Kid Rock has refused to put his Warren Zevon/Lynyrd Skynyrd homage “All Summer Long” on the iTunes Store as an a la carte download, and it’s paid off for him in a few ways: This week, his album Rock N Roll Jesus (which features the track) hit the double-platinum mark, and he’s gotten a ton of promotional mileage out of being a nearly-lone holdout from Steve Jobs’ empire. But an act who’s profited even more from Kid Rock’s tantrum is the fairly anonymous act Hit Masters, who specialize in karaoke and “party” versions of old and new hits. (I can find no other information on this act; if you know of any, feel free to send your tips along.) The band rush-released a version of the song (in straightforward and “karaoke” versions) to the iTunes store and other digital outlets, and it’s currently at No. 5 on iTunes’ single-song chart. Whether this speaks to the fact that people like Kid Rock’s song more than his “artistry” or not, one thing’s for sure: the guy who puts together Kidz Bop is kicking himself for not having thought of this first. [via Lefsetz's latest mailbag]
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A Cover Band Rushes In To Where Kid Rock Refuses To Tread
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This is kind of like when “This Is Why I’m Hot” first blew up and Mims wasn’t on iTunes yet, but a Jae Millz freestyle over it was, and that freestyle briefly came close to topping the iTunes chart:
[narrowcast.blogspot.com]
Wow, that’s the 2nd time Mims has been mentioned in an Idolator comments box just today. Possibly all year. Go Mims! It might be time for a comeback!
I was gonna maybe mention this in the column tomorrow, but let me bring it up now, because I’m having a hard time finding evidence online for this. Basically, I’m going almost entirely on memory here…
This isn’t new. Back in the mid-late ’90s, when the labels were deep into Stage 3 or 4 of their decade-long Kill The Single campaign, a bunch of no-name acts started releasing CD-singles of big radio-only pop hits. Only they (or, likely, the K-Tel-like label putting the covers out) were even cleverer than Hit Masters: each single had a band title mimicking the name of the original band, so that the single would get filed alphabetically in the singles racks in nearly the exact spot a fan would go searching for the song. So a cover of Smash Mouth’s “Walking on the Sun,” for example, would be by a band called Smack, for example.
It was a short-lived phenomenon - I’m thinking ‘97 through at most ‘99. I suspect it didn’t last because by the end of the ’90s, the single had been so eviscerated by the labels that brick-and-mortar retailers were scaling back or eliminating their entire singles sections, and there wasn’t anyplace for Smack and its brethren to flog their wares at unsuspecting pop fans anymore.
I guess somebody remembered the strategy, hence this Kid Rock cover. It’s hilarious because he’s a much bigger, more obvious target than Smash Mouth or the dozens of other no-singles late-’90s acts were — what other current act is trying to garner across-the-board radio play with an unavailable-at-iTunes single?
If only Hit Masters had taken a comedic cue from Tommy Lee and listed the track by artist “Kid Pebble.”
Note that the song is released by “Hip Kiddy Records”. At least Kidz Bop would change the lines about whiskey, making love, and smoking funny things…
@ITMS: Or they can just leave it as is, like they did with their disturbing version of “Feel Good Inc.” which keeps both utterances of the word “shit”.
Oh, by the way, does anyone find it awesome that we live in a small period of time where M.I.A. is in the top ten? Thank you, Judd Apatow.
@Chris Molanphy: I remember the sound-alike singles that you mentioned - I saw a rack of these in a Best Buy once and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw that the group covering “Tubthumping” was called Chucklebutt.
Here’s more info on this phenomenon:
[www.the-wallflowers.net]
This sort of thing used to be par for the course. The ’50s, of course, were a golden age (not entirely) of cover songs, as this Ace Records comp demonstrates, rather horrifically: [www.amazon.com] The practice seemed to dip in the ’60s and come back hard in the early ’70s: Peter Shapiro in Turn the Beat Around cites something like a dozen versions of “Soul Makossa” that popped up between Manu Dibango’s original becoming a club hit and Atlantic signing it for the U.S., since the original wasn’t easily findable.
@D.R. Mosby: Good web sleuthing! Thank you — I was looking for something like this months ago for the column and kept turning up dry. I half-thought I might have dreamed the whole thing.
The song debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 65 this week, FYI.
Rumor has it that Elton John and David Bowie sang anonymous covers of chart stuff for a long running series of albums in the UK.
[www.cherryred.co.uk]
Yes, I own this CD along with a ton of vinyl like it. Sad, really.
Yep Moby, the height of hypocrisy really. When are the music press going to challenge Kid Rock over this?
Maybe in the US - however in the UK he Kid or more likley his record company, has sold his soul, dropped on their knees and gave iTunes UK 2 versions of the single (not 1 but 2 - a clean version for the kiddies and explicit for us adults)
Reached #1 in the UK a while back and Kid was here in London “delighted” at his UK success and then last seen heading into the Apple Store (to check his latest position - still on his knees)