The greatest cover songs, from Whitney Houston to Metallica
Through Dec. 11, WXPN counts down the 885 greatest covers, as voted by listeners.
2 min. read
WXPN's Mike Vasilikos, Midday host; Robert Drake, producer and Land of the Lost host; and Kristen Kurtis, Morning Show host, holding their results of the 885 Cover Songs Quiz, available at XPN.org as part of the 885 Greatest Cover Songs countdown.
Image: Page Walter
Following a record response from listeners, WXPN, a member-supported public radio service of Penn, is ready to reveal the results of its search for the 885 greatest cover songs.
WXPN asked listeners to rank their Top 10 choices for the greatest cover songs, ultimately collecting more than 10,000 distinct cover versions that were culled into the final list of 885—a number inspired by the station’s frequency, 88.5 FM. The final list, says Jim McGuinn, acting programming director, is amazingly diverse, going from Whitney Houston to Metallica, Nina Simone to The Clash. It’s also been full of surprises, he says, like Radiohead’s “Creep” receiving votes for 30 different versions, while “Hallelujah” received votes for 26 different versions.
The countdown, moreover, has brought WXPN listeners together through a shared appreciation for reinterpretation.
“What covers can do is take something that’s really familiar to you and give you a fresh look at it,” says McGuinn. “When you hear a cover you’ve never heard before, it makes you re-appreciate the song you already knew, and the different interpretations can find pathways to the heart of a song. There are a lot of pathways to the heart of a song.”
The voting process also raised lively internal debates about what qualifies as a cover. Patsy Cline’s signature recording of “Crazy,” for example, was written by Willie Nelson—but because Cline’s version was the first to be released, it ultimately didn’t meet the criteria.
“We had to call a committee to make judgments on these songs,” McGuinn says, laughing. “That’s normally not a problem.”
WXPN is no stranger to multi-day programming events: since 2004, the station has produced 17 listener-voted countdowns built around different themes like Ultimate Road Trip Songs, Greatest Songs by Women, and more. Last year’s countdown asked listeners to rank the 885 greatest songs of the 21st century, with the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” perched atop the list. New this year is what McGuinn quips is a “post-game show” that will air from 8-10 p.m. at the end of each weeknight (Monday through Thursday), offering replays of songs broadcast during the countdown that day, some context about the songs, and teases of what’s coming in the following day. It is, McGuinn says, partly a response to feedback that listeners asked for: a way to listen and engage after traditional work hours. Also new is WXPN’s 885 Greatest Cover Songs Quiz, which lets listeners test their knowledge of iconic and unexpected cover versions.
“I think [this countdown] is a lot of fun and it’s cool that it’s crowdsourced. We have such an eclectically awesome crowd to source with, and I think people are just fascinated by lists and there’s something about it that inspires a lot of conversation,” he says. “If it gets people to come together through music, that’s what we’re all about at XPN.”
The countdown begins at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4. The list will be revealed on air and online, day by day.
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