Greatly enjoying this forum with your different opinions. I'm responding even though it's been so long since anyone has posted to this thread. Maybe I'm talking to no one here but myself. But that's okay, because I'm enjoying listening to "with the beatles" right now.
Can't pick just one favorite song from "with the beatles", but I really love "It Won't Be Long", "Don't Bother Me", and "Till There Was You".
Just below my to top three picks, I also love "All I've Got To Do" and "All My Loving".
As I am listening, I am writing. I'm not skipping any tracks. That's the one attribute the Beatles possess for me that only a handful of other artists also have. I usually don't skip any Beatles songs when listening to one of their albums. "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" just started playing. Hey, I like it!
"with the beatles" is a wonderful album. One way to judge "with the beatles" is to put it into the context of the times and the popular music of 1963. "with the beatles" was a breath of fresh air.
Here's a sample of what else I was listening to on A.M. radio in 1963. " Louie Louie - The Kingsmen", "Up On The Roof - Drifters", "It's My Party - Leslie Gore", "Heat Wave - Martha and the Vandellas", "The End Of The World - Skeeter Davis", "You Can't Sit Down - Dovells", "Walk Like A Man - Four Seasons", "My Boyfriend's Back - the Angels".
Get the picture? These were popular songs by other artists, but compare them to my top five songs from "with the Beatles". In 1963 "with the beatles" was really exciting, raised your pulse, and made you turn up your radio and sing along (it still does for me today).
As I write this post, it's February 2007. Play some of the great golden oldies from 1963. Great, I still love "Heat Wave"! But then play "with the beatles"! Do the Beatles still sound great? Yes, their songs are classic! They sound just as terrific today as they did what (?), 44 years ago?!! What other groups from 1963 can you say that about? Not too many.
Get "with the beatles" out right now and play it! See if you don't agree with me just a little bit.
In my humble opinion, a classic song is a song that has stand up against the time. If I take a look at the covers on With The Beatles... There's Money, You Really Got A Hold On Me, Please Mr Postman, Till There Was You, Roll Over Beethoven and Devil In Her Heart. I think that these songs, with the exception of Devil In Her Heart, are classics in the way The Beatles played them. Comparing to Beatles For Sale (for that's how the album's called): Rock And Roll Music, Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey, Mr Moonlight, Honey Don't, Words Of Love and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby. From this album there's only two songs that can be called classic: Rock And Roll Music and Kansas City. The other covers are not as strong as the ones on With The Beatles. The End spoke about the time in which With The Beatles appeared. I heard Cliff Richard's Bachelor Boy on the radio today. It's from 1963 as well. Compare that to what The Beatles did the same year... If I were Cliff, I had ended my carreer immediately.
Bobber,
Enjoyed reading your thoughtful comments on some of the songs the Beatles covered. Good stuff. Thanks.
I've always loved "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" from back when I used to play it on my "Beatles '65" vinyl in 1965 up until right now on my "Beatles For Sale" CD.
My favorite Beatle, George, does an outstanding vocal on a Carl Perkins song with lyrics that young guys can relate to. Makes me wish I was young, but too bad for me.
Just like I did with the album "with the beatles", I pulled "Beatles For Sale" out and I'm playing "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" right now. It's so cool. And kinda funny too.
For me "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" is a classic. I like it just as much today as I did in '65. Maybe more. Sounds great and makes me smile.
BTW, "Beatles For Sale" is super! "No Reply", "I'm a Loser", "Baby's In Black", "I'll Follow The Sun", "Eight Days A Week", "Words Of Love", "Honey Don't", "Every Little Thing", "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", "What You're Doing", and "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby". I'm crazy about all of these songs. It's impossible for me to pick only one favorite from all these winners.
Now "Rock and Roll Music" just came on and I had to turn it up!
Thanks for this fun forum. I love it. I'm grabbing my old Beatles CD's and playing them while my wife is watching the Academy Awards on TV. I'm making the right choice here aren't I?
Hi Ed, welcome to DM's. I see you're already enjoying it. There's been a lot of discussing about the covers on their albums in the past few years. Just necessary fillers on the albums or really 'wanted' Beatlessongs? Everybody's idea on it seems to differ. Still, I like the covers on With The Beatles better than those on Beatles For Sale. Kevin said somewhere that it's was because of their own compositions developing and getting better all the time that the covers didn't seem to fit in anymore. The covers didn't develop and that's understandable. I like Kevin's idea about it.
Hi Ed, welcome to DM's. I see you're already enjoying it. There's been a lot of discussing about the covers on their albums in the past few years. Just necessary fillers on the albums or really 'wanted' Beatlessongs? Everybody's idea on it seems to differ. Still, I like the covers on With The Beatles better than those on Beatles For Sale. Kevin said somewhere that it's was because of their own compositions developing and getting better all the time that the covers didn't seem to fit in anymore. The covers didn't develop and that's understandable. I like Kevin's idea about it.
Hey Bobber,
That's a good idea that the covers didn't develop and the Beatles' own compositions were getting better all the time. I could see the argument that objectively the covers just weren't as good as the Beatles' own compositions.
But there's another subjective side too. Sometimes I don't like covers because I like the original song so much and have heard the original so often that the cover just doesn't sound right to me.
I liked the original version of "Money (That's What I Want)" sung by Barrett Strong. "Money" was Motown's first big hit in 1960. I heard it a lot on the radio. So it was difficult for me to dig the Beatles' version of "Money".
"Kansas City" was a big hit for Wilber Harrison in 1959. I've got his version stuck in my head. Again, it's hard for me to enjoy the Beatles' version.
Here are some other covers by the Beatles:
A Taste of Honey - Herb Alpert. I had the album, Whipped Cream and Other Delights back in '65. Great album cover with a beautiful girl covered in whipped cream. But this was an instrumental, so I love the Beatles' version. I didn't get used to someone else's vocal although there probably was another vocal that I never heard much.
Baby It's You - The Shirelles. Again, I've got the Shirelles' version stuck in my head.
Chains - The Cookies. Same deal.
Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes. Ditto
Twist and Shout - The Isley Brothers. I can still hear them singing this one. Takes me back to my senior year in high school.
You've Really Got A Hold On Me - The Miracles. I just heard Smokey's version too many times.
Rock and Roll Music - Chuck Berry. The Beatles did such a great job on this one that I do like their version!
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby - A Carl Perkins song the Beatles covered. But George's vocal is the first version I remember hearing, so no problem with someone elses version stuck in my head. I love the Beatles on this one.
The only cover that I like better than an original I loved is "Give A Little Bit". Originally a hit for Supertramp in '77. I loved it. Still do. But then the Goo Goo Dolls did a cover and I like it even better than the original. That's the only instance I can think of.
It's hard to fall in love with a cover. I guess that's why we should be an original.
There's a thread somewhere on this board about covers being better than the original. We came up with some, but not too many. I guess it's my problem with modern music: there's lots of covers and samples from covers. And indeed, if you know the original, it's hard to get used to a different approach.
All my Loving as it brings back memories of my friend,Andrea ,from Michigan , calling and singing it with a 16 yr. old German foreign exchange student playing piano for her. Wow, was that wordy!!!!!!!!!
"Wings IV introduced Jimmy McCulloch, a spunky lead guitarist with grit, able to spur Paul on unlike any previous soloist. His debut track, the magnificent single `Junior's Farm', stands as one of Wings' finest emotional and technical releases."
"Few people on this planet know as much about Jimmy's musical history than you."
"I'm Joe English and I'm from Glasgow, Scotland." xD
Home
Calendar
Search
Register
Login
raxo
Male
Logged
