0:00:02 > 0:00:03# And more, much more than this
0:00:05 > 0:00:09# I did it my way. #
0:00:13 > 0:00:18Great cover versions are about taking someone else's song...
0:00:18 > 0:00:20# Regrets, I've had a few. #
0:00:20 > 0:00:23..and doing it your way.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28# But then again, too few to mention. #
0:00:28 > 0:00:30If you unearth a new meaning, or suddenly realise,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33"Holy cow. That's what that song's about?"
0:00:33 > 0:00:35It's great.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38# Respect when I come home. #
0:00:38 > 0:00:39When the alchemy works,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43the cover can be even better than the original.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47# R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me. #
0:00:47 > 0:00:52I feel like she took it and just, was like, "Here, pretty bird."
0:00:52 > 0:00:54# Oh, you had better go now. #
0:00:54 > 0:00:59We follow the journeys of a handful of classic covers.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02As it started off, it sounded like me.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04I said, "That's not me."
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Spread over five decades, each cover is a child of its time.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13# The best things in life are free. #
0:01:13 > 0:01:16There are plenty of good ideas. Why bother to have any more?
0:01:19 > 0:01:22A great cover can take a song to a different place.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24# Sometimes I feel I've got to... #
0:01:26 > 0:01:28# Run away, I've got to... #
0:01:28 > 0:01:30I never liked the word "tainted."
0:01:30 > 0:01:33It was like, "Oh, I'm saying something nasty."
0:01:35 > 0:01:40In the process, there are both winners and losers.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41# Every step you take. #
0:01:41 > 0:01:43# I'll be missing you. #
0:01:43 > 0:01:45I was sort of incensed about it because
0:01:45 > 0:01:49the guy sold 30 million singles off my guitar part.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51# Fire my imagination. #
0:01:51 > 0:01:55And we discover how classic covers are sometimes even better
0:01:55 > 0:01:56than the real thing.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58# No, no, no. #
0:01:58 > 0:02:00# Hey, hey, hey. #
0:02:00 > 0:02:02Usually, you're picking a song that you already like.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06So it's more about finding new light, finding a new way in.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09- # I can't get me no - Satisfaction. #
0:02:09 > 0:02:13If you're going to record another artist's song,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17I think you should do it because you think you could do it better.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19- # I can't get me no - Satisfaction
0:02:19 > 0:02:21- # Well, I can't get no - Satisfaction. #
0:02:28 > 0:02:30- # You know you make me wanna... - Shout
0:02:30 > 0:02:32- # Kick my heels up and... - Shout
0:02:32 > 0:02:33- # Throw my hands up and... - Shout
0:02:33 > 0:02:35- # Throw my head back and... - Shout. #
0:02:35 > 0:02:38In the '50s, the future looked American.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41# Don't forget to say, yeah, yeah. #
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Life over there was Technicolor...
0:02:45 > 0:02:46..glamorous.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50We wanted their lifestyle...
0:02:50 > 0:02:52# All right
0:02:52 > 0:02:55# Now wait a minute. #
0:02:55 > 0:02:56..and their music.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58Dream Boy, take ten.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05# Let me walk you home after school. #
0:03:05 > 0:03:07We just weren't very good at it.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09# Come on, sweetheart. #
0:03:09 > 0:03:11I think perhaps a little bit more echo on the voice.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13- You'd better give him a bit more echo.- Yes, OK.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15# I'm your fool. #
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Our charts were crammed with cover versions,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22but they were just bland copies of Tin Pan Alley hits.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24# Dream girl, dream girl, you're for me. #
0:03:24 > 0:03:27You have to remember that every single hit song
0:03:27 > 0:03:31every week in the charts in England had been a hit song in America.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34It was a cover version, and the A&R people and record companies
0:03:34 > 0:03:37went to America once a month and they took all the latest songs
0:03:37 > 0:03:39and brought them back to England and just remade them.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41They were almost the same song.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44SCREAMING
0:03:44 > 0:03:46But by the '60s, something was stirring.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53A new generation of British bands started covering rock'n'roll,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55rhythm and blues, even folk.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Songs from outside the American pop mainstream.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05The British invasion began with American songs.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10MUSIC: House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals
0:04:17 > 0:04:20# There is a house in New Orleans
0:04:23 > 0:04:26# They call the Rising Sun. #
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Yeah, it sounds good.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32# And it's been the ruin.... #
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Instantly conjures up another place in time.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38# And God I know I'm one. #
0:04:40 > 0:04:43In 1964, The Animals topped the charts in Britain,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47with a cover version of House Of The Rising Sun.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50It sounded unlike anything ever heard before
0:04:50 > 0:04:51from a British band.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54# Oh, Mother
0:04:54 > 0:04:55# Tell your children
0:04:57 > 0:05:01# Not to do what I have done. #
0:05:01 > 0:05:04I think the mere fact that it was an English accent
0:05:04 > 0:05:06and the fact it was a slightly dodgy subject,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and up to then the radio had always banned anything
0:05:09 > 0:05:13which could be anything near about a prostitute, or even sex.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15I think that hooked everybody.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20# Down in New Orleans. #
0:05:20 > 0:05:23The Animals were from Newcastle, not New Orleans,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26a place as far away to them as the moon.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Yet, somehow, they brought something dangerous out of a cautionary
0:05:32 > 0:05:34folk tale about loose living.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42For generations, House Of The Rising Sun had been
0:05:42 > 0:05:47sung across America, and the song was constantly changing.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53# There is a house in New Orleans. #
0:05:54 > 0:06:00Its path to Newcastle began in 1937, when the young song collector
0:06:00 > 0:06:02Alan Lomax visited Kentucky.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07Whilst there, he met a miner's daughter, named Georgia Turner,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10and recorded her singing a song she'd grown up with.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14- GEORGIA TURNER: - # They call the Rising Sun
0:06:14 > 0:06:18# It's been the ruin of many a girl. #
0:06:18 > 0:06:22He logged it as Rising Sun Blues.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24You listen to it and it is very, very clearly
0:06:24 > 0:06:26the song House Of The Rising Sun.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31The tune is different, but you have this 15-year-old, ethereal voice
0:06:31 > 0:06:35singing at you from 1937 these lyrics, that we're now all
0:06:35 > 0:06:36so familiar with.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42By the 1950s, Georgia Turner's version had entered
0:06:42 > 0:06:43the repertoire of every
0:06:43 > 0:06:47self-respecting American folk musician.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51But it lacked a standard arrangement, until the arrival
0:06:51 > 0:06:54of the debut album by Bob Dylan.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59- BOB DYLAN:- # There is a house down in New Orleans. #
0:07:01 > 0:07:03The House Of The Rising Sun
0:07:03 > 0:07:06has been open to many different permutations.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09And this is true of many folk songs if they've come from
0:07:09 > 0:07:10an oral tradition.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Bob Dylan's the first person to really nail that melody
0:07:15 > 0:07:17and to nail down some definitive chords.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20He's playing it in A minor.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22SHE PLAYS HOUSE OF RISING SUN
0:07:23 > 0:07:26His recording of it is a blank slate, effectively,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29because it's just a vocal and guitar.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31So that leaves the door wide open for The Animals
0:07:31 > 0:07:33to do something quite radical.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40The Animals took House Of The Rising Sun into the studio one morning
0:07:40 > 0:07:42in May 1964.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47There was one engineer there and when Hilton was racking up
0:07:47 > 0:07:51to do the intro... "No, no, no, you can't do that, man!
