Yesterday Once More

6 Jan 2016

Beatles Covers

Hi Listeners

We are tapping into a rich vein of music this week – the world of Beatles covers. Probably more than any group the popularity of the Beatles’ songs has inspired many artists to perform their songs. The results are mixed. Some artists merely copy the Beatles’ arrangements and lyrics while others add something different to the songs. To me, the most outstanding Beatles cover is our own John Farnham’s rendition of ‘Help’. Farnham slows it down and injects a whole lot of soul into the sound creating a powerful performance. So impressive was it that Tina Turner included his version on one of her albums.

Two other Australian Beatles’ covers are Doug Parkinson’s equally impressive version of ‘Dear Prudence’ and The Zoot’s ambitious and brave hard rock version of ‘Eleanor Rigby’. But, I’m not sure if Paul McCartney would have approved of this version. Another artist to slow down a Beatles’ song and strip the song back to it’s melody is Petula Clark’s ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.

Shirley Bassey adds her distinctive emotional style to George Harrison’s ‘Something’ while Sergio Mendez and Brasil 66 successfully added a Latin beat to ‘Fool On The Hill’. Other artists merely copied the Beatles arrangements such as David and Jonathan’s ‘Michelle’, Jan And Dean’s ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ and a surprisingly poor version of ‘Nowhere Man’ by the Bee Gees. The most accomplished copy ,however,is probably the Truth’s ‘Girl’ which sound so much like the Beatles yet maintains an integrity of its own.

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