History Main / TheCoverChangesTheGender

* In a case of "The Cover Changes the '''Race'''", Indigenous Australian group Southeast Desert Metal's [[https://youtu.be/k_2-qc_9xtA cover version of]] Music/MidnightOil's "Beds Are Burning" changes the line "It belongs to them, let's give it back!" to "It belongs to us, now give it back!"

* Averted with Music/AmyWinehouse's cover of "Valerie" on ''Music/BackInBlack''. However, while the original singer missed the way that Valerie used to kiss, Amy misses the way that Valerie used to dress.

* "When She Loved Me" was originally sung by [=Sarah McLachlan=] for ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory 2'' from the point of view of the doll Jessie, which [[ItMakesSenseInContext makes perfect sense in context]]. Michael Crawford and a few other male singers have {{covered|Up}} it without changing the gender, which makes a whole lot more sense if you think of it as a song about [[LoveHurts lost romantic love]]. The funny thing is, there's still [[HoYay female singers]] covering it, like Jordan Pruitt on ''Disneymania 5''.

* Music/{{WASP}} have a cover of Music/JeffersonAirplane's "Somebody to Love" in which Blackie switches the one gender-specific line to "your eyes, I say your eyes may look like hers," which makes it no longer rhyme with the next line.

* The song "Sister Moon", by Music/{{Sting}}, quotes Creator/William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130--"My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun. . ." When Music/VanessaWilliams covered the song, she included the quote, but changed "mistress" to "lover"and replaced "she/her" with "he/him".

* "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was originally written from the male point of view by songwriter Robert Hazard before CyndiLauper recorded it. Being sung from the perspective of a man turns the song into a slightly more sexist one, with fast women instead of an empowering jingle about a girls' night out.
** The song "I Drove All Night" was written for Music/RoyOrbison, but went to Lauper instead. Orbison ended up doing his own cover of it later on.

* Music/{{Heart}}'s cover of "Black Dog" by Music/LedZeppelin changes some pronouns from third-person to second-person ("started telling '''your''' friends '''you''' gonna be a star") and others from first-person to second-person ("tell '''you''' no lies, make '''you''' a happy man").

* Taylor John Williams performed a SofterAndSlowerCover of Music/TaylorSwift's "Blank Space" on an episode of the US version of ''Series/TheVoice'' - On the one hand, his version does away entirely with most lines that are explicitly from the female perspective (which is probably also related to it being a TalentShowVersion). On the other hand, it ''did'' still retain the bridge - "Boys only want love when it's torture / don't say I didn't warn ya" reads a little differently when sung by a man.

* Averted by Music/TheWatsonTwins' cover of Music/TheCure's "Just Like Heaven". All the original feminine pronouns are kept intact.

* In Music/MichaelBuble's cover of "Driving License" by Music/OliviaRodrigo for Creator/TheBBC Radio 2 Piano Room, the lines "And you're probably with that blonde girl/Who always made me doubt/She's so much older than me/She's everything I'm insecure about" become "And you're probably with that blond guy/Who always made me doubt/He's so much smarter than me/He's everything I'm insecure about".

** She also left in the intro line, "Virgil Caine is my name." Interestingly, one of the changes she made was the result of a {{Mondegreen}}. She misheard "I will work the land" as "I'm a working man," and sang it that way, gender notwithstanding.

* Similarly to the above Ricky Martin example, after CountryMusic singer Ty Herndon came out as gay in 2014, he went on to re-record his 1995 debut single "What Mattered Most" from the perspective of a gay man. (The opening line "I thought I knew the girl so well" becomes "I thought I knew the ''boy'' so well", and the pronouns change to male, although the facts about the partner stay the same, even "His hair was long."). According to WordOfGod, Herndon was in a closeted gay relationship when he first released the song, and had always wanted to redo it accordingly.

* ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse'' featured a cover of Music/TheBeatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" sung by a woman. [[HoYay Only it was about being a lesbian.]]

* "Triad" was originally a CutSong from Music/TheByrds' ''Notorious Byrd Brothers'' album, then David Crosby gave it to Music/JeffersonAirplane to record - the original lyrics had a male narrator suggesting a two woman, one man threesome, while the Jefferson Airplane version changes some pronouns to make it two men and a woman. Interestingly, the Jefferson Airplane version still mentions "your long hair flowing"; since both versions were recorded in TheSixties, that description could apply to someone of either gender.

* Music/TheBreeders' version of Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s "Lord Of The Thighs": They apparently covered the song specifically because they thought it would be funny for lesbian bassist Josephine Wiggs to StepUpToTheMicrophone and sing those sleazy IntercourseWithYou lyrics.

** Similarly, Fugazi's "Suggestion", a song about the objectification of women, is from a female perspective, but is written and sung by male vocalist Ian [=MacKaye=] ("Why can't I walk down the street free of suggestion? Is my body the only trait in the eyes of men?")

* Music/{{Weezer}}'s [[Music/WeezerTheTealAlbum version]] of Music/{{TLC}}'s "No Scrubs" has Rivers Cuomo singing the lyrics about loser guys completely straight, leaving out only Left-Eye's rap segment.