Kenneth, interesting thread. It's much too early for me on a weekend to come up with anything to add. But go ahead Jobete, most of these covers were good, some were artistically challenged, but the root is that they are all published by Jobete.

Also, in the sixties music was more banded together, so while I may have been a big fan of Johnny Rivers, I would have heard the 4 Tops version when it came out on the same radio station previously. As we move into the 70's there were more distinct categories on radio, so Please Mr. Postman by the Carpenters would have been heard by perhaps those who were nostalgic of the Marvelettes version, but also the next generation, who would have no idea who the Marvellettes were. By the 80's folks who enjoyed Rod Stewarts, This Old Heart Of Mine, probably had no connection to who Ronnie Isley was, even if he was in the video and singing along with Rod. If I was of a generation that grew up loving Ella Fitzgerald, I might have thought, "there was Ella doing her thing", but I doubt that I would have regarded the originals as anything other than "young peoples music". The point being that the music is truly enjoyed by people all over the world regardless, of culture, age, financial station or location.

I am awake now, I submit, The J Geils Band, First I Look At The Purse, which was who I first heard do the song in 1981 - ish, some 16 years after the Contours version was released, it rocked with a capital R.