0:07:51 > 0:07:55"It's distorting." And we're going, "That's what we want - distortion!"
0:07:57 > 0:08:02# There is house in New Orleans. #
0:08:02 > 0:08:06They plug in, they make it a dark, electric sound.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10The feel is somehow a lot more menacing
0:08:10 > 0:08:12and that gives it a massive excitement.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17# Of many a poor boy, and God... #
0:08:17 > 0:08:19You hear Eric Burdon's voice.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21It contains...
0:08:21 > 0:08:24all of the misery of the Blues.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27# My mother was... #
0:08:27 > 0:08:33You feel emotion and you feel the pull of sin, you feel the pull
0:08:33 > 0:08:35of something that you know is not good for you,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37but you're going to do it anyway.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41# My father was a gamblin' man
0:08:42 > 0:08:45# Down in New Orleans. #
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Going electric added a further element to the song -
0:08:50 > 0:08:53the giddy sound of Alan Price's organ.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02One of my favourite movies of the time was called
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Walk On The Wild Side.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08And the soundtrack was by Jimmy Smith, and the keyboard
0:09:08 > 0:09:10was just phenomenal.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16And I played it to Alan and I said,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18"This is what you've got to do
0:09:18 > 0:09:22"end of verse three, stop, and go into it."
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Boom, chak, da-da, da-da-da-dun
0:09:26 > 0:09:27To push the whole thing along.
0:09:32 > 0:09:33I hear that organ and I think,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36"OK, the red-light district of New Orleans."
0:09:36 > 0:09:38I think of the people that they used to called "professors,"
0:09:38 > 0:09:40who played the piano in the brothels.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The keyboard wakes you up, set you on fire, you know.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48"Wow, what's all this about?"
0:09:48 > 0:09:50"Sex for sale?" "Oh, my God."
0:09:50 > 0:09:53This is, you know, the devil himself at work.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58# And God I know I'm one. #
0:09:59 > 0:10:01CHEERING AND SCREAMING
0:10:01 > 0:10:04After recording Rising Sun and performing it,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08I'd be backstage and I'd have a girl on each arm.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10I'd think, "Wow, this is great."
0:10:12 > 0:10:15The Animals unleashed something in themselves
0:10:15 > 0:10:17and their audience with the song.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20And it made them stars.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22- NEWSREEL: - Here they are, The Animals,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25Britain's hottest new rock'n'roll export.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28And when they took it back to America, they ignited
0:10:28 > 0:10:30a generation of teenagers,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33who plugged into the song's dangerous undercurrents.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Swept to the number one spot on both
0:10:35 > 0:10:37the US and British pop charts.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39Everything British was now beautiful.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42The teenage magic follows The Animals as they take
0:10:42 > 0:10:45temporary refuge in their hotel.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47SCREAMING
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54the British invasion saw a stream of bands re-exporting
0:10:54 > 0:10:57American songs back across the Atlantic.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Whoa!
0:11:01 > 0:11:03# Well, shake it up, baby now! #
0:11:03 > 0:11:08It proved irresistible to US teenagers, hungry for the new sound.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11# Come on, come on, come on, come on, baby, now
0:11:11 > 0:11:13# Come on, baby
0:11:13 > 0:11:14# Come on and work it on out. #
0:11:14 > 0:11:18But the success of a British cover could also spell the downfall
0:11:18 > 0:11:21of the original American artist.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25# We've already said
0:11:31 > 0:11:33# Goodbye
0:11:38 > 0:11:40# And since you've gotta go
0:11:40 > 0:11:44# Boy, you had better go now. #
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Go Now was a ballad writing for aspiring New York singer
0:11:47 > 0:11:52Bessie Banks, by her husband Larry, to launch her into the big time.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55# Boy, you see me cry. #
0:11:57 > 0:12:00It was a break-up song, made all the more poignant
0:12:00 > 0:12:04as Larry and Bessie had separated some time before.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Despite being produced by Leiber and Stoller,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Bessie was initially unsure it would be a hit.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17I didn't think too much of it, because you can't dance to it.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22And I was used to dancing to the music that I really liked.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25# Still in love with you now. #
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Despite Bessie's reservations, Go Now, released in 1964,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33soon found itself on the airwaves.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38It was picked Hit Of The Week.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40That means you play it for, like, seven days.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45They called it the Shooting Star Of The Week.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48I was so sure that, you know, this was going to make it,
0:12:48 > 0:12:49you know, for me.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55It was played four days and the fifth day...
0:12:55 > 0:12:57I turned the radio on, I hear The Moody Blues.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00I thought it was myself, you know, because it started off,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03it sounded like me. I said, "That's not me."
0:13:06 > 0:13:09# Goodbye
0:13:12 > 0:13:17# Since you gotta go, you had better go now. #
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Birmingham band The Moody Blues were also looking for material
0:13:20 > 0:13:22for a breakthrough hit.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24# Go now. #
0:13:24 > 0:13:26When you haven't heard it for a long time,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29you can see why it was a hit.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31There's something about it.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36# I don't want you tell me just what you intend to do now. #
0:13:36 > 0:13:40Our friend was a DJ and he went to America
0:13:40 > 0:13:45and brought a huge suitcase back of 45 singles.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48And Go Now was one of the songs in there.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51It fit perfectly with our line-up.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54You know, harmonies, piano, whatever.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57So, immediately, I went, "That's a definite."
0:13:58 > 0:14:00# I don't wanna see you go. #
0:14:00 > 0:14:04The Moody Blues knew they'd found a potential hit.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07All they needed to do was make some tweaks.
0:14:07 > 0:14:08# Go now. #
0:14:08 > 0:14:10By the time The Moody Blues have covered it,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13they've sped it up slightly. That all helps make something feel
0:14:13 > 0:14:15a bit more commercial.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21One of the quirky things about the song is the piano solo,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25because it's like a pub piano, basically.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32But I think it's an example of the way that British acts
0:14:32 > 0:14:35were covering the American records, and then re-exporting
0:14:35 > 0:14:39American music back to the Americans, but with a particularly
0:14:39 > 0:14:40British twist on it.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42# Oh, you had better go now. #
0:14:45 > 0:14:49The Moody Blues' decision to cover Go Now proved inspired.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53It was fun having a number one hit, you know, and obviously,
0:14:53 > 0:14:56I mean, you're watching it, you're going, "What?"
0:14:56 > 0:14:59You're hearing it on the radio, you're like kids.
0:14:59 > 0:15:00But, yeah.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Life just changed overnight.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08Life also changed for Bessie Banks the moment she heard
0:15:08 > 0:15:11the Moody Blues' version of Go Now on the radio.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16They played them, and...they dropped me.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21They weren't playing too much American music at that time anyway.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23It was the British Invasion.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28So I said, well, this is just not the right time.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Bessie's career never recovered.
