Where Have All the Covers Gone?

Every December, Wesley’s hometown radio station, 88.5 WXPN, does some kind of end-of-year countdown, as voted on by listeners. This year, it’s the 885 greatest cover songs. This was exciting news for Wesley, who loves himself a good cover — and considers their near disappearance from pop music to be a kind of national tragedy. He talks all things covers with one of his favorite reinterpreters of music, the Grammy-nominated jazz singer Cécile McLorin-Salvant, who also happens to have done a cover that landed at No. 7 on the list he agonized over for WXPN. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.