Cover Me Up

Growing up I hated cover songs. They were always pale in comparison to the originals. Or worse yet, barely resembled the songs that I had treasured. But throughout the years I have discovered a few gems along the way (The Zoot’s Eleanor Rigby, Richard Marx’s Miami 2017, Amy Grant’s Big Yellow Taxi, Nickelback’s Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting, Celine Dion & Anastacia’s You Shook Me All Night Long (seriously), George Michaels’ Somebody to Love, Gloria Estefan’s Everlasting Love, India Arie’s The Heart of the Matter, Trisha Yearwood’s You Can Sleep While I Drive, and even Mandy Moore’s One Way or Another).

It’s never been unusual for an artist to include a cover track on an album or perform a song or two as filler at a concert. They are usually songs the artist grew up loving and it’s fun for them even if it may not be so fun for the audience. For an artist whose career spans more than 15 years, it seems that releasing an entire album of covers has become as much of a staple as live albums use to be. Rod Stewart’s career has soared in a new direction by releasing an unprecedented 5 albums of covers/standards. Would it surprise you to know that Def Leppard, Rick Springfield, Duran Duran, John Mellencamp, Paul Young, Kim Wilde, Donny Osmond, Gloria Estefan, George Michael, Tiffany, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, and Erasure have all released albums consisting entirely of covers?



As with any departure from an artist’s customary commodity there are going to be hits and misses. This week Poison makes an addition to our list with Poison’d, a collection of new recordings in addition to a few previously available cover tracks. The moment I saw that The Romantic’s What I Like About You was part of this assortment, the CD’s release date was marked down in my calendar. This stellar tune is a perfect fit for Brett and the boys. Without ever sampling a clip, can’t you just hear them kicking down the doors on this song? And this is the approach that Poison has taken, for the most part, selecting songs which fit their musical tear-it-up style. The Who, Kiss, The Rolling Stone, Alice Cooper. For me the biggest surprise was the David Bowie classic Suffragette City. At first glance I was taken back by this choice but Poison’s rendition is top-notch, as is the whole disc.

In the ‘80s I wasn’t the biggest Poison fan. There was a sea of hair-metal bands and for whatever reason I just didn’t gravitate in their direction. But over the past few years, I have grown to appreciate their brand of pure-fun, hard rock and I have some catching up to do with their back catalog.

So tell me what you think? Do you have some favorite cover songs? And does anyone know where I can get my hands on Donny Osmond’s version of Play That Funky Music?