Cover versions on my playlists

[Earl Purple]

I'm going to write up a bit about the cover versions that have appeared on my retro playlists, these being for the years 1981 and 1990.

It is ignoring medleys, of which 1981 has 2 and 1990 one, those being by Starsound (aka. Stars On 45) and Tight Fit in 1981 and Jive Bunny in 1990. Any surprise they were the culprits?

These are the cover versions

1981:

Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - It's My Party
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Good Year For The Roses
Barry Manilow - Let's Hang On

1990:

Jason Donovan - Rhythm Of The Rain
Cliff Richard - Silhouettes
Black Crowes - Hard To Handle
Sonia - End Of The World
Deacon Blue - I'll Never Fall In Love Again
Hi Power - Cult Of Snap

The following are "faithful" covers, i.e. they sound similar to the originals, and the originals were well-known songs.

Let's Hang On (Four Seasons, 1965), Rhythm Of The Rain (Cascades, 1963) and End Of The World (Skeeter Davis, 1963), Hard To Handle (Otis Redding, posthumous hit in 1968). The Cascades and Skeeter Davis songs were in my chart at the same time at the start of 1963, and both are artists under PWL and was this just an easy ploy by Pete Waterman to give them those songs to cover?

It was often a policy to "kick start" and artist's career with a cover? So Black Crowes doing Hard To Handle - it's a faithful cover yet I'd see Black Crowes as a rock band and I don't consider Otis Redding to be rock as such, more soul, but maybe this song did border on rock.

Elvis Costello has picked up a pretty unknown country song - most people wouldn't even know it's a cover but it was a US country chart #2 in 1970 for George Jones (Jerry Chesnut is actually the songwriter). Not sure who would have exposed him to the song, but it's a pretty good cover and when someone covers a relatively obscure song it brings it to a much wider audience. You could say that the 60s covers above were bringing the songs to a new generation, and back then we didn't have access to the originals like we do now, but there is just something more special about taking a lesser known song.

Silhouettes was a doo-wop song recorded by the Rays in 1957 and covered by Herman's Hermits in the 1960s too and this was I think Cliff's is a live recording, and he followed it with "From A Distance" which had already been recorded and released by Bette Midler although she didn't have a hit with it until a year later.

Who are Hi Power and why have they covered "Cult Of Snap"? That song was on Snap's album and they would also release it as a single and have a bigger hit with it.

That leaves the other two: well known songs but totally new versions.

"It's My Party" was a fairly big hit in the UK and a #1 in the USA for Lesley Gore in 1963 and this cover brings out the drama of what is actually happening in the lyrics, which makes it fascinating. I never quite understood why she actually invited Judy to her party, or maybe she didn't consider her a rival.

Deacon Blue did their EP of Bacharach and David songs but "Never Fall In Love Again" was the most played song on it, and like the above, it's slowed down as if to feel the emotion of what is happening. Previously it was a #1 for Bobbie Gentry in 1969.

[TheThorne]

The only one I listen to much is Black Crowes, ‘it’s My Party’ is great as well but it’s off and on Spotify all the time. Although I love Deacon Blue don’t really return to that EP which I still have the 12” for.

[Earl Purple]

Elvis Costello did a whole album of covers of country songs and it was obviously a bit of a commercial risk to do this project, but it was what he wanted to do. Essentially he just went into a "discovery" mode at one point to find country music. The song did get through a double-elimination round but I seem to recall was not that far off the bottom 3, and I did wonder if it was a bit of a risk playing it that round (instead of a normal round, because I was always going to play it at some point).

With Deacon Blue, I guess that is the way to do a cover but it disappointed me somewhat that it became their biggest hit single, because I liked their original music a lot more, but I guess people were driven by whether or not the songs were on an album.

[Earl Purple]

Part of the issue with the Barry Manilow cover is that it was covered by Darts just one year earlier, plus it appeared on the Four Seasons medley. And of course it was one of the Four Seasons' biggest hits, compared to "Working My Way Back To You" (covered also in 1980) which had flopped for them.

"It's My Party" and "Good Year For The Roses" will both be fairly big hits in my chart although neither will reach NM #1. Elvis Costello had been in a bit of descent at this point, so it was probably good timing to do something completely different and an album of country songs. When he came back with new material "Punch The Clock" was a great album of original material even though it was a change of style as to what he'd done before.

[Earl Purple]

Ok, from my next 1981 playlist and again I'm ignoring medleys of which I have 4, one of Status Quo and one of Blondie plus another classical medley by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and "Starturn on 45 (Pints)"


I may have missed a cover (not knowing it is one) but this my list:

Shakin' Stevens - It's Raining
Fureys & Davey Arthur - When You Were Sweet Sixteen
Gary Glitter - And Then She Kissed Me
B.A. Robertson & Maggie Bell - Hold Me
Sugar Minott - Never My Love
Julio Iglesias - Begin The Beguine
Diana Ross - Why Do Fools Fall In Love

All of them date back to the 1960s or earlier, the earliest being "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" which dates back to about 1898, so even older than "Begin The Beguine".

So going through them briefly, I'd never heard of "Never My Love" (not even this cover of it) but it appears to have been recorded by a number of artists. A few others have gone through gender changes, "It's Raining" originally done by a woman (and dating back to around 1961), "And Then She Kissed Me" going through a gender change in the title too, and the Beach Boys also adapted it to "Then I Kissed Her" but originally was the Crystals "Then He Kissed Me" of course in 1963. "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" was originally done by a male (Frankie Lymon).

"Hold Me" was originally done by PJ Proby? Wrong! That was also a cover, it's a lot older than that, dating back to about 1933.

Begin The Beguine has gone through a language change.

