"In popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song."
Basically a song one artist recorded and another recorded or proformed in tribute, in mockery or simply to ride on the coat tails of the original. Some are better than the original, some are worse, some are just ... different.
Although some people scoff at the "lack of originality" of the cover song, many covers have become more famous than the original. When VH1 counted down the greatest rock songs of all time, two out of the top three were covers ("R.E.S.P.E.C.T." an Aretha Franklin
cover of an Otis Redding song and 
"All Along the Watchtower" Jimi Hendrix take on 
a Bob Dylan song.)
There is of course some grey area. Did the Monkees cover the Neil Diamond
penned tune "I'm a Believer?" Monkees recorded it first, Neil at a later date. Either way Smash Mouth
covered it as well. Where does American Idol fall into all this? It's more of karaoke
to me. But as long as the tunes are good, who cares ... right?
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