0:05

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a

0:07

podcast of pop chart history from

0:10

Slate magazine about the hits from

0:12

coast to coast. I'm

0:14

Chris Melanthi, chart analyst, pop critic, and

0:16

writer of Slate's Why is This Song

0:18

Number One series. On

0:21

our last episode, we walked

0:23

through the history of cover

0:25

songs on the charts from

0:27

their beginnings as Tin Pan

0:29

Alley Commerce with multiple versions

0:31

of the same song charting

0:34

virtually simultaneously, to the

0:36

Beatles and Dylan era of

0:38

the singer-songwriter who spawned other

0:40

folks' covers, to the

0:42

rap era and the creation

0:45

of the sample-heavy song interpolation,

0:48

often a cover in disguise. We're

0:51

now going to walk through the

0:53

songs that scored a special chart

0:55

distinction, thanks to their covers, they

0:57

each topped the Hot 100 twice.

1:07

To be clear, I'm about to present

1:09

18 number one

1:11

songs, nine pairs of originals

1:13

and covers. To qualify

1:16

for this list, both the original

1:18

song and the cover had to

1:20

have reached number one on the

1:23

Hot 100, not any other Billboard

1:25

chart. Also, the

1:27

nine cover versions, in

1:30

other words, the second hit in each

1:32

pair, are all

1:34

traditional covers under the

1:36

old-fashioned definition, note for

1:39

note and mostly word-for-word

1:41

remakes of the original

1:43

song. This is

1:45

how chart historians track them. They

1:48

don't count an interpolated reboot

1:50

with a different song title

1:52

as a cover. Also,

1:55

to cite one song I mentioned

1:57

just previously, even

1:59

though Drake's 2021

2:01

hit Way Too Sexy reached number one.

2:04

And it's heavily interpolated and

2:07

even lyrically echoed another number one hit,

2:09

right said Fred's

2:16

1992 chart topper, I'm Too Sexy. And

2:28

either I'm Too Sexy or

2:30

Way Too Sexy is on

2:32

this list. That

2:34

said, you will hear a

2:36

few covers that alter the

2:38

instrumentation, the arrangement, and even

2:40

the rhythm of the original

2:42

version. Some are more

2:44

faithful covers than others. As

2:47

long as the song went to number

2:49

one twice by two different acts under

2:51

the same title, it counts. So

2:54

let's get started. I

2:56

wish I could tell you

2:58

the first pairing of original

3:00

and cover involved a legendary

3:02

pop classic, but I'll confess

3:04

your hit parade host has

3:06

a special distaste for this song,

3:09

rooted in my personal history. Even

3:12

speaking objectively, it hasn't aged

3:14

well. Just

3:22

a week before we wrapped

3:24

this episode, the music world

3:26

lost Steve Lawrence, the traditional

3:28

pop crooner who found fame

3:30

singing Tin Pan Alley and

3:33

grill building compositions, often

3:35

with his wife, Dee Dee Gourmet. Lawrence

3:38

was 88. I

3:40

don't want to speak ill of

3:42

the deceased, so let's just say

3:44

that Lawrence's only Hot 100

3:46

number one hit, Go Away,

3:48

Little Girl, wasn't anybody's

3:50

finest hour, including its

3:53

songwriters, the legendary composers

3:55

and men's spouses, Carole

3:57

King and Jerry Dawson.

3:59

It's hurting me more

4:02

each minute that

4:04

you delay. The

4:07

problem is right there in the

4:09

title, Go Away Little Girl. It's

4:12

sexist, demeaning, and sex-negative.

4:16

The lyric accuses a young woman

4:18

of being a foul temptress just

4:20

for existing. And the

4:22

melody is pleasant but cloying.

4:25

Nonetheless, in the pop netherworld of January

4:27

1963, a year before Beatlemania broke, Steve

4:32

Lawrence's Go Away Little Girl topped the

4:34

Hot 100 for two weeks. And

4:38

then, eight years later, like a

4:40

bad penny, it was back. Go

4:43

away. Remember

4:49

I was saying earlier that covers

4:51

were an easy way to get

4:54

70s teen idols like Sean Cassidy

4:56

to the top of the charts?

4:59

That's exactly what happened in 1971.

