Month: May 2018

The Beatles Cover songs

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The Beatles Cover songs

The Beatles some might say (arguably) are the best band in history. I say this! Few have amassed the body of work in the relatively brief time they were together, officially from 1960 to 1970. Ringo joined in 1962 to form the best-selling band of all time. And its not just about the quantity of songs but the quality.  Whether you are more a Lennon fan or McCartney, or you favour Ringo over George, they were all exceedingly talented.

I don’t want to get into the debate of Stones v. Beatles, hey straight up Rock and Roll and longevity needless to say the Rolling Stones win that battle! I shall blog the Stones as well in the future. So, just how many songs did they record? How many originals and how many were cover songs? Cover songs are important as they show some of the early influences on their music and songs they liked enough to re-record. 
According to Soundscapes the Beatles recorded 212 original songs between 1962-1970
Hal Leonard sights 213 original songs
Wikipedia lists 236 original songs and 69 cover songs for a total of 305
Seems odd we all can’t agree on a number, however for my purposes I’m going to focus on cover songs and my go-to authority on this is Secondhandsongs.com. They have the Beatles being covered on 192 original songs, not sure which of the either the 212, 213 or 236 originals have not been re-recorded by I guess there is still time.
Accordingly, they have listed the Beatles recording 102 covers from other artists. Mind you they included ‘technical’ cover songs like those of them covering their own songs and songs from Tony Sheridan who the Beatles backed up as “The Beat Brothers” and German versions etc. so the Wiki number of 69 seems more accurate.  I shan’t attempt to list them all, but I will talk about some of them and there’s enough to fuel several blog posts for sure. I’ll stick to actual Beatles songs originally done by someone else and not written by them. Just for your own edification I have over 200 Beatles songs in my library, and I have 85 songs in my Beatles covers/covered playlist.
Today I’d like to talk about some of the oldest ones, that is to say the originals that date back the farthest.
“Maggie Mae” recorded by the Beatles in 1969.  This was a staple song for the Quarrymen and was widely played and recorded in the UK in the 1950’s and 60’s.
The Beatles add their own words but the song was based on the Traditional Folk song from the mid to late 1800’s but first recorded in 1905as “Good-Bye Maggie May” by J.W. Myers

Here is “Maggie May” by The Vipers Skiffle Group 1957
And yes I believe that Rod Stewart took the name for his hit song, though that’s the only similarity.

Here is a clip of Paul McCartney from “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” singing a snippet of the song. Originally a sailor’s song from what I’ve read so not out of place here.

This one is listed as recorded by the Beatles from 1963 but released on Anthology 1 in 1994.
“Moonlight Bay” a silly version from a British Comedy show
The original song is from 1911 written by Edward Madden, and Percy Wenrich
Listed as ‘American Quartet and Orchestra’ first released in 1912.
“Shimmy Shake” Live, At the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany 1962, Album released May 1, 1977
This song is based on “IWish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” written by Armand Piron but I think its just an instrumental only from 1921
Here’s one with lyrics from Muggsy Spanier “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” recorded in 1939
I would say this song inspired Chan Romeo in 1959 to write this song “Hippy Hippy Shake“
The Beatles did it in 1962
Part 2 of the Beatles cover songs has some you may actually recognize from regular albums and some you probably didn’t know were covers!
Sources not mentioned; iTunes, RollingStone.com, thebeatles.com, http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/all-213-beatles-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html

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The Beatles cover songs Pt. 2

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Beatles cover songs Part 2

“Twist and Shout” covered 109 times to date was written by Bert Russell and Phil Medley and recorded by the Top Notes in 1961. Produced by a guy name Phil Spector. The Beatles would do more of his productions.

The Isley Brothers in 1962. The Beatles would be the third ones to cover this song in 1963 from “Please Please Me”
And, from the same album, “Anna” written and recorded by Arthur Alexander, 1962. “Anna (Go to Him)”the Beatles would be the second to record this song
A mashup of the two songs. This has been covered 16 times, here is Ricky Lee Jonestalking about the songs influence on her
“A Taste of Honey”written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow based on the play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney and adapted from the theme song of the movie in 1961. This one I always though to be an original song though the character of the tune speaks otherwise so I should have caught on sooner.  It was originally recorded as a vocal track by Billy Dee Williams (yes that one from Star Wars) in 1961, though I can find no clips of it. Here are the Beatles; this song has been recorded as a vocal track and instrumental 174 times.
From “Please Please Me” (March 22, 1963). Barbara Streisand recorded it February 25, 1963 just before the Beatles did theirs. The Indie band “The Shins” recorded it in 2017.
“With The Beatles” released in 1963 would contain another six cover songs
Devil in Her Heart written by Richard Drapkin, Originally by The Donays
Money (That’s What IWant) written by Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy, Originally by Barrett Strong
Please Mr. Postmanwritten by Robert Bateman, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Originally by The Marvelettes
Roll Over Beethovenwritten by Chuck Berry, Originally by Chuck Berry and His Combo
Till There Was Youwritten by Meredith Willson, Originally by Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra
You Really Got a Holdon Me written by Smokey Robinson, Originally by The Miracles
Here is Smokey with the Miracles in 1964 on “Shindig”, originally released in 1962.
The Beatles with lyrics in English and Spanish!

