The Best Beatles Cover Songs
The Beatles rocking out at the Cavern 1962
How Many?
The Beatles officially recorded and released 25 cover songs during their career - including Maggie Mae. Some of these we now associate more with The Beatles than the original artists (step forward Twist and Shout).
Other covers? The BBC radio sessions were available on bootlegs (Swingin’ Pig anyone?) before they were eventually released in the 1990’s. These recordings brought many more covers into the public domain. In the main, they’re inferior to the official Parlaphone studio recordings with just the novelty of new Beatles songs hiding the diminution in quality.
Following on from the Beatles at the Beeb, Apple released the Anthology Series in the mid 90’s which included many more cover versions. Again, whilst interesting, they don’t really add up to much though I do like the rawness of Shout from ‘Around the Beatles’ and the live Swedish version of You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me.
Of course there’s the Decca audition tape which, frankly, isn’t great. Like Dick Rowe, I’d have booted them out too. It wasn’t their time.
So, we’re left with covers from Please Please Me, With the Beatles, The Long Tall Sally EP, Beatles for Sale, Help! and, er, Bad Boy. I think - and this is my blog so what I think is important - the quality of the covers deteriorated between 1963-5. What was a vibrant part of their club and stage act became, by 64/65, merely stale fillers for when the Lennon-McCartney song factory ran dry.
So here are my top ten Beatles covers.
Twist & Shout
How could any list not include this? A whole mythology has arisen just on the recording of this very song. Recorded at the end of a full day laying down their Please Please Me album, we have Lennon, stripped to the waist, bellowing his lungs out like his life depended on it, screaming his way into immortality. The Lennon scream is a thing of beauty employed throughout the Beatles career but never more so than here. Although the instrumentation is standard 1963 chug-a-lug, the roar they created invented heavy rock.
It is now THE definitive version. Who are the Isley Brothers you might ask?
Bad Boy
Overlooked in the UK until put on the Beatles rock n’ roll albums in the 1970’s, Bad Boy is another demonstration of the Lennon yell. This is far superior to the other Larry Williams cover recorded on the same night, Dizzy Miss Lizzie which loses its charm after about two minutes. Bad Boy though, is well recorded, with a rocky background of a group well used to the studio. Even Harrison’s signature repetitive guitar licks don’t annoy too much. In short; a song that is proof - if it were even needed - that John Lennon possessed one of rock’s greatest voices. He really goes for it on this track.
Long Tall Sally
Anything John can do, Paul can do too! Like Twist and Shout, this was recorded in one take. This blistering cover of the Little Richard stable, is a two minute lesson in what rock sounds like. Featuring George Martin on piano, the Beatles lock into that rock n’ roll groove that barrels through this classic going punch to punch with the original. Ending their concerts, the Beatles had a choice now for which screamer to leave their audience’s panties wet.
Baby It’s You
My personal favourite. The Beatles do Bacharach and David. The sha-la-la backing vocals and the sombre playing all lead up to Lennon’s cri de coeur ‘can’t help myself / don’t want nobody, nobody’ howl that finishes each phrase. Seriously, is there a better singer for the dramatic highs and lows than John? We may explore this factor again. Shite instrumental though with a weedy guitar solo allied with some unwelcome cheesy organ. No. No.
You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me
Yeah, John again, leading the group through a muscular version of the Smokey Robinson classic. The second time he sings ‘You’ve really got a hold on me’ where his voice splits up to a falsetto is cut out and keep moment in rock history. George’s undercard harmonies also rate a mention. Solipsistic note: One of my groups used to play this in Brighton in the early 90’s. Always went down well, even when the singer (me) used to provocatively unbutton his two tone Burton’s shirt for the delight of no-one. Read more about my musical misadventures.
Devil in Her Heart
My parents owned two Beatles LPs - With the Beatles and Rubber Soul. Years after they gathered dust, I discovered them in the 70’s and used to play them all the way through again and again. Devil in Her Heart, was always - and still is - a favourite. George takes lead but the vocals are amp’d up by the block call and response harmonies from John and Paul (in the same way they would do to mask Ringo’s atonal renderings). I think though it’s the staccato ‘she’s got the devil in her heart’ which captured and holds my attention. I also remember watching it in the God awful Dick Van Dyke Beatles cartoons.