5:03

As Mormon Family Supergroup, the

5:05

Osmans were breaking on the

5:07

radio. And the

5:10

promotional machine singled out 13-year-old

5:12

Donnie Osment for Tiger Beat

5:15

style fame. When

5:17

Donnie's squeaky-voiced re-recording

5:19

of Go Away Little Girl topped

5:21

the Hot 100 in September of

5:23

1971, the simpering

5:26

song became the first in

5:28

the chart's history to reach

5:30

number one once. As

5:36

I reveal, at the end of

5:39

our Spirit of 71 episode of

5:41

Hit Parade, Donnie Osment's Go Away

5:43

Little Girl was, number

5:46

one, the week I was born,

5:48

a cruel irony for a lifelong

5:51

chart nerd. However glad I

5:53

am that I was born under

5:55

a unique Billboard chart record, I'd

5:58

give anything to trade Donnie's hit

6:00

record. for Paul and Linda McCartney's

6:02

one week earlier number one Uncle

6:05

Albert Admiral Halsey, or

6:07

Aretha Franklin's Spanish Harlem, which

6:09

peaked at number two that

6:11

week. But that is my

6:13

cross to bear. The

6:16

next repeat number one didn't come

6:18

for another two and a half

6:20

years, a 1974 chart topper that

6:22

covered a 1962 chart topper. And

6:28

strangely enough, it was another

6:30

song penned by Jerry Goffin

6:32

and Carol Fuhn. When

6:39

King and Goffin wrote The

6:41

Locomotion at the height of

6:43

the early 60s instructional dance

6:45

record craze that gave us

6:47

the twist, they wanted

6:50

D.D. Sharp, who'd already scored

6:52

a dance craze hit with

6:54

mashed potato time to sing

6:56

it. After Sharp

6:58

said no to The

7:00

Locomotion, Carol and Jerry

7:02

instead recorded the song with

7:05

their 17-year-old babysitter, Eva

7:07

Borg, on vocals. We

7:09

dubbed Little Eva, the team's take

7:12

on The Locomotion, topped of the

7:14

Hot 100, in August, A

7:24

dozen years later, the song may have

7:26

no longer been a brand

7:28

new dance now, but

7:30

it was given a much

7:32

heavier beat by Homer Simpson's

7:34

favorite rock band, Flint, Michigan's

7:36

own Grand Song. By 1974,

7:40

the Boody Rock

7:42

Band had redubbed

7:45

themselves Simply Grand Funk, and they were

7:53

in the middle of a string of

7:55

top ten hits, like We're an

7:57

American Band and Walk Like a

7:59

Man. Produced by the

8:01

A Quest is Todd Rundgren Grand

8:04

Funk were at such an imperial

8:06

peak in their career, virtually anything

8:08

they released stood a good chance

8:10

of topping the charts on American

8:12

Top Forty in May nineteen Seventy

8:14

Four Tc case, I'm counted it

8:16

down. While now a brand new

8:19

number one song which hit number

8:21

one before by a different Honest

8:23

and this has happened only one

8:25

other time during the Bass Nineteen

8:27

Years when Donny Osmond the at

8:29

number. One in nineteen seventy one

8:31

with go away little girl would

8:33

Stephen Lawrence had done eight years

8:36

before? Now another recording act

8:38

makes it a number one with a

8:40

song that little leave a scored with

8:42

Back In Nineteen Sixty Two Here it

8:44

is a new best selling single of

8:46

the week, eyeballing into the number one

8:49

position. Grand Funk and The Local Mosque.

8:56

By the way, know,

8:58

locomotion is such an

9:00

infectious song, this wasn't

9:02

the last big cover

9:04

version fourteen years later,

9:06

Australian. Queen Kylie Minogue scored

9:08

her first U S top

9:10

Ten hit with her take

9:12

on golf and and Kings

9:15

Dance craze Hyleas. The Locomotion

9:17

reached number three in ninth

9:19

and with Edu is still

9:21

her highest charting. His. months

9:30

i digress this third double

9:32

tacos came less than a

9:34

year after ground thanks logo

9:36

motion and several things worse

9:38

similar it was of group

9:40

at the height of it's

9:42

imperial hit making phase covering

9:44

a video from the early

9:47

sixties girl group of your

9:49

this signs we originally was

9:51

by the marvelous 1961,

10:00

Please Mr. Postman made pop history. When

10:02

it topped the Hot 100, it became

10:05

the Motown

10:09

Recording Company's first number

10:11

one on Motown

10:13

subsidiary, Tamla Records. After

10:16

Michigan Quartet the Marvelettes took

10:18

it to number one, several

10:21

acts had a go at

10:23

Please Mr. Postman, including, famously,

10:25

The Beatles. But the

10:27

act that took it back to number one

10:29

was The Carpenters. Stop, whoa.

