Get The Beatles covered and win!
So, The Beatles albums are getting the flash treatment/the CD release they always deserved. We looked at that last week. So today, to celebrate the release I thought we'd run a competition and have a little fun, rather than get bogged down with any serious talk. The words remastering, mono and stereo will only appear in this blog-post, in this sentence you are reading right now.
From there we move on to other things.
Now, as was also noted last week, not everyone is a fan of The Beatles (we all have our weaknesses). But I think this should appeal - even to those less than excited about the Fab Four's full career. Everyone has a favourite Beatles song, surely? And that could mean a favourite cover of a Beatles tune.
Hundreds of Beatles covers exist. Thousands even. Yesterday is one of the most covered songs ever (many of them orchestral versions) and then there are epic covers like Joe Cocker's version of With a Little Help from My Friends.
There are not only hundreds of Beatles covers but hundreds of albums filled with covers. I've got Chet Atkins Picks on The Beatles and John Bayless's classical interpretation (Bach Meets the Beatles). The soundtrack to I Am Sam features some absolute atrocities (Ben Harper ruining Strawberry Fields) but there are plenty of gems too (Rufus Wainwright singing Across the Universe). Speaking of Across the Universe, I've never been able to make it more than half-way through the absurd musical but the soundtrack gets a pass-mark.
In recent years one of my favourite albums of Beatles covers was the project Butchering The Beatles, a heavy metal celebration of Beatles tunes. Good fun. Great cover. And some top cover versions
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But covers of The Beatles started back when The Beatles started. From The Rolling Stones being gifted I Wanna Be Your Man (before The Beatles even recorded it) to covers by Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Jose Feliciano.
The songs are part of our lives in so many ways (again, for some of us, more than others). And that means that a song like Come Together might mean more to some people if it's the version by Aerosmith or - for that matter - the version by Michael Jackson.
Last year two great guitarists with two completely different approaches (both from the same generation as The Beatles) chose to close their shows with versions of A Day in the Life. And to me, both the Jeff Beck version and the Neil Young version would be among my favourite Beatles covers.
I also like Johnny Cash doing In My Life and Aimee Mann and Michael Penn singing Two of Us.
And that is just to highlight a few.
Cocker's version of A Little Help is one of my favourite covers ever - because it really was a reinvention of the song (much like Jimi Hendrix' All Along the Watchtower is). And Richie Havens did several successful Beatles covers.
I could be flippant and say that Elliott Smith's career of covering The Beatles (and just supplying new titles for the songs) was enjoyable but actually I'd definitely single out
his cover of Blackbird (one of many he used to perform live). And The Breeders' Happiness Is a Warm Gun is still a highlight of seeing the band live, as well as being a gem from their debut, Pod.
It's more a case of a recontextualisation (and bound to receive boos from many of the readers here) but I love Danger Mouse's The Grey Album; his mash-ups of songs from "The White Album" with songs from Jay-Z's The Black Album definitely rate as some of my favourite Beatles covers.
So, here's the deal. I want you to make up a track-listing for Your Favourite Beatles Covers. No more than 12 songs. And here's the catch: it has to feature at least one of my favourite Beatles covers. But it can't be one of the songs I've named in this post. (So you have to guess.)
Now, the best FIVE attempts (as judged by me) will win a great prize. Thanks to EMI I have five copies of a 2-CD Beatles Sampler (featuring 32 tracks from the remastering project; consider it an alternative Beatles Greatest Hits) AND five Beatles 09-09-09 T-shirts.
So five lucky readers will win a CD/t-shirt combo. That will make you the Fab Five.
Get to it. Let's see your Beatles Covers Best-Of listed below.
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1. William Shatner - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Start out freaky, to weed out all the squares.
2. Cheap Trick - Day Tripper. If it was a double album, you could just swap this out for Sgt Peppers in its entirety, and chuck it on a second disc.
3. Let It Be - The Replacements. Oh wait, that's not a cover of the Beatles' song, is it?
4. Come And Get It - Badfinger. Should have been a bigger hit for the Beatles than what it was for Badfinger.
5. With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker. Yeah, it's a crime not to include it, as obvious as it is.
6. Dear Prudence - Siouxsee and the Banshees. The previous couple were a bit hippy, so time to throw in some goth.
7. Let It Be - Meatloaf. I haven't actually heard this one, but came across it in a list of Beatles' covers, and it has to be awesome.
8. Working Class Hero - Marianne Faithful or the Manic Street Preachers. But not Green Day, hell no.
9. Helter Skelter - U2. Just to p**s off the haters.
10. Neil Young - A Day In The Life. Can't really close with anything else!
Wow! I really want this prize. These are my favourites.....and i hope they match yours Simon. If not...have a listen to some of them anyway, they are magic.
1. Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out
2. Joe Cocker - She Came In Through The Bathroon Window.
3. Nina Simone - Here Comes The Sun
4. Stevie Ray Vaughn - Taxman
5. Tina Turner - Help (not a Tina fan, but great version of this).
6. Aerosmith - I'm Down
7. Fiona Apple - Across The Universe
8. Sarah McLachlan - Blackbird
9/ Wilson Pickett - Hey Jude
10. Jeff Beck - She's A Woman.
And a prize for the worst ever Beatles cover? Tough call....but how about the Thomson Twins awful version of Revolution! it was bad enough on Live Aid, but then they released a studio version which was no better!
1. Happiness is a Warm Gun - Tori Amos (the only Tori Amos song I can stomach, in fact) 2. With a Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker 3. In My Life - Johnny Cash 4. Being for the benefit of Mr Kite - Eddie Izzard (Across the Universe) 5. Helter Skelter/99 Problems - Danger Mouse (The Grey Album) 6. Across the Universe - Rufus Wainwright 7. Revolution - Grandaddy 8. I am the Walrus - Oasis
Off the top of my head:
Stevie Wonder – We Can Work It Out (bet this is your favourite) Edwin Starr – My Sweet Lord (not a Beatles song but is on Motown Sing The Beatles) Ray Charles - Eleanor Rigby David Bowie – Across the Universe Nowhere Man – Paul Westerberg The Black Keys – She Said, She Said The Dirty Mac – Yer Blues
Ooh, off the top of my head (and trying not to use too many already mentioned) I can think of the following:
Mother Nature’s Sun – Sheryl Crow... Happiness is a Warm Gun – The Breeders... Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – William Shatner... We can Work it Out – Stevie Wonder... Across the Universe – Fiona Apple... And I Love Her – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles... Rain – Ed Harcourt... Wild Honey Pie – The Pixies... Dear Prudence – Siouxie and the Banshees... Because – Elliot Smith... In My Life – Johnny Cash... Ticket to Ride - Echo and the Bunnymen...
I have, by virtue of my taste, decided to do an exclusively rock / hard rock collection. 1. Cheap Trick - "Magical Mystery Tour" 2. Soundgarden - "Come Together" 3. Stevie Ray Vaughan - "Taxman" 4. Stone Temple Pilots - "Revolution" 5. Eddie Vedder - "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" 6. Deep Purple - "Help" 7. The Black Keys - "She Said, She Said" 8. Jimi Hendrix - "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" 9. Oasis - "I Am The Walrus" 10. Joe Cocker - "With a Little Help From My Friends" 11. David Bowie - "Across the Universe" 12. Cheap Trick - "Day Tripper"
Al Green – I Want To Hold Your Hand Husker Du – Ticket To Ride The Better Beatles – Penny Lane Stanley Clarke – Eleanor Rigby Jose Feliciano – She’s A Woman Ray Charles – Yesterday Nina Simone – Here Comes The Sun Sarah Vaughan – I Want You (She’s So Heavy) The Dillards – I’ve Just Seen A Face William Shatner – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Cornershop – Norwegian Wood (Punjabi Version) Laibach – Across The Universe (from their album “Let It Be”, a cover version of the entire Beatles album of the same name, except for the title track)
I don't know if any of these are your favourites, Simon, but they should be
I do a mean cover of Revolution 9...
Motley Crue - Helter Skelter Aerosmith - I'm Down Aerosmith - Come Together (yeah I know you said it but...) Cheap Trick - Day Tripper Cheap Trick - Magical Mystery Tour Stereophonics - Revolution Oasis -I Am The Walrus Bryan Ferry - Jealous Guy Johnny Cash - In My Life Jeff Healey - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
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1. We Can Work It Out - Stevie Wonder 2. Something - Frank Sinatra 3. Yer Blues - Conan And The Mockasins 4. Yesterday - Ray Charles 5. Here Comes The Sun - Nina Simone 6. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - Terrence Trent D'arby 7. I Am The Walrus - Oasis 8. Dear Prudence – Siouxe & The Banshees 9. All You Need Is Love - Tom Jones 10. Helter Skelter - Husker Du