So if a song looked promising, particularly by an unknown act, a cover could be done in a few hours and rushed out.

The Diamonds did that to Buddy Holly, with "Words Of Love" (they got to 13 - he didn't even make the Top 100)

Buddy Holly did that to Bobby Darin & The Rinky Dinks with "Early In The Morning" (Holly got to 32 but Darin got to 24).

Elvis did it to Carl Perkins with "Blue Suede Shoes" (Perkins got to Number 2 - Elvis got to 20).

And as Bill said, Bobby Vee did it to Kenny O'Dell with "Beautiful People" (Vee got to 37 - O'Dell got to 38).

This also meant that almost every US hit could be covered simultaneously in the UK (indeed given the delayed release dates, often the UK cover came out first), meaning that a lot of the US stars meant little or nothing in the UK during the 50's and early 60's.

So we never heard the first hits of Tony Orlando (Billy Fury took him out), or Sam Cooke (Craig Douglas, who also did for The Drifters, Dion & The Belmonts, Don Gibson, Steve Lawrence and Gene McDaniels) and Dionne Warwick (Cilla Black, who also tried to take on the Righteous Brothers but they got to 1 and she got to 2).

Marty Wilde made a huge career almost totally out of covers - he took out Phil Phillips, Ritchie Valens, Jody Reynolds and Bobby Vee.

But by 1963 or so, the UK distributors of the US labels had got clever, and were starting to simultaneously release US hits once they had reached the US Top 50, making it more difficult to get your cover out before the US version, and as the UK versions were generally inferior, UK radio also became more choosy about playing them.

Ah the good old days....

• RE: Same Song, Same Time, Different Artist - Bill Kline 09/29/2009 08:28:43 EDT (1)