0:15:34 > 0:15:40# I don't wanna see you go But darlin', you better go now. #
0:15:44 > 0:15:47# Sure you haven't got the wrong number? #
0:15:47 > 0:15:51But the right cover in the right style could work miracles,
0:15:51 > 0:15:52even in America.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57# Well, everyone in town's got your number... #
0:15:57 > 0:16:00By 1967, after six years with Columbia Records,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Aretha Franklin felt she needed a new start.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06# ..you got in touch... #
0:16:06 > 0:16:09I think I owned a copy of her Columbia album.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14I could tell she had a great voice,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18but the songs were cocktail lounge music to my head.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Her new label, Atlantic Records,
0:16:23 > 0:16:25wanted to take her in a new direction.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29And for inspiration, they looked to the south.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32# What you want
0:16:32 > 0:16:34# Baby, you've got it
0:16:34 > 0:16:35# And what you need
0:16:35 > 0:16:38# Baby, you've got it... #
0:16:38 > 0:16:41With his 1965 album Otis Blue,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44singer Otis Redding had become a soul star.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46# Hey, hey, hey! #
0:16:46 > 0:16:52His untamed style excited Aretha on one song in particular.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54# Honey, if you want it... #
0:16:54 > 0:16:55Oh, Otis.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00The idea for Respect came from one of Otis's close friends.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Those were some happy times.
0:17:03 > 0:17:04Good times.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Respect, the title of the song,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14came up by my ex.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19And she came up with, "Do me wrong, do me wrong while I'm gone,"
0:17:19 > 0:17:22and I came up with, "Give me respect when I come home."
0:17:22 > 0:17:25# ..when I come home... #
0:17:25 > 0:17:28It was more of a pleading type thing, you know.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33# Do me wrong, do me wrong Do me wrong while I'm gone
0:17:33 > 0:17:36# But give me respect when I come home. #
0:17:36 > 0:17:37You know, it was like that.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42Earl "Speedo" Simms initially went into the studio with Otis
0:17:42 > 0:17:44to record Respect himself.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47I tried to do my version,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50but my voice just couldn't hold up.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53So he said, "Hey, man, why don't I go head and do the song?"
0:17:53 > 0:17:54And I said, "OK, fine."
0:17:54 > 0:17:59# Respect when I come home, yeah... #
0:17:59 > 0:18:03Otis's Respect was a macho plea for attention from his woman
0:18:03 > 0:18:05after a hard day's work.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09# ..What I need Respect is what I want
0:18:09 > 0:18:11# Respect is what I need... #
0:18:11 > 0:18:14It was fun. It was just a fun session.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16We were serious in our recording, but we knew
0:18:16 > 0:18:18it was more of a comedy song.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22I don't think when we finished it we knew it was really good.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Uh, that it would be more than...
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Treated anything more than a comical song, until Aretha.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32And she brought some seriousness into it.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38- # Ooh - What you want
0:18:38 > 0:18:41- # Baby, I got it... # - Wow.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43# What you need... #
0:18:43 > 0:18:45She was a great piano player,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and when we recorded Respect,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52I think she just sat down and started playing
0:18:52 > 0:18:54and we all played with her.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57# Just a little bit Just a little bit... #
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Which was a different groove than Otis,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04and her voice was connecting, you know, it was like...
0:19:04 > 0:19:05A beautiful thing.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08- # Ooh - All I'm askin'... #
0:19:08 > 0:19:11The biggest change from Otis's version
0:19:11 > 0:19:13came out of Aretha's gospel roots -
0:19:13 > 0:19:17the intricately arranged backing vocals.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19I had her...
0:19:19 > 0:19:22She and her sisters and friends had worked up those parts at home,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25brought it to the studio, and here we go, you know?
0:19:25 > 0:19:28- # When you got- Sock it to me Sock it to me, sock it to me
0:19:28 > 0:19:31- # A little respect- Sock it to me Sock it to me, sock it to me... #
0:19:31 > 0:19:33# Sock it to me Sock it to me, sock it to me... #
0:19:33 > 0:19:36You know, I never heard that before in a song.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39- # A little respect - Just a little bit... #
0:19:39 > 0:19:42They've created this amazing call-and-response
0:19:42 > 0:19:46which is really joyous and feels quite off-the-cuff
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and gives the song kind of its big hook.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52- # Just a little bit- Oh, yeah - Just a little bit... #
0:19:52 > 0:19:55They've also dropped the key of the song.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58Aretha's singing it a tone lower than Otis.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02And yet it feels like they're singing higher
0:20:02 > 0:20:05because of where she's singing in her vocal register.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08- # Just a little bit - Good God of mine... #
0:20:08 > 0:20:13This high-chest voice, which is really tough as a singer,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17but it brings this incredible urgency and excitement to the song.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21- # Just a little bit Just a little bit- Oh, yeah
0:20:21 > 0:20:22# Just a little bit... #
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Oh, I loved Aretha's version,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28cos, uh, it was poppin'. Know what I'm saying?
0:20:28 > 0:20:32I feel like she took it and was just like, "Here, pretty bird."
0:20:33 > 0:20:36I mean, you know, it's a great song,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39but two totally different feels.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41She put some hot sauce on it, you know.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43He had just some honey on the plate,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46she had, like, some dinner!
0:20:48 > 0:20:51- # Sock it to me- Just a little bit
0:20:51 > 0:20:54# R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me... #
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Aretha had taken Otis's throwaway tune
0:20:56 > 0:21:00and transformed it into an anthem of empowerment
0:21:00 > 0:21:04that was taken up by civil rights protesters across America.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08We are black! Our noses are broad!
0:21:08 > 0:21:10Our lips are big!
0:21:10 > 0:21:12And we are beautiful!
0:21:12 > 0:21:16- And we are beautiful! - # A little respect, hey, baby... #
0:21:16 > 0:21:21Jerry played Respect by Aretha Franklin to Otis Redding
0:21:21 > 0:21:25and his words were, "That woman done stole my song."
0:21:26 > 0:21:30It's a beautiful thing, you know, and that's what he meant.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34He gave it up to her at that moment.
0:21:36 > 0:21:42# What would you do if I sang out of tune
0:21:42 > 0:21:46# Would you stand up and walk out on me? #
0:21:46 > 0:21:49As the '60s turned into the '70s,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53a decent cover version continued to strike the right chord.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58# Picture yourself on a boat on a river... #
0:21:58 > 0:22:02The songs of artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05who'd themselves started off doing covers,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07were becoming modern standards.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10# Somebody calls you You answer... #
0:22:10 > 0:22:13# My darling young one... #
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry
0:22:17 > 0:22:21reimagined songs such as Dylan's protest song
0:22:21 > 0:22:23A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26# I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans... #
0:22:26 > 0:22:30It was hard to tell whether Ferry was being arch,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32artful or affectionate.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34Or all three.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36# And it's a hard... #
0:22:36 > 0:22:41Artifice was all, as the decision to reject the sincerity of the '60s
0:22:41 > 0:22:45opened up new possibilities for the cover version.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50In the '70s, I think there was a lot of trying to figure out
0:22:50 > 0:22:53who we were and where we were and what we were doing and why.
