This month saw the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in America, and many things have been said about the band lately. One of those things is their talents as songwriters. This talent is evident not only in the band's own recordings, but in the recordings of their songs by others. The fact that the Beatles' songs can be interpreted beyond what the band did with them is a strong testament to their songwriting ability.
Here, without comment, are some of my favorite cover versions of Beatles classics. Enjoy!
7 comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqAWr1Lda-0
I liked Monsoon.
I'll admit that Chubby Checker is not the first person I'd guess would cover "Back in the USSR"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K5XmGE7GSQ
DC punks Gray Matter, including Steve Stiles, who would make his career in horror comics and related media.
I was shocked that Checker, of all people, would cover that song, but I really dig it.
Fine covers from Monsoon and Gray Matter. Very much in keeping with the spirit of the songs but putting their own spin on them, making them their own at the same time. Very nice!
And, of course, in my bleariness I wrote Steve Stiles, another somewhat elder cartoonist (and mostly a humorist), rather than Steve Niles...glad you liked them.
The class clowns of their generation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snvGblpqLzQ
Nothing tops Link Wray, however:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz0bneOgzyU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8AOkbfgNE
Not a cover, not even a ripoff, but the borrowing of one particular element from "Taxman" and then putting it in a totally different musical context. It's kind of manual sampling.
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