Music4 Music Classics that are covers and you (probably) did not know Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra to Ivete Sangalo, we recall some stories of rewrites that were more successful than the original versions for writing

I have a great childhood friend, a brilliant mind, one that a date is never enough to catch up, and a short, fast conversation, has a minimum duration of an hour over the phone. This friend, for example, asked all the important people of your life: “If you were a plant, what would it be?” And then he tattooed his respective vegetable versions in his body – I’m there as a Flamboyant.

Another way he found to mark his ideas is to bump phrases and make t -shirts. One of them says the following: “KEEP TRYING, LU BEGA DIDN’T MAKE IT IN MAMBO NO.1“(“Keep trying, Lou Bega failed with Mambo no.1“). Making reference to the great success of the late 1990s,“Mambo No. 5 (a little bit of …)”.

I will contextualize for you to better understand the size of the success that this song was. In 1999, Lou BegaGerman singer (yes, a German burst with a song that is a mambo, sung in English) released “Mambo No. 5 (a little bit of …)”And ended up at the top of the charts in Europe, USA and Brazil and even had a version for children of music promoted by Disney; on any pop radio we cared if he heard “Ladies and Gentleman, this is Mambo Number Five“. He touched the radio, played at the school dancers.

But the most interesting for me in this story is that, besides Lou Bega, PEREZ PRADO Nor did it get first. And who is PEREZ PRADO? Composer and artist who launched the first instrumental version of “Mambo No. 5”, Exactly 50 years before Begain 1949. Yes, the song we know is a cover, a rewriting, something much more common than we think.

In this list of non -unpublished successes does not escape even the most requested of the karaoke, the moment of the bride ball, neither the Queen of Carnival, nor the Pop King.

“Evidence”

I will do like the Bruno Marsin the show of The Town 2023 in São Paulo. I start and you complete: “And in this madness …” “Evidence”, Immortalized by Chitãozinho & Xororóperhaps the largest hit in Brazil, is a rewriting, despised at the time by the label, but recorded a year before its release, because at this contempt meeting, the composer was present Michael Sullivan (One of the biggest hitmakers in the country), who sniffed something there: “I can take it to my brother Leonardo Sulivan to record?” AND Leonardothe Sullivanrecorded for the first time in 1989.

Only the team of Leonardo Nor did it bet on the song. When Chitãozinho & Xororó They were gathering the repertoire for their album Asphalt cowboy (1990), received “Evidence”From one of the composers, José Augusto (that of “Heart”,“Dream for dream”, Among other successes), and even knowing that it had already been recorded, the country duo made the decision to rewrite wisely.

“New York, New York”

This story in itself would give a movie. “Absolute cinema!”As the meme says with the filmmaker Martin Scorsesewhich is even responsible for another Karaoke success, but not here. In fact, more than a karaoke anthem is the unofficial anthem of a city. The song “New York, New York”, Whose correct title is”(Theme From) New York, New York“(Movie theme New York, New York) was born first inside the screens, before being rewritten and immortalized by Frank Sinatra “And if it wasn’t for a rejection, it wouldn’t exist.”

Scroese In 1977, he joined the pair of young stars LIZA MINNELLI and ROBERT DE NIRO To film a New York musical romantic comedy about a couple of artists, in the postii war. New York, New York It was a box office failure, but I brought a hymn that inhabits the imaginary even of those who are not US. The rejection took place by Of nyrowho, after listening to the theme song of the movie, found a lot of “lightweight” and asked for Scroesewho requested the pair of composers John Kander and Fred EBB A new version. 45 minutes later they returned with the version we know ready. Of nyro It was right and this time the rejection was more assertive than in “Evidence”.

“New York, New York”, Sung by LIZA MINNELLI He left as a single of the movie’s soundtrack, but the success came in the album recording Trilogy: Past Present Futurefrom Frank Sinatrain 1980.
This is the song that helps New Yorkers find resilience in difficult times: “If i can make it the there / I’m make it anywhere / it’s up to you“(“ If I can get there, I’ll get anywhere, it just depends on you ”). So it was in the 1980s during the crack and AIDS epidemic in an economically devastated NY, when the mayor declared this being the music that would show the claw of New York, or when he became government propaganda, after September 11, to return to the audience to the audiences of the theaters of the theaters Broadway Or, more recently, during the pandemic, as it was sung in choir by the population, directly from their windows every day, at 7 pm, to honor the people who were on the front line facing the pandemic.