0:22:53 > 0:23:00And we'd got this feeling that maybe protest was obsolete.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04Maybe subversion was the way you had to change things.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10# We are Devo
0:23:10 > 0:23:13# Are we not men? #
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Devo were five college friends from Ohio
0:23:15 > 0:23:19whose music satirised corporate life and conformity.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Their sound and image were defiantly geeky.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28So they decided to record a cover version
0:23:28 > 0:23:32as an entry point for people trying to get a handle on their vision.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38They chose a song that had made a big impression on them as kids.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44# I can't get no
0:23:44 > 0:23:48# Satisfaction
0:23:48 > 0:23:50# And I've tried, and I've tried... #
0:23:50 > 0:23:52I bought the single Satisfaction,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56and to me it was the most cocksure, punky sound I'd ever heard.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02# I can't get no
0:24:02 > 0:24:05# Satisfaction... #
0:24:05 > 0:24:08I remember playing the single and this woman from my mom's church
0:24:08 > 0:24:11came over and she looked at my mom, she goes,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15"Mary, why do you let that boy listen to that song?
0:24:15 > 0:24:17"Those lyrics are dirty."
0:24:17 > 0:24:19# I can't get no... #
0:24:19 > 0:24:22And I was like, "Oh!" So once I heard that
0:24:22 > 0:24:26I went to the basement and I played the song a thousand times.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29I'm like, "What's so dirty? I don't get it."
0:24:30 > 0:24:34"What is it that the parents don't like?"
0:24:34 > 0:24:36And I couldn't figure it out!
0:24:36 > 0:24:38It was awesome.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Fast-forward a decade to the mid '70s.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48Ohio was in the grip of one of the fiercest winters on record.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51One bitterly cold night,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Devo decided to take the heat out of the Stones classic.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01We rehearsed in a tool shed that we were allowed to set equipment up in,
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and it was unheated, so everybody's standing in there
0:25:05 > 0:25:10with gloves and coats and breathing steam,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13and we were standing around, and, uh...
0:25:13 > 0:25:15Bob number two, Bob Casale,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18started playing this little nervous guitar thing -
0:25:18 > 0:25:20# Buh buh buh da-da da-da... #
0:25:20 > 0:25:23It was just this kind of weird little phrase.
0:25:25 > 0:25:26And the drummer just started
0:25:26 > 0:25:30putting that kind of Tinker Toy mechanical beat to it.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36Gerry and Bob both started playing parts over the top of that.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40# I can't get no
0:25:40 > 0:25:42# Satisfaction... #
0:25:42 > 0:25:45And so I sang Satisfaction over it
0:25:45 > 0:25:48because just the idea of putting it over the top of that
0:25:48 > 0:25:50while we're all standing there shivering at the same time
0:25:50 > 0:25:52made everybody laugh.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54# I can't get no... #
0:25:54 > 0:25:57It was just something that came out of
0:25:57 > 0:25:59being as cold as you could possibly be,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01people playing things that you played
0:26:01 > 0:26:03when you were in sub-zero temperatures.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06# No, no, no... #
0:26:06 > 0:26:09The effect on the song was remarkable.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Gone was its original '60s swagger,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16replaced by...something twitchier.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18# I can't get no... #
0:26:18 > 0:26:20It sounds like I'm on helium.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22Yeah, I had a...
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Oh, yeah. I sang way up there somehow.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28# I can't get no
0:26:28 > 0:26:30# No, no, no... #
0:26:30 > 0:26:33It's one thing to have fun with a classic song,
0:26:33 > 0:26:37but in 1977, to release a Stones cover,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40you still had to get permission from the band.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45So Devo nervously went to New York to meet Mick Jagger.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47We put on the single and Jagger's sitting there
0:26:47 > 0:26:50and he's just, like, listening to it for about a minute,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53then he jumped up and he started dancing around the room.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57And Gerry and I were watching him and he was, like,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00doing his, you know, he was dancing just like Jagger.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06You know, he did a very good impression of himself.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09Afterwards he said, "I like it, I like it."
0:27:09 > 0:27:11He said, "That's my favourite version of the song."
0:27:11 > 0:27:14- # Well, I can't get no - Satisfaction. #
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Devo weren't the only ones in the late '70s
0:27:19 > 0:27:21subverting classic songs.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24At the time, we thought,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27"Oh, we haven't got any money, we'll be pop stars."
0:27:27 > 0:27:29And that's what we did.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34MUSIC: Money by the Flying Lizards
0:27:34 > 0:27:37The Flying Lizards brought their own distinctive sound
0:27:37 > 0:27:39to a handful of old tunes.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42# The best things in life are free
0:27:42 > 0:27:45# But you can give them to the birds and bees
0:27:45 > 0:27:47# I want money... #
0:27:49 > 0:27:52A cover version's something that's kind of easy to plug into.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57# Your love gives me such a thrill... #
0:27:57 > 0:28:01As soon as you kind of take a pop song and start working on it,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03it's still recognisably pop music,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07no matter how...bizarre the instrumentation might be.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09# That's what I want... #
0:28:12 > 0:28:17I expect you're wondering why we did cover versions.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20I suppose one answer might be,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23there are plenty of good ideas - why bother to have any more?
0:28:26 > 0:28:29The band adopted an equally no-nonsense approach
0:28:29 > 0:28:30to their choice of covers.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Successful records were either about sex, money or cars,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and Gary Numan had just done Cars,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42and I thought, well, I know a song about money.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45MUSIC: Money by the Beatles
0:28:45 > 0:28:48# Your lovin' don't pay my bills... #
0:28:50 > 0:28:53The Beatles cut their teeth on tunes like Money,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55which had been the first hit for the Motown label,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57sung by Barrett Strong.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59# That's what I want... #
0:28:59 > 0:29:04And it was a tune that John Lennon revisited in the late 1960s.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08# The best things in life are free
0:29:08 > 0:29:12# But you can give it to the birds and bees... #
0:29:12 > 0:29:15I knew it from a John Lennon live album,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19the Plastic Ono Band Live In Toronto, 1969.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21# Oh! #
0:29:21 > 0:29:24That's a practically heavy metal version.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29GUITAR SOLO
0:29:29 > 0:29:34In 1979, ten years after the Plastic Ono Band,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38Money's materialism was to acquire a new relevance.
0:29:39 > 0:29:45I think it was released a few months before Thatcher was elected,
0:29:45 > 0:29:51but this ongoing rush of madness and greed was in the air.
0:29:52 > 0:29:57I think...there has to be a kind of zeitgeist in it.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02Something, er...indescribably of its time.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09"MONEY" RIFF PLAYS
0:30:09 > 0:30:12The Flying Lizards met at Maidstone College of Art,
0:30:12 > 0:30:17and they brought a conceptual approach to the recording of Money.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19We decided to prepare the piano
0:30:19 > 0:30:23in a way that, say, I knew from the works of John Cage -
0:30:23 > 0:30:25the prepared piano with little things on the strings.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33We put in Chopin's Etudes, I think it was,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36we put in the London telephone directory on top of the strings,
0:30:36 > 0:30:42and then you get this clanky, banjo-y kind of hybrid sound.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49The music was DIY, but initially,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52there were higher hopes for the vocals.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56Deborah, the singer...
