New recording vs. cover

As far as I understand the guidelines, an artist who records his/her original song with another artist is covering the original. So, the version of "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan, Emmylou Harris is a cover of Sarah McLachlan's original solo version.

In this way, all of the songs on Patty Larkin's latest record _25_ are covers because they are recorded with 25 friends whereas Suzanne Vega's latest _Close-Up_ albums contain re-recordings because both the originals and new versions are by Suzanne alone.

So how about Dar Williams' _Many Great Companions_ album? The first disc contains new versions of Dar's songs. Some are credited as "Dar Williams & Gary Louris," so those would be covers whereas the ones credited to Dar alone would not. If I understand correctly.

Do I?

As far as credits, we take the artist's attributions.

So "Coming Up for Air" would simply be credited to Patty Larkin (even though I believe Jane Siberry's vocals make the song) because that is how it is officially credited.

And that would also decide whether it was X and Y, X & Y, X with Y, or X featuring Y. Right?

artinspired wrote:

so those would be covers whereas the ones credited to Dar alone would not. If I understand correctly.

Do I?

You are correct. It is based on how the credits are presented on the recording. In the case of Dar Williams the other artists must be credited in a major way ("Featuring" "With" "&" etc.) in the track list (or similarly) and not buried in with minor musician credits. Otherwise, despite different musicians and backing vocals, those tunes credited to Dar Williams alone are not covers. At first glance, I see some tracks showing the featured/accompanying artist (cover) and some just credited to Dar Williams (not a cover).

So "Coming Up for Air" would simply be credited to Patty Larkin (even though I believe Jane Siberry's vocals make the song) because that is how it is officially credited.

You got it.

Now if the previous whole album were credited to something like "Dar Willams & Friends", that would qualify as being ALL covers, even though the database listing will appear under the same principle artist. Again, a technical difference based on whether the additional artists get credited or don't get credited.

Conversely, if there were a compilation with the exact same performance originally credited to "Dar Williams" but now credited to "The Dar Williams Band", it's not a cover, since it is the exact same performance.

So songs on Jonatha Brooke's album "Live" that originally appeared on Jonatha Brooke & the Story's album "Plumb" count as covers, if I'm understanding you correctly.?. (couldn't decide whether this was a question or statement)

Yep! (?.:;,)

Certainly if it is Jonatha Brooke credited solo or actually performing without The Story on "Live".

What's tougher is to have the band uncredited on (say) the first album and then also appearing on the second album, but credited. I wouldn't include the second performance (assuming identical personnel), but you technically could if you wanted.

Check out the versions of "Spain" by Chick Corea's bands/incarnations, not to mention duets:

Chick Corea

yet the bands can and do appear as aliases of Chick Corea. It's not really intuitive, but it is a way to include otherwise borderline cases of different performances.

Another wrinkle to the Jonatha Brooke & The Story example is whether "The Story" is a legit group outside of Jonatha Brooke - or whether they are just the backing band - and therefore end up in the database as an 'alias' of Jonatha Brooke.

For example, think of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (or Bob Seger & Silver Bullet Band or Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band). If Tom Petty were to re-record some of his songs from his early Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers albums, but do it acoustically without 'The Heartbreakers' - we would NOT add those, because in the database, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers is considered to be the same artist as Tom Petty.

On the other hand, Diana Ross & The Supremes are NOT considered to be an alias of Diana Ross - as the Supremes continued to record separately beyond her stay in the group. So, technically, if Diana Ross re-recorded 'Baby Love' live in the '70s sometime, we could include that one.

We were given the green light to add covers by aliases some time ago, to my surprise. If that has been rescinded, nobody informed the editors. The Guidelines are magical; things disappear from and appear in them all the time, even after pages and pages of discussion by the editors supposedly settle a point.

Now have we truly confused you? I'm confused. When in doubt, take the conservative route and then don't duplicate entries.

In my mind, the Jonatha Brooke situation is similar to the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers situation. I don't personally consider these songs to be covers. I'm actually not really sure who "The Story" is on this album; I assume it's the backing band. "The Story" was a Jonatha Brooke/Jennifer Kimball duo. Any songs they recorded as "The Story" that either later recorded solo (not sure if there are any) are clearly covers.

Anyway, as I said, I don't personally consider the JB songs to be covers, but I wasn't sure how SHS sees them.

Quote from wally creek

We were given the green light to add covers by aliases some time ago, to my surprise.

I must have missed that - doesn't make sense to me to add those...and I haven't been.