Saturday, July 11, 2009

Something else about Michael Jackson

You notice nobody seems to cover any of his stuff?

Ya think that might have to do with everybody knowing you could never win?

I mean, people cover Sinatra, people cover Ella, people do covers of all the standards...but just try to imagine somebody covering "Thriller" or "Billie Jean" or even a song that ought to be eminently coverable, like "The Way You Make Me Feel." Once that song had been written every singer in the world should have wanted to perform it...except the first time they heard it, it was Michael, and everybody else in the world was hearing Michael do it, too.

And that was the end of that.

Seriously, I'm not that much of an expert on pop music; so maybe I'm just missing something...but can anybody think of any big Michael Jackson hit that anybody else has covered? Mark Steyn has the snide but undeniably hilarious line that Michael Jackson "made history by becoming the first black artist to be his own white cover version" -- but in point of fact, isn't Michael the first artist, black or white, that nobody would ever be fool enough to try to cover?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home