Tag: cover song stats

The Top 10 Most Covered Recording Artists by Song Versions (2024 Update)

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In the past I have combined several sets of Top 10 etc. cover metrics. Last year I posted Cover Songs Just the Numbers. This year I am splitting them up into three lists. On March 26, I published the 2024 Update of the most cover pop songs.

I have now updated this list on the total number of all cover versions of songs recorded that were written by individual Pop Recording Artist(s), including instrumental covers. Comparing totals from 2022 to 2024 the top 10 positions remain the same.

  1. John Lennon: 20,163 to 22,146 (top solo song “Imagine” – over 500 versions)
  2. Paul McCartney: 19,999 to 21,871 (top solo song “Wonderful Christmastime” – over 100 versions)
  3. Bob Dylan: 6,679 to 7315 (“Blowin’ in the Wind” – close to 400 versions)
  4. Stevie Wonder: 3,599 to 3863 (“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” over 310)
  5. Keith Richards: 3,278 to 3508 ((I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction over 351)
  6. Mick Jagger: 3,267 to 3497 ((I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction over 351)
  7. Hank Williams: 3,164 to 3432 (“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” over 306)
  8. Carole King: 3,188 to 3382 (“You’ve Got a Friend” over 388)
  9. Paul Simon: 3,133 to 3352 (“Bridge over Troubled Water” over 584)
  10. David Bowie: 2,807 to 2921 (“Space Oddity” over 263)

I checked to see who would be next in line and the numbers there have changed quite a bit since my research in 2020. The following artists are (again just for pop artists): 11. Elton John with 2685/2723, 12. Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA) with 2611/2643, 13. Barry Gibb with 2571/2620, 14. Joni Mitchell with 2394/2446, 15. George Harrison with 2388/2413, 16. Robin Gibb 2303/2342. Next in line for pop artists but just outside the top 100 overall are at 17. Sting with 2182/2206, 18. Willie Dixon with 2120/2138, 19. Chuck Berry with 2089/2120 and at #20 is Maurice Gibb with 1839/1874 total covers.

More mumbo jumbo below.

The songwriting pairs of Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Goffin/King, John/Taupin have their co-written songs included on this list. For that matter anyone who co-writes a song is given equal credit when it comes to compiling cover song stats. Most of the covered Bee Gees songs for example are co-credited to the three brothers. There are many other examples of these artists teaming up with another song writer.

Again this list is for songwriters who are Pop recording artists. So Bernie Taupin would not qualify for the list, even though he has recorded some songs by himself (sounds a bit like Elton, big surprise) but he is primarily a lyricist. Same thing when I look at Gerry Goffin.

Covers are a tricky thing sometimes, take The Beatles song “All You Need is Love”, the names credited read like this; Joe Garland, Giovanni Battista Viotti, Jimmy Dale, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Lennon, Wingy Manone, Paul McCartney.

It can get very complicated believe it or not. I stick to the apples to apples comparison with the numbers from Secondhandsongs.com. However I do know there are some songs they have not yet documented and maybe never will. Joni Mitchell actually does have more song versions and she would be at #4, but I only know this from her website. I don’t know of any other source that tracks the covers like Joni’s, other than maybe The Beatles sites. Truly I spend hours and hours compiling these lists so I can’t be trying to track all the numbers for individual artists. So I feel the lists are a fair representation. I don’t make up any of these stats so I try and keep it like this, who knows, I may change my mind in the future.

The 2024 Update of the Most Covered Pop Songs of all Time

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It’s time for me to update the Top 20 Songs. I have been running this for four years now and for this chart the totals are shown as 2021/2024 and as always, excluding Christmas songs. Statistics from Secondhandsongs.com March 2024. Special notation for songs only in the top 100 for all genre (## overall/all genre). This list includes both vocal and instrumental versions.

