Mostly Music Covers

Beatles cover songs Part 2

“Twist and Shout” covered 109 times to date was written by Bert Russell and Phil Medley and recorded by the Top Notesin 1961. Produced by a guy name Phil Spector. The Beatles would do more of his productions. The Isley Brothers in 1962. The Beatles would be the third ones to cover this song in 1963 from “Please Please Me”
And, from the same album, “Anna”written and recorded by Arthur Alexander, 1962. “Anna (Go to Him)” the Beatles would be the second to record this song A mashup of the two songs. This has been covered 16 times, here is Ricky Lee Jones talking about the songs influence on her
“A Taste of Honey” written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow based on the play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney and adapted from the theme song of the movie in 1961. This one I always though to be an original song though the character of the tune speaks otherwise so I should have caught on sooner. It was originally recorded as a vocal track by Billy Dee Williams (yes that o…

The Beatles Cover songs The Beatles some might say (arguably) are the best band in history. I say this! Few have amassed the body of work in the relatively brief time they were together, officially from 1960 to 1970. Ringo joined in 1962 to form the best-selling band of all time. And its not just about the quantity of songs but the quality. Whether you are more a Lennon fan or McCartney, or you favour Ringo over George, they were all exceedingly talented.
I don’t want to get into the debate of Stones v. Beatles, hey straight up Rock and Roll and longevity needless to say the Rolling Stones win that battle! I shall blog the Stones as well in the future. So, just how many songs did they record? How many originals and how many were cover songs? Cover songs are important as they show some of the early influences on their music and songs they liked enough to re-record. 
According to Soundscapes the Beatles recorded 212 original songs between 1962-1970
Hal Leonard sights 213 original songs
Wi…

Neil Young
“The Needle and the Damage Done” written by Neil Young and released February 1, 1972. This song has been covered 34 times to date. There has been much talk about safe-injection sites here in London, Ontario, and elsewhere not to mention the opioid crisis, so this song seems to be as relevant now as it was 46 years ago.
Here is Neil with a live version
The lyrics are simple and the message quite direct, you can read them here http://www.lyricsfreak.com/n/neil+young/the+needle+the+damage+done_20099058.html I've read that the term "milk blood" refers to the act of drawing out heroin saturated blood to save for another "fix" in case you can't get a hold of more soon enough.  
As with most songs, particularly of this nature there is a personal connection to the writer and or the performer, Neil of course being both in this instance.

As I understand the story, Neil had lost a bandmate and a roadie to heroin overdoses, so I believe he had them in mind when …

“Bohemian Rhapsody” -by Queen released Oct 1975 written by Freddie Mercury and there are 116 cover versions according to Secondhandsongs.com (Notwithstanding the version by Døsty Cåwshit in 1995, that’s Dusty Cowshit in English) most of them are pretty good!

From the album "A Night at the Opera", ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ stayed at the top of the UK singles chart for nine weeks. It is the third best-selling British single of all time, beaten only by Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and Elton John’s ‘Candle In The Wind’ 1997. It peaked at number 9 in the U.S. but reached number one in Canada. 
Read more about the band in this great article. 
A timely post for me as there's just been announced a Freddie Mercury/Queen Biopic coming out apparently this fall. Here is a bit of a primer I guess to that movie which I am looking forward to seeing!

So a few years after the songs release in the late fall of 1978 I purchased two tickets to see Queen play in my hometown of London O…

Here are some songs based on originals that are quite old, I’ve traced some songs back to the late 1800’s that I have in my library and other’s the recordings are from the early 1900’s. Ever since Leon Scott de Martinville invented a device for recording sound in Paris 1857, developments by Charles Cross, Edison and Alexander Graham Bell pushed forward the ability to record sound and eventually of course-music.


The Gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1887, and by 1902 cylinder molding developments made mass production of recorded music possible. By 1929 Flat discs became popular and the old cylinders became obsolete.
"Sloop John B." as I knew it through the Beach Boys was a favorite of mine, seems its been around for quite some time.
It was a Bahamian Sailing song from what I can gather, the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. First documented in 1923 by American poet-Carl Sandburg​, in what was called the American Songbag, a collection of songs from all corners of the …

Ma and Fats
I really enjoy finding songs that have interesting origins and sometimes a very long past. “See See Rider” (Blues) or also recorded as C.C. Rider Original version and the writer (with Lena Arent) of the song, Ma Rainey-1924

Ma Rainey (called the “Mother of the Blues”) from what I have read was a larger than life performer who was a major recording artist for Paramount Records in the 1920’s. Born Gertrude Pridgett, she married another singer known as Pa Rainey, hence the name Ma. However, she made it no secret she preferred the company of women and referred to this in more than one of her songs. She started in traveling shows as a young teen and worked her way up to head lining her own shows. She was by all accounts a smart business woman and mentor to Bessie Smith (another time I can talk about "the Empress of  the Blues"). An inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 she paved the way for both black men and women in the recording of the Blues. When she r…

Elvis Presley (part 1)


We all know the King of Rock and Roll or at least recognize a song or two or three from him. Why do we (maybe not you but a lot of us) still listen to Elvis songs, many of which are now over 60 years old? Music for most of us is a personal thing, we like what we like because somehow on some level we can connect with it. Why is it when we play our favorite song for someone else they often offer a friendly nod or say, “that’s nice”? Why don’t they love it as much as you do? It could be the style or genre, maybe the artist, melody or the lyrics they don’t connect with, maybe it’s just missing the context that made you love the song. We could say it’s the music of our youth that sticks with us, but many people change their preferences over time. Hey, my sister talked me into going in on buying a Partridge Family album when I was 12 so I know this is true! For me Elvis has an amazing voice and a unique way of delivering a song. Elvis wasn’t known for his song writin…

Here is the type of thing I like to talk about and share. Cover versions, that is songs re-recorded from the original or a variation of the original. These particular songs below relate to some of my longest and dearest friends and some of their musical interests.


R.E.M. "There She Goes Again", REM 1983, Velvet Underground, 1967


"Dust My Broom"

Written by Robert Johnson , released in 1937

Elmo (Elmore) James version recorded in 1951, ZZ Top plays the James adapted version 1979


Graham Parker's "Turned up too Late"

Pointer Sisters 1979, Parker in 1976


"Gypsy Woman" by the Impressions (Curtis Mayfield) 1961

Brian Hyland (of Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini fame) 1970, Bruce Springsteen in 1994


"Bad is Bad" A song written by Huey Lewis et al but first recorded by Dave Edmunds in 1979 (Repeat When Necessary)


Then Huey in 1983


Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "You Got to Move" 1950 cover count 32 (see more about her below),…