A Cover Story

By Brad Gallagher:

A “Cover” in the world of music is a song that is written, produced, and performed by one artist and then at a future point in time is performed by another artist. Most often a cover is performed by a garage band (like Brush), or an up and coming band (like Lynyrd Skynyrd, back in their early days), or even a professional cover band (like Johnny Limbo and The Lugnuts).

From time to time, however, a famous artist will perform a cover of another famous artist’s song, and sometimes the covered version will be even more successful than the original version. For instance, we have all heard the song “Call Me The Breeze” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, but did you know that their version was a cover? Two years before Skynyrd released it on their album “Second Helping”, it was written and released by J. J. Cale on his album “Naturally”. And the Skynyrd version, with the help of Gary Rossington’s bluesy guitar riffs, was much more successful than the original.

Other artists will almost make a living on covers. Joe Cocker, for example, in addition to his original works, covered 147 songs. He covered everyone from Elton John, James Taylor, and the Rolling stones to Wynonna Judd, and The Dixie Chicks. Maybe his most well known cover was his 2002 version of the Beatles’ song “With A Little Help From My Friends”.

And sometimes covers will even cross genres. The song “My Maria”, by Brooks And Dunn, hit number 1 on the US Country Music charts in 1996, but it was originally written and performed by B. W. Stevenson in 1973. The Stevenson version reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that year. But what was the best cover ever recorded? Well, that is a never ending debate. Some say “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, or “Proud Mary” by Ike & Tina Turner, or maybe “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. Yep, those were all covers. I tend to have a different opinion though. And this is just my opinion.

As The Story Goes:

Way back in 1968, Tommy James and the Shondells were at the top of their game, writing, producing, and recording hit song after hit song. Songs like “I Think We’re Alone Now”, “Hanky Panky”, and “Crimson And Clover”. Each of these songs reached the top 4 on the Billboard Top 100 charts, and remained on the charts for weeks on end. But there is another song written by Tommy James which I believe became the best cover song of all time.

Tommy James wrote the music for this song before he had a title. He wanted a catchy name like many of the other hits of the day, but he just couldn’t come up with anything until one evening in New York when he and co-writer Richie Cordell were writing songs. They had just about giving up on finding the perfect name for the song when he walked out on the balcony of the hotel they were staying in and saw a bright red illuminated sign across the way that read “Mutual of New York”. And he knew immediately that he was going to name the song “Mony Mony” after that sign; “M. O. N. Y.” (True story)

The Tommy James version of “Mony Mony” debuted in April of 1968 and reached #3 on the Billboard charts two months later in June. Fast forward thirteen years to 1981 when Billy Idol was looking for a song to complete an album and he suggested to his producers a cover of The Isley Brothers 1959 song “Shout”. But, he had a special affection for the song “Mony Mony”, and in the end “Shout” was rejected. Idol’s studio version of “Mony Mony” peaked at #7 on the Billboard Top 100 charts that year, and six years later in 1987, he released a live version that went to #1 on the charts. Ironically, when Idol’s live version reached #1 it replaced another Tommy James song; Tiffany’s cover version of “I Think We’re Alone Now”. Go figure.

And on a side note, about fifteen years ago I worked with a man who went to high school with Tommy James. That coworker’s name was Buz, and that is about as close as I have ever been to knowing someone famous.

So now you know what my opinion of the best cover of all time is: Billy Idol’s version of “Mony Mony”. Your opinion may differ though, and if it does I want to know what it is. Leave a comment below and come back and see me real soon right hear at As The Story Goes.