Leave My Kitten Alone
Left off the Beatles For Sale album - why? - this track was finally officially released in the 90’s Anthology series (though I’d had the bootleg for years). It’s marked by an aggressive Lennon vocal. When he sings he’s going to hit the bulldog on the top of his head, you know John really means it as he snarls the line out like someone just spilled his pint at closing time in some Liverpool dive.
Please Mister Postman
With due deference to the Carpenters, this is the definitive version. Another great John vocal - back then he seemed to sing each song as though his life depended on it. But it’s the enthusiastic backing of Paul and George that really push this song to the next level. There’s a great version in the under rated 90’s movie Backbeat.
Money (That’s What I Want)
The blistering end to the With the Beatles album. Kind of a bookend with Twist and Shout finishing off the previous LP. Roaring John. Tick. Great Paul and George backing. Cranked up by George Michael’s piano. Yes. All the elements were there for a rocking Beatles track, a stellar cover version and some great memories blasting this out through my parents tinny speakers rotating the knob all the way to 10.
Annie (Go to Him)
Shit! Another Lennon scorcher. I guess I have a bias for him either screaming to rock tunes or belting out big ballads. Well, my blog, my rules (you can obviously comment below if you disagree). The emotional, and musical highlight, is when Lennon goes into the big notes on the “All of my life” parts. He really means it man and I guess that’s the clue; whether singing a ballad or a rabble rousing rocker, John seems authentic. He is living the story and you feel it
Honorable Mentions
Ones that nearly made it. Soldier of Love, To Know Her is to Love Her, Some Other Guy from the Beatles at the Beeb. All fine tracks and good performances. Some Other Guy certainly rocks along in the live setting with a particular prominent bass which is missing on the official recordings. Maybe Roll Over Beethoven which is quite spirited. Actually the latter song, I always quite liked the much reviled Hollywood Bowl recording with Paul handling the harmonies.
Nothing from Help! or Beatles for Sale? No, not really into their country and western incarnation. Usually a vehicle for Ringo to monotone his way through a song. Even the rockers are a bit so-so in my view. Kansas City Hey Hey Hey, Rock n Roll Music seem a bit… What’s the word? Inessential.
More Beatles?
Do you want to read more? What about The Best Beatles Album Tracks? Or, it’s obverse, The Worst Beatles Album Tracks?
Or go full for the full Monty of music reviews? Try a Taylor Swift live review maybe?
The internet, porn and the opiate of the masses : 2016 Repost
William Tyndale. Lover of the internet. Probably.
Repost: I was Right!
I thought I repost this article from August 2016. As you can see, I was aware of the underlying tensions in the Ukraine and, five and half years before Putin invaded, that there were EU/US inspired tensions from 2014. My salient point that regions with a rich and complex history are being used to push other agendas still stands. In fact, better now than in August 2016 when clearly I could see the lies and manipulation even then. Which doesn’t support one side or another but just cautions blindly being led by those who seek to profit or who have hidden motives. My points about the role of the media, the gatekeepers, the custodians of the current view have also aged well. This was written pre Covid.
I’ve lightly edited out aged references or irrelevant asides but left the piece as written.
My advocating of a person curating their own news agendas from multiple sources is still my viewpoint. Interesting that when people started to do this during the Covid era, it became yet another stick in which to beat those with opposing views. Condescension is never far away from the lips of those who accept agendas unquestionably.
TR March 2024
Original Article, August 2016
One of the major differences between my parents' generation and mine and probably between mine and my children's is the way we consume news. I literally cannot stand anymore to watch the BBC (or other channels) as they push their own news agenda. The prominence they give to stories. The stories they cover. The stories they don't cover. What angle the reporters choose to push. Who the guests are.
"Tonight we're discussing spending lots of taxes on some bullshit cause de jour. Supporting this we have Mother Theresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Opposing is Adolf Hitler. "
Suddenly we're all supposed to be interested in The Ukraine, or Syria, or Iran, or wherever public school educated lefties in editorial positions decide we need to be lectured about next. And then - like magic - the issue disappears as the cameramen go onto the next story. Don't get me wrong. There are things that happen in these, and other places, that are newsworthy, but I don't necessarily agree on the broadcasters' news agenda, nor their selective editing or timings. So in 2015, for instance, there was the migrant crisis and all those pictures of young men walking across Europe was on TV every night. This year the numbers flocking to Europe is up. But during the referendum period, did we see any pictures of this? It was happening but strangely, not on our TV screens. Funny that.
