Covers Uncovered: The 6 Rules of a Great Cover Song -- by Nate Winter

Intro

The idea behind a cover song is easy: create your own version of someone else's song. However, developing a cover that is truly great and capable of widespread recognition is not so straight forward. When it comes to covers, the greats are made, not born. And each one has a set of underlying reasons for its greatness. So whether you're a cover lover or a musician looking to hit it big, here's why covers matter and how to make yours a winner.

Cover songs are timeless because they provide two basic cultural benefits to listeners. The first and most important benefit is the reassurance of shared cultural consciousness. Hearing a good cover tells us that our awareness of the song's original version has value. Day to day we are exposed to a great deal of useless information: advertisements, celebrity gossip, bad jokes, MTVs 1 through 3. So knowing that we share the same standards of good music with others is extremely affirming. Getting an inside joke (Girth, Wind, and Fire) or identifying an obscure reference (Eddie Murphy's music career) makes us feel like we're a part of something. Identifying a cover song is the same way.

A cover's most basic, altruistic use is to honor excellent song writing. This is the second powerful benefit cover songs bring to us as listeners. The aesthetic of instruments, sound effects, rhythms, and vocal style are rarely static in popular music (and for good reason). Covering an old song in a new style shows that, at its root, the song is timeless—its chords, rhythms, and vocal melodies transcend the "there and then" as well as the "here and now."

It inspires us to know that that we were witness to great song writing through the original, and that the cover has given it renewed recognition. Covers help great songs and great songwriting live on. Like the way the 80s' legacies of hedonism and syphilis live on in Rock of Love 2.

And musicians! The benefits of a cover song for you are far more obvious. When done well, a cover song capitalizes on the existing equity of the original song. This equity could take the form of positive feelings towards the original or just enough familiarity to pique a listener's curiosity. A cover song can be your "foot in the door" to a listener's attention. All the musicians who became popular because of one good cover song are a testament to this fact. If you work hard and make an excellent cover of your own, you can meet them all at the next VH1 reality show casting call.

Defining "Cover Song"

Like anything cultural, a cover song can be defined in a variety of ways, but for the purposes of this exercise, a cover song will be defined as:

a musical recording or performance of a song by an artist other than the song's original writer or performer in which the new version is substantively similar to the original.

Substantive similarity to the original song is the key. Cover songs need to maintain their connection to the original work. The lyrics and music of a cover song must be substantively the same as those of the original. (Admittedly, "substantively" is a subjective term, but hard and fast rules tend not to last long when dealing with culture and art.)

This definition intentionally excludes certain musical trends that are NOT the same as covers. These include:

The Remix— a new version of a song created by the song's original artist. I'm talking to you, Linkin Park. And you, Children's Masterpiece Theatre.

Sampling— the use of small vocal or instrumental parts from an existing song to create a new song. Because MC Hammer was not a real cover artist, he now endures the endless suffering of Celebreality to pay the rent on his doublewide.

Lyric Copping— the combining of another artist's lyrics with new, original music. Rage Against The Machine: guilty as charged.

The Mash-Up—a song created by combining the musical elements of two or more popular songs (usually the music of one and the vocals of the another). Not that you'd know who deserved credit even if it was a cover.

Parody— a humorous imitation of a popular song, usually accomplished by putting new lyrics to the popular song's music. It's a compelling justification for the invention of internet video, but it does not constitute a cover.

The Rules

Musicians! Let's assume that you already lobotomized your original sound to make a listenable record, but you're still not the Sunday night headliner. Don't give up! A cover song lets you butcher someone else's music for a change. A great cover is your last chance to compromise artistic integrity before you inevitably vanish into complete obsolescence. Here's how!

Cover lovers! What follows is an entertaining litany of cover mentions and case studies to guide the up-and-coming bands you know and love to ultimate fame and stardom.

Rule #1: Original Song Was Popular and/or Influential
Covering a song that was never popular will not resonate with audiences. If the original song has no equity with the audience, the "foot in the door" advantage of a cover song is lost. A good guideline is to pick songs that were in the top 100 of the year they were released. (Click here for the Billboard archive of top songs from years past.) This ensures that audiences will recognize the song as a cover, and give you a chance to prove yourself (the chance you never got in middle school marching band as third chair oboe. Screw you, Mr. Tabiss!).