0:30:56 > 0:31:00I just assumed that she'd probably sing like Tina Turner.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02- SPOKEN:- # The best things in life are free... #
0:31:02 > 0:31:06And this turned out to not be the case.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10- # I want money - That's what I want... #
0:31:10 > 0:31:15People wonder why I speak the songs instead of singing them.
0:31:15 > 0:31:16# That's what I want... #
0:31:16 > 0:31:20The answer is really very straightforward.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22Um...
0:31:22 > 0:31:24singing is more difficult.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26# That's what I want... #
0:31:28 > 0:31:31Money proved an unexpected hit for the Flying Lizards,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34reaching number five in the UK charts.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41The Flying Lizards really... not being much of a group,
0:31:41 > 0:31:43and I'm not much of a musician,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47and the singer kind of couldn't sing very well, and, er...
0:31:47 > 0:31:49I hesitate to use the term "get away with it",
0:31:49 > 0:31:51but we got away with it.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56The Flying Lizards boldly ripped up a classic
0:31:56 > 0:31:58and deliberately drained it of its warmth.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07But in an age of cold electronic beats,
0:32:07 > 0:32:11what if you tried to combine the chilliness of contemporary sounds
0:32:11 > 0:32:14with the soulfulness of an older song?
0:32:17 > 0:32:19We wanted a song that would fit into our set,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and we thought it would be great to do something
0:32:21 > 0:32:23that's away from the usual electronica,
0:32:23 > 0:32:26you know, writing about alienation and modern life
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and being very kind of cold and robotic and things.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32# Here in my car I feel safest of all
0:32:32 > 0:32:35# I can lock all my doors... #
0:32:35 > 0:32:37So I thought... Dave said Northern Soul,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40and I saw this record, Tainted Love by Gloria Jones.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42MUSIC: Tainted Love by Gloria Jones
0:32:42 > 0:32:44And I just was instantly hooked by it.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49# Sometimes I feel I've got to
0:32:49 > 0:32:52# Run away, I've got to
0:32:52 > 0:32:54# Get away.... #
0:32:54 > 0:32:56It's something that starts with a great line.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58"Sometimes I feel I've got to run away."
0:32:58 > 0:33:01That's just how I feel a lot of the time.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03And when I pick a song to do that's somebody else's,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05it has to relate to me lyrically
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and say something about my life or to me.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11It's a very simple song, but it just grabbed me.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14This is the original.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Aww.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21# I give you all a girl can give you... #
0:33:21 > 0:33:26Tainted Love was written by Ed Cobb and recorded by Gloria Jones
0:33:26 > 0:33:29in New York in 1965.
0:33:29 > 0:33:30# Tainted love... #
0:33:30 > 0:33:33It was the B-side of a flop single.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36But the record was to have a second lease of life
0:33:36 > 0:33:39after it shipped up in the UK.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43How it got here, like so many other American records,
0:33:43 > 0:33:45is the stuff of legend.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Well, there was a Navy man.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51They had just docked in Liverpool.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54So there was a young kid passing by,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and the sailor said, "Hey, I need a cigarette.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01"I'll give you this 45 for the cigarette."
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Well, the kid took the 45,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and he was on his way to the social club,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11so when he got there, he said, "You've gotta play this record."
0:34:11 > 0:34:13And they played Tainted Love,
0:34:13 > 0:34:17and the kids went crazy.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20# Now I know I've got to
0:34:20 > 0:34:23# Run away, I've got to... #
0:34:23 > 0:34:27The Northern Soul scene in Britain took Tainted Love to its heart.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31Part of the appeal to clubbers
0:34:31 > 0:34:34was the song's dark, sexual undertones.
0:34:36 > 0:34:37# Tainted love
0:34:37 > 0:34:40# Don't touch me, please
0:34:40 > 0:34:41# I cannot stand the way... #
0:34:41 > 0:34:44I never liked that song.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47I never liked the word "tainted", that was my problem.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51I just didn't understand the word.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55Cos I was a virgin, so I was clean,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59so this was like, "Ooh! I'm saying something nasty."
0:34:59 > 0:35:01# Oh, tainted love... #
0:35:01 > 0:35:05But for Soft Cell, that was precisely part of the song's appeal.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Tainted Love - what a great title.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11It has all these kind of connotations,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15it's kind of a little bit dark, slightly kind of sleazy feel.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17This fits into our world.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19MUSIC: Tainted Love by Soft Cell
0:35:19 > 0:35:24In 1981, Soft Cell went into the studio
0:35:24 > 0:35:26to record Tainted Love.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30They took with them this piece of paper
0:35:30 > 0:35:34detailing their carefully worked-out plan for the song.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39It was very much kind of a bare sound.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44# Sometimes I feel I've got to
0:35:44 > 0:35:45# Run away... #
0:35:45 > 0:35:48We didn't want to, like, put lots of banks of keyboards
0:35:48 > 0:35:51and banks of sounds and overproduce it.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53You know, it's a skip drumbeat.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57Me doing the "dink dink" and the "ti-ti-ti-ti".
0:35:57 > 0:35:59# Run away... #
0:35:59 > 0:36:01Dave doing the "ah ah"
0:36:02 > 0:36:04I can almost see Dave doing it now,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07that kind of look he always has going "ah ah".
0:36:07 > 0:36:09It's almost, like, defiant.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13# Take my tears and that's not nearly all
0:36:13 > 0:36:15# Tainted love... #
0:36:17 > 0:36:18By the time Soft Cell have taken it
0:36:18 > 0:36:22and put it in this really glacial soundscape
0:36:22 > 0:36:24with synths and programmed beats,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28and then you have this wonderful, passionate vocal on top.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31It's kind of more original than the original.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34# ..any more from me To make things right
0:36:34 > 0:36:37# You need someone to hold you tight... #
0:36:37 > 0:36:39In fact, Mark's vocal performance
0:36:39 > 0:36:42was only intended as a warm-up in the studio.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47But it had an intensity that was perfect for the song.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49- # Once I ran to you - I ran... #
0:36:49 > 0:36:51I suppose it was a thing that I got from punk,
0:36:51 > 0:36:53that something shouldn't be overproduced,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56it should be just there, you just go in and do it
0:36:56 > 0:36:58and give it your kind of passion and what you feel,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00with all that nervous energy that you have of doing it,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04and you're building up to that vocal. That's it.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06# Don't touch me, please
0:37:06 > 0:37:10# I cannot stand the way you tease... #
0:37:10 > 0:37:14Soft Cell's Tainted Love struck a chord with the record-buying public,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18reaching the top of the charts in the UK.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21And in the US, it stayed in the Hot 100
0:37:21 > 0:37:24for a record-breaking 43 weeks.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28It's 35 years later,
0:37:28 > 0:37:30and the record's still played on radio.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32It's still danced to on a Saturday night.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35That's a huge power and potency to have,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38and people may cover it, but I don't think they will ever
0:37:38 > 0:37:41have that success that Soft Cell had with Tainted Love.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45I'm still trying to come up with a hit.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47I want to beat Marc Almond.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50See what you're starting?
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Look, look!
0:37:54 > 0:37:56# I need the beat, I need the beat... #
0:37:56 > 0:38:00The emergence of hip-hop into the mainstream in the '80s
0:38:00 > 0:38:05raised the question, when is a cover not a cover?
