Statistics

Most covered songs

By Composer

6895 Lennon-McCartney
561 Harrison
22 Starr (Starkey)
241 McCartney (Solo period)
280 Lennon (Solo period)

Media

Click bars to see results

About

2828 Artists covering Beatles songs
440 Covered songs (Beatles and Solo)
8399 Unique Cover Versions
11283 Tracks, and 1625 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.

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.

 

Early 'Cover' CD's

The original Beatles CD's have beem released in 1987 and 1988. Some CD's with Beatles Cover Versions were released before or in the same years of the releases of the Original Beatles CD's. Below are some of my earliest examples:

1983 James Last - Grössten songs (Polydor, Germany)
1984 12 Cellists of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Japan)
1984 Terry Herman Trio (Jazz) - Blue Michelle (Japan)
1987 Joe Cocker - Unchain my heart (Germany)
1988 Louis van Dyke - (on Churchorgan) (Netherlands)
1988 King's Singers - The Beatles Connection (Germany)
1988 Laibach - Let it be (Germany)
1988 London Starlight Orchestra - Beatles Hits (Germany)
1988 Allen Toussaint Orchestra - Songbook (Belgium)

See these early cover CD's

Most of these are popular titles like the orchestra renditions, but others like Laibach, King's Singers and Louis van Dyke were new and quite extreme, daring even, in the way they 'renewed' Beatles songs.

 

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: March 02 2023 20:36:11.