@Felthry @noiob The concept of a "cover version" might have originated in the 1940s and 1950s US, when the music market was heavily segregated into white and black music, the former counting for the "Pop" chart and the latter for the "Rhythm and Blues" chart. In this era, when successful records by non-white artists came out, white artists would quickly record copies of these songs for a white label so white radio stations could play the song and white record stores sell the song without actually acknowledging the existence of the non-white musicians who originated it.

I don't know exactly how the word "cover" was chosen, but the word was probably originally coined for the purpose of identifying and denouncing this exploitative practice.

That said, the word seems to have stuck around, and these days, most recordings based on previously-released material are up front about the existence of a prior release and produced for artistic reasons instead of to steal commercial sales. Which is ethically very different, but philosophically similar enough that the same word ended up being used.