to recording or performing a song that has already been recorded/performed by someone else.

Many times, when people do a "cover" of a song, they do it in the veterinary sense, whether they intended to or not.

-Kurt​

 

[ksiegel]

It does seem to be a more modern term for performing a song that you didn't write.
We don't often see Frank Sinatra's version of My Way, the song he learned from Paul Anka referred to as a cover,
nor Roberta Flack's version of Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face called a cover.
These days it's often used as a pejorative.

Anka wrote "My Way" for Sinatra, so it ain't a cover. As to Roberta Flack's rendition of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", it was lovely. However, Ewan MacColl wrote it for Peggy Seeger, reportedly only performed it once, and gave it to her. I absolutely love Peggy's version, whether on record, or the one time I was able to see her do it live at Pete Seeger's 94th Birthday Concert (Presented by the Eighth Step, at Proctors Theater, Schenectady NY in 2013).

I don't consider either Peggy or Roberta's versions as covers - they were simply recordings of a fantastic song by different people.

-Kurt​