‘My idea of my music is constantly changing so I feel like how other people react to my old songs just ends up putting more pressure on myself from my own perspective.’ – Tate McRae

‘I still love to do the old songs. I know some people don’t.’ – Bonnie Tyler

‘Nostalgia is one thing. It’s great to go and play the old songs. People know them and appreciate them. You got to give them what they want to hear.’ – Denny Laine

‘I do sometimes go back to my old songs. Some I feel very proud of. They make me wonder, ‘How did I do this?” – Amit Trivedi

‘And when I’ve been away from my family and friends, I have felt good hearing some of those old songs.’ – Beau Bridges

‘I just claim to do what I do, which is to sing old songs and try to make them cool.’ – Chloe Kohanski

‘It’s not enough to play the old songs; that feels like being your own covers band or something. It’s a big release to do new stuff.’ – Pete Doherty

‘One of the reasons we survive as a band is that we are seen as a band of today. We don’t want to be seen as a band that tours and plays old songs. We feel that we are making the best music of our careers.’ – Andrew Fletcher

‘I love songs but am inhibited to have my characters burst out to express themselves through songs. I use the route of using old songs at the right places.’ – Sriram Raghavan

‘Me and Jerry left because we felt we weren’t getting anywhere playing our old songs in tiny clubs. The group was getting stale and staying behind the times.’ – Johnny Thunders

‘I like mash-ups, taking contemporary songs and making them old… old songs, making them new.’ – Bria Skonberg

‘It is unethical to promote old songs sung by new artistes, and the government should ban these things.’ – Asha Bhosle

‘Kids know me from their Grease DVD, so they instantly respond. You can hear a pin drop when I do my old songs.’ – Frankie Avalon

‘Any musical person who has never heard a Negro congregation under the spell of religious fervor sing these old songs has missed one of the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience.’ – James Weldon Johnson

‘I cannot sing the old songs now! It is not that I deem them low, ‘Tis that I can’t remember how They go.’ – Charles Stuart Calverley

‘It does feel really good when you play a new song, and it’s the loudest singalong of the night. It means just as much when we’re playing the old songs, and people are singing along to those, too.’ – Benji Madden

‘You obviously don’t really forget how to play the old songs; you just don’t have to spend so much time convincing yourself that you remember them. Way less mental energy is spent swimming around in lyrics you’ve already written and chords you’ve already played.’ – Jeff Tweedy

‘I’ve always been a big fan of taking old songs and completely turning them on their head. Having no adherence to the fine tradition of the original version. Rearranging them and taking a different approach to them.’ – Joe Bonamassa

‘We went through this business of me writing out all the parts for these old songs from Gravity and Speechless and we’d been performing that, but we don’t do that any more.’ – Fred Frith

‘And it really is a good feeling to get up there and make that sound. I’m not stuck in a time warp, because I can use as many of the old songs as I want to, just the favorites.’ – Dan Hicks

‘No, we’ve been performing our old songs a little differently each performance.’ – Fred Schneider

‘To passively get up and play a bunch of old songs wouldn’t have really motivated us. So we are bringing the new material into the set and it goes down really well.’ – Andy Taylor

‘I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way – I said, ‘I think it’s time for me to have some fun.” – Buck Owens

‘I’m now comfortable playing a lot of the old songs, and I’ve gotten out a lot of the old equipment.’ – John Fogerty

‘Sometimes if you get ’em too drunk they don’t pay no attention to what you’re doin’ anyways, so you might as well just do old songs. But if you get one that’s paying attention, sometimes we’ll do some new material.’ – Merle Haggard

‘The first time I encountered Stephen Sondheim was like everyone else: through snatches of old songs people performed in drama school, through ‘Send in the Clowns,’ which everyone knew. I wasn’t aware at the time that he was the writing force behind ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Gypsy.” – Michael Ball

‘Other musicians are basically personalities who want to make a name for themselves. All I do is sing old songs in the best way I can. What else is there to know? If you were a blacksmith, what would people need to know about you other than whether you can make a good horseshoe?’ – Leon Redbone

‘I’ve learned that people latch onto labels and stereotypes. There was a period when I was asked in every single interview how I liked being the new Frank Sinatra… I think people will soon realize that I do a lot more than interpret old songs.’ – Harry Connick, Jr.

‘People try to make a big deal, like I don’t want to play my old songs. That’s not it. I don’t want to play my old songs if that’s my only option. That’s a different thing.’ – Billy Corgan

‘I take my hat off to people like the Stones, but it’s not for me. I couldn’t do that. Jagger is brilliant and long may he rock. I couldn’t make my career out of old songs; it would do my head in.’ – Paul Weller

‘My seven-year-old daughter knows old songs and how the neighborhoods got their names. There are little things: Businesses receive blessings from Hawaiian priests before opening, and everyone’s kids have their debut luau. You can’t really get through a day without doing something Hawaiian.’ – Kaui Hart Hemmings

‘A lot of times, that’s hard to capture: what you sound like in person versus what you sound like on record. If I had total control, I would do a lot of the old songs – not only my songs but Sam Cooke songs, Luther Vandross, melody songs. That’s what I would really do if I had an opportunity to do a record.’ – Darlene Love

‘My old songs used to take place in Gothenburg; then, when I lived in Melbourne, the songs just naturally took place more in Melbourne.’ – Jens Lekman

‘I always use the Rolling Stones as the whipping boy for this, but they still play old songs as 90% of their set, and we would die if that were the case.’ – Lee Ranaldo

‘I’ve always played all the old songs. I’d go and see Peter Gabriel or Madonna and be surprised if they didn’t play all the hits. People don’t want to come and hear the B-sides.’ – Toyah Willcox

‘Nowadays, people are re-making old songs and that’s good for us because the teenage audiences will get to know who the singer was and who is singing now.’ – Kumar Sanu

‘Thanks to ‘Super Dancer – Chapter 4,’ that I was reminded how popular was our jodi, and the love for our songs. It was exhilarating to experience the fandom in person and to remember all those old songs. It was a great feeling.’ – Neelam Kothari