‘The Crewcuts Were Cover Artists’

Don McLean on the incorrect use of the term “cover”:

Back in the days of black radio stations and white radio stations (i.e. segregation), if a black act had a hot record the white kids would find out and want to hear it on “their” radio station. This would prompt the record company to bring a white act into the recording studio and cut an exact, but white, version of the song to give to the white radio stations to play and thus keep the black act where it belonged, on black radio. A “cover” version of a song is a racist tool. Many examples can be found from “Sha Boom” to “Good Lovin’” It is NOT a term intended to be used to describe a valid interpretation of an old song. In that case every pop singer is nothing more than a cover artist (a derogatory description if ever there was one). I am not a “cover” artist and I do not do “covers”. The Crewcuts were cover artists.

Posted by PJ on Oct 23, 2009 | Comments |

7 comments posted

  1. Posted by Morning Links/Open Thread | The Agitator - 10/24/2009

    [...] The unseemly origin of the word “cover song.” I had no idea. [...]

  2. Posted by digamma - 10/24/2009

    I think the ship has sailed and the term is now perfectly valid in modern English.

  3. Posted by noahpoah - 10/24/2009

    Lucky for Don McLean, once a word has a meaning, it never changes.

  4. Posted by Mack - 10/24/2009

    The late William Safire did an “On Language” column about the term, which had a somewhat broader view of its use and origins.

    It made me remember (and to my delight Safire noted it in his column) the time I reviewed a bar band — who are all cover bands — with the phrase “they cover these songs the way a stud horse is said to ‘cover’ a brood mare”.

  5. Posted by Dr. T - 10/24/2009

    That may be the correct origination of the phrase “cover song,” but that’s not what it means today. A “cover” is simply a song performed by a musician or band that was previously performed or recorded by a different musician or band. A public performance or a recording of a “cover” requires permission (and usually fees) from whoever owns the rights to the song and fees to the songwriters. As far back as 40 years ago, not all covers were racist. When Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded “I Heard It from the Grapevine,” they weren’t taking anything away from Marvin Gaye (who already made the song a big hit years earlier). Their “revival” of the hit got more people to buy the Marvin Gaye version.

  6. Posted by MikeH - 10/26/2009

    I think you’re mistaken about Good Lovin. While it was originally recorded by the Olympics, it was not very successful. The Young Rascals started performing it and did it live for several months before they recorded it. It was not a case of a hit song by a black group being ripped off by some white promoter.

  7. Posted by bud - 10/26/2009

    YEah, and “hot” refered to temperature, and you’d get punched for calling someone a “pimp” and “bad” meant… well… bad.

    Language evolves.

    P.S. I never could stand Pat Boone, either.

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