Not only of the difficult times the song is a theme, but it also packs the party of the most famous turn of the year, the New Year of Times Squareright after the countdown “Happy New Year!” And it is she that the DJ plays at the time of the bride’s ball, in weddings. At least in my time as a ball band, it was.

“Eve”

And if it’s to talk about a party, New York who sorry, but here is Brazil! Land of Ivete Sangaloowner of the eighth wonder: the carnival of Salvador.

I venture to say that one of the Hino songs of the Salvador Carnival and the song that symbolizes the phenomenon that is Ivete since your years of Eva Band It is precisely the homonymous music to the block, “Eve”, A rewriting of an apocalyptic song of 1982, recorded by Umberto TozziStar of Italian music.

Already in Portuguese, “Eve”Was first recorded by the band from São Paulo Taxi radio In 1983, and we can already hear the iconic guitar solo of the introduction. In 1984, “Eve” Taxi radio It was already a success, so much so that the EVA block decided to include it in the repertoire of the block at the carnival of the same year. Shortly thereafter, Ricardo Chavesone of the singers who went through Everewrite the track on his eponymous album of 1988, keeping the same guitar solinho as the introduction. In the recording of Keysin the second part of the song, we hear the Ijexá, a rhythm that is the basis of the verses of Eveand we heard a shy march rhythm that would become a pulsating samba-reggae, in the version with Ivetemarking the choruses. Two powerful rhythms that make up the rhythmic compendium that made Axé music be a global musical phenomenon that are still present in the sound lexicon of Bahian music, or as the conductor LETIERES MILK (which was also arranging Ivete For many years) coined: the Bahian percussive universeor UPB.

Two years before the release of the album that catapult Ivete For the world, the Pop King, Michael Jacksonwas in the same Salvador, precisely to fuse the sound of his music to the block Olodumunder the creative and baton of the Master Samba Neguinhoin the recording of “They Don’t Care About Us”, 1995.

“Blame it on the boogie”

Nor Queen and not even the King They pass unscathed when it comes to making a rewriting sound unprecedented and, in the case of the king, the story happens even before its self -control, when pop music still attended by album name.

Michael Jackson and the The Jacksons (or Jackson Five) released, in 1978, the music “Blame it on the boogie“, composition of another Michael Jacksonborn in England, but that sagazly changed its name to Mick Jackson.

Besides the music author, Mick Launched the same song days before! This almost simultaneous release, with Mick Jackson in England, by Atlantic Recordsand the Jackson Fivefor the CBSgave rise to a battle for the best position on the charts that became known as BATTLE OF THE BOOGIE (“The Battle of Boogie”). I do not need to spoiler, the cover version has made better, but who came out and who wins in such a situation is the author, who will reap the copyright – in this case, the MJ English.

But, as this release happened so much to the company-family Jackson? Mick Jackson tells you that I was playing in MIDEM MUSIC FESTIVAL in Cannes, France, in the same year, 1978, when I learned that the band’s father and manager, Joe Jacksonhad taken a portable recorder with him and recorded the music and rushed to the US to be recorded. At that time, physical recording could only be delivered in hand and with digital technology, so it is likely that this release would come out before by the label of Jacksons. The universe is wise and does everything in time… Apparently, besides entrepreneur and talent hunting, the Jackson Father also acted as a cultural spy in his spare time, or not so vague.

I like to dive into these stories, because they tell me about two distinct things, music as a work, something intangible and the order of the inexplicable, and the adventures of the market to make it a product. On the one hand, we have several voices interfering, trying to predict what will be successful, sometimes giving an unfortunate guess, sometimes bringing solutions. On the other we have the voice of intuition, which blows in our ear: do, write, serious, bid. And the latter, I realize that it is just an extension of the voice of inspiration, which gives birth to a work. Whether it will be immediately successful or not, for the Musa that blows the song that matters little and we can not even say, because a song, when it is born to the world, is free and escapes the control of the limited imagination of us “Be-Humaninhos”.

Good thing the twists of music can find are spontaneous, unexpected and unpredictable, as we have seen. But how many? Numerous, as much as they fit during their existence in our memory, the only platform that can eternalize it.

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