Cover version
[2] In previous generations, some artists made very successful careers of presenting revivals or reworkings of once-popular tunes, even out of doing contemporary cover versions of current hits.
[2] Since the 1950s, musicians now play what they call "cover versions" (the reworking, updating, or interpretation) of songs as a tribute to the original performer or group.
[2] Using familiar material (such as evergreen hits, standard tunes or classic recordings) is an important method of learning music styles.
Until the mid-1960s most albums, or long playing records, contained a large number of evergreens or standards to present a fuller range of the artist's abilities and style.
[6] A license can be negotiated between representatives of the interpreting artist and the copyright holder, or recording published tunes can fall under a mechanical license whereby the recording artist pays a standard royalty to the original author/copyright holder through an organization such as the Harry Fox Agency, and is safe under copyright law even if they do not have any permission from the original author.
The U.S. Congress introduced the mechanical license to head off an attempt by the Aeolian Company to monopolize the piano roll market.
For example, King Records frequently cut both rhythm and blues and country and western versions of novelty songs like "Good Morning, Judge" and "Don't Roll those Bloodshot Eyes at Me".
[2] In the early days of rock and roll, many tunes originally recorded by R&B and country musicians were still being re-recorded in a more popular vein by other artists with a more toned-down style or professional polish.
Most did not have the kudos that rebellious teenagers craved, the street credibility — of rock and roll music; most were performed, and some were written, by black artists not heard in popular mass entertainment markets.
The jukebox and the personal record disc player were still relatively expensive pieces of machinery — and the portable radio a great novelty, allowing truculent teenagers to shut themselves off.
Many of singer Laura Branigan's 1980s hits were English-language covers of songs already successful in Europe, for the American record market.
During the heyday of Cantopop in Hong Kong in the late 1970s to early 1990s, many hits were covers of English and Japanese titles that have gained international fame but with localized lyrics (sometimes multiple sets of lyrics sung to the same tune), and critics often chide the music industry of shorting the tune-composing process.
More recently, albums such as the Kidz Bop series of compact discs, featuring versions of contemporary songs sung by children, have sold successfully.
The series still primarily uses cover songs of both chart hits and show tunes, occasionally as mashups or distinct variations.
The famous Gene Kelly version was a revision that brought it up to date for a 1950s Hollywood musical, and was used in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain.
More recently "Singin' in the Rain" has been covered and remixed by British act Mint Royale for a television commercial for Volkswagen.
Another example of this, from a different angle, is the tune "Blueberry Hill", many mistakenly believe the Fats Domino 1956 release to be the original recording and artist.
In fact, it was originally introduced on film by Gene Autry and popularized on the record Hit Parade of 1940 by Glenn Miller.
Similarly, "Unchained Melody" was originally performed by Todd Duncan, featured in the 1955 film Unchained (based on the non-fiction story Prisoners are People by Kenyon J. Scudder); Al Hibbler having the biggest number of worldwide record sales for the vocal version with Jimmy Young's cover version rival outdoing this in the UK,[22] Les Baxter's Orchestra gaining the big instrumentalist sales, reaching the US Hit Parade number one spot in May 1955,[23] but the Righteous Brothers' later version (top five on the US Hit Parade of September 1965[24] stalling at number 14 in the UK in August) is by far the wider known version, and especially so following its appearance in the 1990 film Ghost.
"House of the Rising Sun" has hundreds of versions and in many genres such as folk, blues rock and punk as well as dance and dubstep.
New or cover versions such as John Paul Young's "Love Is in the Air" occur in Strictly Ballroom, Candi Staton's "Young Hearts Run Free" appear in Romeo + Juliet, and adaptations of artists such as Nat King Cole, Nirvana, Kiss, Elton John, Thelma Houston, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, T. Rex, David Bowie, Queen, and the Police are used in Moulin Rouge!.
Not to be confused with a remix, which is defined as altering or distorting the original sound electronically; cover versions give a performer the ability to adapt music to their own style, typically allowing them to change the genre of a song and recreating it to their own taste.
