Where Have All the Covers Gone?

Cannonball with Wesley Morris

The New York Times

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.8 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every December, Wesley’s hometown radio station, 88.5 WXPN, does some kind of end-of-year countdown, as voted on by listeners. This year, it’s the 885 greatest cover songs. This was exciting news for Wesley, who loves himself a good cover — and considers their near disappearance from pop music to be a kind of national tragedy. He talks all things covers with one of his favorite reinterpreters of music, the Grammy-nominated jazz singer Cécile McLorin-Salvant, who also happens to have done a cover that landed at No. 7 on the list he agonized over for WXPN. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Wesley Morris, and this is Cannonball.
0:13.4	Today, I work in the market as a check out, girl.
0:25.5	Every December, one of my favorite radio stations,
0:31.8	88.5 WXPN, transmitting a lie from Philadelphia where I'm from.
0:37.1	They do an end-of-year countdown, as voted on by listeners. A couple of years ago, it was the 885
0:40.3	greatest songs by women. Last year, it was the 885 greatest songs of the 21st century.
0:46.6	When I heard that this year was going to be the 885 greatest covers, I was like, ooh,
0:57.0	that's exciting and inspired.
0:59.3	Not only do I love me a great cover,
1:01.5	we're going through something right now as a culture where pop music's covers have vanished.
1:05.9	And that's national tragedy territory
1:08.6	as far as I'm concerned.
1:10.4	As for how I voted, boiling down decades of all that joy to less than a dozen songs was one of the dumbest and most depressing months of my list-making life.
1:23.8	But I did it.
1:25.3	And I should warn you, Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah is winning this thing.
1:28.9	It's that flavor a station, so I'm not using a precious vote on that.
1:32.3	Also, my list contains no Cassandra Wilson, no pointer sisters, no Grace Jones, no Betty LeVette, no Tori Amos, no Mary J. Blige.
1:41.7	Not a single reggae cover, which feels like a crime to me.
1:45.6	But here's what I do have.
1:49.2	Number 10. Always on my mind, the Pet Shop Boys covering Elvis, Willie Nelson.
1:56.8	It's the song that has been done by a lot of people, now done by Pet Shop Boys.
2:00.1	You are always on my mind. You are always... it's the song that has been done by a lot of people, now done by Pet Shop Boys.
	...

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