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Hip-hop was a DJ culture.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15They took beats and samples from old tunes
0:38:15 > 0:38:17and rapped over them.
0:38:18 > 0:38:24But then in 1986, the old world collided with the new.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26MUSIC: Walk This Way by Run DMC and Aerosmith
0:38:32 > 0:38:34- # But there's a backseat- Lover
0:38:34 > 0:38:35# That's always undercover
0:38:35 > 0:38:37# And I talk to my dad, he say... #
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Hip-hop group Run DMC and veteran rockers Aerosmith
0:38:41 > 0:38:47came together to record Aerosmith's 1975 hit Walk This Way.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49It was a perfect storm.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51Hip-hop paired up with classic rock.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55# Walk this way Talk this way
0:38:55 > 0:38:58# Walk this way... #
0:38:58 > 0:39:02The idea was by doing a cover version of a song
0:39:02 > 0:39:08that was familiar, it would explain the musicality of hip-hop.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11# Just gimme a kiss! #
0:39:11 > 0:39:14It really is like a prototypical rap record.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17It's more about the phrasing than it is about the melody,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and that's really what hip-hop does.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26With its heavily symbolic video primed for the MTV generation,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Walk This Way kicked over the door.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32# Little skirt hanging way up her knee
0:39:32 > 0:39:33# There were three young ladies... #
0:39:33 > 0:39:38It allowed rap to be played on radio stations
0:39:38 > 0:39:39that would never play rap music,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43because they knew the song and they knew Aerosmith,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46so...it was a calling card for hip-hop.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52By the mid-'90s, hip-hop was customising the cover version,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55raiding old tunes for their hooks and choruses
0:39:55 > 0:39:57and giving them a new context.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02# Strumming my pain with his fingers... #
0:40:02 > 0:40:06The Fugees scored a massive global hit in 1996
0:40:06 > 0:40:09with their version of Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12# Killing me softly with his song
0:40:12 > 0:40:14# Killing me softly... #
0:40:14 > 0:40:18But one hip-hop cover version would trounce all others
0:40:18 > 0:40:19in terms of sales.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Yet it was born out of tragedy.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27MUSIC: Hypnotize by Notorious BIG
0:40:27 > 0:40:31Notorious BIG was an East Coast rap icon
0:40:31 > 0:40:35until his death in a drive-by shooting in 1997.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40It was a murder that stunned the hip-hop world,
0:40:40 > 0:40:44including his friend and collaborator, Puff Daddy.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46It's hurting me.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49I'm shocked every day, like, I can't believe it every day
0:40:49 > 0:40:51that Biggie's not here.
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Puff Daddy had ambitious plans
0:40:56 > 0:40:58for how to commemorate his dead friend, BIG.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03And he wanted BIG's widow to be a part of it.
0:41:03 > 0:41:04He reached out to me saying that
0:41:04 > 0:41:07he wanted to do a record to honour BIG,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09to honour his memory,
0:41:09 > 0:41:14and he wanted it to be the biggest tribute song ever made in history.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18# I miss you in the worst kind of way
0:41:18 > 0:41:20# I miss you more and more... #
0:41:20 > 0:41:22Initially, the music was going to be
0:41:22 > 0:41:25based off of the O'Jays record called Miss You,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28which is very slow, very sad,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30and I couldn't even make it through
0:41:30 > 0:41:32listening to that song over and over,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34to think of something to write to it.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38I think we cried the whole couple of hours we were in the studio
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and, you know, came back to take another shot,
0:41:41 > 0:41:43and thankfully, it was a new track.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45MUSIC: Every Breath You Take by the Police
0:41:45 > 0:41:49# Every breath you take... #
0:41:49 > 0:41:51Every Breath You Take had been
0:41:51 > 0:41:54a worldwide hit for the Police in 1983.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58# Every bond you break Every step you take
0:41:58 > 0:42:00# I'll be watching you... #
0:42:02 > 0:42:06And at the heart of its appeal was its haunting guitar riff.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14Well, the song's very simple. It starts on one chord...
0:42:16 > 0:42:18Key of A. Goes to the relative minor.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21F sharp minor.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Then up to the four chord.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25D, E...
0:42:25 > 0:42:27And then cunningly comes back to...
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Now, I could have played that anyway.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37It's a very standard bar.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39That wouldn't have been the Police.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41So the same chords...
0:42:43 > 0:42:44..played like this...
0:42:48 > 0:42:49I would have added a few effects
0:42:49 > 0:42:52because we wanted that more distinctive sound.
0:43:03 > 0:43:04I was really pleased with it.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07I thought, oh, that guitar sounds great, you know.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10Big, fat, thick sound, and it's very identifiable.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12MUSIC: I'll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans
0:43:12 > 0:43:14Puff Daddy agreed.
0:43:14 > 0:43:1714 years later, he took that guitar sound
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and built I'll Be Missing You around it.
0:43:20 > 0:43:22# Life ain't always what it seems to be
0:43:22 > 0:43:24# Words can't express what you mean to me... #
0:43:24 > 0:43:26And with a few tweaks to the lyrics,
0:43:26 > 0:43:28the Police song, written by Sting
0:43:28 > 0:43:30when he split up from his first wife,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33was transformed into an uplifting tribute
0:43:33 > 0:43:36to a dead friend and husband.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40# Every move I make
0:43:40 > 0:43:45# Every single day Every time I pray
0:43:45 > 0:43:47# I'll be missing you... #
0:43:47 > 0:43:53Recording it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56Because of the fact that it just felt joyful.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Knowing that that record was going to pay homage to his legacy,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03pay homage to how much we all loved him personally
0:44:03 > 0:44:07and how much the world had begun to love him
0:44:07 > 0:44:09in such a short period of time.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11That felt really right.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15# On that morning
0:44:15 > 0:44:20# When this life is over
0:44:21 > 0:44:23# I know
0:44:23 > 0:44:26# I'll see your face... #
0:44:26 > 0:44:29No-one, though, remembered to tell the Police
0:44:29 > 0:44:31what had happened to their song.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34One of my kids who was about ten
0:44:34 > 0:44:36said, "Hey, Dad, you're on the radio."
0:44:38 > 0:44:41I listened, "What? What's this?"
0:44:41 > 0:44:42"Eh?"
0:44:42 > 0:44:46Turns out that the previous manager of the Police
0:44:46 > 0:44:48had done this deal, unbeknown to us,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51with this guy Puff Daddy.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53So I was sort of incensed about it
0:44:53 > 0:44:55because I don't think we ever really got paid what we should have,
0:44:55 > 0:44:59because the guy sold 30 million singles off my guitar part.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02# Every time I pray... #
0:45:02 > 0:45:06For Faith Evans, the satisfaction offered by I'll Be Missing You
0:45:06 > 0:45:08was a more personal one.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11I found a way to express my own grief and feelings
0:45:11 > 0:45:15and my own love for someone by the way of someone else's music.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18You know, people definitely, to this very day,
0:45:18 > 0:45:19always tell me that
0:45:19 > 0:45:22that's one of the songs that has touched their lives the most.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24And that's a huge accomplishment.
