Archive for October 22, 2007
The tricky business of cover songs
I’ve blogged in the past about cover songs, and I guess I just find myself fascinated by this aspect of the dance music business. On my final day at the Billboard DMS (see other recent blog entries for more about that here and here), I was having dinner with my better half and some members of the CAPP Records team (Rikah and Dom), Tim and Ron from GoRainbowRadio.com, as well as artist Ohsha Kai, and this topic happened to come-up and got me thinking again.
The night before, we watched Marian Records recording artist Ella perform her new single, Missing, a cover of the Everything But the Girl song. Ella is young and attractive, and she has a terrific voice with tons of commercial potential. I found her stage presence in need of some work, but that’ll come with time and practice. I didn’t find a whole lot to dislike, honestly—except the song choice. I had made a remark that night, and again at dinner with the folks above, that the song was too recent to warrant a cover.
Today, I think I might well retract that remark. For starters, it’s disingenuous; one of my very favorite new songs right now is Uninvited from Freemasons and Bailey Tzuke, a cover of an Alanis Morissette song that, like Missing, is roughly 10 years old. While I still didn’t like her song choice, on reflection, I think my issues with the song are three-fold:
