Unpacking ASCAP's Most-Covered Songs of 2010

I read some interesting news the other day from our new Member Benefits partner Limelight. These folks help recording artists clear cover songs for physical and digital release, so they keep close tabs on what's getting covered, and how often. According to Limelight's just-published list, eight out of the 10 most-interpreted songs of last year (excluding holiday songs) were written by ASCAP members and foreign writers that ASCAP licenses in the US. I've included a representative performance of each song for your listening pleasure. 

We've long known that the ASCAP repertory encompasses a ton of immortal music. That includes the lion's share of songs in the Great American Songbook -- the pantheon of classic American songs that have transcended songcraft to become strands in America's collective cultural fabric. All of the ASCAP songs on Limelight's list belong to that hallowed canon. In fact, many of the songwriters that contributed to the Great American Songbook were among the first members of ASCAP (see more on ASCAP's early history here). Even the two songs that were originally written in French ("Autumn Leaves" and "I Wish You Love") have become essential standards for American interpreters.

What's notable to me about the list is two-fold. First, the age of most of these songs. The newest song on the list (Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") was written in 1984; most of the others are more than 40 years old. Why is that? The more cynical among us might claim that nothing truly timeless has been written in the last few decades, and that the pop music of today is for the most part disposable. I would disagree. There are truly essential songs written every year, but many of them are inimitable records, or written in styles that don't easily lend themselves to cover versions. For example, hip-hop is arguably the most dominant force in popular music today, and while hip-hop has its own history of reinterpretation through the art of sampling, you don't hear a lot of straightforward hip-hop covers.

The way we discover songs is much different now than it was back when most of these songs were written. Four of these songs were written for stage or movie musicals, which don't command as much influence as they used to (with the notable exception of Glee, which features covers almost exclusively). While standards are still as popular as ever for jazz musicians and traditional pop vocalists, these are no longer the genres that move the masses. All this would suggest that the songs that have always been most coverable will stay most coverable. Interesting to note: Limelight points out that contemporary hits like "California Gurls" (co-written by ASCAP writers Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Katy Perry) figured down on their "most-covered" list, just not in the Top 10. Given enough time, could this turn into one of America's favorites?

The second notable factor about this list is that it's composed entirely of slow to mid-tempo pop ballads. My conjecture is that a slow, simple song is easier to personalize than a faster one; a singer's trademark stinging falsetto might get curtailed by a quick tempo, for example. As for the predominant genre, we might look to how pop songs are written for clues. Save perhaps for jazz pianist Errol Garner's "Misty," the ASCAP songs on the list were not written by the artists that made them famous -- even during their creation, these songs were intended for interpretation. Compare that to the standard situation in rock music, wherein a band writes and performs its own material as an extension of the band's personality.

As similar as some of these songs are on a surface level, they express a broad range of emotions. The lyrics to "Autumn Leaves" are introvered, downtrodden and wistful, while "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" are as universal and hopeful as can be. The protagonist of "Misty" is a hopeless romantic, while "My Funny Valentine"'s narrator has a sarcastic, almost condescending view of his or her lover. "Moon River" rides high on a sentimental lyric and sing-song melody. "Summertime," on the other hand, is as emotionally ambivalent as can be, sounding alternately humid as a South Carolina heatwave and carefree as the breeze that makes it all bearable.

Though we're increasingly saturated with music during every part of our day, not all of it becomes sonic wallpaper. This list indicates that some of it can still seep in, get under our skin, inspire us to make it our own. I'm still taken by the idea that there is such a thing as timeless music, that no matter when you were born, there is a set of music that you will recognize and love enough to cover at clubs and coffee shops and concert halls, record on albums, and play for your kids, over and over again.

Thanks to Ben Rosenbloom, James & Marge Wardrop and ASCAP's Ken Cicerale for their helpful suggestions