Michael Jackson has a complex story, which will be the subject of the very anticipated biopic film, titled "Michael", in theaters everywhere April 26, 2026.In 1983, Michael Jackson debuted the moonwalk on live television in front of forty-seven million people while performing "Billie Jean" — a song Quincy Jones almost cut from the Thriller album. That night, pop music changed forever. But the deeper story is this: "Billie Jean" has never stopped traveling. In 2007, grunge legend Chris Cornell stripped it to its acoustic bones and made it cry. In 2008, David Cook covered Cornell's cover on American Idol and became a star. In 2015, a Peruvian-American musician reimagined Michael Jackson's entire catalog in Latin jazz and salsa — and the world finally caught up to something Latin America had already known for decades: that Michael Jackson's music was never just American. It was always global. In this episode of Uncovering the Cover, we trace the extraordinary journey of "Billie Jean" as the conductive thread through Michael Jackson's legacy — the most covered, most complicated, and most consequential catalog in the history of popular music. We explore the songs he wrote, the barriers he broke, the controversies that still have no resolution, and the artists who felt compelled to reckon with his genius long after his death. This is the story of the songs the world won't stop singing.

This is the story of how "Billie Jean" — and the Legends who dared cover It — reveals the most complicated legacy in Pop History.

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CREDITS: Host, Producer, Editor: Diego Pinzón

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DISCLAIMER:The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any artist, label, or organization mentioned. All music samples are used for educational and commentary purposes under fair use doctrine.

This episode was originally recorded back in 2020. It hasn't been altered since its recording.

Most people have sung this song at karaoke. Most people have cried to it. Most people have no idea what it's actually about."I Will Always Love You" was never a love song. It was a resignation letter — written by Dolly Parton in 1973 to say goodbye to the most powerful man in her career: her mentor, her producer, the man who gave her a national stage and then couldn't handle watching her outgrow it.

On this episode of Uncovering the Cover, we trace the full journey of one of the most commercially successful songs in music history: from a two-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains, to a Nashville TV show where Parton was booed every week, to the moment she turned down Elvis Presley to protect her copyright, to a hotel ballroom in Miami where Whitney Houston opened her mouth — and stunned everyone in the room.

We tell the story of two of the most extraordinary women in music history: a country songwriter who understood the value of her own words when no one else did, and a gospel-trained voice from New Jersey who turned a simple country song into the greatest vocal performance of a generation.And we tell the story of what the song became: #1 in three consecutive decades. 24 million copies sold. The best-selling single by a female artist of all time. A song played at its own singer's funeral. A promise Dolly Parton kept, all the way to the end.

This is Uncovering the Cover. This is "I Will Always Love You."In this episode, Diego Pinzón tells the complete story of "I Will Always Love You" — from Dolly Parton's original 1973 composition to Whitney Houston's record-breaking 1992 cover, and everything in between. The episode covers the full arc of the song's journey: the personal, professional, and cultural forces that shaped one of the most recognized songs in the world.

📱 Follow Uncovering the Cover:

Instagram: [@uncoveringthecover]

TikTok: [@uncoveringcover.podcast]

Website: [pinzondiego.com/podcast]

CREDITS: Host, Producer, Editor: Diego Pinzón

SUPPORT THE SHOW:

If you enjoyed this episode:

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DISCLAIMER:The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any artist, label, or organization mentioned. All music samples are used for educational and commentary purposes under fair use doctrine.

You know the opening riff. You know the shout. You've probably assumed, like most people, that The Beatles wrote "Twist and Shout."

They didn't.

In this episode of Uncovering the Cover, host Diego Pinzón traces the complete and extraordinary journey of one of rock and roll's most beloved songs — from the Afro-Cuban dance halls of Havana to the streets of Liverpool, from a tiny Cincinnati R&B label to the top five on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Twist and Shout" was written by Bert Berns — a dying man from the Bronx who absorbed the rhythms of Cuban mambo, blended them with rock and roll, and handed the world a song that Phil Spector first ruined, that the Isley Brothers first made great, and that The Beatles recorded in one single take, sick and exhausted at the end of a 13-hour studio marathon.

Along the way, we'll meet the man who turned The Beatles down and said "groups with guitars are on their way out," hear the story of how JFK's assassination accidentally launched Beatlemania, and witness the most extraordinary chart achievement in music history — a week in April 1964 that will never, ever be repeated.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Cold Open & Introduction

• Why most people still believe The Beatles wrote 'Twist and Shout' — and who actually did
• Why the song's raspy, broken vocal quality isn't a studio effect
  

Act I: The Man Who Was Supposed to Die Young

• The biography of Bert Berns: childhood illness, Havana mambo, Brill Building beginnings
• The role of Afro-Cuban music — mambo, clave rhythms — in the creation of 'Twist and Shout'
• Why Phil Spector's original 1961 production of the song flopped — and why Berns was furious about it
• The cultural explosion of mambo in 1950s New York: Tito Puente, Pérez Prado, and the Havana connection

Act II: From Cincinnati to Liverpool

• How the Isley Brothers rescued the song and gave it its definitive sound
• The infamous Decca Records audition: how one executive's rejection of The Beatles accidentally set up everything that followed
• The 13-hour Abbey Road session: how and why George Martin saved 'Twist and Shout' for last
• What John Lennon's voice actually sounds like — and why he could barely speak the next day
• Why 'Twist and Shout' was never released as a UK single

Act III: The Week No One Will Ever Repeat

• How JFK's assassination and a grieving nation accidentally created Beatlemania
• The story of Marsha Albert, the 15-year-old whose letter to a radio station changed music history
• The legal battle between Vee-Jay Records and EMI over the US release of The Beatles
• April 4, 1964: The week The Beatles held all five top positions on the Billboard Hot 100 — a record that still stands
• The deaths of John Lennon and Bert Berns — and the legacy they left behind

Resources & Further Reading

• Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues — Joel Selvin (2014)
• BANG! The Bert Berns Story — documentary directed by Brett Berns and Bob Sarles (2016, SXSW)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Bert Berns — inducted 2016
• Grammy Hall of Fame: 'Twist and Shout' — inducted 2010

📱 Follow Uncovering the Cover:

Instagram: [@uncoveringthecover]

TikTok: [@uncoveringcover.podcast]

Website: [pinzondiego.com/podcast]

CREDITS: Host, Producer, Editor: Diego Pinzón

SUPPORT THE SHOW:

If you enjoyed this episode:

✅ Subscribe to the show

✅ Leave a 5-star review

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DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any artist, label, or organization mentioned. All music samples are used for educational and commentary purposes under fair use doctrine.