A great cover reenvisions and reinvents the original song. Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nail’s Hurt, introduced me to a song and band that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise. Cash’s age, experience, and public image added a dimension to the original song. Likewise, Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower cemented the song’s meaning within the context of the 60’s.
Some songs are destined to be covered. It seems that every artist has a version of The Beatles’ Yesterday. For a little quarantine fun, I took four of those songs and built a bracket of popular covers on Spotify:
I seeded the songs based on the number of average monthly listens of the recording artist and built the following rubric for evaluation. The covers should be judged on:
- Artistic License: How does the artist change the sound or meaning of the original song. (I did not include covers that matched style and interpretation of the original in the bracket)
- Pull: How captivating is the song? How much does it make you (the listener) want to dance, sing, cry, or reflect?
- Orchestration: How well does the adaptation make use of the instrumentation in the song?
- Vocal Quality: Does the singer sound good?
- Intangibles: Does the cover deserve special attention for a reason not listed above?
I’ll leave the empty bracket below and update the post with my completed personal evaluation at the end of the month. I encourage readers to fill theirs out, or create their own version with different genres or song mixes.
Bonus Content: My recent fascination with “Pure Imagination” stems from a real-life Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story.
Polly Wanna Math 