I made a mistake in my last post about cover songs. There was a great cover made of an Otis Redding song. Areatha made the definitive recording of RESPECT, I will never call her a fool… I think I should also make a distinction between doing a new version of a song and doing a cover. A cover is basically a copy, the new version is, well, new. So Rod Stewart made a new version of “The First Cut is the Deepest,” while Sheryl Crow did a cover of Rod’s version. In Jazz, there are very few vocalists that also write their own material, standards have been recorded by numerous people, but they are all different versions.
I took a look at my iTunes library to see what covers/new versions I have. There were a bunch of course, but two stood out. I have 5(!) different versions of “Ain’t that loving you Baby.” Two are by Elvis, one by a guy named Johnny Taylor, I have one by Eric Clapton, and one by the Beau Brummels. The Beau Brummels’ version is the best and Clapton’s is the worst. I think I’ve heard a version done by the Yarbirds with Clapton that was pretty good, but it could have been the Animals, without Clapton of course… Trivia time, guess who the producer of the Beau Brummels first album was. None other than Sly Stone. Can’t say that I hear much influence, I wonder what he could tell a bunch of white guys when they were recording the album? The song itself is pretty basic but I don’t think it was ever a big hit for anyone despite its popularity among different groups. I have no idea who wrote it originally..
The other song I have a bunch of versions of is “Summertime” by George and Ira Gershwin. I have 5 of those too. Miles Davis with Gil Evans do a sublime, instrumental version, Janis Joplin does a decent one with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson (!), and Billy Stewart. My favorite one to listen to is the Billy Stewart one. He had a minor hit with it, he’s the one with the long trilling intro, and it has a great, swinging horn section backing him up. Anyway, I was surprised to see that many version of those two particular songs in my collection.