Cover Controversy

My roommates and I had a debate (not an argument!) earlier about what makes a good cover song. My roommate loves unique representations of other artists' material, and I was so bold as to say all covered songs are terrible (with my argument being that there is an exception to every rule). I now see my statement may have been too bold, because there are quite a few of covered music that I enjoy; however, it's not quite as easy as we thought to determine what makes a good cover song and what makes a bad one.

My personal opinion (and many [including my roommate] have disagreed with me) is that covering another artists' song depends on the coverers ability. As terrible as it is to say, even music artists are split into classes, ranging from brilliant to good to mediocre to bad to awful. If an artist from one classification tries to cover an artist from a classification higher than them, 9 times out of 10 that cover will fail. Likewise, if an artist from one classification covers an artist from a classification below them, 9 times out of 10 that cover will succeed. Additionally, if an artist attempts to cover an artist of equal skill, they have a 50/50 chance of either succeeding or failing miserably.*

For example:
Yael Naim covering Britney Spears' "Toxic" = success because (in my opinion) Naim is the superior artist in this scenario.


Likewise, Scritti Politti, a terrible reggae/pop/something artist from the '90s, I believe, covering The Beatles' "She's A Woman" is doomed to fail. Though I can't say I didn't enjoy it -- I've never laughed so hard!


Like I said, there is, of course, an exception to every rule. And just to prove I'm fair, I'll give such an example.
Mott the Hoople, a then relatively unknown band from the early '70s, was on the verge of failure and disbanding as a group due to lack of commercial success. To prevent the band's downfall, glam rocker David Bowie graciously permitted the group to cover his song "All the Young Dudes" as a single for their upcoming album. The song was a huge hit for Mott the Hoople, and was actually even more popular than Bowie's version!


This may be the most complicated and pointless post out there, but I felt the need to defend my decisions. The lesson I learned is that not all covers are bad...just most of them.

Notes: Yes, this post is completely biased and unfairly opinionated. If you feel differently, let me know in the comments!
* These statistics are completely fabricated, but you get my point.