“Covering the Hits” looks at covers of a randomly-selected #1 hit from the past sixty years.
We continue our week-long series of features on every 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with one of the biggest pop singers of the past thirty years: Janet Jackson. She’s sold over 100 million records, has an entire Wikipedia page devoted to everyone she’s inspired, and – most importantly for this series – had ten #1 hits. So, to tweak the usual “Covering the Hits” formula a bit, I limited the randomizer to one of those ten. And it picked “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” the Rhythm Nation 1814 standout that turns 30 this year.
Despite being a smash at the time and a hit with an enduring legacy (Pitchfork named it the 27th best song of the 1980s just a couple years ago), “Love Will Never Do” has been covered less than you might think. Once you eliminate the million sound-alike covers and karaoke instruments, Spotify only boasts a handful of covers, and YouTube not many more. But we dug deep, to bring you the best covers out there. Continue reading »
