Hello, Chicago! From W beezz Chicago and PRX, this is sound opinions. I'm Jim De Regadis.

And I'm Greg Kot. This week we'll discuss how covers, for better or worse, have helped to shape rock music.

You have to find something into song that you love, make it your own, but also be irreverent enough

to throw away parts of the original and reinvent them.

Plus we'll share some of our favorite covers, review a new album from First Aid Kit, and remember

Mark E Smith of the fall. That's all coming up on the

that's all coming up on sound opinions.

You're listening to sound opinions. Later in the show, Jim and I are going to share some of our favorite covers.

Review the latest from Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit. And Jim's going to share a remembrance of Mark E. Smith of the fall.

That's all coming up. But first, Ray Padgett is of the The blog highlights a wide variety of notable cover songs spanning genres from soul to punk

and everything in between.

He's just written a book on the same theme called Cover Me, The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time.

Welcome to the show, Ray.

Thanks for having me.

Ray, where does the term cover come from?

The term cover came around in the late 40s. The idea basically it was an industry thing where record labels would try to

Have their own version of a big hit so if Frank Sinatra or whoever has some massive hit every record label would try to release a sound-a-like version

The opposite of what we think of as a cover today where you make it your own. There's the opposite. They wanted to sound exactly the same

And the idea was literally to cover the original record up in a store shelf.

Maybe Frank Snatch is not a great example, but people back then maybe didn't know who sang every single song they heard on the radio.

They just knew the name of the song.

So, you know, Mood Indigo.

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