The Most Covered Songs of All Time

briangparker63
Mar 17
3 min read

(so far)

Thomas Edison may have started the recording industry with his wax cylinder phonograph in 1877. Still, it wasn't until Emile Berliner and his associate Eldridge Johnson began manufacturing and selling recorded discs made of shellac in the 1880s that the music industry really took off.

Thomas Edison, Emile Berliner, Eldridge Johnson

Since then, musicians worldwide have copyrighted, recorded, and sold tens of millions of songs. Although it is impossible to pinpoint the first cover song, it is safe to say that musicians sought to improve on or profit from existing records from the beginning.

Although less prevalent today, it was common in the mid-20th century for several artists to simultaneously release their own versions of popular songs, leading listeners (or radio stations) to promote one band's interpretation over another's. This often led to the original recording fading into obscurity while a cover version overtook the market.

This is one reason that, while a particular band might earn significant cash from their version of a song, the real beneficiary of their success was the original copyright holder--the writer.

A notable example is Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky, which has been covered at least 67 times by different bands since he debuted it in 1969. Greenbaum's original went gold in the U.S., reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the UK, Australian, and Canadian charts. Greenbaum is often regarded as a one-hit wonder in the music industry. However, since he retains 50% of the publishing rights to "Spirit in the Sky," he earns approximately $10,000 each time the song is featured in a movie, TV show, or advertisement. These royalties and earnings from the song's airplay and other artists' versions provide him with a comfortable income.