Does Your Covers Band Change Songs? What Changes and Why?

[Stub Mandrel]

On 20/01/2026 at 13:59, EliasMooseblaster said:

Not to gloat, but when I've been in covers bands, they've typically clung quite faithfully to what was on the record. The biggest change I can remember making was coming up with an ending for Deep Purple's Black Night, because, as much as I love them, Deep Purple never seemed to know how to end a song!

 

This is a classic! We farted around over and again to come up with an ending for Bkack Night. In the end, I saw them in Birmingham and came back and said "they did something like this so that will for us!"

 

But yep, fade out songs always cause issues. 

 

For the originals band I'm in, last week we worked out two endings for a song: A crisp one for the planned album and a flexible one that reprises the verse so there's enough time to chainsaw a clown's head off...

 

[Mykesbass]

On 07/02/2026 at 16:44, TimR said:

 

 

It's called the "amateurs disease", to make something more exciting, just play it quicker. 

I was in an old school rock & roll band for a while. The drummer put the band together said that he wanted 'to put some more oomph into it'. This meant speeding everything up, and playing too loud. 

 

I played him my 'go to' track that shows this doesn't have to be the way - 'That's Alright Mama'. Fortunately it clicked immediately and we calmed everything down and had a nice, successful band for a couple of years.

[Lozz196]

My usual stance on this subject is to do the song how it was written/recorded. However we`re now doing Won`t Get Fooled Again by The Who, and although each part is easy enough I`m having real difficulty in remembering it all, so for me intro, verses, choruses as per recording, the rest I`ll persist with but will be ad-libbed til then.