10:36

By early 1975, the

10:39

easy-listening brother-sister duo of

10:41

Richard and Karen Carpenter

10:43

were on their

10:45

own hot street, coming off

10:47

such top hands as Superstar,

10:49

Goodbye For Love, Yesterday Once

10:51

More, and the number one

10:54

top of the world. Frankly,

10:56

The Carpenters' cover of the

10:59

Marvelettes' pleading hit is not

11:01

one of the duo's better-remembered

11:04

hits. In his stereo-gum column

11:06

The Number One, Tom Bryan

11:09

aptly calls the Carpenters' cover,

11:11

quote, pure numbing airlessness. But

11:14

it was a reflection of two

11:16

things that were hot in

11:19

1975, The Carpenters

11:21

and Baby Boomer Mustalco. We'll

11:26

be

11:29

back momentarily. After

11:40

the back-to-back success of The Locomotion

11:42

in 74 and Please Mr. Postman

11:44

in 75, the

11:49

Hot 100 didn't produce another

11:51

double-topping number one hit for

11:53

more than a decade. But

11:55

then, in the mid-80s, there

11:57

were three in quick succession.

12:00

all of them modernizing the

12:02

rhythm of their respective original

12:04

hit. The first of this

12:07

80s flurry, the fourth double number one

12:09

in Hot 100 history, found

12:12

a British dance pop trio

12:15

covering a group of late

12:17

60s Dutch garage rockers. The

12:24

shocking blues Venus was

12:26

in a way already a

12:29

cover, or at the very

12:31

least an interpolation. Songwriter

12:33

Robbie Van Llewe borrowed

12:35

the melody from folk

12:37

trio The Big Three's

12:40

arrangement of O.C. Vanna.

12:42

But the co-ed Dutch

12:44

quartet, fronted by singer

12:46

Mariska Bérez, turned

12:48

Venus into a groovy dance rocker

12:50

and a hippie era smash, reaching

12:52

number one on the Hot 100

12:55

in February, 1970. A

13:06

decade and a half after

13:08

the shocking blues, girl group

13:10

three-pin Banana Rama regularly covered

13:13

Venus in their sets and

13:15

had the idea of turning

13:17

Venus into a high-energy club

13:20

song. To make that

13:22

happen, they enlisted another trio,

13:24

British hit-making production team Stock

13:27

Aitken Waterman, who by the

13:29

way also produced Kylie Minogue's

13:31

cover of The Locomotion. The

13:34

result was a smash. Released

13:41

in the summer of 86, Banana

13:44

Rama's Venus hit the top 10

13:46

in their British homeland and number

13:49

one in America, the first U.S.

13:52

chart topper for Stock Aitken Waterman,

13:54

who would go on to produce

13:56

Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You

13:59

Up. As for Banana

14:01

Rama, among their handful of

14:03

US hits, Venus was their

14:05

only number one, but it

14:07

remains a staple of 80s

14:09

classic hits they did. Just

14:17

six months later, another double

14:19

number one joined the Pantheon,

14:22

and the original song this

14:24

cover drew upon was a

14:27

stone classic. Lean

14:34

On Me practically became

14:36

a standard the moment Bill

14:38

Withers wrote and recorded it.

14:42

A cross between a family

14:44

sing-along and a gospel hymn,

14:46

Lean On Me has served

14:49

for generations as a song

14:51

of friendship, devotion, and support,

14:53

from betrothed couples to recovering

14:55

addicts. It was also,

14:58

in its day, a huge hit,

15:00

spending three weeks atop the Hot

15:02

100 in the summer of 1972.

