Best of the Beatles

by Spencer Leigh

  ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ was a standard by the time Gene Vincent recorded it in 1956. Effectively, the Beatles followed Vincent’s direction, but upped the tempo and omitted the whistling. Possibly Bert Kaempfert advised against whistling as Germans considered it insulting.

  There is also a 1959 single by UK rock ’n’ roller Duffy Power. He says, “Larry Parnes heard the Gene Vincent version and asked me to do it with Ken Jones’ Palais de Dance orchestra. They were good musicians but they knew nothing about rock ’n’ roll.”

  John Lennon took the lead vocal on the Beatles’ version, which has been overdubbed (with additional drums!) on some releases. Duffy Power: “It sounds to me like the Beatles hadn’t worked anything out. They were just chugging through the chords and adding a Chuck Berry blues walk. Nice guitar solo though.”

  ‘Cry For a Shadow’

  (George Harrison/John Lennon)

  While the Beatles and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were in Hamburg, the Shadows made the UK charts with the theme from the film The Frightened City. Rory was wondering how it went and George Harrison and John Lennon told him they had heard it and improvised the instrumental which became, with gentle humour, ‘Cry For a Shadow’. For some time, Rory believed that their instrumental was the Shadows’ hit single.

  Geoff Taggart, a St Helens musician who wrote ‘Breakthru’ on the best-selling album The Sound of The Shadows says, “This is a riff in E with a chord sequence over the top rather than a melody, and as such, it is more reminiscent of the fillers on the Ventures’ albums than the Shadows. It starts like the Shadows’ ‘Man of Mystery’ but it’s really a quicker version of the John Barry Seven’s ‘Rodeo’, which came out in 1958. The George Harrison solo is as dry as a plank, which is more like Joe Brown than Hank Marvin. Indeed, Joe gave Hank his echo unit because he couldn’t come to grips with it and Hank used it on ‘Apache’. The chord sequence is the same as Joe Brown’s ‘Shine’ and, incidentally, Bruce Channel’s ‘Hey! Baby’ although that wasn’t released until 1962. And there’s nothing wrong with Pete’s drumming on the track – he’s a good drummer.”

  Second Session

  The Beatles

  New Year’s Day, January 1962, Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London. The producer was Mike Smith who made hit records with Billy Fury, Georgie Fame and the group Dick Rowe signed instead of the Beatles, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.

  Irrespective of the standard of the performance, this is a representative cross-section of their repertoire at the time. There are three oldies, a show song, three originals and eight rock ’n’ roll covers. The talents represented remained, by and large, the Beatles’ favourites – Chuck Berry, the Coasters (twice), Goffin/King, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Phil Spector and Tamla Motown.

  Pete Best: “Decca was a major label, the company to be with, and we thought hard about the material we were going to play at the audition. It was a good cross-section of numbers, and we recorded them like a live set with just one or two takes on each number. We were trying to be cool, calm and collected about it but there were frogs in our throats. We weren’t on form and we could have been a lot better.”

  The Beatles’ performances are often described as uninspired, but bear in mind:

  They had travelled overnight for ten hours in a van with their equipment in a snowstorm.

  They were travelling back the same way.

  They were miffed that Brian Epstein had come to London by train and had stayed overnight with relations.

  They had missed out on New Year’s Eve festivities.

  Mike Smith arrived late because he had been to a party.

  This was a recording test, never intended for public release.

  They were cutting 15 songs in an hour.

  However, I can’t accept Mark Lewisohn’s assertion that they were ‘nervous’ and ‘ill at ease’ (The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Octopus 1992). The Beatles were familiar with making records through their work with Tony Sheridan, they had been in the German charts, they had previously met Mike Smith at the Cavern and they had played in far more ominous places than this. I think their performances were uninspired (thought they have their moments) because they were thoroughly pissed off and their tiredness dulled their voices.

  The fifteen songs include seven lead vocals from Paul and four each from George and John. It is odd that George was singing as much as John, but perhaps not surprising that Pete didn’t do his party piece. What did Mike Smith and his boss, Dick Rowe, miss? Well, the three original songs became chart hits (one for a Decca group), two songs were featured on With the Beatles and two became hits for Decca artists.

  Mike Smith says, “I thought the Beatles were absolutely wonderful on stage and I should have trusted my instincts. They weren’t very good in the studio and really we got to the Beatles too early. Nothing against Pete Best, but Ringo wasn’t in the band, and they hadn’t developed their songwriting. Had I picked up on them 6 months later, there was no way I couldn’t have recognised the quality of their songs. I went with Brian Poole and the Tremeloes because they had been the better band in the studio. So much in this industry depends on being in the right place at the right time and whether I did the right thing or not, I’ll never know. In fairness, I don’t think I could have worked with them the way that George Martin did – I would have got involved in their bad parts and not encouraged the good ones. When I met them later on they gave me a two fingered salute.”

  ‘Besame Mucho’

  (Consuelo Velazquez/Sunny Skylar)

  The opera Goyescas was written in Paris in 1914 by the Spanish composer, Enrique Granados. Because of the Great War, the opera was premiered in New York in 1916. After the performance, its cast and composer returned by ship to Europe, but it was torpedoed by the Germans and no-one survived. I wonder if the film director of Titanic James Cameron knows this story. ‘The Nightingale Aria’ from the opera was luckier: two pop writers converted it to ‘Besame Mucho.’

  ‘Besame Mucho’ became the ‘La Bamba’ of the 1940s. It was a million-selling record for Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra with vocalists Kitty Kallen and Bob Eberle in 1943 and the song is featured in the 1944 film musical Follow The Boys. The Coasters gave the song a straight treatment in 1960, unfortunately allowing their bass singer to take the lead vocal. Pete Best: “‘Besame Mucho’ was Paul’s idea. He may have been influenced by the Coasters but it was very much our arrangement and I like it very much.”

