Post subject: New Cover Versions Of Beatles Albums: A Hard Day's Night
This is going to be a different kind of diary. I get these weird, funky, and downright strange ideas in my head. Recently, I've been thinking about taking all of the albums by The Beatles and remaking them with cover versions. Already recorded versions by other artists, without regard to when they were recorded.
I believe that this can be done with The Beatles, because they are probably (I have no data) the most covered band in history, so there should be plenty to choose from. I know that some songs will have a huge number of versions, while some will be a scramble to find. But I'm gonna try.
So, please bear with me. I'm going to go through each Beatles album, track by track, and post a cover version I have chosen of that song. Just looking for interesting ones, ones that sound good. From a lot of different artists. Not trying to fit them with other tracks from the "album". You may disagree with my choices, and you may want to submit different choices to me. You might change my mind. When it's all over, I'd like to create the new albums as playlists (8 tracks? Spotify?). Why? To kill time. Because I think it will be interesting. And I need a project.
So, gonna start this off here soon. My only real request is please don't jump ahead of where we are in the discography, and from where we are in the particular album I'm working on. I'll keep the track list of each album here on the original post.
Let's see if this is as much fun here as it seems in my head!
PLEASE PLEASE ME:
1. I Saw Her Standing There - Little Richard (1970)
2. Misery - Kenny Lynch (1963)
3. Anna (Go To Him) - Humble Pie (1974)
4. Chains - Carole King (1980)
5. Boys - The Pete Best Combo (1965)
6. Ask Me Why - The Smithereens (2008)
7. Please Please Me - Blondie (2011)
8. Love Me Do - Flaco Jimenez (2000)
9. P.S. I Love You - Peter Lipa (2003)
10. Baby It's You - Smith (1969)
11. Do You Want To Know A Secret - Fairground Attraction (1990)
12. A Taste Of Honey - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (1965)
13. There's A Place - The Flamin' Groovies (1978)
14. Twist And Shout - Salt-N-Pepa (1988)
WITH THE BEATLES
1. It Won't Be Long - The Quick (1976)
2. All I've Got To Do - Susanna Hoffs (2012)
3. All My Loving - Me First & The Gimme Gimmes (2001)
4. Don't Bother Me - Kami Thompson (2011)
5. Little Child - The Smithereens (2007)
6. Till There Was You - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston (1966)
7. Please Mr. Postman - The Carpenters (1975)
8. Roll Over Beethoven - Electric Light Orchestra (1973)
9. Hold Me Tight - Count Basie (1966)
10. You Really Got A Hold On Me - Laura Nyro & Labelle (1971)
11. I Wanna Be Your Man - Tais Alvarenga (2011)
12. Devil In Her Heart - Trevor Moss & Hanna Lou (2011)
13. Not A Second Time - Pretenders (1990)
14. Money (That's What I Want) - The Flying Lizards (1979)
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
1. A Hard Day's Night - Rita Lee (2001)
2. I Should Have Known Better - The Naturals (1964)
3. If I Fell - The MonaLisa Twins (2016) _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
Last edited by Romanelli on 02/11/2018 04:40; edited 38 times in total
Album: Please Please Me
Track 1: I Saw Her Standing There
This song hasn't been covered a whole lot. But I did find a version that is much more interesting than the fairly awful Tiffany version from 1988.
In 1970, Little Richard had been away from music for three years. He released a comeback album (not on BEA) called The Rill Thing that did not do well, although it did contain a pair of minor singles. "I Saw Her Standing There" was the last track on the album, and it was also the B-side of the single "Greenwood, Mississippi". He's in pretty exceptional voice on this, so I thought it would be a good place to start.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
There was a pretty average version done by The Flaming Groovies in 1976, but I opted for this one. Misery was written because their tour mate, Helen Shapiro, was looking for new songs. Her management passed on this because it was too fast, but another member of the tour, Kenny Lynch, did record it in 1963. This is the very first Lennon-McCartney song to be recorded by another artist. Lynch's version was released as a single, but it failed to chart. Lynch was later seen on the cover of McCartney's album Band On The Run.
This version features some altered lyrics (She is treating me bad, in place of the world). It also features some big (for the time) guitar and some heavy piano. Lynch was a rarity during this time...a black British pop singer.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
New rule on the fly: if the track is a song the The Beatles covered, then the version for this purpose must be recorded after The Beatles did theirs.
So, Anna (Go To Him) was written by and originally recorded by Arthur Alexander in 1962. The Beatles recorded theirs just a few months later. It's been covered a few times...there's a Spanish version by Pegasso that seems to have had every ounce of emotion stripped away. But I found this one by Humble Pie that surprised me a bit, so I thought I'd include it here. It's from their 1974 album Thunderbox (not on BEA), which did not do well at all. Peter Frampton was long gone from the band, and the album is more than half cover songs. They play this surprisingly slow, and if you can take Steve Marriott's voice (not everyone can), it's pretty true to what Alexander and The Beatles did. So here's Anna (Go To Him), by Humble Pie!
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote "Chains" for The Everly Brothers. Their version has never been released. So the original version goes to The Cookies in 1962. The now obscure Cookies, who would later on be Raelettes for Ray Charles, had their second biggest hit with this. The Beatles loved it, and recorded it with George singing lead. After their version, the song didn't get much attention at all. But in 1980, King recorded an album of early songs she had written with Goffin, and included on that album...
...was King finally getting around to recording "Chains". There's not much else out there for this song, so it goes to the original writer, and her recording 18 years after she wrote it.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
This one was written by Luther Dixon & Wes Farrell, and shows the love that The Beatles had for early sixties girl groups. The Shirelles had recorded this in 1960, and released it as a B-side. This was Ringo's vocal on the first album, and no one seemed too shocked that The Beatles were "talkin' about boys - yeah, yeah, boys". After the Please Please Me version, the song got left pretty much alone.
Except that their former drummer, Pete Best, had also sang this as a member of the band. After he was dismissed in favor of Ringo, Best knocked around for a little while before stepping away (temporarily) from music. His busiest period was between 1964 and 1965, when he released six singles and a studio album with the deceptively clever title Best Of The Beatles. Not on the album, "Boys" was the B-side of his "Kansas City" single. Loud and done pretty much in the same style that his former band did it, this is more raw and heavy. It misses the polish that George Martin used...but that gives Best's version its charm.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
This song seems to defy the thought Lennon & McCartney had ghostwriters (at least that's what my mother swore by). "Ask Me Why", while not the catchiest of their early songs, is a pretty complex piece of work for a pop song, and was written before they were in the hands of George Martin. There are some almost jazzy things going on, and the chord changes in the choruses are impressive. Maybe that's why the song never got a lot of attention from other artists.
But then there are The Smithereens. This band will be part of this process, mainly because they recorded not one, but two albums that consist only of Beatles songs. And they did tackle "Ask Me Why" on their album B Sides The Beatles (not on BEA). The recording is very true to the original. The vocals emphasize the lead more over the harmonies, showing that Pat DiNizio didn't quite have the feel for the song that Lennon did. But it's a nicely done tribute.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
So I was on my way to do another review, when I stumble upon this. Then I spent two hours looking for the best version of Ask Me Why (confirmed, the Smithereens is pretty much your only option here), and the next song, Please Please Me. Found a good one, we'll see if we picked the same one.
I'm not going to second-guess your first few selections. Loved the Little Richard version of I Saw Her Standing There. But I will point out that the Cookies version of Chains was one of the 10 best songs of 1962. (I have a list). I was sorry to see that one disqualified.
Love the concept. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
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