15:14

Turns out, Bill Withers' melody

15:17

is so sturdy, it could

15:19

withstand a radical reinterpretation, which

15:22

is what the Sacramento, California

15:24

R&B dance troupe Club Nouveau

15:27

did with it 15 years

15:29

later. Club

15:34

Nouveau's tape blended the vibe

15:37

of the then-new R&B subgenre

15:39

New Jack Swing and

15:42

the Washington, DC funk style

15:44

known as Gogo. The

15:46

arrangement is very dated to the

15:49

mid-80s, but the song

15:51

does not quit. Club Nouveau

15:53

took Lean On Me back to

15:55

number one in March of 1987, making

15:59

the song the fifth double shirt

16:01

topper in Hot 100 history. The

16:14

sixth came last, then three

16:16

months later, when another indelible

16:18

pop classic was taken back

16:20

to number one. In

16:23

keeping with Little Eva and

16:25

the Marvelettes, the original was

16:27

by another sixties girl group.

16:29

Only this was no mere girl

16:32

group. They were the top Motown

16:34

act of their era. You might

16:36

say they were supreme. Among

16:47

the staggering dozen number

16:49

ones, the Supremes scored

16:51

between 1964 and 1969. You

16:56

Keep Me Hangin' On was the eighth,

16:58

hopping the Hot 100 in the fall of 66. Like

17:03

most of the Diana

17:05

Ross fronted group's peak hits,

17:07

it was the work of

17:10

the legendary Motown songwriting team

17:12

of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier,

17:15

and Eddie Hollander. And arguably,

17:17

this song of romantic desperation

17:20

and confusion might be the

17:22

Supremes most adaptable hit. It

17:31

was covered almost instantly in

17:34

1967 by

17:36

the psychedelic blues rock band

17:38

Vanilla Fudge. They took their

17:40

hypnotically lugubrious version of You

17:42

Keep Me Hangin' On to

17:44

number six in 1968. Two

17:54

decades later, the singer who finally

17:56

took You Keep Me Hangin' On

17:58

back to number one. was

18:00

British new waver Kim Wilde, who

18:02

did to hang in what Banana

18:05

Rama had done the year before

18:07

with these. The

18:14

daughter of 50s British teen

18:16

idol Marty Wilde, Kim Wilde became

18:18

an 80s pop star in her

18:21

own right by collaborating with her

18:23

brother, producer Ricky Wilde, Famed

18:26

in the early MTV era for

18:28

the hit Kids in America, Kim

18:30

had never cracked the top 20

18:32

in the US before

18:35

she and her brother remade

18:37

You Keep Me Hangin' On

18:39

as high-energy dance pop. When

18:42

Wilde's cover reached number one

18:44

in June 1987,

18:47

she reset the record for the

18:49

longest gap between an original number

18:51

one and a number one remake.

18:55

21 years after the Supreme hit.

19:06

That record would hold for another

19:09

four and a half years before

19:11

another 1966

19:13

number one was taken back to the Hot 100

19:16

by a histrionic

19:18

belter. The song he

19:21

was covering was an inarguable

19:23

classic. Like

19:32

Lean On Me, Percy sledges When

19:35

a Man Loves a Woman, sounded

19:37

like a standard from the moment

19:39

it emerged. Recorded in

19:42

Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the site

19:44

of numerous R&B classics, the

19:47

power of country soul pioneer

19:50

Percy sledges performance is

19:53

its air of abject desperation.

19:55

It's a plea more than an

19:58

appeal to love. And

20:02

the 1991 cover? It

20:07

leaned into the desperation. Or

20:10

at least it sounded desperate.

