Without getting too technical when it comes to a person wanting to do a cover song they do not need the permission of the owner(s) or writer(s) as the case may be, of the song. There is a thing called ‘Compulsory Licence’ in the U.S. and similar laws internationally under the ‘Berne Convention’ that requires compensation be paid to said owners. So in most countries you just need to credit and pay the people who own the song or the ‘publishing’ rights. I’ll blog about that part another time. Then there is the whole idea of  ‘sampling’ a song and how much of it you can use without having to credit the owners. Today I’m focusing on covers where payment and credit was not given originally.

Sometimes it is just the melody, sometimes lyrics, maybe a bit of both or, in the case of John Fogerty you can sound too much like yourself.😕