Songs that weren't in the top 100 could be influential or recognizable for other reasons, and may still be plausible candidates for covering. Perhaps a song reached a wide audience as part of a television commercial (The Transplants for Fructis; Sly and the Family Stone for Toyota), an internet video (Dick in a Box), or a film ("Build Me Up Buttercup" from "There's Something About Mary"; "Total Eclipse of the Heart" from "Old School"). As long as listeners recognize the cover as a cover, this rule has been followed.

Rule #2: Original Song's Popularity Was At Least 10 Years Ago
Covering a song too soon is too obvious. There's a risk that the audience is tired of the original and that they may project their annoyance on your cover.

The band Rivethead just released a metal cover of Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack." Not only is the cover not very good, but it is heinously premature. We still hear the original "SexyBack" on popular radio; there's no room for a metal cover right now. But because Timberlake's version was excessively popular, it could be great cover material a decade from now. The goal is to pleasantly surprise listeners with a familiar song they have not heard in a long time. A ten year moratorium is a good guideline.

Rule #3: Original Song's Popularity Was Not More Than 40 Years Ago
Just as a cover can be done too soon, it can also be done too late. The goal here is the same as with Rule #1: the audience has to recognize the cover as a cover to appreciate it in the right way. If a song was popular too long ago, it may no longer be a part of popular cultural awareness.

While forty years is a guideline, there are exceptions. Many Beatles tunes are over forty years old, but these songs were so popular that they are still recognizable today. The longevity of a culture's song awareness is directly proportional to the song's popularity. The more popular a song was, the longer it will be recognized. On the other hand, if the song is too popular and recognizable, you run into Rule #4.

Rule #4: Original Artist Has Faded From Popular Consciousness
If you can't be a flash-in-the-pan one-hit-wonder with your own song, you might as well steal from the best. Resurrecting hit songs from these artists is gold because their song was extremely popular and then they were promptly forgotten. It surprises listeners to hear a familiar song they haven't heard in years. This is where your Jessie's Girls, Hey Mickeys, and 99 Red Balloonses can truly shine.

AFI's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole" disobeys this rule, even though it obeys the ten-year moratorium from the song's release. The cover added little to the original and Nine Inch Nails is still very popular, receiving a great deal of radio play. As a result, AFI's version was barely a blip on the popular radar.

This rule can, evidently, work in reverse, too. Johnny Cash was an artist who had largely faded from popular consciousness until his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" landed him a fair share of airplay and media attention. Untold numbers of Nine Inch Nails fans were upset, but controversy sells. For one single, Johnny Cash was the new Marilyn Manson.

Rule #4a: Avoid the Epic
Some songs (and artists) are so great, so popular, and so recognizable that they are untouchable. We're talking the big ones: Stairway to Heaven, November Rain, You Shook Me All Night Long, Bohemian Rhapsody, Closer, The Muppet Babies Theme Song. It may be possible to successfully cover these songs, but the bar has been set extremely high. Attempt them at your own peril.

Rule #5: Understand The Appeal Of Your Cover
Sure, you could get lucky and make a cover that is wildly popular for reasons you don't understand. But don't count on it, Lenny Kravitz. Get in touch with your analytical side to figure out why your cover will resonate with people. With this identified, you'll sound so eloquent in interviews that listeners will confuse high school radio with NPR and you can finally attract fans with disposable income. Here are some common points of cover appeal:

Relevance to Current Events—songs about war or violence, for example, can be brought back when the lyrics relate to current events or when social justice-minded emo kids feel like whining about something.

Truly Universal Subject Matter— lyrics about hope, happiness, the blues, and love will always be relevant (until digital rights management robs us of those too).

Nostalgia-- A universal topic such as love or protest is more likely to be relevant years later than a song about something very fleeting such as the popularity of an idea (Sisqo's "The Thong Song", for example). However, the song about a very specific cultural moment could find popularity in a cover because of nostalgia or irony, and not out of cultural relevance.

In 2015, for example, the popular fashion trend might be for women to wear no underwear at all. In this cultural environment, a cover of "The Thong Song" would not be a relevant comment on the under garment trends of the time, but it might be popular, however, as a provincial remnant of a by-gone era when it was fashionable for women to wear underwear at all. That would be a fun trip down memory lane before throwing your birth control on stage at the Maggot Twat reunion tour.

Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss" is another example of a cover with nostalgia appeal, but I refuse to provide the link because YouTube and TicketMaster are in cahoots. I can feel it.

Irony/Irreverence/Parody-- This one is easy to do averagely and tough to do well. Limp Bizkit, for example, released a hard rock cover of George Michael's "Faith" in 1997. The first verse and pre-chorus singing sound earnest. Durst's squeaky, almost whiny vocals expose hints of emo, leading the listener to believe the song will offer a depressive take on the song's somber lyrics (a potentially interesting departure from Michael's optimistic tone). However, when Durst wraps up the first pre-chorus by angrily shouting, "I GOTTA HAVE FAITH!" and the full band blasts into the chorus, the complete departure from expectation offers different interest in the song. At that point, Limp Bizkit's intent to bastardize Michael's pop classic shows through, allowing the listener to bask in the humorous irreverence.

Meanwhile, the listener still bears witness to Michael's excellent song writing, but does so protected by the cover's sarcastic tone. The reason this cover works, and thus became popular, is that it added new-found energy and a heavy sound to the song, while excusing the original's ‘80s cheesiness with humor. (Those are the kindest, most intelligent words on Limp Bizkit ever committed to text.)

Rule #6: Key Difference from the Original
By definition, a cover song has to be substantively similar to the original. But to make a great cover song, the new version also has to have a key difference from the original. Yes, it's a tall order, but, it's not impossible. It's what separates the men from the boys, the Nickelbacks from the Creeds, and the greats from the over-produced, messianic wannabes.

Great music, like a great joke and great sex, resists your expectations, taking you in unexpected directions. (Like 50 miles south on I-75 after the Toledo gig looking for a motel in western Ohio that lets you pay by the hour.)

While unexpected directions can easily go awry, when they work, they bring your experience to a new level. (Twenty dollars an hour was certainly a new level. And I'm not talking about the room. Hey-oh!)

Genre Translation-- An extremely popular method for creating substantive difference in your cover is genre translation—taking the basic elements of the original song and translating them into a different genre. Examples include "I Will Survive" where Gloria Gaynor's empowering disco classic became Cake's opus of alternative ennui, or DJ Sammy's dance remake of Bryan Adams' ballad "Heaven."

It's quite easy to make a song heavier in a cover. There are myriad examples of this from Metallica covering Bob Seiger, A Perfect Circle covering John Lennon, or Disturbed covering Genesis. Marilyn Manson has practically made a career out of this tactic with such successful covers as "Sweet Dreams," "Tainted Love," and "Personal Jesus."

But there are examples that go the other way. Zwan covered Iron Maiden, Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails, and The Cardigans (known for their 1996 pop hit "Lovefool") even covered Black Sabbath's Iron Man, which is why the last time you heard about The Cardigans was in 1996.

One excellent example of genre translation is TuPac Shakur's "Changes," a cover of Bruce Hornsby's 1986 hit "The Way It Is." While many hip-hop songs merely sample other artists, this song is a full-fledged cover because Shakur kept the chorus of Hornsby's song in tact, used Hornsby's music throughout his verses, and wrote verse lyrics that, while different than Hornsby's, deal with the same subject matter of racial discrimination. The translation into hip-hop allows Shakur to comment on racial discrimination from the perspective of a young African American while retaining the music and chorus lyrics that helped make Hornsby's version popular.

The Musical Tribute-- Another tactic is the musical tribute—a part of the cover song that the original didn't have. A tribute part helps ease a song's translation into a new genre by introducing some new music sections that would not have worked with the original. A great example is Orgy's 1998 cover of New Order's "Blue Monday." The New Order version never had a proper chorus, so Orgy created one to give the song a more typical hard rock arrangement. The new chorus repeats lyrics from the verse and invokes familiar chords already used throughout the song. The result is a seamless transition from translated song parts into new song parts. Tool also did this in its cover of "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin. Tool added two very heavy break down sections based on the existing riffs. Adding parts is a powerful way to leave your band's mark on an established song.

Outro

Don't take this cover advice laying down, musicians! These six rules are all you need to start piggy backing your music career on someone else's. So get out there and cover your asses off!

-- by Nate Winter

p.s. And cover your asses; credit the original artists.

Author's Note: cheers to Quietdrive for their cover of Cindi Lauper's "Time After Time," which inspired this article.