why do they call it a cover when someone records a song?

When a singer performs a song that another singer has done, they call it a cover. Why?

DGG2012-08-22T14:31:19Z

Favorite Answer

It's like when a teacher says " Today we will cover (subject)". The teacher is saying he is going to go over the entire subject. When a singer covers a song, he is basically going over the entire song, either in his own way or like the original song. Another way to say this is interpreting. An artist interprets a song from another artist.