The Ukraine War 2014-2022
A couple of years back, The Ukraine was all over our screens. The toppling of democratically elected - but corrupt - president by the mob was shown in a sympathetic light. The fight back against this in the east of the country and Crimea, was presented as a bad thing. Especially when Russia joined in. If you supported the EU and approve of the demonising and provoking of Russia, you would push one angle. If you hated the EU, you would push another. Personally, the ignorance and propagandising of our TV coverage sickened me.
So I decided to do some reading on the history of The Ukraine. What I found was a region so rich with history, wars, pogroms, dirty dealings, hatreds going back centuries that any non specialist would hesitate to say anything, let alone push an agenda. So the attempt by our TV and newspapers to pickle this into a Russia - Bad, pro EU Ukraine - Good narrative just seemed wilfully ignorant. Or deliberate.
Be Your Own Curator!
The good news is that today there's no excuse to not to be your own news editor and set your own agenda. There's a big, vast internet out there. With a few clicks you can watch videos, read articles from many sources, check facts, go into depth and make your mind up. This democratisation of knowledge is one of the greatest advances in human history. Everything available at just a few seconds notice!
But surely we need gatekeepers - shout the statists, the control freaks. The people who were in charge or those who seek to control basically despise, forever and a day, their fellow humans. We're allowed our vote but god forbid we start to challenge received wisdom, start to push back, start to baulk at the titular binary choices we're offered that actually are just two cheeks of the same arse...
Well - getting rid of de haute en bas tossers who love control, is a good thing and actively to be encouraged. As I get older - as faith in my own certainty diminishes - my faith in the collective wisdom of people grows.
But, and it's a big BUT, if we are to be our own editors, if we are to determine our own news agendas, there comes responsibility too. It's the other side of the coin of freedom or liberty. The sentient person has to be aware of their own biases, their own agendas, their own ability to think the best of their own side and do down the other. It's human nature but the zealot, with eyes in the mid distance, ears shutted, is always to avoided.
So - what to do? Read widely. Read across the divide. Engage with arguments. Test out your own. Push your understanding. Improve yourself.
Yeah, it's a bitch, I get that. But ignorance swirls around us, waiting for victims. Bad people await at the gate waiting to be let in. Ambitious people will try to manipulate you.
"Libraries gave us power" sang the Manic Street Preachers, in another era about an even earlier era. And so they did. And their modern day equivalent - the internet - still does. Use them. Or lose them. There are people who'd rather you consumed the opiate of celebrity gossip and porn whilst real power was being curtailed.
Let me leave you with The Beatles semi live on The David Frost show pissing on absolutely everyone (as per usual)...
Read On
Read more features on Music Reviews, Roman History, and reviews the urban noir of my City tours.
The Greatest Album One / Two Punches
Albums that come out swinging!
There are albums that come out of the blocks with two killer tracks that are like a pissed off Mike Tyson swinging wildly at some trash talking, old timer patsy in the late 80's. Albums that decide that the best way to follow a kicking first track, is with another.
Lock up your aunties! The Crowes in 1992
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (1992)
The second album from the Crowes throws 'Sting Me' to the left and "Remedy' to the right. 1992 might have been Grunge Year Zero but, together with Teenage Fanclub, the Crowes held rock's banner aloft. These are kick-ass rock tunes. Basically, The Faces reimagined if their Marshalls were turned to 11 and Rod really went for it instead of pretending to be Sam Cooke. Love these two songs. Highlight - the 'fuck you' start of the guitar solo in Sting Me. A moment in rock I've ever and a day tried to replicate. Two seconds of true power!
The CD reissue doesn't 'feel' right!
Eden - Everything but the Girl (1984)
The impulse purchase one doesn't regret! Stood in WHSmith Rochdale's record department in 1984, I hear the wondrous album play over the store speakers. One track, two tracks, I was sold. Marched up to desk and asked, "Pray tell me good madam, who is making this bewitching sound?". Everything but the Girl apparently. Crazy name, crazy sound. So, I bought the album with its distinctive cardboard, non veneered album with the abstract painting on the front. The songs, I now know, were Each and Everyone and Bittersweet. They detail the commonplace jealousies and realities of relationships. All bedsits, screaming babies and jealousy. No holding hands and a rush towards lust with these songs. It was the clever lyrics as much as the bossa nova rhythms that had me captivated. The rest of the album's pretty good (apart from the execrable Soft Touch). I’ve framed this album.
