Covers That Belong

Did you know Cyndi Lauper didn’t write “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”? The original version, written and performed by Robert Hazard, is from a male perspective and doesn’t have much to say. He likes to let his girlfriends be their own people, which is, you know, appropriate. But it doesn’t have the same triumphant ring as Lauper herself wanting to be a beautiful girl who walks in the sun. Also, frankly, it’s a bit mansplainy, decades before the term was coined. One hopes he’s telling other men, but with a woman singing the song, she’s speaking for herself and telling everyone what she wants.

Some songs might as well have been written to be performed by other artists, even if the song was written when the singer was a complete unknown, a literal child, or possibly—though I’ve not found specific examples yet—not even born. The classic example of this, of course, is “Hurt,” which is a damn fine song when performed by Nine Inch Nails but gains something even more from being sung by Johnny Cash. This is one of the many examples where the original artist agrees—no matter whether Trent Reznor thinks Cash’s version is better or not, he knows it’s Johnny Cash’s song now.

Oh, some versions are slightly more controversial. My circle in high school spent many a pleasant hour arguing over whether original Doors version of “People Are Strange” was better than the Echo and the Bunnymen cover. No doubt other people do this with, say, the Nirvana cover of “The Man Who Sold the World.” While I don’t dislike the Gary Jules cover of “Mad World,” I prefer the Tears for Fears and don’t care what all those lists online say. And I would imagine there are huge fights between Whitney Houston fans and Dolly Parton fans over “I Will Always Love You.”

And sometimes, as with Lauper, the cover wins by default, as no one remembers the original. “I Love Rock and Roll” was six years old when Joan Jett covered it, and it might as well not have existed before then. “Louie Louie” was something of a standard in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, one of those songs lots of bands covered because it was frankly easy to play, and then The Kingsmen covered it, and there we all are. Music history and an FBI file.

A couple of artists are particularly susceptible to this. Namely Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond. In both cases, I think it’s because it’s not difficult to do more with the song vocally. Bob Dylan is . . . well, he’s Bob Dylan. I’m not here to relitigate his Nobel, but I’ll agree that he’s a damn fine songwriter. A singer, not so much. As for Neil Diamond, well. And so you get Jimmy Hendrix making “All Along the Watchtower” his and UB40 putting their own signature on “Red Red Wine,” Guns N’ Roses with “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and Urge Overkill rocking “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon.”

Tina Turner made “Proud Mary” hers, just as Aretha Franklin did for “Respect.” Prince didn’t much care for “Nothing Compares 2 U,” but those haunting eyes, that single tear, and that exquisite voice made it a classic. In all three of those cases, the women in question changed the entire feel of the song. Aretha didn’t just want to be respected at home; she wanted to be respected as a woman and a person. Tina didn’t do the song nice and easy. Sinead broke your heart.

My personal standard of a good cover is that the person singing the song has to do something with it, not just sound exactly like the original. Give us a reason to listen to your version beyond “well, I guess it’s there.” In some cases, the reason turns out to have been “this song was written for me.” Disney may have thought that “Cruella DeVille” was written for, you know, The Guy Who Voiced Roger, but it turns out it was actually written for Dr. John. Aren’t we all lucky to have learned that?