great covers
as a person who writes, I have conflicting opinions about covers. Some people say that people who do covers just can't write themselves, that isn't necessarily true. For one, it takes more time to write a song than to sing one that already exists. Another thing is that a lot of people we hear on the radio aren't singing songs that they wrote to begin with. While I agree that a full "cover band" or artist is not something I enjoy, some of the time there is a legitimate reason for a cover. If someone isn't successful yet and they want people to listen to them, they do covers because whether the "public" realizes it or not, they like listening to things they already know. People naturally just tend to like things that are familiar to them, it's rare for someone to prefer new songs consistently. I mean, every song is new at some point but they tend to hear it on the radio and each time they listen, it reaches a new level of "knowing" the song. They hear it in the background of life a few times before setting down and listening. For music lovers it tends to be different, some seek out new songs and artists and listen intently. This is something I enjoy doing, and sometimes I like covers because some of them do the same song in a new way, and it helps if the person covering the song really understands the song meaning. I heard someone sing a song that I know almost that they had no idea what it was even about, and you could hear that they didn't in their voice, it was not at all pleasant. I won't say names but it was tragic. Anyway, there are some situations in which successful artists cover songs they like as an homage to the original artist, or because they want to give it their own spin. I love when someone covers a song and they change the way it is sung and it sounds like an entirely different song.
1) On the voice, it doesn't matter how many songs an artist has written, they are required to cover songs, and when Jean Kelley covered "chandelier" I really could hear how sad the song really is. She really did something special with it, and she really understood the meaning, she sang it with such conviction that it was hard to grasp that she didn't write it herself. At the end, she is seriously shaking with emotion.
2) this is a song that I couldn't listen to, because I don't like miley cyrus and the original is nothing but auto tune, so it's almost like a robot singing. But once, while I was listening to a bunch of different songs by Liz Gillies, I found her cover of it. This is the part where it annoys me when people say, it's not the same as the writer singing it. Well, miley did not write this song, you never have heard the writer sing this. It was written for Beyonce and she turned it down, so Miley took it. It very well could have been Liz's song if Miley had said no, after being written it was available to Liz if she'd have known about it. With different circumstances, it could have been like this, and I would have preferred that, actually. This is the only version of this song I can listen to. Liz actually inflicts the real meaning of the song into it, because she sounds like an actual human, for one. And she seems to feel the pain of the lyrics on a personal level. I'm not sure if that's because she was going through something or just had the empathy for it, but this is a thousand times better, in my opinion.
3) this song some might not even realize is a cover, as were most of the songs at this entire performance. But even the people that know, tend to say the nirvana covered a "lead belly" song. But that's not true either, this is an old folk song with an unknown author, it was passed down by word of mouth, the first known commercial recording was by Dock Walsh in 1926, yes, it's that old. But actually it's even older than that. This version is amazing and I can't even imagine how sad it would be had they not covered it, to my knowledge this is the last recorded performance by Kurt, and this was the last song of the set, that pause, when he takes a breath is talked about to this day by many people, it's epic.
4) I can't post this next song because it can only be found on myspace, I've pretty much only kept myspace for my pics and to listen to this specific cover, that's how much I like it. It's "free fallin" covered by shawn coe, in 6th grade we had to do this song for graduation so I heard it daily for months, and I got so sick of that song that I just couldn't even listen to it anymore, I could not stand it. Until I found shawn's cover, that is, he sang it in a different way and if you know him put in a request for him to do the cover in shows or a recording. It's the only version of that song I listen to.
5) as the youtube comments say repeatedly, (lol) this is a hank williams song, but Amy Lee covered it at a tribute to Johnny Cash, because Johnny had covered it. I'm sure Amy knows it was originally by Hank, she isn't a moron. But anyway, I love her version of this, actually I love her covers of anything, she could sing "happy birthday" and it would be the best thing ever. Actually I'm posting 2 of her covers...
6) I'm also posting 2 of this guy's covers, because I like his version of both of these better, one was already a cover by whitney houston of a dolly song. and you almost always only hear girls singing it. But Chris sang it in more of a whitney style and even hit the high note he was supposed to, better than most females. The other he changed the style of entirely almost making it sound like a different song, his version makes you realize how creepy the girl the song is about, probably is...
7) Well, here is another that I want to post a couple covers by, this dude could also sing anything just as good or better than the original, these are both my favorite versions of these songs. I'll let the songs speak for themselves...
