November 1987. Mikhail Boyarsky records “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” for a Melodiya long-play. The song was written by composer Oleg Kvasha to lyrics by Valery Panfilov and originally performed by Kvasha himself - but in mass memory it attached itself to Boyarsky. This is a case where a cover outgrew the original: the performer's version became the face of the song, while the author's version stayed with a narrow circle. Not every Russian cover does this - most remain in the shadow of the source. Let us look at which versions really went further, which only gained an independent life, and what tells them apart.
What “outgrew the original” even means
First, separate three different outcomes, so they do not get muddled. The first is a cover that genuinely surpasses the original in fame, as with Boyarsky and Kvasha. The second is a cover that carries old material to an audience the original never reached, even though the original remains iconic. The third is a cover that gets an independent life in a new format without claiming primacy. All three are worth treating separately, because the mechanics differ.
Detail: the topic card carries the figure “20 versions”. In truth, what can be honestly confirmed is not twenty cases of “surpassed the original”, but about two dozen documented Russian covers with different fates - from full superiority to an independent life inside a television project. What follows is exactly that honest survey.
The case of superiority: “Zelenoglazoe Taxi”
“Zelenoglazoe Taxi” is the cleanest example. Kvasha wrote the song in 1987 and was the first to perform it. In 1988 the Melodiya label was preparing a long-play where every эстрада star would sing two Kvasha songs; the song appealed to Alla Pugacheva, but she was refused the performance, and “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” went to Boyarsky, who recorded it in November 1987. Curiously, the Central Television editorial board then refused Boyarsky a slot in the all-Union “Song of the Year 1988” festival with the wording “very mournful, inexpressive, sleep-inducing”. A version with that start nonetheless attached itself to the song in mass perception.
Around the same song a whole row of covers and reworkings grew up: in the mid-1990s Lyapis Trubetskoy made an unauthorised reworking; the group was granted the right to perform the song only in concert, without releasing it on disc, yet recorded an album with it and performed it on the New Year's “Ogoniok” on ORT, after which Kvasha filed four lawsuits through the Russian Authors' Society and Konstantin Ernst aired the “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” video. In January 2007 the Austrian group Global Deejays put out a dance remix built on Kvasha's vocal from his 2000 album “Tantsevalny Proekt Kvasha”; in 2007 F. R. David cut an English-language version for the NTV project “Ty - Superstar!”, Alexander Pushny on 12 December 2007 a Rammstein-style version, in 2009 Brazzaville “Green Eyed Taxi”, in 2015 Zhora Kryzhovnikov an in-scene mashup in the film “The Best Day”, and in 2021 IOWA and RSAC a cover with Yandex.Taxi. Nine documented versions - but the one that went further in fame was Boyarsky's.
The case of superiority: “Am I to Blame” and “Golden Ring”
The second clean case is “Am I to Blame” (Vinovata li ya), a sentimental romance by composer Alexey Muravlyov (the text is attributed to Felix Dallada) that over time became a folk song. In early 1995 the ensemble “Golden Ring” under Nadezhda Kadysheva released, on Soyuz Studio, the album “Am I to Blame…”, which became a best-seller. Here the cover ensemble carried a pre-revolutionary-origin piece into the mass эстрада of the 90s - an audience a chamber romance on its own would not have reached. The original, as an authorial romance, stayed with a narrow circle; the mass fame was brought by the ensemble version.
The case of a new audience: the “Buranovskie Babushki”
The “Buranovskie Babushki”, a folklore ensemble from the village of Buranovo in Udmurtia (the average age of its members was 70 by 2010), began covering well-known hits in Udmurt in 2008, starting from Native Language Day. Their repertoire took in Viktor Tsoi's “A Star Called the Sun”, Boris Grebenshchikov's “The Golden City”, Vladimir Butusov's “Walking on Water”, the Beatles' “Yesterday” and Queen's “We Are the Champions”. The originals here are iconic and better known - these covers cannot be called ones that “went further”. But they carried familiar material to an audience for whom it would otherwise not have sounded, and they took this trick to Eurovision 2012 in Baku, where the ensemble took second place with the song “Party for Everybody”. Before the Baku final the ensemble had already entered the national selection for Eurovision 2010 with the song “A Long, Long Piece of Birch Bark and How to Make an Aishon from It” and placed third. This is a case not of superiority but of a new audience.
