• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Calabazilla.com

Calabazilla.com

random musings from the philippines

  • list of all posts
  • what’s in a name?
  • contact me
You are here: Home / Music / Radical Beatles covers

Radical Beatles covers

20 August 2011 Leave a Comment

Beatles covers are a dime a dozen. See: Exhibit A. Covering The Beatles is a tricky thing. There are a plethora of great-sounding efforts out there, but most of them suffer from the same weakness: they don’t stray too far from the original. Case in point: Because by Elliott Smith. Gorgeous, but essentially a carbon copy. I’d rather listen to the original any day. To quote The A.V. Club:

Covering The Beatles is often futile. The original versions sound as definitive as if they were issued from on high, which, in a manner of speaking, they were.

And The Times:

Those records are so deeply branded on the collective consciousness that anyone trying to take them off does so before an audience that already knows the original intimately. That’s why it so rarely works.

The only way to make it work is to adapt it so deftly to one’s own style as to make the listener go, long after the song is over, “Wait — that was a Beatles song!?”. Often this leads to disastrous results; Help! by Kylie Minogue comes to mind. But sometimes it does work. The following are some of the most ingenious reworkings I’ve come across (and which are actually good). In American Idol parlance, these artists made the songs “their own”:

1. With A Little Help From My Friends by Joe Cocker (1969) [original version]

Everyone knows this one, thanks to The Wonder Years. It is even widely considered to be (gasp!) better than the original. Personally I prefer my Billy Shears, thank you very much. Other Beatles covers by Joe Cocker: All You Need Is Love, Come Together, I’ll Cry Instead, Let It Be, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Something, and You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (he sure loved ’em Beatles).

Download music by Joe Cocker:
With A Little Help From My Friends
Come Together
I’ll Cry Instead
Let It Be
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

2. Ticket To Ride by The Carpenters (1969) [original version]

For a long time my aunt actually thought this was the original, and The Beatles covered The Carpenters. Other Beatles covers by The Carpenters: Good Night, Help!, and Nowhere Man.

Download music by The Carpenters:
Ticket To Ride
Help!
Nowhere Man

3. I Want To Hold Your Hand by Al Green (1970) [original version]

Totally Motown, and totally Al Green. Other Beatles covers by Al Green: Get Back.

Download music by Al Green:
I Want To Hold Your Hand

4. Taxman by Junior Parker (1971) [original version]

Groovy. His stripped-down version of Tomorrow Never Knows ain’t half-bad, either. Other Beatles covers by Junior Parker: The Inner Light, Lady Madonna, and Oh! Darling.

Download music by Junior Parker:
Taxman
Tomorrow Never Knows
The Inner Light
Lady Madonna
Oh! Darling

5. Yellow Submarine by Roots Manuva (2002) [original version]

This is some kind of trippy.

6. What Goes On by Sufjan Stevens (2005) [original version]

Compelling. It’s hard to imagine this was originally a jolly country ditty.

Download music by Sufjan Stevens:
What Goes On

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: al green, i want to hold your hand, joe cocker, junior parker, roots manuva, sufjan stevens, taxman, the beatles, the carpenters, ticket to ride, what goes on, with a little help from my friends, yellow submarine

Primary Sidebar

welcome

Random musings from the Philippines

    

archives

featured post

Filipinos: Easily buy affordable travel insurance online (updated August 2018)

popular posts

How to apply for an Australian visa online in the Philippines via ImmiAccount (updated September 2016)

How to apply for a Schengen visa at the Embassy of Italy in Manila

How to have a quick, no-frills civil wedding on the cheap in the Philippines

How to apply for a Chinese visa at the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Cebu (updated April 2017)

Filipinos: Easily buy affordable travel insurance online (updated August 2018)

latest posts

How to apply for a Russian visa at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of the Philippines

How to build a cheap DIY playpen

Trying out adlai, a local alternative to rice for Filipinos

Review: The Hineleban Store (hinelebanstore.com)

How to apply for a Social Security number (SSN) for an infant at the US Embassy in the Philippines

random posts

Review: EDU Hostel, Yogyakarta

Easily close your Save-Up account at BPI Direct Savings Bank

How to apply for a Sri Lankan visa online

Why Jin Akanishi will never make it big in the US of A

Tourist trap: Hoi An Ancient Town

tag cloud

banco de oro bank of the philippine islands bdo unibank bpi bpi asset management bpi direct savings bank cambodia cebu china fami first metro asset management football indonesia ios ipad iphone ipod touch jogjakarta jordis unga metrobank metro manila mutual funds national football league nfl pami passport pefi pemi philam asset management philequity fund philequity management philippines platinum hit reviews rock star: inxs stocks the voice uitf unionbank unit investment trust funds us embassy in the philippines vietnam visa việt nam yogyakarta

Copyright © 2019 Calabazilla.com. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy