Music Sound

Tribute album

A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of a specific artist's songs. An example is Sharin' in the Groove, which consists entirely of Phish covers by various artists. Sharin' in the Groove, like many tribute albums, is a charity fundraising project.

The birth of the 'modern' tribute album is often credited to record producer Hal Willner with the Amarcord Nino Rota LP in 1981. He followed up with tributes to Thelonious Monk, Disney cartoons, Kurt Weill, Charles Mingus and Harold Arlen.

Some tribute albums are created with a further conceptual twist than a simple collection of covers. These include:

Albums which aid the artist whose work is being covered. These include Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, a tribute Roky Erickson, whose cult fame has not led to financial success, as well as the 2CD Orphans of God, a tribute to the late Mark Heard, a singer/songwriter who's work has been praised by fellow artists such as Bruce Cockburn, Victoria Williams, Sam Phillips and T-Bone Burnett.
Albums consisting of one artist performing only songs by another artist, such as Great Zeppelin, a tribute album for Led Zeppelin, performed solely by Great White or Wicked Grin, a collection of Tom Waits songs performed by John Hammond Jr..
Albums consisting cover songs done in one style of music, often another style than that of the person being tributed. These include Is It Rolling Bob?: A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan and Goth Oddity 2000: A Tribute to David Bowie.
Albums which recreate a specific album with cover versions of songs from that album. These include Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. and More Oar: A Tribute to Alexander "Skip" Spence, which recreates Spence's only album Oar.
Albums consisting of cover songs sung in another language. These include Tributo a the Cure - Porque No Puedo Ser Tu (1999) and Tributo a Queen: Los Grandes del Rock en Espanol (1997).
Albums consisting of cover songs performed by artists who influenced the band being covered, rather than those influenced by that band. These include Sharin' in the Groove: Celebrating the Music of Phish.

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Music Sound, v. 2.0, by MultiMedia

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.