Cover song vs Original

                                            "Jar Of Hearts" by Christina Perri (Original Version)

                                           "Jar of Hearts" By Kait Weston (Acoustic Cover Ft. by Tyler Ward)

The song I decided to choose was “Jar of Hearts”, originally done by Christina Perri; the cover song was done by Kait Weston (Acoustic Cover ft. Tyler Ward).   The two songs are very similar but each still has a unique factor about them. The things that make these two songs similar are the lyrics, speed/tempo, and intensity. The lyrics for both songs are the same exact lyrics; they don’t change any of the words. The speed/tempo, for both, were andante (slow). The intensity was soft for both, which goes along with the andante tempo. The other similarity, between the songs, was that both songs are performed by a female.

While there are similarities about the same exact song, there are also differences because each performer brings there own twist to a song in order to make it their own. For the Christina Perri version there were different instruments that made the rhythm of the song. The instrument in the background sounded like a grand piano that helped keep the rhythm of the song. Also, throughout the song there are others instruments playing, like a string instrument.

For the Kait Weston version the instrumentation choices were different. The instrument that was used, to keep the rhythm of the song, was an acoustic guitar. The guitar was the only instrument used in this song, which made this song feel very organized because there weren’t too many instruments being played all at once. An element that I noticed in this song that was used, and not in the original version, was echo. They used the element of echoing Kait’s voice throughout the song to give the song more depth. This is song also has more of an acoustic feel to it than the other version.

After listening to both songs, over and over again, I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the Kait Weston version better than the original version of the song done by Christina Perri. I prefer the Kait Weston version more because I like the instrument choice for this song; I feel it suits the lyrics of the song better than all of the other instruments used in the other version. I also liked the use of the echo on her voice to help create depth for the song instead of using more instruments. But I do feel like the song could have been better if they hadn’t over used the echo because at times it became distracting. The other reason why I like this version more than the original is because I felt Kait Weston has a better voice than Christina Perri; Kait’s voice just sounded ten times better with these lyrics than it did with Christina. Also, Kait’s voice just help bring the subtext of the lyrics out in the song better than Christina did; I felt the emotion of this song more in Kait’s version. So overall, I have found that cover songs by unknown artists can overall be better than the original (famous) performer; you just have to know where to look for them on YouTube.