20:17

Michael Bolton, a hard rock

20:19

frontman who transformed himself into a

20:22

blue-eyed soul-screamer in the late 80s,

20:24

was at his Imperial peak in

20:27

1991, scaling both the Hot 100

20:29

and adult contemporary

20:33

charts with his brand of

20:35

melodramatic pop and B. Like

20:38

Grand Funk in 1974 or The Carpenters in 1975,

20:40

Bolton was so huge in the early 90s his

20:48

voice on a familiar song was

20:51

primed to top the charts. So

20:54

when the man later called by

20:56

a character in the movie Office

20:58

Space, a quote, no talent ass

21:00

clown, wrapped his pipes around Percy

21:02

Sledge's classic, he took it all

21:05

the way to number one. The

21:11

eighth double number one kept

21:13

up the 90s theme of

21:15

athletic vocalists taking an R&B

21:17

classic and kicking it up

21:19

a notch. Fun

21:26

chart fact. In 1970,

21:29

the Jackson Five were the

21:31

first act to launch their

21:33

career with four straight number

21:35

one singles. I Want

21:37

You Back, ABC, The Love You

21:39

Save, and the fourth and biggest

21:42

hit of all, The Ballad I'll

21:44

Be There, which spent a full

21:46

month at number one. I'll

21:49

Be There was the song

21:51

that fully displayed the vocal

21:53

versatility of a pre-teen Michael

21:55

Jackson. The

22:02

Jackson 5's chart record stood for

22:05

more than 20 years before they

22:07

were beaten by vocal diva Mariah

22:09

Carey, who kicked off her career

22:11

in 1990 and 91 with five

22:13

straight number ones.

22:18

Vision of love, love takes

22:21

time, someday, I don't want

22:23

to cry, and emotions. So

22:26

when Carey agreed to

22:28

play MTV's live performance

22:30

show Unplugged toward the

22:32

end of that run, perhaps

22:35

it was appropriate that she

22:37

sang one of The Jackson

22:39

5's career-launching smashes. Carey's

22:45

melismatic gospel-inflected cover of I'll

22:47

Be There, featuring guest vocals

22:49

by Trey Lorenz, topped the

22:51

Hot 100 in June of

22:53

1992, making it the sixth

22:55

of Carey's record-setting

23:00

catalog of number ones.

23:03

She has 19 total, the

23:05

most of any soloist, and second

23:07

only to The Beatles. Yet

23:10

again, a cover that took the song

23:12

back to number one was a flex

23:15

by a star at the apex of

23:17

a career. In Mariah's case,

23:19

it wasn't even the only apex. The

23:29

last of the nine double chart

23:31

toppers came after the turn of

23:33

the millennium, and it

23:35

was one last display of vocal

23:38

firepower. Of course, since the

23:40

original 1975 hit

23:42

involved singer extraordinaire Patti LaBelle,

23:45

the song was never a

23:47

slouch in the vocals department.

24:00

in our R&B Queens episode of

24:02

Hit Parade. The song

24:04

was actually a cover in the

24:06

first place, originally recorded by an

24:08

obscure band called The 11th Hour.

24:12

LaBelle made it more authentic

24:14

by recording this song about

24:17

sex workers in the French

24:19

Quarter of New Orleans, in

24:21

New Orleans itself, with legendary

24:24

NOLA producer Alan Toussaint. The

24:26

result? A Hot 100 chart

24:28

topper in March of 75. We

24:36

also talked about the remake of

24:38

Lady Marmalade in our Pink episode

24:40

of Hit Parade. The

24:43

2001 reboot, recorded for

24:45

the soundtrack to Baz

24:47

Luhrmann's film Boulogne Rouge,

24:49

was a four diva

24:51

vocal showdown between Christina

24:53

Aguilera, Pink, Maya, and

24:55

rapper Lil Kim. Where's

24:57

all my soul's thrifties? Let

24:59

me hear your flow's thrifties. Hey, that's

25:02

the dude, that's the soul,

25:04

that's the soul, huh? Here's an

25:06

intriguing chart footnote. When this

25:08

version of Lady Marmalade reached

25:10

number one in June of

25:13

2001, not

25:15

only did it become the last cover

25:17

song to bring a hit back to

25:19

number one a second time, as

25:22

of this year, it remains

25:24

the last traditional cover period

25:26

to top the Hot 100.

25:30

In the 23 years since,

25:32

the closest a straight cover

25:34

came to topping the chart

25:37

was Luke Combs' aforementioned retake

25:39

on Tracy Chapman's Fast Car,

25:42

which peaked at a frustrating

25:44

number two last summer. So,

25:47

whatever you think of the 2001 Marmalade

25:49

as a recording, it's

25:53

chart historic in more ways

25:55

than one. We'll

26:00

be right back. What

26:11

conclusions can we draw from

26:13

that list of double number

26:15

ones? In more

26:17

than half the cases, the

26:20

cover reaching the top had

26:22

to do more with the

26:24

act's fame than the cover's

26:26

quality. Donnie Osmond, Grand Funk,

26:28

The Carpenters, Michael Bolton, and

26:30

even Mariah Carey were all

26:33

at an Imperial high point.

