The Art of a Successful Cover

Now a lot of bands perform cover songs it's only natural to want to play songs you all enjoy. Some bands are built around only playing tributes to a famous band, such as Utter Madness being a tribute to Madness and the Illegal Eagles being a tribute to the Eagles. But, when you are performing a cover song you have to go to one of 2 extremes. You must play it verbatim of the studio recording because if you're a tribute band that's what people want to hear or you have to put your own twist on it by adapting for genre changes and bring your own spin by doing what you're good at, there is also parodies but that's a can of worms im going to leave unopened for now. Also slightly off topic but nonetheless extremely important. If you're going for a tribute band your name needs to be good.

Now we've all seen local bands half ass their way through a cover or two to try and get the crowd interested and we've probably all been guilty of it as well, who are we kidding yes we are. These covers while usually go down well on a gig night as the crowd is usually already amped up and is just happy to hear a song they know it still wouldn't count for me as a good cover because very rarely will any bands leave the venue going "Aw damn, remember when they played that Green Day tune, best bit of the gig" and if that is their reaction might want to rethink and rewrite some of your original material. This is still fine if its just occasionally in your shows but if you want to release a cover on an album or an EP, you better make damn sure it fits into one of my earlier categories.

Examples of bands that have put their own twist on covers. quick disclaimer: I do come from a mostly rock and metal background so that's the kind of covers i'll be covering here (try saying that 3 times fast.)

Halestorm - Bad Romance

Bringing their beloved heavy rock sound to Lady Gaga's 2009 hit "Bad romance" the song relies on Lzzy's incredible vocal talent to carry the song through as everyone who listens to Halestorm will agree that her vocals are out of this world. Although i will admit that whammy pedal guitar at the beginning does really get me hyped every time i hear it.

Orianthi - Sunshine of your love

An upbeat tempo version of sunshine of your love by Cream, plays on orianthi's established reputation as a absolute monster of a guitar player, having played with some of the greats like Steve Vai and even been Michael Jackson's guitarist for a whle. The cover bring Orianthi's popular whammy guitar sounds and guitar dive-bombs with high octane solos to keep the listener intrigued through the whole thing.

Nickelback - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Now before you condemn me and burn me at the stake I do have a confession to make. I actually do like Nickelback....... phew that feels good to finally admit out loud. This cover of the Elton John classic provides Nickelback's high octane guitar sounds and the huge pounding drum kit really brings out the energy of the track in a way for me that the original track never did. Although i do still like the original track i just think this cover shouldn't be discounted just because it's Nickelback.

Smash Mouth - I'm a Believer

Yeah i know what you're gonna say "Isn't that the dude from that song from Shrek" and the answer is yes, it is well done you. Seriously though the cover of i'm a believer from Smash Mouth really doesn't get enough praise due to the cult like status the film has received nowadays. This pop-punk version of the classic Monkees track brings with it bigger production with new age mixing tricks and distorded guitars during the verses and synth parts during the pre-choruses and choruses. So all im trying to say is dont discount it before you listen to it again properly.

Britney Spears - I love Rock n Roll

Here is what i mean by adapting to the genre. Now i don't like this track but i can't deny it brings a modern twist to a very popular song and judging by the 29 million views on YouTube it must be doing something right. Gone are the big 80's drum sound replaced with an electronic sounding kit, Joan Jett's rough vocals are replaced with the 2000's breathy vocal production for the verses, although she sings properly in the choruses which is nice, oh and don't even get me started on the record scratches...... why???

Thanks for reading my random ramblings on what i like in a cover song, see you next time.