The case of an independent life: “Nezhnost” in five voices
Sometimes a cover does not surpass the original but gets such an independent life that the song's story cannot be told without it. “Nezhnost” (“Tenderness”) by Alexandra Pakhmutova to lyrics by Grebennikov and Dobronravov was first heard in December 1965 at the Column Hall of the House of Unions in Maya Kristalinskaya's performance. In 1966 Melodiya released it on an export single (45D 00017305-6) and on a single for the domestic market (33D 00018581-2), and in 1969 in a stereo version (33S 01727-8). The song then accumulated several contextual versions: it was sung by Tatiana Doronina's character in the film “Three Poplars on Plyushchikha” (1967, director Tatiana Lioznova), Tatiana Bulanova recorded it for “Old Songs About the Main Things 2”, Thomas Anders released an English variant “Tenderness”, and the Belgian guitarist Francis Goya made an instrumental version for the album “A Tribute To Alexandra Pakhmutova” (2002). None of these versions “surpassed” Kristalinskaya, but each gave the song a separate life - in cinema, on television, in another language and in an instrumental genre.
The television project as a cover factory
The most mass format of Russian covers of the 90s was the “Old Songs About the Main Things” cycle on ORT (producer Konstantin Ernst, musical producer Alexander Kutikov, arrangement by Felix Ilinykh, director Dmitry Fiks). The first part aired on the night of 31 December 1995 to 1 January 1996; afterwards, into the mid-2000s, the film was repeated by Channel One on holidays. The third part of the cycle came out on New Year's night 1997, the fourth - “Postscript” - on the night of 31 December 2000 to 1 January 2001. The idea was Soviet film songs performed by 90s stars, keeping the melody under a new arrangement. The first part alone has about nineteen pairings: “Good Girls” (from “Devchata”) by Larisa Dolina and Irina Otiyeva, “Because We Are Pilots” (from “The Sky Slowpoke”) by the group Na-Na, “Oh, the Kalina Blooms” (from “The Kuban Cossacks”) by Angelika Varum, “The Way You Were” (from “The Kuban Cossacks”) by Sofia Rotaru, “The Dark Barrows Sleep” (from “A Great Life”) by Nikolai Rastorguev.
It is important to be honest: these covers did not outgrow the originals. Soviet film songs remain iconic in their original form, and “Old Songs About the Main Things” is a nostalgic television project that gave covers mass TV life, not superiority. This is the third outcome - an independent life in a new format. For a concrete example, see Disco Magic’s cover of Masterboy’s Feel the Fire.
The case of language transfer: a tribute to Tsoi
A separate line is covers that go further not in fame but in geography. In the tribute album “KINOproby”, recorded in 2000 ten years after Viktor Tsoi's death, the song “Sunny Days” was cut in Russian, Ukrainian and French at once - all three sat on Tsoi's music, and the album also included a single three-language version. The “Dedicated to Viktor Tsoi” concert was held on 17 November 2000 at Moscow's SC Olimpiysky and on 19 November at the St Petersburg Ice Palace. The project grew sequels - “KINOproby. Rap Tribute” (2010), “Save the World. Tribute to Tsoy 2014” and “We Came Out of KINO” (2017). Tsoi's originals here are, of course, primary; the language transfer widened their geography rather than surpassing them in fame. Translating a song into another language as a trick is taken apart in the piece on translating italo-disco into Russian.
What tells a cover that went further apart
Bringing the cases together, the conclusion is this. A cover outgrows the original when it closes a niche the source never reached: Boyarsky gave “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” a television-эстрада face that the author's version lacked; “Golden Ring” carried a pre-revolutionary romance into the mass эстрада of the 90s; the “Buranovskie Babushki” brought familiar material to a folklore-format audience and reached Eurovision. When such a niche does not exist, a cover remains either a shadow of the original or a version with an independent life in a new format - like “Old Songs About the Main Things” or Thomas Anders's English “Tenderness”. What goes further than the original is not the best arrangement, but the one that finds a new listener the original itself never found.
A summary across the three outcomes:
- Superiority: “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” - Boyarsky surpassed Kvasha's authorial version; “Am I to Blame” - “Golden Ring” surpassed Muravlyov's chamber romance.
- A new audience: the “Buranovskie Babushki” - familiar rock and pop material carried to a folklore audience and to the Eurovision 2012 final.
- An independent life: “Nezhnost” - five contextual versions (Doronina, Bulanova, Anders, Goya) without surpassing Kristalinskaya; “Old Songs About the Main Things” - about nineteen covers of Soviet film songs in a nostalgic television project.
Of the two dozen Russian covers surveyed, two are marked by full superiority - “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” in Boyarsky's performance and “Am I to Blame” in “Golden Ring”'s. The rest are either a new audience or an independent life in a new format. The honest figure of covers that “went further” in Russian material turns out to be noticeably fewer than twenty; but twenty documented versions with different fates is the real picture of how Russian covers live.