This is one way of making the song your own...

A conversation over the weekend got me thinking about cover songs. A group of people were talking about bands/singers that record covers and release them as singles or put them out on their CDs. I remember back in the 1990′s it seemed like the only way to get noticed was to put out a cover as a single. “Blue Monday” by Orgy, “Smooth Criminal” by Alien Ant Farm, “Tom Sawyer” by The Bad Plus, “Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson… the list goes on, of course.

The gist of the conversation was a discussion of whether or not, when deciding to do a cover, if it’s better to cover it straight – make a strict by-the-book reproduction – or if you should “make it your own” and put your own special twist on it.

I think the general consensus among the group was that when you are doing a cover you should make it your own and put an original twist on it. I think this is definitely a valid point; why listen to an exact replica when you can listen to the original?

My band mate Mark and I are currently working on a cover tune for a Yes tribute CD. On the suggestion from another friend we decided to do a lesser-known song and absolutely put our own interpretation on it. I think we can be successful at it with this song because it wasn’t one of their monster hits. But I don’t know if we had to cover “Roundabout” or “Owner of a Lonely Heart” if we would be able to play with the arrangement as much.

For example, if someone were to mash up “Yesterday” by The Beatles, I think the chances of failing miserably at it would be very high. Even if the band did something very unique and interesting, I fear that the original is just too perfect to warrant being messed with. Granted, most musicians would be smart enough to leave a song like that alone.

In the case of “Smooth Criminal,” Alien Ant Farm really didn’t do much to change the Michael Jackson song. They added different instrumentation and made it heavier with distortion and a more rockin’ backbeat, but the song structure and everything else was essentially the same. In that case, I guess the change in sound was enough to do the trick; it’s a great version of a great song.

Both Ryan Adams and Brad Mehldau recorded brilliant covers of “Wonderwall” by Oasis. The former being a free-floating acoustic fingerpicked version with great vocal work, and the latter being a jazz trio, odd time signature instrumental that just destroys! Whereas Adams kept things a little more in line with the original and Mehldau picked it apart, both versions are fantastic and worthy of listening above and beyond just the Oasis version (which is also amazing).

When you come to think about it – well, when I do anyway – I don’t think I’ve really ever heard a cover song played straight that I really liked. I think it really comes down to why should you listen to a cover that sounds just like the original? Though Adams’ version of Wonderwall was very close, the instrumentation and vocal melody changes were enough to make it new and interesting.

I’m glad that every band nowadays doesn’t feel like they need to record a cover song in order to try and break through (Hollywood seems to have this taken care of, unfortunately), but for those that do want to honor their musical heroes it’s probably a good idea to mix it up a little and put a fresh spin on a classic song.