Member-only story
Was the Cover Better than the Original? You Decide
A head-to-head Rate-A-Record
Anyone who has read more than a few of my Rate-A-Record installments (there are now 94 of them) knows that I love cover versions. Despite this, up to now I have somehow never thought to pit the cover against the original; it took the lovely and talented Alex Markham and his excellent piece below to give me the idea, which I am promptly stealing (thanks, Alex).
For a song to qualify for this competition, the cover can’t just be a one-off performance posted on YouTube and (except in one case) the original can’t be one that only diehard fans would know about. In Alex’s story, the covers were far better known than the originals, and that will be true for some of these as well.
For the matchups below, the original is listed first, followed by the cover and then my rating of each, using the now-legendary Terry Barr/American Bandstand scale of 35 to 98. Use the same scale in the comments to let me (and the world) know which version you prefer. And for anyone who refuses to use the scale (you know who you…
