Cover songs are a natural part of life in the music industry. It’s how a lot of artists start out nowadays, or pay homage to their heroes. There are many covers in rock music, but five of the most covered songs ever don’t show much variety. Originally, they’re all by The Beatles, or a member of The Beatles. However, they’ve all been covered extensively because of their longevity and popularity.
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“Let It Be”
“Let It Be” came out in 1970 on The Beatles’ final album of the same name. Prior to the album’s release in May, Aretha Franklin actually dropped a cover version of the song in January 1970. This is probably the first instance where a cover song predates the original’s release. Overall, there have been 577 covers of “Let It Be” released.
In 1969, Paul McCartney sent the demo of “Let It Be” to producer Jerry Wexler, hoping Franklin would sing it. She did, putting out a strong, singular interpretation. It varies stylistically from The Beatles’ version, but Franklin truly made it her own.
“Hey Jude”
The Beatles released “Hey Jude” in 1968 as a non-album single in order to launch the band’s label, Apple Records. It was part of the First Four, a selection of singles by the label’s inaugural artists at the time. There have been 568 covers of “Hey Jude” over the years.
Paul McCartney based the single on a song he wrote for John Lennon’s son Julian. “Hey Jude” came about during a tumultuous time for The Beatles’ relationships, in and out of the band. At the time, Lennon had left his first wife Cynthia to marry Yoko Ono. The next year, he would express his desire to leave The Beatles. However, to this day, McCartney continues to perform the song live, clearly demonstrating his emotional ties to the single.
“Something”
Written by George Harrison, “Something” appeared on The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road. It was inspired by the James Taylor song “Something In The Way She Moves,” which lent itself to the first line of “Something.” Since then, it’s had 567 cover songs released.
At first, Harrison wasn’t impressed with some of the covers. He once admitted that he didn’t care for Frank Sinatra’s version at first, but there were others that he did like.
“I’m more thrilled now than I was then. I wasn’t really into Frank – he was the generation before me,” said Harrison. He did like “when Smokey Robinson did it and when James Brown did it. But I’m very pleased now, whoever’s done it. I realize that the sign of a good song is when it has lots of cover versions.”
“Imagine”
John Lennon’s most popular song, “Imagine,” was released in 1971. Before he died, Lennon revealed that a lot of the lyrical content came from Yoko Ono. She was finally granted co-writing credit in 2017. It’s been named the second-best single of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records. Additionally, it’s one of the 100 most performed songs of all time. There are currently 565 cover songs released.
Lennon revealed that he was inspired by several of Yoko Ono’s poems from her 1964 book Grapefruit. He once said that the song “should be credited as a Lennon/Ono song. A lot of it—the lyric and the concept—came from Yoko, but in those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted her contribution, but it was right out of Grapefruit.”
“Here, There and Everywhere”
The Beatles released “Here, There and Everywhere” on the 1966 album Revolver. Written mainly by Paul McCartney, he has said that it was a personal favorite of his and John Lennon’s. There have been 562 cover songs performed, so it’s clearly a wide-spread favorite. It was allegedly inspired by The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows,” and composed mostly while McCartney was lounging by Lennon’s pool waiting for him to wake up.
“I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E,” McCartney explained, as quoted in Rolling Stone.And soon [I] had a few chords, and I think by the time he’d woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up.”
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