by John James

1,892 Cover Songs Men Could Listen To

A few months back, Tom Junod wrote an appreciation of the artful cover song. A few weeks later, reader John James wrote in to say he felt the same way — and to offer Tom his personal list of more than 1,800 covers. This struck us as a Cool Thing. So we asked John, a former record-store owner and syndicated music columnist, to give us his thoughts on the matter. And to give us that amazing list. Both are below.

On The List:

DAVIES, RAY I Go To Sleep - Judith Owen
DEEP PURPLE Smoke On the Water - Judith Owen
POLICE Walking On the Moon - Judith Owen
SURVIVOR Eye of the Tiger - Judith Owen

It's been said that art lies at the crossroads of the predictable and the unexpected — predictable enough to trigger fond memories, yet unexpected enough to rattle the senses and create a new level of understanding and appreciation. Thus the art of the cover song.

Is it the chicken or the egg? The steak or the sizzle? The spark of invention or the twist of the hacker? As in life, is it the singer or the song?

I am a lifelong coveter of covers, but the best ones are getting harder to find. Maybe it's like the old timer at Baskin-Robbins — after years behind the scoop, tastes drift further and further away from chocolate and vanilla. But the truth is throughout my life on the banks of the river of music, I've cast my net for the curious and offbeat. I discovered community radio and used record stores in the 1970s as a high-school suburbanite, and entered the radio/television program at Ohio University and their 24-hour campus station in the golden era of college radio. The uptown record store I worked at part time introduced me to luxurious, import-only, seven-inch and twelve-inch singles, backed with exclusive b-sides — or, occasionally, mysterious cover choices.

And with them I did what every music junkie used to do: I made mix tapes. Remember them? Much more of an art form than burning your buddy a CD, the art of the mix (cassette) tape was a religion in the 1980s. I've seen knock-down fistfights with dudes extolling the virtues of TDK SAII 90's over Maxell XLII-S 90s. And don't even get me started with Dolby C versus dbx. Dropping in a freaky cover or two became my signature — slipping in Aztec Camera's acoustic take on Van Halen's "Jump," or perhaps Paul Young's turn on Marvin Gaye's hit, "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)."

A year after graduation I became the manager at the hippest indie record store in Cincinnati, a job I held for 14 years. There, at Wizards Records, and in 17 years of writing a nationally syndicated music news column, the covers caravan really kicked into high gear. From the acres of used LP's that came across the counter to new CD reissues packed with bonus rarities, I filled hundreds of cassette tapes, each with a specific artist, adding cover tune by cover tune as I found them. I think I got up to six full cassettes of my Cover Me Beatles series alone.

These days, an external hard drive functions as my digital jukebox — and it grows week by week. With over 1,800 cover songs to date, it's become the new version of record collecting for me. (And I'm pretty picky about separating the wheat from the chaff, holding onto only about one in ten of the covers I come across.) But Instead of hunting down that red vinyl DJ-only twelve-inch like I used to, all I lust for are more .wav, .mp3, .flac, and .shn files to satisfy my craving. One of these days I'll pick up an Ion turntable or USB cassette deck and I'll bet I can break 3,000.

But the question remains: Why? Why covers? In my case, I think it's because covers reveal an artists' taste and guilty pleasures, the same way that looking at someone's bookcase or record collection (or iPod) for five minutes can tell you more about them than be gleaned in a three-hour car trip. I mean, what's the first (well, second or third) thing you ask a new acquaintance? "What kind of music do you like? What bands are you into?"

So, please knock me out with a terrific, inspired cover. Let me sing along in my head or out loud. Let me anticipate the break. Let me be surprised by a new hook. And let me turn up the good ones and share them, puffing the poetry of a great song into the air like seeds from an electric dandelion. After a lifetime in music, some of my biggest thrills come from a loud 'n' twisted or softly mesmerizing remake — now, more than ever, within fingertips' reach on the Web.

Below, ten of my favorites. And below that, a list of 1,882 more.

Read more here