Some songs seem to lend themselves to covers more than others. This time of year I always think of all the covers of George Gershwin's Summertime from Porgy and Bess. I think Janis Joplin's version is my favorite.

Lots of people seem to cover Joni Mitchell tunes as well.

What are the most covered tunes and artists, what are your favorites and do you think these most covered tunes have staying power and will become the popular standards of our day?

Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper) I adore Eva Cassidy's rendition

Michael Jackson covers work well for this because while I'm not a fan of his vocals or the style of music I think many of the songs are really good. When an unusual band does a Michael Jackson cover it usually works. Chris Cornell covering Billy Jean for instance.

Beatles and Dylan are probably most covered artists? I think many of their tunes will become "standards".

Michael Jackson covering Paul McCartney's "Girlfriend" is kinda funny/ironic/iconic to me. Or, the Beatles covering Be-Bop-A-Lula or Blue Suede Shoes.... or anything.

Then there's Jamie Cullum's cover of Rocket Man.

And of course Michael Bublé's rendition of Nina Simone's Feeling Good (which is a great picker-upper!)

My favorite cover of Porgy and Bess is the version performed by Love Sculpture (Dave Edmunds, et al.) very hard to find on CD...

Other Favorites:

Jeff Beck's version of Mingus's "Pork Pie Hat"

David Bowie's version of The Beatles "Across the Universe"

The Doors version of Willie Dixon's/Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man"

I'm sure there are others...

I'll get too back to you,

I guess what I like about the songs that I posted above was that they were everyday pop songs that a new artist had put a different spin onto making it into a song with a totally different vibe to it.

I like that too. A reinterpretation of someone else's material that lets you hear it and appreciate it in a completely new way.

Pop is just short for popular. There are many popular songs that are of quality and are considered classic. Many of the pop tunes from the 40's and 50's are now considered standards. The Beatles certainly wrote a lot of pop tunes that I think are of extremely high quality, get covered a lot and will become standards.

I hadn't heard the Daughtry cover of Poker Face until JDBillup posted it. It made me laugh because it really isn't even a good, well written song but Daughtry really tried to give it depth and emotion, get everything he could out of it. It almost sounds satirical but I can't decide if he's making fun of himself or GaGa. Whatever, it works in some weird way.

I think there is a world of difference between classic songs being shared by singers like Sinatra, Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr, Peggy Lee or Dean Martin, and the nonsensical
sorta-rock done by here today, gone tomorrow "artists".

Did you want to tell us about of a couple of those, "... great covers/remakes of classic songs..." that you do like?

Crucifixion (Phil Ochs) - Jim & Jean
Mary Mary (The Monkees) - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Mona (I Need You Baby) (Bo Diddley) - The Rolling Stones
Raspberry Beret (Prince) - The Derailers
People Get Ready (The Impressions) Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck
I Believe (Ricky Nelson) Billy Burnette
Mercy Mercy Mercy (Cannonball Adderly) The Buckinghams

The above listed songs are but a drop in the bucket,and
I really didn't pick classics but songs that I really like by both the original and cover artist. For the most part I think we'll go back to digging the originals more so than
the covers.