That’s A Cover? explores cover songs that you may have thought were originals.

Nina Simone will be posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this weekend. To anyone counting, that is 24 years after the Animals were inducted. And they wouldn’t have had one of their most enduring hits without her.

Though Animals frontman Eric Burdon is a fine songwriter in his own right, he didn’t write the majority of the band’s biggest 1960s hits. “We Gotta Get out of This Place” was written by the iconic Brill Building duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and originally intended for the Righteous Brothers. “It’s My Life” also came out of the Brill stables, written for the band by lesser-known duo of Roger Atkins and Carl D’Errico. And “House of the Rising Sun” was a traditional cover Burdon learned off of Bob Dylan’s first record. Continue reading »