26:35

And speaking of quality, the

26:38

fact is few of these

26:40

Smash covers improved on

26:42

the original recording. Earlier,

26:45

I mentioned my friend and

26:47

colleague Tom Bryan and his

26:49

long-running stereo gum blog series,

26:52

The Number Ones, in

26:54

which Tom has been chronicling and

26:56

rating every number one song in

26:58

Hot 100 history. I

27:01

checked his ratings on all 18

27:03

of these songs, and while

27:06

my opinion doesn't always align

27:08

with Tom's, his ratings are

27:10

a valid gauge of the

27:12

song's quality. In every

27:15

pair but two, Tom

27:17

rates the cover lower than

27:19

the original. The exceptions,

27:21

in case you're curious, are

27:23

Venus, where Tom rates the

27:26

Shocking Blue original a seven,

27:28

and Banana Rama's cover slightly

27:30

higher at eight, and

27:33

Go Away, Little Girl, where

27:35

Tom gives both versions the

27:37

same abysmal and totally correct

27:39

rating, a one. So,

27:46

not a great track record

27:48

for covers that follow an

27:50

original to number one. But

27:53

what if we produced a

27:55

list of covers that improved

27:57

upon not only the chart

27:59

performance, of the original,

28:01

but arguably also the quality.

28:04

Before we close this episode,

28:06

I offer my own humble

28:09

subjective list. First,

28:11

a quick shout out to three great

28:13

covers that improved on their source material,

28:16

but did not peak higher on the

28:18

Hot More Hundreds. In

28:26

third place, I offer

28:28

Eminem's Stan, featuring Dido,

28:30

a hit that heavily

28:32

samples and virtually covers

28:34

Dido's soft pop hit,

28:36

Thank You, Dido's

28:39

single hit number three. Eminem's

28:41

harrowing and brilliant story song,

28:44

Stan, which invented a now

28:46

common term for a rabid

28:48

fan, only reached number 51

28:51

in 2000. In second

28:54

place, I want to give a shout

28:56

out to Stevie Wonder's awesomely funky cover

28:58

of The Beatles' We Can Work It

29:00

Out. The Fab Four original

29:02

was a number

29:04

one hit in 1966. Five years later,

29:07

Stevie's jam topped out at

29:15

number 13. Finally, an

29:18

extra huge shout out to one

29:20

of the greatest covers, period, of

29:22

all time, Ike and

29:25

Tina Turner's complete reinvention

29:27

of Creedence Clearwater Revival's

29:29

Proud Rules. The

29:41

cover where Tina starts out

29:44

nice and easy and winds

29:46

up nice and rough, peaked

29:48

at number four, very

29:50

nearly matching CCR's Proud

29:52

Mary, which famously peaked

29:54

at number two. Okay,

29:57

those are the chart under-preferable.

30:00

What about the over-performance?

30:02

I'll give you a

30:04

top five. In

30:13

5th place, one of

30:15

my favorite hip-hop interpolations

30:17

came from Toronto's own

30:19

rap deity Aubrey Graham,

30:21

aka Drake. I

30:24

am admittedly only a moderate Drake

30:26

fan, but I do get a

30:28

huge kick out of his 2015

30:31

hit-turned-meme Hotline Bling, which

30:36

creatively reupholsters this moody 1972

30:38

banger from American soul singer

30:41

Kimi Thomas. Why

30:50

Can't We Live Together, which has

30:52

been sampled dozens of times, was

30:54

actually a big hit in its

30:56

day, peaking at number three on

30:59

the Hot 100 in early 1973.

31:04

Drake's remake maintains Kimi Thomas'

31:06

spooky vibe but adds a

31:08

new melodic hook of its

31:11

own. Fueled by

31:13

a plethora of memes that

31:15

remixed Drizzy's colorful Hotline Bling

31:18

music video, Drake took

31:20

his reboot to number two in

31:22

2015, improving, if

31:25

only slightly, on Thomas'

31:27

chart performance. In

31:35

4th place, on my personal top

31:37

five covers list, I present

31:39

a song that was rebooted

31:41

multiple times, and the last

31:43

hit version was maybe the

31:45

best. It

32:00

was for a British TV special

32:03

commemorating the 10th anniversary of

32:05

the death of Elvis Presley.