0:45:26 > 0:45:31# Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air... #
0:45:31 > 0:45:32In the 21st century,
0:45:32 > 0:45:36the cover version seems in ruder health than ever before.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39# ..saying Lord, I just don't care
0:45:39 > 0:45:42# But you've got the love I need to see me through... #
0:45:44 > 0:45:48# Sometimes it seems the going is just too rough
0:45:48 > 0:45:51# And things go wrong no matter what I do... #
0:45:51 > 0:45:55Florence and the Machine's 2009 version of You've Got The Love
0:45:55 > 0:45:57by the Source featuring Candi Staton
0:45:57 > 0:46:00showed there's little sign of the cover
0:46:00 > 0:46:02losing its transformative power.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06# ..You are my daily meal... #
0:46:06 > 0:46:09When you choose a song to do of somebody else's,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13you have to find a song that fits, that you've chosen yourself,
0:46:13 > 0:46:17because you think it illustrates something about you or your life
0:46:17 > 0:46:20or fits into your world as people see you as a musical artist.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27The best cover versions are obviously bands or artists
0:46:27 > 0:46:30that love the song and want to make it their own.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34# ..Saying Lord, I just don't care... #
0:46:34 > 0:46:36It's interesting when there's a definitive cover
0:46:36 > 0:46:39and then it's interesting when a song turns into
0:46:39 > 0:46:41a song that everybody wants to sing,
0:46:41 > 0:46:44and they're two different things, and both beautiful.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49# I heard there was a secret chord
0:46:49 > 0:46:51# That David played... #
0:46:51 > 0:46:54In recent years, one song has been covered more than any other,
0:46:54 > 0:46:58becoming a 21st-century standard.
0:46:58 > 0:46:59# ..do ya? #
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Hallelujah has been sung by both the famous
0:47:03 > 0:47:05and the hopeful.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09# ..The minor fall and the major lift
0:47:09 > 0:47:14# The baffled king composing Hallelujah... #
0:47:14 > 0:47:16Yet the original recording of Hallelujah
0:47:16 > 0:47:18was almost never released.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20# Hallelujah... #
0:47:20 > 0:47:23The song's writer was Leonard Cohen,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26a poet who'd mesmerised the folk scene in the late '60s
0:47:26 > 0:47:30with his lyrical tales of love and loss.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32# And then leaning on your window sill
0:47:32 > 0:47:35# He'll say one day you caused his will
0:47:35 > 0:47:39# To weaken with your love and warmth and shelter... #
0:47:39 > 0:47:45But by 1984, Cohen appeared out of tune with modern music,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47a relic from the past,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50and his label were concerned at the poor sales of his albums.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54# He was just some Joseph... #
0:47:54 > 0:47:57The new head of Columbia Records said to Leonard,
0:47:57 > 0:48:01"We know you're great, but we don't know if you're any good."
0:48:02 > 0:48:05So when Cohen went into the studio to record a new album,
0:48:05 > 0:48:07his first in five years,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10it was with a more commercial sound in mind.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18# Now I've heard there was a secret chord
0:48:18 > 0:48:23# That David played and it pleased the Lord
0:48:23 > 0:48:29# But you don't really care for music, do ya? #
0:48:29 > 0:48:33Hallelujah was the stand-out track on various positions.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36# ..the fourth, the fifth... #
0:48:36 > 0:48:39We had such confidence going in to Columbia about how good this was.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42We just expected them to fall on the floor.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47The head of Columbia Records listened to it and said,
0:48:47 > 0:48:49"We can't release this."
0:48:50 > 0:48:52And it was just shock.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55I felt personally terrible.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58I was so sure we were right - how can I have been so wrong?
0:48:58 > 0:48:59I must have done this,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03I must have dragged this guy in the toilet.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07Hallelujah might have been lost to obscurity
0:49:07 > 0:49:11if it hadn't been spotted by another cult artist.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17I'd been to the Beacon Theatre and saw Leonard do Hallelujah there
0:49:17 > 0:49:20with the big band, with the back-up singers,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23and I'd never heard it before,
0:49:23 > 0:49:25and I thought, "This is a little gem."
0:49:25 > 0:49:29# Hallelujah
0:49:29 > 0:49:32- # Hallelujah - Hallelujah... #
0:49:34 > 0:49:36I got hold of Leonard
0:49:36 > 0:49:38and said, "Send me the lyrics."
0:49:38 > 0:49:40And so I went to bed,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43and I had one of those old spool fax machines,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47and when I got up in the morning the floor was covered with fax paper.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49There were 15 verses.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53And I thought, "Wow, how am I going to do this?"
0:49:53 > 0:49:55You know, they had special meaning for Leonard.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59And I... I checked with him, I said, I can't sing these verses.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01He said don't worry about it, you know.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05So I slowly pared them down until I had about five or six.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09# I heard there was a secret chord
0:50:09 > 0:50:13# That David played and it pleased the Lord
0:50:13 > 0:50:18# You don't really care for music, do ya? #
0:50:18 > 0:50:23It's the closest to the religious ideal that I could come.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26I mean, I was OK with singing Hallelujah,
0:50:26 > 0:50:28but some of the other things in there?
0:50:28 > 0:50:29That's where I left it.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33So in the end, you did have a platform for the song,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35a very simple version,
0:50:35 > 0:50:39and you could concentrate on the sense and delivery of the voice.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43# It goes like this The fourth, the fifth
0:50:43 > 0:50:47# The minor fall, the major lift
0:50:47 > 0:50:53# The baffled king composing Hallelujah... #
0:50:53 > 0:50:57One of the challenges for an artist to cover a song
0:50:57 > 0:51:00is finding the secret essence of the song.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04And Leonard Cohen knows this, and he talks about this in Hallelujah.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06He describes the secret chord,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09and he goes on to say in the song,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11which is effectively a song about songwriting,
0:51:11 > 0:51:14he describes every chord as it's happening.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18So he says, "It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20"The minor third, the major lift."
0:51:20 > 0:51:23It's all there, it's all deconstructed for you,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27and yet that secret chord is ever-elusive,
0:51:27 > 0:51:29and there's a special magic about it.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33Perhaps it takes John Cale to go back to the song
0:51:33 > 0:51:37to get past the very full production of Cohen's version
0:51:37 > 0:51:39and to reduce the song to its barest parts.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44And what he does is he lays the song bare
0:51:44 > 0:51:47for loads of other artists to put their own stamp on it.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52# There was a time when you let me know
0:51:52 > 0:51:55# What's really going on below
0:51:55 > 0:52:01# But now you never show that to me, do ya? #
0:52:01 > 0:52:05I think I was at St Ann's and Jeff was playing that night,
0:52:05 > 0:52:07and...
0:52:08 > 0:52:12..he came running up to me and said, "Hey, man, I'm doing your version!"
0:52:12 > 0:52:15And...his feet never left the ground most of the time.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17He was always bouncy.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21# Hallelujah, Hallelujah... #
0:52:21 > 0:52:23It was great.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25Yeah, with that voice, you can't go wrong.
