Beatles’ Covers

Beatles’ Covers

The orthodox view is that the Beatles recorded covers before they came into their full powers and wrote their own songs, which made for much better records. This is completely wrong: their covers were magnificent, their originals not always that great. They should have continued to record covers throughout their career; it might even have prevented their early disintegration. The orthodox view is just journalistic claptrap. All you have to do is listen to see that it’s false. Almost without exception their covers are better than the originals, even in their earliest days. Just consider their first album: the standouts are Anna, You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me, Baby it’s You, and Twist and Shout. They transformed these songs into classics, breathing new life into them. The artistry and talent are unmistakable. Then we have Please Mr. Postman and Money, among others, both incredible vocal performances from John Lennon. Then they stopped recording covers completely with A Hard Day’s Night. Why? Covers enabled them to put their stamp on music they loved and allowed time to develop new material. It took the pressure off, which contributed to their break-up. There is simply no need for a band to record only what they write and they could have recorded many great covers if they had decided to. A case in point is the song Leave my Kitten Alone, recorded by Little Willie John in 1959. The Beatles recorded it in 1964 but decided not to put it on the album they were working on at the time. It wasn’t released till 1995 on the Anthology; I only heard for the first time in 2024. It’s a rollicking rocker with John in full voice. I learned to sing it and include it in my repertoire. Yet it was never released in the Beatles’ heyday. What a shame. It is noteworthy that Lennon released a whole album of rock n’ roll covers, produced by Phil Spector, post-Beatles, obviously feeling the need to fill this gap—but it wasn’t the Beatles. They did us a great disservice by sticking to their own material in their peak years. I’d like to have heard some more Buddy Holly covers, or Chuck Berry, or Eddie Cochran (Paul knew Twenty Flight Rock when he first met John and they must have performed it together, yet they never recorded it). More covers, please! I think John grew tired of churning out his own songs, and listening to Paul’s, and yearned to break free. The Beatles were at their most vital when they dipped into other people’s creative work.