Yesterday is the most covered song ever isn’t it? (Though probably not chart wise).

A recent example for this thread is Icona Pop's 'I Love It' - 6 different versions of it charted in the top 75 in 2013 due to numerous copycat versions selling enough to make the chart and then being swiftly deleted from iTunes, in the wait for the original version being released. And then confusingly one version of it, by 'New Music Masters', actually stayed in the charts for several weeks after the real version of the song was released, seemingly because it was titled 'I Don't Care I Love It' and thus came up as the first result when you searched for that phrase on iTunes. :lol:

 

(then there was also a 7th top 100 version of it as Glee also covered it in 2013 - this I imagine must be the record for most versions of a song to chart in a single year)

Wishing on a star, mack the knife & ewerlasting love

Last Christmas has got to be a serious contender, hundreds of cover versions of it out there.

 

 

‘Unchained Melody’ I’m sure is the most like mentioned previous however a few others -

 

Bridge Over Troubled Water -

Simon & Garfunkel #1 (1970)

Linda Clifford #28 (1979)

PJB Feat Hannah & Her Sisters #21 (1991)

Artists For Grenfell #1 (2017)

 

Last Christmas -

Wham #2 (1984)

Whigfield #21 (1995)

Le Groove/Gwen Dickey #82 (1998)

Alien Voices/Three Degrees #54 (1998)

BTH #93 (2001)

Crazy Frog #16 (2006)

Only Way Is Essex #33 (2011)

Ariana Grande #92 (2013)

 

 

All time classic Calfornia Dreamin' has charted for five different artists:

 

The Mamas & The Papas, #23 (1966)

Colorado, #45 (1978)

River City People, #13 (1990)

The Mamas & The Papas, #9 (1997)

Bobby Womack, #59 (2004)

Royal Gigolos, #44 (2004)

 

I've also got cover versions of it by Sia and The Beach Boys and I'm sure it's been recorded by many more artists.

 

I Only Want To Be With You has also charted for five different artists:

 

Dusty Springfield, #4 (1966)

Bay City Rollers, #4 (1976)

The Tourists, #4 (1979)

Sam Fox, #16 (1989)

Barry White, #36 (1995)

 

Higher Love has charted for four different artists:

 

Steve Winwood, #13 (1986)

James Vincent McMorrow, #21 (2011)

Tyler James, #39 (2012)

Kygo & Whitney Houston, #2 (2019)

 

 

 

Bridge Over Troubled Water -

Simon & Garfunkel #1 (1970)

Linda Clifford #28 (1979)

PJB Feat Hannah & Her Sisters #21 (1991)

Artists For Grenfell #1 (2017)

It was also incorporated into 'A Bridge Over You' by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, the Christmas #1 from 2015.

 

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac

 

edit: never mind

Edited April 21, 20205 yr by RockafellerSkank

It was also incorporated into 'A Bridge Over You' by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, the Christmas #1 from 2015.

 

I forgot about this - I suppose 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' can essentially be considered another of the very short list of songs that have hit #1 in 3+ different versions (this one was a mashup with 'Fix You' of course but close enough).

What about Somewhere Over The Rainbow?

According to polyhex, it's only charted in three different versions:

 

Cliff Richard (2001), #11

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (2007), #44 <- that's a really cool version of the song btw

Ariana Grande (2017), #60

It's charted a couple times as just 'Over The Rainbow' as well (which I believe was actually the original title?)

^ you've missed the covers titled 'Over the Rainbow', including those we have

 

Matchbox (1980), #15

Eva Cassidy (2001), #42

Danielle Hope (2010), #29 - winner of a Wizard of Oz musical casting TV show

Glee Cast (2010), #30 - this charted only 3 weeks after Danielle

^ Yeah I thought it only charting three times was a bit strange. So 7 different versions, which is still less than 'Unchained Melody' - are we going with that as the reigning champion then?

very odd too that the song's been top 40 in 4 versions but neither are the 3 actually popular versions of that song (Judy, Eva, Israel).

White Christmas has charted in nine versions so it ties with Unchained Melody. There were only 8 in my book of hit singles so I didn't mention it before but I've found a 9th more recent one.

 

Mantovani 1952 (6)

Pat Boone 1957 (29)

Freddie Starr 1975 (41)

Bing Crosby 1977 (5)

Darts 1980 (48)

Jim Davidson 1980 (52)

Keith Harris & Orville 1986 (40)

Max Bygraves 1989 (71)

Gwen Stefani 2019 (62)

I guess Marusha version never charted in UK :thinking:

 

 

Must have been a huge hit only in German speaking countries!!!