The most recent song on that list is "Never My Love" from 1967.

[TheThorne]

That batch are all pretty terrible think most of them are in my least favourites list for that year

[Earl Purple]

My 1981 playlist is 3 weeks and 1990 is 2 weeks, but although I haven't run fully through my 1990 list (which contains far more unknowns), I spot just one cover version, that being Adamski's "Space Jungle" which essentially is a cover of "All Shook Up" with a few other little bits added.

[Earl Purple]

My next list for 1981 has no medleys and I can only see 2 obvious cover versions on it.

Gary US Bonds - "It's Only Love" - there are a lot of songs of that title but this is a cover of the Beatles song from the Help! album.
Jets - "Yes Tonight Josephine" - as done by Johnnie Ray in 1957 (and got to UK #1 for him, and NM #2, kept out by "When I Fall In Love" by Nat King Cole, which in the UK was kept off #1 by the Johnnie Ray song).

1990 does have a medley - Status Quo's Anniversary Waltz. It has two songs that heavily sample others (Monie Love "It's A Shame" which samples the Spinners song of that title, and a massive UK #1 that samples the bass-line of a song on the other playlist that also was a UK #1).

One cover that was a top 40 hit: Neneh Cherry's "I Got You Under My Skin", which I recall was from a charity album of Cole Porter songs. I was never keen on her version though.

It also has these covers that were minor hits:
Sinitta - Love And Affection (Joan Armatrading). What is it with PWL acts doing these covers
Yell - Let's Go Round Again (Average White Band). They were a PWL act too I think.

There was another cover version by Birdland called Rock & Roll Ni**er (censoring out a certain word), which is a cover of Patti Smith, but it isn't on Spotify. I found it on youtube and gave it a quick listen and decided not to bother with it.

Because 1990 is now considered in "retro chart" mode I'm only playlisting songs if they're charting for the first time, which has meant some songs are failing to chart at all for me in the charts I post in the retro chart, like "Englishman In New York" but when my retro chart revisits the years that they were first out they'll be hits then. Unfortuately that's going to impact on "There She Goes" by the LA's too. That will also retrospectively chart in 1988.

[Good Old Days]

Aug 23, 2022 9:31:19 GMT 1 Earl Purple said:

Unfortuately that's going to impact on "There She Goes" by LA's too.

Sixpence None The Richer cover was # 1 in my chart and their version of "Don't Dream It's Over" did the same.

[Earl Purple]

There She Goes was an original by the LA's though, just a re-issue when it charted in the UK in 1990, it originally came out in 1988.

I might have added the Wedding Present's "Come Up And See Me" other than the fact it's an EP of 3 songs and I picked one of the songs to playlist and it isn't that one, even though that appeared to be the one they did on TOTP at the time as maybe it was more TOTP / radio friendly than Corduroy or Crawl, other than on the John Peel show.

[Earl Purple]

I haven't yet scored up or rolled the 1990 playlist. The problem with that one by comparison is it has about 2-3 good songs, some ok and the rest are also-rans. 1981 had 10 totally great songs, quite a few very good ones, some less good and not much that was terrible. Ok, it had Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey on it but even that one has a catchy tune even if a stupid title.

In any case this topic is about cover versions so in the new 1981 list I have uncovered 4, one of which is totally terrible but was a massive hit.

Cliff Richard - Daddy's Home (yes, that's the one)
Showaddywaddy - Footsteps
Alvin Stardust - A Wonderful Time Up There
Bad Manners - Buona Sera

I didn't think I'd charted any previous versions of Daddy's Home but it appears that Shep & The Limelites got to NM #19 with it in 1961.

That's 5 places higher than Pat Boone's original of "A Wonderful Time Up There".. ok I'm not sure if his is the original but he's the one who previously charted it, and in spite of it being a more uptempo song it only reached NM #24 in March 1958.

You'll recall I did the first half of 1960 twice but it's the second one that counts. In any case that suited Steve Lawrence as "Footsteps" got to #14 (#16 first time around).

The one that did really well though was Buona Sera, a hit twice because when I did 1960, I didn't discount songs that had been hits in the 1950s. So Louis Prima got 5 weeks at #1 with it, during the same time Pat Boone was charting with his song above, and then Acker Bilk's version reached #2 at the end of 1960, that being the highest charting version in the UK, peaking at #7.

I'm not sure I'm keen on any of the covers on that list.

[Earl Purple]

From the 1990 playist, which is massive but will be severely trimmed.

A-Ha - Crying In The Rain (Everly Brothers). Original was my #1 of 1962, albeit that wasn't a strong year for music. It was the last of 6 NM #1 for that duo, the first act in my chart to reach #1 with their first 3. A-Ha have topped my chart 3 times, their first two but their third was "Manhattan Skyline" whilst their 3rd single was "Train Of Thought" which fell somewhat short.

Michael Bolton - Georgia On My Mind (30s song, but has been recorded by Ray Charles)
JT & The Big Family - Foreign Affair (not Family Affair as it says on OCC). This is a cover but of a Mike Oldfield song, not Tina Turner.

Jeff Healey Band - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles, written by George)

Two versions of "From A Distance", Bette Midler and Cliff Richard. Actually I prefer Cliff's version, Bette Midler's is very "over performed". I'd normally consider Bette Midler to be the "original" of a song written by Diane Warren, as were many at that time.

There may be other covers in here, e.g. Paul Young and Shakin' Stevens both have songs on this list, but they're not immediately recognisable as covers. I suppose I should google them.

This song has 3 great songs in it though by popular artists and when we reach that stage in the retro 1990 chart I can bet these 3 will be in the top 3 but can't be certain of their order. One reached #1 in the UK, one #4 and the other #6.