8) I don't want to say this one is better or worse, because they are so different, Craig totally changed the song, I love both versions and Craig really got the meaning of the song, and he made it sound beautiful and was at the same time, honoring Johnny with it, I'm sure Johnny would have loved this version
1) On the voice, it doesn't matter how many songs an artist has written, they are required to cover songs, and when Jean Kelley covered "chandelier" I really could hear how sad the song really is. She really did something special with it, and she really understood the meaning, she sang it with such conviction that it was hard to grasp that she didn't write it herself. At the end, she is seriously shaking with emotion.
2) this is a song that I couldn't listen to, because I don't like miley cyrus and the original is nothing but auto tune, so it's almost like a robot singing. But once, while I was listening to a bunch of different songs by Liz Gillies, I found her cover of it. This is the part where it annoys me when people say, it's not the same as the writer singing it. Well, miley did not write this song, you never have heard the writer sing this. It was written for Beyonce and she turned it down, so Miley took it. It very well could have been Liz's song if Miley had said no, after being written it was available to Liz if she'd have known about it. With different circumstances, it could have been like this, and I would have preferred that, actually. This is the only version of this song I can listen to. Liz actually inflicts the real meaning of the song into it, because she sounds like an actual human, for one. And she seems to feel the pain of the lyrics on a personal level. I'm not sure if that's because she was going through something or just had the empathy for it, but this is a thousand times better, in my opinion.
3) this song some might not even realize is a cover, as were most of the songs at this entire performance. But even the people that know, tend to say the nirvana covered a "lead belly" song. But that's not true either, this is an old folk song with an unknown author, it was passed down by word of mouth, the first known commercial recording was by Dock Walsh in 1926, yes, it's that old. But actually it's even older than that. This version is amazing and I can't even imagine how sad it would be had they not covered it, to my knowledge this is the last recorded performance by Kurt, and this was the last song of the set, that pause, when he takes a breath is talked about to this day by many people, it's epic.
4) I can't post this next song because it can only be found on myspace, I've pretty much only kept myspace for my pics and to listen to this specific cover, that's how much I like it. It's "free fallin" covered by shawn coe, in 6th grade we had to do this song for graduation so I heard it daily for months, and I got so sick of that song that I just couldn't even listen to it anymore, I could not stand it. Until I found shawn's cover, that is, he sang it in a different way and if you know him put in a request for him to do the cover in shows or a recording. It's the only version of that song I listen to.
5) as the youtube comments say repeatedly, (lol) this is a hank williams song, but Amy Lee covered it at a tribute to Johnny Cash, because Johnny had covered it. I'm sure Amy knows it was originally by Hank, she isn't a moron. But anyway, I love her version of this, actually I love her covers of anything, she could sing "happy birthday" and it would be the best thing ever. Actually I'm posting 2 of her covers...
6) I'm also posting 2 of this guy's covers, because I like his version of both of these better, one was already a cover by whitney houston of a dolly song. and you almost always only hear girls singing it. But Chris sang it in more of a whitney style and even hit the high note he was supposed to, better than most females. The other he changed the style of entirely almost making it sound like a different song, his version makes you realize how creepy the girl the song is about, probably is...
7) Well, here is another that I want to post a couple covers by, this dude could also sing anything just as good or better than the original, these are both my favorite versions of these songs. I'll let the songs speak for themselves...
8) I don't want to say this one is better or worse, because they are so different, Craig totally changed the song, I love both versions and Craig really got the meaning of the song, and he made it sound beautiful and was at the same time, honoring Johnny with it, I'm sure Johnny would have loved this version
9) this is probably my favorite cover of all time, maybe. I used to watch the "wonder years" just to hear the beginning of this song. I didn't even like that show, but I didn't have the cd and I would get so excited for the show to come on, just to hear that opening line. I don't really even like the original but that's just my opinion, Joe covered a lot of songs, but he had a way of changing them and making them sound so different.... and that voice...
10) I was going to post one version of this but I can't, I love them all too much, totally different than the original.
11) one last one, I love these guys so much, Garrett is so talented, check out his sublime cover too, he can play every instrument and sing, he was about 16 in this and sawyer was 15, I love how pharrell changed it a little, the girl is pretty good too but sawyer's voice is epic, and so is garrett's
there are so many more that I could post, but trying to keep it short so, enjoy!
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