Why the Best Cover Songs Succeed

Why the Best Cover Songs Succeed From Fast Car to Heartbeats, there's no formula to making a successful cover song. But the best covers answer two important questions.

By

John Mirisola

September 18, 2023

Every great cover song answers two questions: why this song, and why this performance?

When theyre successful, a good cover manages to comment on the original song-its brilliance, its mood, even its shortcomings-while also highlighting the new performers own voice and creative interpretation. As a result, the best cover songs are great music and great music criticism all rolled into one.

Consider one of the undisputed best: Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

Why this song? Its Leonard Cohens masterpiece, refined over years, but dated by his '80s synth-driven style. Yet every word, every chord change is a testament to the songs greatness. And why this aching, elemental lightning strike of a performance by one of the nineties most luminous voices and most tragic figures? Because, well, see the previous sentence.

This is only one example, but the paths to creating a great cover song are as wide-ranging as any artists influences and imagination. In this playlist, we look at a small sampling of successful cover songs from the past six decades, and explore the many ways that artists have made something fresh and memorable from songs we might still remember.

1. Fast Car, Luke Combs (Originally by Tracy Chapman)Some moments in a classic recording are sacred-like when the snare drum first enters Tracy Chapmans Fast Car at the lyric, I remember when we were driving. Country singer Luke Combss faithful cover preserves the essence but introduces subtle tweaks-vocal twang, production polish-turning a queer Black womans 1988 folk-rock anthem into a country radio staple and one of 2023s songs of the summer. I never expected to find myself on the country charts, Chapman told Billboard in July, but I'm honored to be there. I'm happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced Fast Car.

2. All Along the Watchtower, The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Originally by Bob Dylan)Bob Dylans original version of All Along the Watchtower, simply arranged with a trotting acoustic trio behind him, presents a striking cast of characters: the jaded joker, the pragmatic thief, the princes who watch the vagrants approach from high above it all. Every scene in Dylans rendition is like a silent, close-up shot in black and white. Jimi Hendrixs cover, recorded just a year later, is a panoramic, technicolor masterpiece to rival the original. Hendrix builds upon the cryptic spookiness at the songs core with lush studio overdubs, miles of reverb, and that unmistakable guitar, howling like the wind.

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3. My Favorite Things, John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy (Originally by Rodgers and Hammerstein for The Sound of Music)Like Hendrix with All Along the Watchtower, John Coltrane began playing this now-famous show tune just a year after The Sound of Music debuted on Broadway. This freewheeling interpretation became a prime example of the artists ability to turn melodies and chords inside-out and upside-down, transforming the familiar into the utterly new. On this 1961 recording, Coltrane is joined by Eric Dolphy, whose flute adds another level of strangeness to the familiar tune, making the immediately recognizable melody that much sweeter when it finally emerges.

4. Born Under Punches, Ang lique Kidjo (Originally by Talking Heads)On their classic 1980 album, Remain in Light, Talking Heads channeled the trance-like rhythms of Afrobeat and Fela Kuti, an influence thats unmistakable from the opening seconds of Born Under Punches, says Nick Balkin, director of editorial services at Berklee. Beninese singer Ang lique Kidjo's 2018 version [produced by Jeff Bhasker '99] breathes new life into the track, honoring the original while infusing it with the spirit of her African roots.

5. I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston (Originally by Dolly Parton)Is the cover greater than the original? Is the original greater than the cover? In this instance, both exist in a rare, perfect harmony. With her spellbinding vocal performance, Houston earns the right to call this a signature song-even as it has remained one of Partons most cherished tracks throughout her career. The two versions somehow amplify one another rather than replacing each other. As one YouTube commenter puts it: Listen to Dollys original version when your heart is breaking, listen to Whitneys version when youre ready to move on.

6. Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash (Originally by Anita Carter)It was in 1963 that Johnny Cash first reworked Anita Carters folk ballad (Loves) Ring of Fire (cowritten by future wife June Carter), picking up the pace and giving it a proper backing band with its trademark horns and shuffling drums and cooing back-up singers. With his classic baritone speak-singing, it almost sounds like Cash is less interested in defining love than describing the fire. This version became authoritative, overshadowing Carters earnest, sentimental original in cultural memory.

7. Ring of Fire, Social Distortion (Originally by Anita Carter, by way of Johnny Cash)Punk covers have a way of revealing a songs core. In Social Distortions version of Ring of Fire, Cashs version loses its mariachi trumpets in the flames of chugging distortion, but what emerges is a streamlined, snarling testament to the songs durability. Through every sonic transformation, in those chords, in those words, the same cynical romance burns, burns, burns.

8. Hurt, Johnny Cash (Originally by Nine Inch Nails)Perhaps eve

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