Statistics

Most covered songs

By Composer

7376 Lennon-McCartney
597 Harrison
30 Starr (Starkey)
249 McCartney (Solo period)
316 Lennon (Solo period)

Media

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About

2894 Artists covering Beatles songs
448 Covered songs (Beatles and Solo)
8870 Unique Cover Versions
11905 Tracks, and 1673 Items

 

Beatles Cover Versions over the years

 

A quick analysis

  • Less songs covered between 1979 and 1987
  • In 1980 very little output and in 1981 much more
  • A huge output around 2001

1982: Introduction of the CD

Probably already in 1979 the production of new vinyl releases dropped because of the announced introduction of the CD. The CD production started in 1982 but the introduction took time. At first mainly albums of well known artists were released on CD. Well known artists but not Beatles though. These albums were released not earlier as in 1987. And even then, following the advise of George Martin, the oldest albums were released in a flat sounding mono.

1980: Death of John Lennon

Although the death of John Lennon (dec. 1980) can't have had any influence on the output of Cover Versions in that year, 1981 though, saw more Cover Versions of wich several are Lennon Cover Versions.

See covers from 1981

2000: Release of Beatles CD 'One'

After some years of not having released much on the Beatles music front, in 2000 Beatles "One" was released.
"One" is a sampler of 27 number-one hits and was a big commercial success. This also meant that there was new attention to Beatles music wich many artists tried to cash in on.

See Beatles "One" influences

 

Early 'Cover' CD's

The original Beatles CD's have been released in 1987 and 1988. Some CD's with Beatles Cover Versions were released earlier or in the same years of the first Beatles CD releases.
Between these CD's with covers are orchestra renditions from German James Last and 12 Cellisten of Berlin Orchestra but also others like Slovenian Laibach, Brittish King's Singers and Dutch Louis van Dyke wich were quite extreme, daring even. They 'renewed' Beatles songs.

See earley CD's with covers

 

General comments

Of course, the figures in the statistics above only show a statistic view of Cover Versions from my own collection.
But, that stated, over the years not very much change can be seen in the figures. I think the barfigures added with more names and output will not show dramatically different numbers.

Maybe, by introducing figures from countries that are less open than western countries and/or less capitalistic/materialisticly orientated, the figures might change a bit, not much.

 

Last modified: November 15 2023 16:08:36.