0:52:25 > 0:52:31# Hallelu-u-ujah... #
0:52:31 > 0:52:34There's this wonderful version by Jeff Buckley
0:52:34 > 0:52:37which is... It's like an emotional communion with the song.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40# Maybe there's a god above
0:52:40 > 0:52:43# All I've ever learned from love... #
0:52:43 > 0:52:46It's so intimate you'd be hard-pushed to think it was covered.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49And that's one of those beautiful moments
0:52:49 > 0:52:51where a song suddenly comes out of the ether
0:52:51 > 0:52:53and you suddenly see it for what it is.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57# It's not a cry that you hear at night
0:52:57 > 0:53:01# It's not somebody who's seen the light
0:53:01 > 0:53:07# It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah... #
0:53:07 > 0:53:11In 2008, Hallelujah finally reached the mainstream
0:53:11 > 0:53:12when Simon Cowell chose it
0:53:12 > 0:53:16as the showdown for that year's final of X Factor.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19# Your faith was strong but you needed proof
0:53:19 > 0:53:23# You saw her bathing on the roof... #
0:53:23 > 0:53:28The challenge for the finalists was to make the song their own.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31Especially hard given it wasn't their choice to sing it.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35# She tied to you to her kitchen chair
0:53:35 > 0:53:39# She broke your throne and she cut your hair... #
0:53:39 > 0:53:42The arrangement for Hallelujah
0:53:42 > 0:53:44was actually completely out of my control,
0:53:44 > 0:53:50and we got told what we were singing for the winning single.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52And I remember, I literally just stood there and went,
0:53:52 > 0:53:54"Well, great. I'm not winning this show,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56"cos there's no way I can do this song justice."
0:53:56 > 0:54:00And I rang my mum and I was like, "Mum, the song's called Hallelujah,"
0:54:00 > 0:54:03she goes, "Oh, I love that song!" And I went, "Yeah, you know,
0:54:03 > 0:54:05"they've only got three verses out of the song,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08"it's cool but I don't think I can do it," and she went, "What?"
0:54:08 > 0:54:11So she gave me 20 minutes to compose myself on the phone
0:54:11 > 0:54:12and I rang her back and said,
0:54:12 > 0:54:15"You know what, Mum? I'm going to Whitney-fy the song."
0:54:15 > 0:54:17# Hallelujah
0:54:17 > 0:54:20# Hallelu... #
0:54:20 > 0:54:22What does "Whitney-fy" mean?
0:54:22 > 0:54:25There are two ways of doing this. One is through the arrangement
0:54:25 > 0:54:28and the other is through the vocal performance itself.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30And when it comes to the arrangement
0:54:30 > 0:54:33we get this amazing cheap, but very effective,
0:54:33 > 0:54:34trick of a key change.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36So she starts off in F...
0:54:38 > 0:54:40She's singing her verse...
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Then we get this massive slowdown.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49..and then the gear change.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51And we've gone up a tone,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54which in pop terms is really going for the jugular.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56It means it's all about to kick off.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01# Maybe there's a god above
0:55:01 > 0:55:05# But all I've ever learned from love... #
0:55:05 > 0:55:07And then she comes at us
0:55:07 > 0:55:10with this incredible power ballad vocal performance.
0:55:10 > 0:55:11Tons of melisma,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14a fancy word for loads and loads of notes.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19# It's a cold and it's a broken
0:55:19 > 0:55:21# Hallelu-ujah... #
0:55:21 > 0:55:23There's loads of backing vocals.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26We go round the chorus twice, which is very pop.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28# Hallelujah... #
0:55:28 > 0:55:30None of the other versions have this.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32You don't get a double chorus in the Jeff Buckley,
0:55:32 > 0:55:34you never get melisma with Leonard Cohen.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38# Hallelu-u-u-u... #
0:55:38 > 0:55:41But the song somehow can take this treatment.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44# Hallelujah... #
0:55:44 > 0:55:48Alexandra Burke won X Factor singing Hallelujah
0:55:48 > 0:55:50and became the first British woman
0:55:50 > 0:55:52to sell a million copies of a single.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56# u-u-u-ujah. #
0:55:56 > 0:56:00And that Christmas, an unprecedented thing happened.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02History has been made in the singles music chart this evening
0:56:02 > 0:56:05when for the first time in half a century,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09two versions of the same record made it to numbers one and two.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11# Maybe there's a god above
0:56:11 > 0:56:14# But all I've ever learned from love... #
0:56:14 > 0:56:18At number one was Alexandra Burke with her X Factor winning recording.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24And at number two, more than ten years after his tragic death
0:56:24 > 0:56:27aged just 30, was Jeff Buckley.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32And even more remarkably, at number 36
0:56:32 > 0:56:35was the first-ever chart appearance
0:56:35 > 0:56:38of the original Leonard Cohen version.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41# Hallelujah... #
0:56:41 > 0:56:43With Alexandra Burke's success,
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Simon Cowell and his X Factor team
0:56:46 > 0:56:48had taken Hallelujah to the bank.
0:56:48 > 0:56:49# Hallelujah... #
0:56:49 > 0:56:52And he wasn't he only one to reap a dividend.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Leonard Cohen was forced back on the road
0:56:55 > 0:56:58after being ripped off by his former manager.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03And the most anticipated song at his sold-out shows
0:57:03 > 0:57:06was the one that nearly didn't make it,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08but had now become a modern hymn.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13# I've heard there was a secret chord
0:57:13 > 0:57:18# That David played and it pleased the Lord
0:57:18 > 0:57:24# But you don't really care for music, do you? #
0:57:24 > 0:57:28I absolutely believe that covering a song is an art form.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32You have to understand that this is your version of a fantastic song.
0:57:32 > 0:57:33And obviously a song you love,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36or you wouldn't waste your time covering it.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39And as long as you loved what you've done,
0:57:39 > 0:57:40that's all that matters.
0:57:40 > 0:57:45MUSIC: Go Now by the Moody Blues
0:57:45 > 0:57:47The pop charts have always been a jungle,
0:57:47 > 0:57:49with winners and losers.
0:57:51 > 0:57:53But the journey of a cover doesn't always end
0:57:53 > 0:57:55when it leaves the charts.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02Denny Laine from the Moody Blues and Bessie Banks
0:58:02 > 0:58:06both sang Go Now in 1964.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10In 51 years, despite both being associated with the song,
0:58:10 > 0:58:11they never met.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15Until now.
0:58:16 > 0:58:17# Goodbye... #
0:58:17 > 0:58:22- How are you?- Oh, look who's here! - It's me!
0:58:23 > 0:58:25- Nice to meet you.- Hello, darling.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27Yeah.
0:58:28 > 0:58:30What a pleasant surprise.
0:58:30 > 0:58:32Thank you.
0:58:32 > 0:58:36If it hadn't been for you, there would have been no Moody Blues,
0:58:36 > 0:58:38- you know, at the top of the charts. - Yeah.
0:58:38 > 0:58:42We loved your record, we loved your version of it,
0:58:42 > 0:58:44- and we tried to do it justice. - You did.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47- I just wish we'd met before.- I do too.- I wish I'd met Larry too.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50He wrote some great songs.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53# Before the tears start to fall
0:58:53 > 0:58:56# I think you better go now
0:59:03 > 0:59:05# Since you gotta go
0:59:05 > 0:59:09# Oh, you better go now
0:59:12 > 0:59:18# I don't want to see you go But darlin', you better go now. #