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Historic titles from my Library

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Here are some songs based on originals that are quite old, I’ve traced some songs back to the late 1800’s that I have in my library and other’s the recordings are from the early 1900’s. Ever since Leon Scott de Martinville invented a device for recording sound in Paris 1857, developments by Charles Cross, Edison and Alexander Graham Bell pushed forward the ability to record sound and eventually of course-music.
The Gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1887, and by 1902 cylinder molding developments made mass production of recorded music possible. By 1929 Flat discs became popular and the old cylinders became obsolete.

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Ma and Fats

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Ma and Fats
I really enjoy finding songs that have interesting origins and sometimes a very long past.
“See See Rider” (Blues) or also recorded as C.C. Rider
Original version and the writer (with Lena Arent) of the song, Ma Rainey-1924


Ma Rainey (called the “Mother of the Blues”) from what I have read was a larger than life performer who was a major recording artist for Paramount Records in the 1920’s. Born Gertrude Pridgett, she married another singer known as Pa Rainey, hence the name Ma. However, she made it no secret she preferred the company of women and referred to this in more than one of her songs. She started in traveling shows as a young teen and worked her way up to head lining her own shows. She was by all accounts a smart business woman and mentor to Bessie Smith (another time I can talk about “the Empress of  the Blues”). An inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 she paved the way for both black men and women in the recording of the Blues. When she retired from performing she opened three movie theatres in her hometown of Columbus Georgia and died in 1939.

The Grammy nominated Ester Philips recorded this perhaps in 1970 by it was released on an album in 1976, not one of her chart-topping successes but a very soulful rendition. She lost the Grammy for another song she had done to the legendary Aretha Franklin in 1972 or 1973, but apparently Aretha gave the trophy to her saying she should have won. Her life, cut short at just age 48 was quite tragic and fraught unfortunately like too many artists with drug abuse.
​Here is a remake of her song by Mitch Ryder in 1966, which I believe is the first version to give it a more rock and roll twist. Virtually duplicated by Eric Burdon and the Animals that same year. Not a chart maker for either of them but early in their careers and I think helped mold their style.
This song has been recorded over 250 times. It has become one of the great classic go-to blues songs but recorded by the likes of ‘non-traditional’ blues artists such as Cher and the Everly Brothers. Other notable covers are Big Bill Broonzy in 1934 a pioneer in the Chicago Blues scene, the great Lois Armstrong in 1957, the amazing Ray Charles in 1960, all the way up to Poppa Chubby in 2002 and it continues to be remade as recently as 2016 and I’m sure it will be again and again. As with many of these songs the lyrics and even the tune itself has varied quite a bit but all with the inspiration coming from the original.

I’m also a bit of a fan of Fats Domino and certainly one of his most well-known songs was “Blueberry Hill”.  A prolific artist with many original songs this however was among several covers he recorded.
Here is one of the first recordings.
“Blueberry Hill” by Gene Autry 1940

Fats Domino did it in 1956 and is still the most famous recording of 164 versions, originally done by Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye in 1940. Written by Vincent Rose, the lyrics by Al Lewis and Larry Stock. Here is Fats version.

A hilarious video of Putin mostly faking a version
Sources; Wikipedia, Secondhandsongs.com, YouTube, various internet searches.
If you like my blog, please consider filling in the follow by email link at the top right hand of the page. Remember to confirm the subscription when you get the first email. Confidentiality is assured unless you are a close friend or family member then all bets are off. While I can compile data from my blog it’s not tracking in terms of anyone’s identity. For past blog posts click on the menu at the top right corner. Pass it along to a friend who might enjoy it as well or post it to your timeline on FB or other social media. And many thanks as always for reading my blog!