  1. “Yesterday” Covered 1,009/1255 times, credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, written by Paul McCartney, by The Beatles. “Yesterday” is the 8th most covered song of all time (for all genre).
  2. “Eleanor Rigby” Covered 633/789 times, credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, written by Paul McCartney, by The Beatles. #46 overall/all genre.
  3. “Bridge over Troubled Water” Covered 584/695 times, written by Paul Simon, by Simon and Garfunkel. #73 overall/all genre.
  4. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” *Covered 522/661 times, written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss, by Elvis Presley overall #84/all genre
  5. “Unchained Melody” *Covered 515/648 times, written by Hy Zaret and Alex North, biggest hit by The Righteous Brothers
  6. “Let it Be” Covered 501/644 times, credited to Lennon/McCartney, written by Paul McCartney, by The Beatles
  7. “Something” Covered 519/642 times, written by George Harrison, by The Beatles
  8. “Hey Jude” Covered 508/640 times, credited to Lennon /McCartney, written by Paul McCartney, by The Beatles
  9. “Michelle” Covered 522/633 times, by The Beatles
  10. “Imagine” Covered 497/632 times, written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono1, recorded by John Lennon
  11. “Fever” Covered 528/621 times, written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell originally sung by Little Willie John
  12. “Here, There and Everywhere” Covered at 496/618, by The Beatles
  13. “Blackbird”, Covered 468/618 times, by The Beatles
  14. “And I Love Her” Covered 490/616 times, by The Beatles
  15. “Hallelujah” Covered 300/609 times, written and first recorded by Leonard Cohen
  16. “The Look of Love”, Covered 483/581 times, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, by Dusty Springfield
  17. “Norwegian Wood” (This Bird Has Flown)”, Covered 472/563, by The Beatles
  18. “Come Together” Covered 451/532, by The Beatles
  19. “Both Sides Now” Covered 461/ 529, written by Joni Mitchell recorded by Judy Collins
  20. “Sunny” Covered 451/506, written and first recorded by Bobby Hebb

I’m afraid the numbers don’t lie, The Beatles have 12 of the Top 20 most covered songs. Since I first started tracking these songs year over year, The Beatles and it’s former members cover song numbers have continued to rise. If you compare my list from last year there are some songs that have been replaced. I revaluate the songs periodically and some were removed based on various factors. One being the original genre of the song, another being the number of cover versions qualifying it as a ‘Pop’ song.

The song with the biggest increase over the past three years is “Hallelujah” that has more than doubled in numbers. This however does not mean that 300 + versions have been recorded in the past three years, rather they have been documented. As you can imagine gathering statistics for anything is rarely a real time exercise. In the case of “Hallelujah” for example 16 of the newly added covers were recorded in the wake of the death of Leonard Cohen on November 7, 2016, through to the end of 2017.

New covers of any song are added to the data base as they are submitted and then verified and could have been recorded in any year.

Christmas songs are excluded from my lists as they dominate the overall cover song list, being 14 of the top 20. Pop songs seem to be of the greatest interest, however, I have listed others for Country, Folk, and many more.

  1. The US National Music Publishers Association confirms as of March 2024 Yoko Ono has been given a song credit for “Imagine”. ↩︎

Check out Music Mondays on Lines by Leon.

Great Artists that had you Covered

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Queen covered “God Save The Queen” and it is the only cover to appear on any of their Studio Albums

Saying who you think are the top names of the Greatest Artists get’s people a little riled up sometimes. Max at Power Pop just announced The Beatles new song to be released on Nov. 2!! Dave at A Sound Day posted about Led Zeppelin recently and it got me thinking. Out of the biggest names in popular music history, just how many covers did these artists/bands do? Since covers are my ‘bailiwick’ for lack of a better word, anecdotally I could tell you a bit on this topic. However, as I am wont to do, I am going to check the numbers.

Instead of making my own list of ‘Greats’ I will use two sources. The Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time (updated in 2011) and from the Wikipedia page, the Best Selling Artists of All Time. For this post I looked at the top five on each list.

The Best Selling list has The Beatles, Elvis, Queen, Elton John and Led Zeppelin among the top names. Rolling Stone Magazine lists the top five as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry, in that order. So combined we have eight unique names. As we like our top 10 lists, for #9 I will take the next in line from Rolling Stone magazine, Jimi Hendrix. I will also add the top ranked woman on that same list, so Aretha Franklin will fill the #10 spot.

So, out of The Beatles, Elvis, Elton John, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix and Aretha Franklin, where do they sit with songs that they re-recorded. I wanted to look at two things.

  1. What is the total number of songs that they covered throughout their career. Given some of the bands had personnel changes, typically I will focus on the group entity.
  2. How many times did the names on the list cover songs from each other?

The Top 10 ‘Greatest’ Artists Ranked in Order by who Covered the Most Songs

#from this list is the total number of songs they covered from the other names on this list, for example Jimi Hendrix covered songs by Dylan (3), The Beatles (4), The Rolling Stones (1) and Chuck Berry (1)

Years are the number of recording years for the artist, and or only years they were together as a group.

#covers#from this listYears
Elvis4751823
Aretha Franklin242858
Bob Dylan237659
Rolling Stones120861
The Beatles1031110
Elton John96659
Chuck Berry61061
Jimi Hendrix4299
Led Zeppelin23012
Queen (w/FM)7220

This list excludes when the artist may have covered their own song as in maybe a duet with someone. As noted Queen (w/FM) includes only the Freddie Mercury years, after they covered dozens of songs. This list does not include solo efforts or post break-up songs by say John Lennon or Robert Plant.

All cover song statistics are from Secondhandsongs.com