Tag: cover
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107: Baby It’s You
Baby It’s You is one of two Shirelles’ covers (along with with Boys) to appear on the Beatles’ first album Please Please Me. The Beatles’ first heroes may have been artists like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Little Richard, the best known Rock’n’roll stars, but by the time they made their first record – judging…
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108: Chains
Chains is a cover of the Cookies song written by Goffin and King, and sung by George Harrison on the Beatles version which appears on Please Please Me. The Cookies were a New York girl group who were important in linking Atlantic records and the Brill Building, acting as backing singers on several hits including…
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109: Money (That’s What I Want)
Money is a cover of the Barrett Strong song which appears as the climactic rocker at the end of With The Beatles. As with Twist And Shout, from the Please Please Me album, John Lennon pulls out all the stops in a powerful vocal performance. The entire band turns up the energy as the song…
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115: Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Dizzy Miss Lizzy is the top-ranked (in this ranking) of the Beatles’ three Larry Williams covers (with 141: Bad Boy and 195:Slow Down). I think it’s fair to surmise that as Williams was among the most covered artists in the Beatles’ official recorded catalogue that he was an important influence. Lennon sings all three covers…
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119: Roll Over Beethoven
Roll Over Beethoven is a Chuck Berry Cover from the Beatles’ second album, With The Beatles, sung by George Harrison. Though the Beatles were big fans of Berry, only two covers, Roll Over Beethoven and Rock And Roll Music, made their official catalogue (thirteen others were, at various times, performed as part of their repertoire).…
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121: Mr. Moonlight
Mr Moonlight is a cover of a song, originally recorded by Dr Feelgood and the Interns, that appears on the Beatles For Sale album. Looking back at the underlying ratings that support its ranking on this blog, I see that I rated it highly for performance, and a good proportion of that score is due…
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124: A Taste Of Honey
A Taste Of Honey was a theme, originally an instrumental, written for the Broadway version of a Shelagh Delaney play the same name. A little like Devil In Her Heart (discussed earlier this week) it was a fairly obscure track to select as a cover. It must have had an interesting transatlantic journey into the…
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128: Devil In Her Heart
Devil In Her Heart is a cover version from the With The Beatles album, sung by George Harrison. The Beatles took great pride in their knowledge of American music and their taste in selecting even quite obscure songs for their setlist. Devil In Her Heart is a great example, being possibly the most obscure track…
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131: Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!
Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! (I’ll call it Kansas City) is a cover version from the Beatles For Sale album. It had been a staple of the Beatles’ Cavern Club setlists. The Kansas City part of the song is a very early rock’n’roll song written by Leiber and Stoller (both then just 19 years old) in 1952, but…
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141: Bad Boy
Bad Boy is a cover of a Larry Williams song which, in the UK, only appeared on a 1966 album called A Collection Of Beatles Oldies during their recording career. As the title suggests, that album consisted of already released songs, with Bad Boy being the odd one out. After the band broke up it…
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175: Act Naturally
Appearing on the Help! album, Act Naturally was one of the last covers included on the Beatles original official releases. By this stage in their career, the available recording and production technology had improved significantly and Act Naturally is also helped by a unironic/sympathetic arrangement – although it’s a Country & Western “pastiche”, the Beatles…
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181: Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
I have a soft spot for this Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby. I love the cheeky, light-heartedly bragging tone. Seems like a great fit for George’s witty, ironic and sort-of-but-not-quite humble personality. It wouldn’t work at all for Paul McCartney, right? I also think it has a really nice authentic rock’n’roll sound and a…