Most Cover Tunes Suck, but...
There was a time when there were song writers and there were singers. Some song writers wrote great songs that might be sung by 10 different singers, all in wonderful ways. A song might be sung by Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Diane Washington, and all sung in very different, yet wonderful ways.
Then music began to change. In the Rock and Roll era, most cover tunes really suck. And hip hop is even worse. The great art of interpreting lyrics seems to be completely dead in popular music, and, for me, there is no evidence more poignant than when the Fujees decimated "Killing Me Softly With His Song," originally popularized by Roberta Flack. She knew how to bring those lyrics to life.
So in the Rock and Roll era, I can think of three artists who have been excellent at cover tunes. They are Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. If you want to count what Sam Cooke did as being part of the Rock and Roll era, then he deserves mention with the best of them.
Can anyone think of anyone else who can sing AND interpret lyrics, who is not from the Jazz tradition?
|
Threaded Mode