Cover songs on emusic.com

January 13, 2007 1:54 PM

I just started a 14-day trial to emusic.com, have 49 downloads remaining, and I'm looking to fill a playlist with cover songs.

Yeah, there's a lot of questions about the best (and worst) cover songs - I'm just looking for songs available on emusic, which I'm sure a few mefites are subscribers to. Is there a search term I'm missing?

posted by icontemplate to media & arts (18 answers total)

Your best bet is likely someone else's list. Find an album of cover songs, or an album with a really famous cover on it and then check along the right hand side for the lists and see if you find one that refers to cover songs.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:01 PM on January 13, 2007

Copy, Right is an excellent MP3 blog that posts exclusively covers. She takes the links down after a few days but you could look them up and fill your playlist many, many times over with her past suggestions.
posted by BigPicnic at 2:05 PM on January 13, 2007

Here's an example list I found by searching 'Covers', selecting the Cat Powers' Covers album in 'ALBUMS: 59 result(s) for covers as album name' and checking the right hand side for Member Lists.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:05 PM on January 13, 2007

Maybe "tribute" - there are tribute albums that contain covers of a certain band by other bands (e.g. the Look at the Love We Found: A Tribute to Sublime album). You can also check out www.coversproject.com, if you're looking for a specific song.
posted by book at 2:07 PM on January 13, 2007

Browsing the Various Artists list or search for "Tribute To" are two easy, if time consuming, ways.

Does the world really need "A Sax Tribute To Christina Aguilara"? I mean, really.
posted by cmonkey at 2:08 PM on January 13, 2007

I've found that due to the nature of emusic (non-major label artists) searching for a major label artist or song, quite often returns covers and tributes.
posted by lyam at 2:13 PM on January 13, 2007

This just happens to be fresh in my head: Royal Trux's cover of the M*A*S*H theme song (Suicide Is Painless), available on eMusic from their Singles, Live, Unreleased album (disc 2, song 8). Truly excellent.

I don't think that eMusic keeps a database of whether or not a particular song is a cover, though. You're going to have to rely on (gasp) other human beings.
posted by aparrish at 2:18 PM on January 13, 2007

You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch - Aimee Mann - One More Drifter in the Snow
(Entire Album is a cover of OK Computer) - Easy Star All Stars - Radiodread
California Dreaming - Jose Feliciano - Light My Fire
posted by loosemouth at 3:51 PM on January 13, 2007

are they mp3 or licensed wma? I heard services like this when you stop your subscription, all youre music wont work.
posted by IronWolve at 3:53 PM on January 13, 2007

Oh, and they have the entire Grease soundtrack in Spanish! Search for "Grease, El Musical De Tu Vida". It is really quite good.
posted by loosemouth at 3:56 PM on January 13, 2007

eMusic is entirely mp3 based.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:00 PM on January 13, 2007

I would combine the methods that lyam and jacquilynne have described. In other words, search for a major artist, then click on one of the tribute albums from the search results, then see if there are any useful member playlists in the sidebar. For example, searching for Radiohead gives you this tribute album, which gives you this playlist of tribute albums.
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:18 PM on January 13, 2007

Look up "me first and the gimme gimmes". They do great punk covers of everything from 80's pop to musicals to country.
posted by chrisamiller at 5:22 PM on January 13, 2007

Self covers "What A Fool Believes" with outstanding results.
posted by Darth Fedor at 5:24 PM on January 13, 2007

You can't go wrong with Devo's take on "Satisfaction"
posted by SansPoint at 6:15 PM on January 13, 2007

Easy Star All Stars also covered Dark Side of the Moon.

eMusic is entirely mp3s with absolutely no DRM. I love them.
posted by maudlin at 6:22 PM on January 13, 2007

The Dan Band is the band that sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" from the beginning of Old School. They do all covers.

This Rasputina ep is really good and all covers. Also, here's a Bjork tribute album with the Decemberists.

Also, I second looking for tribute records. There are a ton on eMusic. Record labels Cleopatra and Invisible offers a lot, though they're often done by 80s, goth and industrial bands. Beggars Banquet has a good Gary Numan tribute, with Damon Albarn, Bis, etc.
posted by faunafrailty at 7:45 PM on January 13, 2007

Try Richard Cheese. Lounge covers of pop hits. Utterly genius.

For more serious stuff, search for any song that is a "standard" and you will find a ton. For example, "Girl from Ipanema" ("Garota de Ipanema") has over 100 cover versions on eMusic. Try any song by Burt Bacharat, etc.

Oh yeah and here's my Pink Floyd covers list and my list of unusual covers.
posted by drew3d at 6:22 AM on January 14, 2007