32:08

That's how lead pet shop boy

32:11

Neil Tennant had the song catalogued

32:13

in his head. The

32:15

Elvis version was only a minor

32:17

US hit, but it reached the

32:19

UK Top 10 in 1972. Maybe

32:24

I didn't treat you

32:29

quite as good as

32:31

I should have. A

32:33

decade later, country legend Willie Nelson

32:36

crossed over in a major way

32:38

with his Always On My Mind.

32:41

Willie's version topped the country chart

32:43

and hit number five on the

32:45

Hot 100. You

32:49

were always on my

32:51

mind. You

32:56

were always on my mind.

33:00

As indelible as Nelson's

33:02

version is, I give

33:04

the edge to the Pet Shop

33:06

Boys delirious synth pop version, which

33:09

also edged out Willie on the

33:11

charts. In 1988, The

33:14

Boys Always On My Mind

33:16

reached number four. In

33:23

third place, I gotta give

33:25

it up for one of

33:27

pop's greatest compositions, which spawned

33:30

an equally legendary vocal performance.

33:33

If

33:36

I should stay,

33:40

I would only be

33:44

you. Dolly

33:48

Parton, so cherished, I Will

33:50

Always Love You, she not

33:52

only wouldn't let Elvis Presley

33:54

record it and get a

33:56

piece of its songwriting royalties,

34:00

He also recorded it herself

34:02

twice, and both

34:04

versions were country number one.

34:07

The original I Will Always Love You popped

34:09

the country list in 1974, and a re-recording

34:15

Dolly did in 1982 for

34:18

the soundtrack of her movie The

34:20

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas also

34:23

topped the Hot Country chart.

34:25

The second version even reached number 53 on the

34:27

Hot 100. But

34:42

the now-immortal version was the

34:44

one Whitney Houston did for

34:46

her own movie star turn,

34:49

in 1992's The Bodyguard,

34:52

a cover that her co-star Kevin

34:54

Costner proposed of a song he

34:56

thought she could do a good

34:59

job with. That

35:01

was pretty smart advice. And

35:14

we have noted several times on

35:17

hip-horays Houston's Titanic tape on I

35:19

Will Always Love You spent 14

35:21

weeks at number one on the

35:24

Hot 100, then a record, and

35:27

it was the number one

35:30

song of 1993. In

35:33

second place on my list is a

35:35

song that seemed to be great no

35:38

matter who at Motown was

35:40

singing it, and three legendary

35:43

acts took it on. I

35:45

Heard It Through the Great

35:48

Line was first recorded

35:50

by Smokey Robinson and the

35:53

Miracles in

36:00

1966. Then Marvin

36:02

Gaye tried it, more on him in

36:05

a moment. But the third

36:07

recording was the first to be

36:09

issued as a single. It

36:11

was by Gladys Knight and the

36:13

Pips during their brief stint on

36:16

the Motown logo. Don't you know

36:18

that I heard it when it came down?

36:21

The Pips rip-roaring recording hit number two

36:23

on the Hot 100 in late 1967.

36:25

In any other universe,

36:30

Knight's version of Grapevine would

36:32

be the benchmark. But then,

36:34

a year later, Marvin

36:37

Gaye's sinuous sinister I Heard

36:40

It Through the Grapevine was

36:42

finally released. Motown saved

36:44

the best for last. It's

36:47

hard to say which version of

36:49

Grapevine counts as

36:52

the original and the original.

36:59

And which the cover, given

37:02

the mixed-up recording and release

37:04

history. But on the charts,

37:06

Gladys Knight's number two hit

37:09

was outperformed by Marvin Gaye's.

37:11

His Grapevine became a seven-week

37:14

number one, and

37:16

is enshrined as one of

37:18

Soul Music's eminent performances. In

37:21

fact, the only soul classic

37:24

I like even better is the

37:26

song that often tops lists of

37:28

the greatest covers of all time.

37:30

A bit like Girls Just Want to

37:33

Have Fun, it is remarkable

37:35

to consider that this feminist anthem

37:37

was first written and recorded by

37:39

a man. And

37:42

like Trent Reznor after hearing

37:44

Johnny Cash's Hurt, that man

37:46

relinquished ownership of the song

37:49

after he heard the cover.

