Saturday night I played with the Paragons at the Cox Hall on the Emory Campus and we did a lot of Beatles songs and old disco stuff - some music from my youth. I have to admit I enjoyed doing the Beatles "Something", "With A Little Help From My Friends", "Norwegian Wood", "Can't Buy Me Love", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "And I Love Her". On the other hand, I could have done without "Get Down Tonight" and "Staying Alive". We did get a standing ovation for an instrumental version of "Oye Como Va" which most people associate with Santana, but actually it was written by the great Harlem-born Puerto Rican musician Tito Puente.
I like playing the oldies now and then, but I wouldn't want to do it too often. About ten years ago I did a couple shows with Peter Noone, from Herman's Hermits, and that guy has to sing "I'm Henry The VIII, I am" and "Misses Brown You Have a Lovely Daughter" every night of his life!
Last year I did a show with a band that played all Allman Brothers songs, and that was actually pretty challenging and fun for a guitarist. But one night was just about enough. Same with Motown and R&B bands.
At least with Jazz the tunes provide just the basic melodic and harmonic structure while the musicians, moods, interplay, interpretation and improvisations are spontaneous and hopefully creative and unique. You are not playing jazz if you are playing it just like the record!