The Originals is a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

founded and ran by Arnold Rypens in 2000 and based on a radio show and book series originally launched in 1982. It offers lists of the original versions of thousands of songs and musical compositions and adds every

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

and

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

made of it since. As of 2017 the site counts more than 15.000 titles.

Concept

''The Originals'' was established to track down the original version of every possible

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

. In many cases the tune listeners would recognize as "the original version" turns out to be much older and far more obscure. Visitors can use a

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

to type in the name of a musical work or artist and find the corresponding article. Articles about artists or bands provide a list of all of their songs which are covers and/or songs which have been covered. Articles about songs or melodies list all possible musical covers and versions. In both cases the names of each artist, composer, band, songwriter and year of recording are listed. Whenever possible, historical context and background is provided as well. The info is made available both in Dutch as well as English.

History

The project is the brainchild of Flemish radio host Arnold Rypens (1952) who established a radio show, ''Domino The Originals'' in February 1982 aired on

Omroep Brabant Omroep Brabant is the Netherlands Public Broadcasting regional television and radio broadcaster in the North Brabant Province in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_ty ...

(nowadays Radio 2). It aired nothing but original versions of hits of the day. The emissions sparked interest from listeners who were often surprised and intrigued how old certain songs were and how they sounded in their earliest embryonic versions. As such the show kept running and spawned a special book named ''The Originals - Prequel of the Hits'' (1987) by Arnold Rypens. This first edition listed some 12.000 music titles, tracing back their earliest versions predating hit version(s) and other relevant covers. Since then up to five new book editions have been published, completely updated and expanded. In 2010 an English version has been published as well. Rypens travelled the entire world, researched various libraries, audio collection, museums, archives of

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

and interviewed collectors and archivists like

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in Wau ...

and

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

. Rypens' radio show has been broadcast on Omroep West-Vlaanderen,

Studio Brussel A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial d ...

and the regional channel Radio L1. To this day Rypens still has a daily segment in the radio program ''Pili Pili'' where he talks about one particular song whose origins he has discovered and mapped out. The show was also broadcast on Radio 3 in the Netherlands by Dutch host Hubert van Hoof. In 2000 Rypens established a

around the project.

Sources

External links

Official website

Article about the history of the project

{{DEFAULTSORT:Originals, The Belgian music websites Online music and lyrics databases Music search engines Internet properties established in 2000