1. What is the most recorded song of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records?
From Quiz Records of Records
Answer:
Summertime
"Summertime" written by George and Ira Gershwin, with DuBose Heyward. Heyward wrote the book "Porgy", from which came the inspiration for "Porgy and Bess". "Summertime" is one of the many wonderful songs from that show. The song was first recorded in 1935 by Abbie Mitchell accompanied by George Gershwin. There are in excess of 60,000 recordings of this song, by such varied artists as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ricky Nelson, Mantovani, Percy Faith, Patsy Cline, Sam Cooke and Janis Joplin. The Guinness Book of Records 2002 edition notes 67,500 versions of the song.
My research shows "Yesterday" has in excess of 2300 recorded versions.
"Amazing Grace" is classified as a hymn and is the most recorded hymn of all time with more than 1700 versions, followed by "How Great Thou Art" with over 1200 recorded versions.
There are many arguments over which is the most popular song or record of all time or the most played or downloaded, but as this quiz is concerned only with recordings, those arguments are moot.
Note: My personal collection contains over 53,000 titles. I checked my list and I have 88 versions of "Summertime", 43 versions of "Yesterday", seventeen versions of "Amazing Grace" and five versions of "How Great Thou Art" (Twelve if you count seven albums by Elvis Presley that it appears on).