Hit Parade: Gotcha Covered Edition Part 1

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Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cover songs once had a simple playbook: Artists would faithfully rerecord a song—note for note and word for word. They might modernize the instrumentation. If they were feeling radical, they’d punch up the vocals a bit. Now it’s hard to say what a cover is anymore. If Ariana Grande turns “My Favorite Things” into “7 Rings,” does that qualify? When Drake says he’s “Way 2 Sexy,” is he covering Right Said Fred? The recent chart success of “Fast Car”—country star Luke Combs’ very traditional take on Tracy Chapman’s folk classic—has reinvigorated interest in cover songs. Sometimes, isn’t just remaking the song as-is enough? Join Chris Molanphy as he explains the chart considerations and artistic motivations that rebooted the cover song, and whether a straight-up remake will ever top the Hot 100 again. We’re long past the days of “Twist and Shout,” “Venus” and “I’ll Be There.” Podcast production by Olivia Briley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Hit Parade listeners, what you're about to hear is part one of this episode.
0:07.0	Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month.
0:10.8	Would you like to hear this episode all at once, the day it drops?
0:15.0	Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism
0:21.4	and podcasts. Just go to slate.com
0:24.6	slash Hit Parade Plus. You'll get to hear every hit parade episode in full the day it
0:30.9	arrives. Plus, hit parade, the bridge,
0:34.0	our bonus episodes, with guest interviews,
0:37.0	deeper dives on our episode topics,
0:39.0	and pop chart trivia.
0:41.0	Once again, to join that's slate.com slash hit parade plus.
0:46.4	Thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hit parade episode.
1:01.0	Welcome to hit parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast.
1:03.0	I'm Chris Malanfe, chart analyst, pop critic,
1:06.0	and writer of Slates Why Is This Song Number One series.
1:10.0	On today's show,
1:11.0	just last month at the 2024 Grammy Awards, this simple heartfelt
1:17.2	duet became the most acclaimed Grammy moment of the night. It was current country star Luke Combs and performing on TV for the first time in nearly a decade,
1:30.4	folk singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman teaming up to sing Chapman's classic
1:36.4	single Fast Car. More than a month later this performance is still garnering buzz. Just a couple of weeks ago.
1:46.6	More than a month later, this performance is still garnering buzz.
1:51.7	Just a couple of weeks ago in the wake of the Grammy's performance,
	...

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