Seven Artists Who Covered Entire Albums

There is an old adage that says “imitation is the highest form of flattery.” If this is the case, then covering an artist’s song is one of the best ways to show you are inspired by that artist. However, some musicians take their admiration for an artist one step further and cover their entire album.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service) will be recording a track-by-track cover of Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Bandwagonesque’ for Turntable Kitchen’s “Sounds Delicious” vinyl subscription series. Funded on Kickstarter earlier this year, the series finds artists covering landmark albums in their entirety and presses them to make limited edition vinyl releases only available by signing up for a 6-month or 12-month subscription. Other albums being released are The Pains of Being Pure at Heart doing Tom Petty’s ‘Full Moon Fever’ and Yumi Zouma covering Oasis’ ‘What’s The Story, Morning Glory.’

This is nothing new though. There have been many artists who have covered entire albums.

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s Top new independent record shop, has found seven top artists who have done just that: released complete covers of an album or albums that have inspired them. Each puts their own unique spin on the album, in some cases changing the sound completely.

1.       Ryan Adams, ‘1989’: This album was well publicized, given that Taylor Swift had only released the album less than a year earlier. That said, the album had a completely different feel from the original, with many of the songs sounding nothing like the original, which earned it top praise from critics. Swift didn’t mind the cover album either, saying she was honored that an artist who had shaped her music was now covering it.

2.       Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones, ‘Foreverly’: Between the time Green Day released  ‘Uno,’ ‘Dos’ and ‘Tré’ and their latest album, ‘Revolution Radio,’ frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, among other projects, decided that he was going to record a cover of The Everly Brothers’ album ‘Songs Our Daddy Taught Us.’ At the suggestion of his wife, Armstrong recruited Norah Jones to sing on the album with him. Such an album might seem off-beat for the punk rocker, but over the last few years, it has become apparent that Armstrong has a lot of diverse tastes which manifest themselves in his side projects.

3.       Easy Star All-Stars, ‘Dub Side of the Moon’ / ‘Radiodread’ / ‘Easy star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band’ / ‘Easy Star’s Thrillah’: Over the last 13 years, Easy Star All-Stars has released five original albums, with four of them covering other artists’ classics. The band is known for putting a delightful dub spin on these albums, which include re-interpretations of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer,’ the Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’

4.       The Flaming Lips, ‘The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon’: This album is a complete reimagining of the original, right down to the interview segments (performed by Henry Rollins) and female vocal (performed by Peaches). If anyone could pull something like this off, it would be The Flaming Lips, as Wayne Coyne and the rest of the band’s quirkiness seem to fit right in with Pink Floyd’s psychedelic sound.

5.       Dream Theater, ‘Master of Puppets’ /  ‘The Number of the Beast’ / ‘Made in Japan’ / ‘Dark Side of the Moon’: As part of the band’s cover series, Dream Theater have paid homage to such metal bands as Metallica, Iron Maiden and Deep Purple, as well as Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’ These covers are also part of a larger bootleg series, which frontman Mike Portnoy released on his Ytsejam Records label.

6.       Beck, ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’ / ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico’: Between 2009 and 2010, Beck started a covers project he called Beck’s Record Club. As part of this series, he covered albums in their entirety in one day in an informal setting. Besides covering ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’ and ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico,’ Beck also released covers of ‘Oar’ by Skip Spence, ‘Kick’ by INXS and ‘Yanni Live at the Acropolis’ by Yanni. No new albums were released after 2010 and all recordings and video can be found on Beck’s website.

7.       The Smithereens, ‘Tommy’ / ‘Meet the Smithereens’: After not releasing any new music for eight years, The Smithereens returned in 2007 with a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Meet the Beatles,’ titled ‘Meet the Smithereens.’ The band continued with the covers for a few more years, releasing another album of Beatles songs in 2008, followed by a track-for-track cover of The Who’s ‘Tommy.’

There is no better way to express admiration for an artist than to cover that artist’s album. Sometimes it’s even flattering to the artist being covered. These albums show that even big name artists can still be fans and admire the work of other artists.

Find covers and originals from these artists and more at Vinyl Bay 777 and vinylbay777.com. Long Island’s top new independent record store has the largest selection of new and used titles on the island. Stop by during our extended holiday hours to browse thousands of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, DVDs, memorabilia and more. We are conveniently located off the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State in Plainview.