Liner Notes: Chocolate Covered

I listen to a number of Podcasts, i am addicted to them. Mostly they are just hour long conversations about nothing important that serve as mindless litening, but one is different, its a podcast of Song covers called Coverville.

Song covers are amazing things, the ability of one artist to take anothers song and make it their own, not out of greed but out of respect and tribute. A Musical way of saying "good work". Now i know there are exceptions to this and so in my mind i created the three rules which define a cover song to me:

1. Must not sound exactly like the Original
This is a given, but is very regularily overlooked. A cover needs to be an artists interpretation of the song, it needs to be every bit a part of themselves as it is of the original artist. When Joe Cocker did his cover of the Beatles "Little Help from my Friends" he didnt make it sound like the Beatles, he didnt perform it note for note. He made it his own, (in fact it is one of the only covers i can think of in which the cover version was better than the original.) The song became a Joe Cocker song in its own right while still being fathful to the original.
On the other end of the scale, Brittney Spears's Cover of "I love Rock and Roll" or Spiderbaits "Black Betty" are not covers, performing a track just like the original is not a cover, its just theft.

2. A Cover is a B-Side
If you are covering a song with the intention of making it a single, you are not making a cover, you are just greedy. I am not saying that your song cannot become famous, number 1 or whatever, but if you record it with that intent then you are not doing it for the right reasons. A song cover is a bonus, it is a short tribute to another performer. I will accept people like Michael Buble etc who only really have their voice to work with, but i wouldnt really classify them as cover either. A cover is a specially done track by the artist to display their repect and love for another artist.
Once again Brittany Spears's Cover of "I love rock and Roll" is not a cover. Spiderbait... i had  faith in you....tsk tsk..

3. Respect is Key
Whether the song is done in jest or not a certain amount of respect needs to be had, if you are playing a song because you know it will be popular, or you know you can just make a mockery of it then become a Commercial radio DJ, to perform a cover you should like the song you are performing, whether it be sentimental, nostalgic or personal to someone you know, you need to respect the song and put effort into the recording. I will just put it out there that i dont like Wierd Al Yankovich for this reason.


When a cover song is done just right it is amazing, when performed live it is something that makes you feel you are witnessing something special, a cover song is a pure form of creativity that shows of an artists talent more than anything else because it is the ability to take the essence of a song and give it new life.

And so i leave you with two Covers that i really like... eventually i will make a covers mixtape... but not now cos i cant be bothered....

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air - Kay Pettigrew
This cover is great, i love acoustic renditions especially of rap songs. This is a prime example of an artist putting their own style into the song. Enjoy.


Somewhere over the Rainbow - IZ
A lot of people would have heard this cover before, it was featured in the movie Finding Forrester and now it seems to be featured in westfield playlists.... nonetheless it is a great cover and is most definatley done with amazing passion and respect and gives the song a whole new feel.


This is a very limited list in terms of showing the scope of what a song cover can do... so wait for the next playlist where i'll try and give you a wider spectrum.