And that is what DJ's are for, IMO.

Since when did it become imperative to cover EVERY tune, whether we can play it or not? Be careful, folks. As soon as singing over a backing track provided by the artist (or their record company) becomes acceptable entertainment, all you are left with is karaoke...

Trust me, when the audience hears something IDENTICAL to the record with you singing over it, there goes any pretense that you have had anything whatsoever to do with the playing, and the words 'karaoke' rightly spring to mind of your audience (and employers).

Personally, someone comes up and requests a tune we don't do, I have no problems telling them 'we don't do that one... here's something else you might like'. Maybe I'm just in a different market, but I've never felt the need to go out and start singing karaoke over a remix, just to do that one song...

And, before we forget it, if you actually ARE using an arranger (you know, actually PLAYING it rather than using it it as a karaoke machine ) NOT ONE of your tunes sounds identical to a record. Hasn't stopped you from being successful, has it? Why the need to sound identical? You know, every time I hear a major artist cover another's song, somehow, magically, they never even TRY to sound identical to the original. In fact, most of the time, they try to sound as different as they can. And yet this results in success for them... Maybe there's something we can learn from this?

The audience doesn't care if you play it identically... just well!