Apr 282023
 
most popular covers

At Cover Me, our goal is to share great covers, whether they comes from artists with ten fans or ten million. But I am always vaguely curious what cover songs break out, which among the thousands we hear each year become genuine hits.

I was reminded of this when a recent Country Now headline crossed my Google Alerts: “Luke Combs’ ‘Fast Car’ Cover Is A Streaming Giant.” After only a month, the country star’s fairly faithful take on Tracy Chapman’s 1988 classic has racked up 33 million streams in the U.S. alone. Covers by famous singers come and go, but this one clearly has staying power.

So I decided to try to figure out which other covers from the 21st century have reached this level of breakout success. I’m not privy to Billboard‘s deep-dive chart data, so I used an easy metric available to an amateur like myself: Seeing how many plays something has on Spotify. As good a measure for “a popular song” as you can probably get these days, albeit still imperfect.

I found twenty-four 21st-century covers with over 100 million U.S. streams as of this writing (April 2023). Some very popular covers didn’t quite make the 100m+ threshold: Weezer’s “Africa” (75 million), Iron & Wine’s “Such Great Heights” (76 million), Fall Out Boy and John Mayer’s “Beat It” (89 million). Ryan Adams’ “Wonderwall” only just crossed the 100 million streams mark in the past couple months. And while older covers obviously have an advantage in more time to rack up plays, number one — by a lot! — came out only a few years ago.

Here’s the list of 24. No commentary since, for once, we’re not unearthing buried treasures here. Let’s count down the 24 most-streamed covers on Spotify, with the year of release and number of streams as of this writing. (And it’s possible, even likely, I missed a few, so feel free to suggest additions in the comments — if they qualify, I’ll add ’em.)
Continue reading »

Mar 312020
 

Check out the best covers of past months here.

best cover songs march 2020
Adam Green – All Hell Breaks Loose (Misfits cover)

Misfits go mariachi! Adam Green, best known as one half of the Moldy Peaches, plays “All Hell Breaks Loose” like it was “Ring of Fire.” He writes: “In The Misfits and in his glorious solo work, Danzig bridged punk and metal with the blue-eyed soul music of the mid-1960’s like The Righteous Brothers and The Walker Brothers. I’d had an idea for a while to do a Scott Walker / John Franz style production at punk speeds, and the Misfits song ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’ seemed like the perfect vessel for the experiment.” Continue reading »

Apr 112011
 

Limp Bizkit has ceased to be a band and fully evolved into a punchline. Sure, we all dug their cover of George Michael’s “Faith” when it was all over the radio in the late ‘90s. Some of us even followed them for a little longer, when Fred Durst was kickin’ it with Method Man. But at some point Fred Durst wasn’t kickin’ it with much of anyone and the band became synonymous with immaturity and the ills of mainstream hard rock. Continue reading »

Jan 092009
 

The Who were just given the Kennedy Center honors a few weeks back (along with, blech, Barbara Streisand), so why not honor their best album with nine solid covers. Quality over quantity today.

Incidentally, I’m starting to run out of ideas for classic albums for which I could find covers of any songs, so any suggestions?

Post ‘em in the comments

Blue Man Group – Baba O’Riley

From the moment the opening riff starts here, it all makes sense. This one was made for the boys in blue. Known primarily for their stage show, the Group has produced several fantastic albums. This comes from the tour they did promoting one, which you can find on How to Be a Megastar Live. Anyone know who’s singing? [Buy]

Sherie Rene Scott – Bargain

It swings, it jumps, it blare, it blasts. A horn-fueled rave-up that has even more energy than the first, Scott isn’t afraid to let it rip on this big band dance number. [Buy]

Out of Place – Love Ain’t for Keeping

This adult-contemporary world sound has a vaguely elevator music feel, but it works with this slow dirge and the crooning vocals and last-minute violin solo keep things beautiful. If you like the sound, they did all these tunes on their unoriginally-titled Who’s Next 2002. [Buy]

Taildragger – My Wife

Grungey and furious, the drummer does his best Keith Moon while the rest of the band sounds like the band in your neighbor’s garage. Best played loud. [Buy]

Stewart Bozarth – The Song Is Over

Solo piano covers always seem a safe route, but Bozarth’s playing doesn’t hold back, hitting all the tricky riffs without missing a note. [Buy]

Kim Virant – Getting In Tune

Another softy here, Virant gives it just the right subtle touch with her piano until the guitar blasts it away. Listen close for some bass lines that would make Entwistle proud. [Buy]

fIREHOSE – Going Mobile

Though they existed at the same time, these guys are not to be confused with FireHouse, who had several minor hits in the early 90’s (the strange capitalization gives it away). Regardless, they’re nice enough to let their concerts be shared on archive.org, and this tune comes a seven-song set they did of Who covers in 1989, including relative obscurities like Helpless Dancer and Naked Eye. [Download]

Limp Bizkit – Behind Blue Eyes

I haven’t been this blown away by a cover in a long time. And that isn’t because this cover is amazingly good; it’s because it’s somewhat good. I mean, this is the same Limp Bizkit that brought the world “Nookie” and “Break Stuff,” right? The same Limp Bizkit that brutalized our ears with the worst cover of “My Way” the world has ever seen? Well, I don’t know what happened here, because the backing is acoustic and subtle while Fred Durst emotes, dare I say it, beautifully. There’s a weird electronic break in the middle where they spell the band’s name, but even that somehow makes sense! Then, just when I was starting to wrap my mind around the song, I found the music video that features Durst making out with Halle Berry. What is going on?? [Buy]

Tony Furtado – Won’t Get Fooled Again

We first heard Tony a few months back with his terrific “Fortunate Son,” and this folksy banjo master is an Americana covers wizard. He brings it all back home with just some subtle acoustics that get to the heart of the song without all the masturbatory guitar. [Buy]