I saved this resource without noting who sent it to me — was it reader TS? JS? Anyway, it’s a fun one. Second Hand Songs is a database of songs originally recorded by one artist but then covered by another (and possibly several others.) According to the front page of the site at http://www.secondhandsongs.com/, there are currently 30542 works, 117622 performances, 2332 samples and 36664 artists on the site.

There’s a basic search for songs and artists, but a more advanced search for artists, mediums, labels, and even visual performances. If you’d rather browse you can look at recently-added items or newly-released items. I did a basic search for Fabulous Thunderbirds.

The results page I got was divided into several sections, including original performances, covers, an album list, and what I presume was a list of other soundtracks/albums that the artist’s work had appeared.

You can also look at individual songs. One of the songs the FT covered was Wrap it Up. I clicked on the song title and got information about who wrote the song and the original recording artist (Sam & Dave) as well as a list of who’s covered it since (FT, Buddy Miles, and Eurythmics.)

For a site that’s all about songs I’m a little surprised that there aren’t song clips or performance clips, but this seems to be mostly reference. I did find it useful, though; I looked up artists I liked and then saw who had covered their songs, if any. It wasn’t surprising to see that Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega had been covered twice, but Luka?… FIVE times?…