Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with coverversion

Eyfo?

ricochet biscuit — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:45:53 -0800

Looking for a cover of "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," in Hebrew. In the early nineties, while working on a farm in Israel, I used to listen to an offshore pirate radio station on my Walkman. One day I heard a rendition of the John Denver song -- complete with a-hollerin' and a-stampin' -- in Hebrew. My various desultory efforts over the years to locate the artist responsible and to track down a copy of the song have come to naught, but surely if anyone knows who sang this, the AskMe hivemind will.

mashup classics / polar opposite covers

chrissyboy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:05:42 -0800

I'm looking for mashups / bootlegs that are classics or defining moments of the genre. Ideally the mashups are 2 easily identifiable songs put together; for some reason the only example I can think of at the moment is Missy Elliot over AC/DC's 'Back in Black', but as far as I can remember that was a white label that preceded the mashup craze by a year or so.

Who owns rights to the use of the song in Film?

mary8nne — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:48:06 -0800

Can someone please explain how to get Synchronization Rights to a Cover Version of a song? Or who would have control of whether you can use a cover version in a film. For example, in say the Life Aquatic parts of the sound track use Seu Jorge cover versions of David Bowie songs (sung in Portuguese).

So who's permission do you need (who do you pay) to use a recording like that in a Film (I assume, TV, DVD, etc are the same)?

Playing with the numbers

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:54:04 -0800

Thinking of Joe Cocker's great cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends", I started wondering: what other cover versions have actually changed the time signature of the original? The Beatles' original, of course, is in 4/4 time, and Cocker's cover turns it into a swaying, soulful R&B waltz. From 4/4 to 3/4. Nice! Now, one other example comes to mind, but, IMO, its not nearly as successful: Lalo Schifrin's taut Mission Impossible theme, from the original TV series. It was originally in 5/4, which was a big part of what gave it it's tension and urgency. The horrible movie soundtrack versions of recent years however, have dropped the 5/4 (after a brief introductory statement of the figure, if I recall correctly) and turned it into a plodding 4/4. A tragic dumbing down!

Anyway, what other covers out there have gone so far as to change the time signature of the original? Any more, I wonder?

Hey hey atashi ni wa wakatteru

terrynutkins — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:57:10 -0800

I'd like to find some examples of bands rerecording their own songs with foreign language versions of the lyrics, please. I was pottering about online and managed to find an mp3 of Bloc Party doing a version of their recent single Flux in German, which I thought was great. (Apparently they recorded it in French too but I can't get hold of it.) Which got me thinking: are there any other examples of artists/bands who have rerecorded their songs in another language? I can think of a couple of other examples of what I'm looking for:

- Blur did a version of Til The End in French
- Avril Lavigne recorded Girlfriend in multiple languages for its worldwide single release (although only the chorus is in another language, which was a bit disappointing)

I'm mostly looking at pop, indie-rock or rock songs originally recorded in English, but songs originally recorded in another language and redone into English might be interesting too (e.g. Tatu originally released everything in Russian before rerecording in English).

I'm sure I've heard of other bands rerecording their songs in French in order to comply with the law there that a proportion of songs on French radio must be in the language, but nothing springs to mind and my Google-fu has escaped me. Hopefully this hasn't been asked before... I found this question, which is sort of relevant, but not really as I'm looking for bands rerecording their own songs. I'm not looking for translated songs rerecorded by a different band or substantially different reworkings - I'm looking for the same band, doing the same song, just with the lyrics translated into another language. (Or maybe not directly translated - just the same music but with different lyrics in another language.) Bonus points if you can give me a link on iTunes or another download service, or tell me where I can obtain these songs. (I'm in the UK, if it matters.)

I want more satisfaction.

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:36:01 -0800

What are some cover versions of well known songs that have refashioned or rearranged the piece so dramatically as to seem not exactly the covered song, but more of a unique work in and of itself? Example: Devo's version of Satisfaction.

Flamenco / Spanish type Stairway To Heaven cover on Jonathan Ross

chrissyboy — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 17:09:06 -0800

For UK MeFites and UK TV watching MeFites: Apparently on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross recently one of the guests was a band or duo playing a spanish / flamenco type version of stairway to heaven.... ...does anyone know what they were called? A friend of mine saw it and wants to buy their album but didn't catch their name. I must have weak imdb/google/tv.com-fu because I can't find it.

Oh, and the only other thing he can remember was it was either a duo or a band fronted by a guy and a girl...