George is a pinapple head
Beatles for Sale (1964)
Not a One / Two, but a 1-2-3. The Fab Four of course do what other groups do - only better. Whilst other groups would put their singles on their albums, The Beatles didn't. So Beatles for Sale kicks off with No Reply, I'm a Loser, Baby's in Black. With these stunning ditties The Fab Four literally piss on their competition. The bar is set so high, their album tracks sound like a career best single for any other group. Bizarrely, although released at the height of Beatlemania, Beatles for Sale is pretty obscure these days and these three - being non singles - are not as well known as they should be. But I love this album. Almost as much as I love...
Fisheye
...Rubber Soul (1965)
Pound for pound, this non single containing album, packs pretty much the hardest punch of any album. It roars out of the blocks with McCartney's funky - come on Motown have a go if you think you're hard enough! - Drive My Car. Most groups' best single ever. Just an album track. We then shift gear to the acoustic and sitar masterpiece that is Norwegian Wood. As a guitarist, this latter song - with its major to minor shift - is a dream to play. Like You've Got To Hide Your Love Away this shows why Lennon is so revered. This is effortlessly brilliant. We all fuck around on D but don't achieve anything like this. Let alone chucking in a middle 8 in G minor. Class. In a glass.
Hard. Soft. Kicks ass.
Led Zep 4 (1971)
Anything The Beatles can do, Zep does one better and louder! The whole of Side 1 of Led Zep 4. Just review these four tracks:- Black Dog, Rock n Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway to Heaven. And this is just an normal album, not a greatest hits compilation. Not a filler in sight! From the sonic destruction of the first two, to my teenage fav with Sandy Denny (obligatory hobbit references!) to the ubiquitous - but deservedly so - Stairway, this is how to start a 37 million selling album. Are these guys knights of the realm yet FFS?
Want to read more?
What about the five songs from the early sixties that led to heavy rock?
20 Minute Playlist: Early Beatles
So a fantasy 20 minute playlist from the Fab Four - 1963-1965.
Ticket to Ride
She Loves You
Baby's in Black
I Feel Fine
This Boy
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Long Tall Sally
Twist and Shout
I decided to open with the distinctive guitar riff of Ticket to Ride (which is probably my favourite Beatles single). Then in to the full on Beatlemania of She Loves You segueing into the waltz time of Baby's in Black. The bouncy I Feel Fine is followed by the I Want to Hold Your Hand single in reverse order, with the harmonies of This Boy and Lennon's stand out vocal calming things down. We end with a Paul v John face off, Long Tall Sally and Twist and Shout, the two standard Beatles set closers. These two could be reversed but they end the set on a high and V sign to anyone who has to follow. Beat that!
The video below has the Fab Four at their most energetic and really rocking. If you want to skip to 5:57 you will hear the best ever performance of Twist and Shout followed by the best ever performance of Long Tall Sally. The Beatles were on fire that night and although sometimes they seemed on tour a bit jaded or in it for the money, these performances show, when they were up, they were the best live band ever.
The Greatest Album One / Two Punches
There are albums that come out of the blocks with two killer tracks that are like a pissed off Mike Tyson swinging wildly at some trash talking, old timer patsy in the mid 80's. Albums that decide that the best way to follow a kicking first track, is to put on another.
Lock up your aunties! The Crowes in 1992
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (1992)
The second album from the Crowes throws 'Sting Me' to the left and "Remedy' to the right. 1992 might have been Grunge Year Zero but, together with Teenage Fanclub, the Crowes held rock's banner aloft. These are kick-ass rock tunes. Basically, The Faces reimagined if their Marshalls were turned to 11 and Rod really went for it. Love these two songs. Highlight - the 'fuck you' start of the guitar solo in Sting Me. A moment in rock I've ever and a day tried to replicate. Two seconds of true power!
The CD reissue doesn't 'feel' right!
Eden - Everything but the Girl (1984)
The impulse purchase one doesn't regret! Stood in WHSmith Rochdale's record department in 1984, I hear the wondrous album play over the store speakers. One track, two tracks, I was sold. Marched up to desk and asked, "Pray tell me good madam, who is making this bewitching sound?". Everything but the Girl apparently. Crazy name, crazy sound. So, I bought the album - that cardboard, non veneered album with the abstract painting on the front. The songs, I now know as Each and Everyone and Bittersweet. They detail the commonplace jealousies and realities of relationships. All bedsits, screaming babies and jealousy. No holding hands and a rush towards lust with these songs. It was the clever lyrics as much as the bossa nova rhythms that had me captivated. The rest of the album's pretty good (apart from the execrable Soft Touch).
