The Disappearance of Cover Songs as Singles, and Why We Need Them to Make a Comeback

Since essentially the dawn of recorded music, the Top 40 has been littered with cover songs … until just recently.

Sure, we still get the occasional cover – and I mean as singles, not as cheeky segments for a YouTube channel – but whether it’s Weezer covering Toto’s “Africa,” or Luke Combs covering Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” these covers are few, and far between, and in the case of the two I just mentioned, they were pretty much cut-and-paste versions of the original songs. Admittedly, Combs said that was his goal for his cover.

Back in the day a cover song could be so wildly different from the original that it may have taken you a minute to realize it was a cover. Whether it was The Bangles giving a hard rock edge to the 1966 Simon & Garfunkel classic “Hazy Shade of Winter” in 1987, or DJ Sammy teaming up with Yanou and Do in 2001 to turn the Bryan Adams 1985 ballad “Heaven” into an electronic dance tune, these types of covers always provided a great, “Hey, wait a minute … I know this song” moment for listeners.

Where is this creativity, and where are these links to previous eras of music, today? They seem to have almost totally disappeared, as songwriting teams work to churn out carbon copy pop, and country songs like they’re on an assembly line, and Spotify is their factory.

As listeners, we’re missing out on some potentially very cool tunes, while artists are missing out on some really great opportunities.

Covers can provide an insight into an artist’s inspirations 

A cover can let us know who an artist loves, and give them the chance to talk about how someone else’s music played a role in their own artistic growth. It’s like the answer to an interview question without it even having to be asked … wait, am I putting myself out of business by pointing this out???

Covers provide an opportunity for an artist to put their own personal stamp on a classic song 

As I mentioned before, a bevy of artists have gone in some really creative directions when covering songs, and the results have been pretty amazing. An artist taking a song they love, a song they’ve been inspired by, or even just a song that’s been suggested to them, and making it their own is an age-old tradition that shouldn’t go by the wayside.

Heck, Sugar Ray even covered a current song (which is also an age-old tradition if you go back far enough) in ‘09 when they put their own spin on Kid Cudi’s “Day ’n’ Nite.”

Covers can connect generations 

Those of us who had parents who loved music were given an education on Tommy James and The Shondells when covers of two of the band’s hits from the ‘60s reached number #1 in back-to-back weeks in 1987.

Tiffany’s version of “I Think We’re Alone Now” was the first to ascend to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and it would be replaced at #1 by Billy Idol’s live version of “Mony Mony.”

The wild coincidence of two Tommy James and The Shondells covers hitting #1 in consecutive weeks roughly two decades after the originals had been released provided a way for parents to connect with their kids that’s wholly unique to music.

Covers can give life to a song we hadn’t previously heard 

Is there any chance we would know “Torn” had Natalie Imbruglia not given us her incredible cover of the song?

The same goes for Norah Jones with “Don’t Know Why,” Bowling for Soup with “1985,” and countless other hits many of us didn’t know were covers at the time.

These are fantastic songs that all deserved the wider audiences the covers of them helped them receive.

So where have covers gone? Why are we missing such an important aspect of music right now?

There are a few possible answers …

While I hope this isn’t the case, it could be that the mainstream artists of today simply aren’t as connected to music’s past as previous generations. Those who grew up with iPods, and streaming, may have only heard the music of their own youth, rather than having heard their parents’, or older siblings’, favorites.

This would be tragic on a number of levels. Could you imagine not knowing any music from before you were born?

It could also be that artists’ teams aren’t presenting them with interesting songs to cover.

It was Tiffany’s manager that told her about Tommy James and the Shondells, and Tiffany reportedly originally hated the idea of covering “I Think We’re Alone Now,” not coming around to it until she saw her friends dancing to the music that was going to be used for the song.

Sometimes younger artists need that older guidance, but is the guidance they’re receiving today truly guiding?

Finally, there’s the really unfortunate possibility that covers have been relegated to being YouTube “content,” something to generate some streams, and social media conversation, in hopes of going viral. An admittedly fun, yet borderline soulless exercise that tells us very little about the artist, but quite a lot about the business.

Whatever needs to happen to get mainstream artists back into releasing cover songs as singles, I hope it happens soon, because as someone who is now middle aged, and who has many friends who are parents, it would be great to have a way to connect with the current generation of Top 40 acts.