Last week, I accepted a last minute invitation to go see The Rascals live at the Greek. I’d never been and I figured it was as good of a time as any to change that. A quick peek at Spotify revealed the songs I knew of theirs. Seeing “Good Lovin’” and “It’s a Beautiful Morning” had me looking forward to the show. The show was a ton of fun and the Greek is a venue not to be missed. It wasn’t until my friend mentioned seeing Further (Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead) that I realized I knew “Good Lovin’” much more as a Dead cover than I did as The Rascals original version.

A deeper look at the Dead’s catalogue on Spotify told me that the list didn’t end there. See, I’ve talked at length about my parents bringing music into my life at an early age. It doesn’t end there with my family. One uncle is a huge fan of The Beatles. Another flew me to see them (and Phish) in North Carolina one year for my birthday … and they also sent us to see Fiction Plane (Sting’s son) the night before. A third uncle has stacks upon stacks of CDs and I’d burn all his live Dead shows each time I visited him and my aunt in Colorado.

Businesses try and break into a crowded marketplace every day. They attempt to improve upon an existing business model or product to become the best. Well, aside from countless original hits, the Dead did some cover versions so well I didn’t realize they were covers until much later in my music education. Here’s a playlist of Grateful Dead covers to inspire you when you feel like it’s too hard to separate yourself from the pack.