George is a pinapple head
Beatles for Sale (1964)
Not a One / Two, but a 1-2-3. The Fab Four of course do what other groups do - only better. Whilst other groups would put their singles on their albums, The Beatles didn't. So Beatles for Sale kicks off with No Reply, I'm a Loser, Baby's in Black. With these stunning ditties The Fab Four literally piss on their competition. The bar is set so high, their album tracks sound like a career best single for any other group. Bizarrely, although released at the height of Beatlemania, Beatles for Sale is pretty obscure these days and these three - being non singles - are not as well known as they should be. But I love this album. Almost as much as I love...
Fisheye
...Rubber Soul (1965)
Pound for pound, this non single containing album, packs pretty much the hardest punch of any album. It roars out of the blocks with McCartney's funky - come on Motown have a go if you think you're hard enough! - Drive My Car. Most groups' best single ever. Just an album track. We then shift gear to the acoustic and sitar masterpiece that is Norwegian Wood. As a guitarist, this latter song - with it's major to minor shift - is a dream to play. Like You've Got To Hide Your Love Away this shows why Lennon is so revered. This is effortlessly brilliant. We all fuck around on D but don't achieve anything like this. Let alone chucking in a middle 8 in G minor. Class. In a glass.
Hard. Soft. Kicks ass.
Led Zep 4 (1971)
Anything The Beatles can do, Zep does one better and louder! The whole of Side 1 of Led Zep 4. Just review these four tracks:- Black Dog, Rock n Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway to Heaven. And this is just an normal album, not a greatest hits compilation. Not a filler in sight! From the sonic destruction of the first two, to my teenage fav with Sandy Denny (obligatory hobbit references!) to the ubiquitous - but deservedly so - Stairway, this is how to start a 37 million selling album. Are these guys knights of the realm yet FFS?
George Martin
Okay - The Clash had it right. "No Elvis, Beatles, Rolling Stones."
Because they're the big three, right? The Crassus, Caesar and Pompey of rock. And I agree. I remember being sad in 1977 at The King's death. I was fucking angry when Lennon was shot in 1980. I loved it when Travis performed a George Harrison tribute at The Brits in 2001 to kids too stupid, too gauche, to understand the death that had just happened.
And so George Martin passes away.
He would be famous for many things but his decision to sign The Beatles has to rank as one of the cleverest, smartest, most profitable decisions ever made. He auditioned the Beatles in June 1962. In March 1964 the Beatles were numbers 1-5 in America.
Let me just say that again in case any of you younger people don't get it.
In March 1964 The Beatles were numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 in the American charts. So fuck off any One DIrections out there. You are literally shit under McCartney's shoe. And John Lennon? Seriously ladies, go and get another tattoo and fuck the Queen of Chavs. Leave the music to George Martin and the Beatles. You are, quite simply, nothing.
Because behind The Beatles was always George Martin. The Beatles would still have been The Beatles without him (see She's Leaving Home and, shamefully those twats on Newsnight who highlighted The Long and Winding Road - a Phil Spectre orchestration)... But in a million ways he pushed and facilitated The Fab Four.
- Can't But Me Love starts with the chorus because of him
- Sgt Pepper was all about George Martin
- He invented ADT (automatic Double Tracking)
- He scored Yesterday for strings
- He made I Am Walrus the kick-ass proto-type Oasis it is
- He made Strawberry Fields Forever from pieces of Lennon brilliance.
- He came up with idea for Please Please Me - an album in a day. He also speeded the single up to give the Beatles their first hit.
- He does a mean rock n roll piano. Check out Rock N Roll Music - that's George rocking out on the ivories.
- He went independent from EMI in 1967 and so broke the monopoly of the record companies on how their artists sound
- A million, billion things large and small that created the greatest rock and pop group ever. My views on this are not sanguine, nor debatable.
And on top of everything he was a genuine English gent who fought in the war, the sort we seem in short supply of these days - restrained, decent, modest and competent. A good bloke.
Sorry this is so inadequate George; you deserve much better from me.
RIP
Tim