Cover Version Amnesty

[Birchy]

OK, I know that songwriters are glad of other people covering their songs so that they get their rotalties......but has there ever been a call for the pop charts to go 'All Original'? The latest boy and girl bands all cover old songs with no original slant, so aren't we simply discouraging new songwriters to bother? Any other AB-ers agree that we should lobby for a one year amnesty on cover versions being allowed entry into the charts? Or would the boy/girl band manipulators veto this due to an obvious reduction in their own take?

[sft42]

Well the album chart split a good few years back to stop the "Now, that's what I call milking a cash cow till it's dry" series constantly flooding the chart.....perhaps we'll see the same at some point from the singles chart BUT I really don't think so because since day one the charts ahve been full of cover versions...in fact it was much worse back in the fifties and sixties...for example Unchained Melody was in the chart by Four acts at the same time in '55 (anyone know then with looking at the guinness?)....what goes around comes around! I think we are going back towards guitar bands at the minute...here's hoping anyways.

[jenstar]

No, I've got a better idea. I - and I alone - have perfect taste, so why not just ban anything I personally don't like from entering the charts? (Well, that's what your argument boils down to, isn't it?)

[jenstar]

And without looking at any form of alcoholic beverage - Jimmy Young (number one in NME), Al Hibbler (number one in Record Mirror), Les Baxter and, depending on whether you believe NME or Record Mirror, or neither, or both, Liberace and/or Mantovani.

[Birchy]

Jenstar....NO ! Honest. My daughters are seven and five, and they listen to and watch all the latest pop chart stuff. I like a lot of it. My argument really is that cover versions done the same as the original (Rick Astley "When I Fall In Love", Mick Hucknall "If You Don't Know Me By Now" etc.) have no point. Flying Lizards' quirky stuff and Ted Chippington's "She Loves You" are marvellous. They take songs and do something with them.....as opposed to loads of people who do not. My argument - actually - is "What's the point in taking (say) Mandy and doing it just like Barry Manilow did?".

[Gef]

Not sure what you mean by a one year amnesty. However, as a specific example, I think Gary Jules cover of 'Mad World' is excellent but there again, the original by 'Tears for Fears" was also excellent but in a different way.

[jenstar]

OK, fair enough. Actually, I do agree with you, I like hearing songs done differently (though I do think the piano version of "Mad World" is just rotten). But isn't it a bit "off" to penalise songwriters for writing, well, a "classic"?

[jenstar]

Incidentally, have you considered the practical problem of where to draw the line? Do you disqualify any song that has been recorded by a different artist, however obscure? One that has made the top 75, top 40, top 20 before? Any song published more than five years ago?

[Birchy]

Not sure how to police this, other than paying me to listen to every single released and letting me decide. Which is back to Jenstar's point about one's own personal taste being fab and beyond reproach. There would also be the danger that I would ban original songs by Phil Collins, Chris de Burgh, Dire Straits, Texas, Travis, The Stereophonics (nee Deacon Blue) and Sting, simply because their songs go staright to my bile duct. I would also ban Paul McCartney from standing up and playing a guitar because he looks like someone's grandad at a family get-together when he does it. Also I'd have to ban "cute" records by children and "Fun" stuff by the likes of Shane Ritchie because they induce comments like "ooh, but they're harmless.....don't be such a grump". Then you find yourself hitting the person who said that with a spade. You know what I mean?