The New Standards

"Number One", "Cars", "Tainted Love", "I Feel Love"

"The Greatest Love of All" works b/c the song took on a life of its own, and really does crop up on places where "Yesterday" or "Bridge Over Troubled Water" would have 25 years ago (High School choir recitals, etc.)

"Maneater" is a common song sung about relationship problems.

"The Final Countdown" by Europe is similar to the first song in nature.

well, i suppose in my reality, these are the new standards.

I don't remember either version ever being covered, and I don't think the songs are that significant outside of the usual circles of disco/synth nostalgiacs (e.g. bridge & tunnel brats who dance at Polly Esther's) and/or people who closely follow the history of pop music.

maybe instrumental abstraction of original makes the original a standard and maybe the addition of vocals counts (if they're used instrumentally) so to use another numan example, 'freak like me' wouldn't count, but that's a ripp off which probably counts more than someone merely covering and resinging

but then the replicants only do covers of well-known songs, so maybe they believe they're the new interpreters, but to me that's just their angle, even if the songs they covered could be called 'classics' (again, does numan represent classic or oddity?)

yeah i think cats wigging out on pop songs (standards) is different to covers bands using songs that will work for a pub audience (covers)

Surprised this thread fizzled out. Anyway, I was thinking of Kool & the Gang's "Celebration," which was 1980 but still inconceivable at this point as anything other than a ubiquitous popular standard that you always hear at public events and, well, celebrations. What else has had its wedding band status solidified in the past couple of decades? I have a hunch "Uptown Funk" will stick around for parties and cover bands. I heard a cover band play it in a park the other day and the crowd immediately perked up and started dancing.