The Cover Changes the Meaning/Quotes

"I have sung this song for a long time. I first heard it as a raucous sea shanty and years later I changed it into a girly love song. I have been in bother for doing this, but as a wise man once said "an unchanging tradition is a dying one". This is the reason that there are so many versions of all the old songs; each time they were passed on they were changed slightly, why stop now?"

—Kate Rusby, regarding "The Wild Goose", 10 liner notes

"I thought this song was about a baby."

—Mercedes Jones, regarding the Glee cover of "Isn't She Lovely."

"When Prudence sings "I Want to Hold Your Hand," for example, I realized how wrong I was to ever think that was a happy song. It's not happy if it's a hand you are never, never, never going to hold."

—Roger Ebert, Across the Universe review