That’s a Cover?: “Love Buzz” (Nirvana / Shocking Blue)

 Posted by at 11:00 am  No Responses »
Jan 092026
 

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

Anyone alive and actively listening to music in 1991 heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and felt its pull. Listeners by the millions dove into the tar-pit trap of Nirvana and the whole grunge thing. This is common knowledge today. But less well known is the fact the first Nirvana single to get international recognition (if very few listeners) came out a few years earlier, and that was “Love Buzz.”

Released in 1988, “Love Buzz” became the very first single issued by the band. It was also the very first single released by the newly-formed indie label Sub Pop Records, and it remains Sub Pop’s all-time best-selling single. (Of course, it only began to sell after Nirvana signed to a major label and released Nevermind.)

In retrospect, “Love Buzz” seems like a strange pick for a debut single. Bleach, Nirvana’s first LP, offered several better options. How about the album’s opening salvo, “Blew”? Or how about the song Nirvana performed more times than any other–“School”? Finally, the obvious question: Why not “About a Girl”? Buried in the middle of Bleach, “About a Girl” is an order of magnitude more popular than the sludgy and chaotic “Love Buzz.”

Each of these other tracks had the advantage of being original Kurt Cobain compositions. Seems like a songwriter would want their debut single to spotlight their songwriting talent, right?

But no, they went with “Love Buzz,” a cover, and an obscure cover at that.
Continue reading »

The Best Covers of 1970s One Hit Wonders

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  2 Responses »
Jun 232023
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

1970s one hit wonders

Last month, we presented covers of one-hit wonders of the 1950s and the 1960s. And we’re back to do it again!

This month, we’ll tackle huge hits by not-so-huge bands from the ’70s and, next week, the ’80s. Today, covers of classics like “Spirit in the Sky,” “Black Betty,” “Why Can’t We Live Together,” and “Video Killed The Radio Star” (I would have thought that one was ’80s given the famous MTV connection, but it came out November 1979). Then next week we’ll dive into perhaps the greatest decade for one-hit wonders cover. Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of 1969

 Posted by at 1:30 pm  No Responses »
Sep 172019
 
cover songs 1969

This marks the fourth year I’ve done a big anniversary countdown (after 1996, 1987, and 1978). It also proved to be the most challenging. There were a lot of covers released in 1969. In fact, according to covers-and-samples database WhoSampled, there were more than in any of the other years we’ve done. Their database lists 3,110 covers, which is surely still a small fraction.

The reason for the cover song’s proliferation seems clear to me after going through them all: Popular bands released a lot more music back then. Aretha Franklin released two albums in 1969. So did The Byrds, Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, Johnny Cash, Johnny Winter, and Nina Simone. Creedence Clearwater Revival and Merle Haggard released three albums apiece. James Brown topped them all with four. To get that kind of output, artists would pad their albums with covers. Every 1969 album by every artist I just mentioned includes at least one cover. Many include several. A few are all covers. It adds up.

Impressively, many of those covers reinterpreted songs that had come out within the previous year. This entire list could easily have been “Hey Jude” covers. “Wichita Lineman” and “Light My Fire” came up constantly too (the latter song slightly older, but it had hit the charts again in 1968). Even songs from 1968’s soundtrack to Hair got covered endlessly in 1969.

Even beyond “Hey Jude,” Beatles covers dominated the year. I’m not going to go back through the entire 3,110 covers and count, but if you told me Beatles covers made up a full half of those, I wouldn’t be shocked. Add Bob Dylan covers to that side of the scale and it’s probably true. Beatles songs got covered in every conceivable genre for every conceivable audience. Jazz and swing and folk and proto-metal Beatles covers everywhere the eye can see. Plenty of people cover the Beatles these days, sure, but trust me: It’s nothing like it was in 1969.

So wheedling all those down to the top 50 proved incredibly difficult. But it means this is maybe the top-to-bottom strongest set thus far, and it killed me to leave some off (that’s why our Patreon supporters will get a set of 69 bonus tracks – so join now).

One note: I left off Woodstock performances. For one, we counted down the 50 best covers performed there last month. But more importantly, most people did not actually hear those covers until the movie and soundtrack came out in 1970. Jimi Hendrix performed his iconic Star-Spangled Banner – pretty much everyone’s top cover of the weekend – to a nearly empty field. Most of the audience had left before he punched in at 9 AM that Monday morning. That said, several of the classic covers performed at Woodstock were released as singles or on albums the same year – including Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help from My Friends” – and those studio versions make this list.

Now, let the sunshine in with the 50 best covers of 1969.

The countdown begins on page 2…