37:52

Which is saying something because

37:54

his original version was pretty

37:56

great to begin with. Otis

38:05

Redding, Great Respect, unrecorded

38:08

in Muscle Hole Studio

38:10

in 1965. As

38:13

Redding conceived it, the song was

38:15

about a man needing respect from

38:18

his partner when he gets home

38:20

from work, earning money,

38:22

and enduring life's daily

38:24

indignities. Redding's version

38:26

legally connected with audiences at

38:29

the height of the Civil

38:31

Rights Movement. It went top 5

38:33

on Billboard's R&B chart and even

38:36

cracked the pop-top 40, only

38:39

Redding's second single ever to do

38:41

so, reaching number 35 on the Hop 100. Among

38:51

the people who loved Respect

38:53

was Aretha Franklin, who covered

38:55

it live long before she

38:57

recorded in the studio. When

39:00

Franklin signed to Atlantic Records

39:03

in 1966, she

39:05

proposed including Respect on her

39:08

Atlantic debut LP. The

39:10

label's president, Jerry Wexler, agreed,

39:13

so long as Aretha could

39:15

make her version of Respect

39:18

distinct from Redding's original. Franklin's

39:21

manager told Wexler, quote, oh,

39:23

you don't gotta worry about that. She

39:26

changes it up all right. Stereo

39:33

Gums' Tom Ryan writes, quote,

39:36

if Otis Redding's Respect

39:38

was a plea, Aretha

39:40

Franklin's Respect is a

39:42

demand, unquote. Franklin

39:45

sings about earning her own money,

39:47

but demanding props from her man

39:49

when she gets home. Whole

39:52

chunks of the song's arrangement

39:54

that weren't in the original

39:56

were conceived by Aretha, including

39:58

spelling it out. out R-E-S-P-E-C-T

40:01

and the famous socket tuning.

40:09

If all Aretha Franklin did

40:11

was record respect this way,

40:14

it would already be one

40:16

of the greatest, most transformative

40:18

covers ever. But the

40:20

public got it right too. Franklin's

40:23

respect spent two weeks at number

40:25

one on the Hot 100 and

40:28

eight weeks atop the R&B chart.

40:31

It is, you might say,

40:33

the ideal cover because it

40:35

honored the original composition and

40:37

improved on it in

40:39

every way, commercially, artistically,

40:42

and culturally. It

40:44

shows what a cover can be, a true

40:48

reinvention. Perhaps we

40:50

should give the last word

40:52

to Otis Redding, who lived

40:54

only six more months after

40:56

respect went to number one,

40:59

but before he passed, gave

41:01

proppers to Aretha. At

41:05

1967's Monterey Pop Festival live

41:07

on stage, Redding uttered one

41:09

of the most respectful lines

41:11

a creator has ever said

41:13

about the artist who covered

41:15

him. Quote, this

41:18

song is a song that a girl

41:20

took away from me, a

41:22

good friend of mine. This girl,

41:25

she just took this song.

41:28

["The Hot 100"] I

41:35

hope you enjoyed this episode of Hip

41:37

Parade. Our show was written,

41:39

edited, and narrated by Chris Melanphy,

41:41

that's me. My producer

41:43

this month is Olivia Briley, and

41:46

we had production help from Kevin Bendis.

41:49

Kevin also produced the latest

41:51

installment of our monthly Hip

41:53

Parade, The Bridge Shows, which

41:55

are available exclusively to Slate

41:57

Plus members In our latest.

42:00

Each episode I talked to

42:02

my sleep colleague Carol Wilson

42:04

about his take on cover

42:06

songs and where they are

42:08

headed In the age of

42:10

sampling to sign up for

42:12

Soy Plus and here not

42:14

only the Bridge was all

42:16

our shows that day they

42:18

drop visit sleep.com/ship Homemade Sauce.

42:20

Derek John his executive producer

42:23

of narrative podcasts and we

42:25

had help from Droll Meyer.

42:27

Elisa Montgomerie is Vp of

42:29

Audio for Sleep Podcasts. Check

42:31

out their roster shows as sweet.com/podcasts

42:33

you can subscribe to Hit Parade

42:35

wherever you get your podcasts. In

42:38

addition, the finding it in the

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on Apple podcasts. Please rate and

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review a small your their it

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helps other listeners find the show.

42:49

Thanks for listening and I look

42:51

forward to leading the hip hooray

42:54

back your way. Until then, keep

42:56

on marching on the One! I'm

42:58

Chris Mullin.