  Paul McCartney in Many Years From Now: “It’s a minor (key) song and it changed to a major, and where it changed to a major is such a big moment musically. That major change attracted me so much.”

  The Beatles often performed ‘Besame Mucho’ returning to it during the filming of Let It Be. The Decca recording is hurried and was slowed down by George Martin for inclusion on Anthology 1. Despite the ‘cha-cha-boom’, it is a novelty that doesn’t quite come off. Often they performed it on stage as a nod to Liverpool impresario, ‘Besammy Leacho’, which does amuse me.

  In April 1962, Jet Harris, formerly of the Shadows, took a throbbing instrumental treatment of the song into the Top 30 for Decca. Celebrations took place in Guadalajara in August 1962 to celebrate the song’s 20th anniversary. This is where Consuelo Velazquez lived and many artists who had recorded the song took part in the festivities. No one knew then that the Beatles had also recorded it.

  ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’

  (Buddy Holly)

  The British singer-songwriter Harvey Andrews says, “All the great songwriters of my generation came from Buddy Holly. When rock ’n’ roll started, there was something about Holly that got to us. He was the first singer-songwriter, although we didn’t know it at the time. We don’t go back to Little Richard, we don’t go back to Fats Domino, and we don’t go back to Elvis, though we liked all of them. Buddy Holly was the one that the young songwriters could relate to.”

  The Quarry Men recorded ‘That’ll Be The Day’ at their first recording session, the Beatles recorded ‘Words of
Love’ on The Beatles For Sale album and Paul McCartney liked Holly’s songs so much that he bought the catalogue.

  Shortly before his fatal tour, Buddy Holly recorded six new songs in his New York apartment – ‘Crying Waiting Hoping’, ‘Learning The Game’, ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’, ‘That Makes it Tough’, ‘That’s What They Say’ and ‘What To Do’. They have been released with overdubbed instruments but the unadorned tapes remain the best, largely because of the intimate nature of the songs.

  George Harrison sang ‘Crying Waiting Hoping’ with vocal back-up from John and Paul, and it is one of the most successful of the Decca tracks.

  ‘Hello Little Girl’

  (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

  John Lennon wrote ‘Hello Little Girl’ around 1958, and it was one of the first original compositions that the Beatles included in their performances. They had tired of the song by the time they recorded for Parlophone, and Brian Epstein offered it to his other signings. Gerry Marsden turned it down as he preferred to be seen as independent from the Beatles, although his run-through is included on Gerry and the Pacemakers – The Best of the EMI Years (1992). The Fourmost had no such reservations and took the song into the Top 10 in 1963. I once asked Tony Barrow why Gerry Marsden hadn’t been invited to the Civic Reception for the Beatles in Liverpool in July 1964 and he responded, “Do you really think Gerry would have wanted to be there?”

  ‘Like Dreamers Do’

  (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

  The influence of ‘Besame Mucho’ can be heard in this early Paul McCartney composition. Again, it was one of the first original compositions to be included in Beatles’ performances. It’s a naïve song – ‘I’ve waited for your kiss, waited for your bliss’ – is banal. Nevertheless, the song was passed to the Applejacks who took it into the Top 20 in 1963. As luck would have it, the Applejacks recorded for Decca and were produced by Mike Smith.

  ‘Love of the Loved’

  (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

  ‘Love of the Loved’ is another Paul McCartney composition and one he considered passing to Beryl Marsden. Epstein insisted on giving it to his protégé, Cilla Black, and it was her first single. Says Cilla, “Paul McCartney wrote it and I’d heard the Beatles do it many times in the Cavern. I wanted to do a group arrangement and I was ever so disappointed when I got to the studio and there was brass and everything. I thought it was very jazzy and I didn’t think it would be a hit. I preferred the B-side, which Bobby (Willis, her future husband) wrote, ‘Shy of Love’. ‘Love of the Loved’ made the NME Top 30 in October 1963.

  ‘Memphis Tennessee’

  (Chuck Berry)

  In Chuck Berry: The Autobiography (Faber and Faber, 1987), the rock ’n’ roller explains that he developed ‘Memphis Tennessee’ from a line in a Muddy Waters blues where he was talking to a long distance operator. He writes, “My wife had relatives there but, other than a couple of concerts there, I never had any basis for choosing Memphis as the location for the story.”

  The song about Chuck Berry trying to establish contact with his 6-year-old daughter was released in 1959. It was not a UK hit – indeed, Chuck Berry had only one Top 20 hit prior to 1962 – but it was recorded by the Beatles with John Lennon’s vocal. The British beat boom sparked an interest in Chuck Berry’s work and he had a Top 10 hit with ‘Memphis Tennessee’ in late 1963. At the time, he was then in prison for corrupting a minor.

  ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’

  (Berry Gordy Jr/Janie Bradford)

  At first, Berry Gordy Jr, the founder of Tamla Motown, had success as a songwriter, writing ‘Reet Petite’ for Jackie Wilson and ‘You Got What It Takes’ (Marv Johnson). Gordy is quoted in Motown: The History (Guinness, 1988) as saying, “When people asked me what I did for a living, I would say, ‘I write songs.’ They would have sons and daughters becoming doctors and lawyers, and my mother and father were embarrassed. Even though I had many hits, I didn’t have any money. I came from a business family – my mother and father always talked about the bottom line, and the bottom line is profit.”

  ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ was recorded by Barrett Strong for Gordy’s new Anna label in 1959 and made the US Top 30. Although it did not chart here it became a staple song for beat groups. The Beatles, the Searchers, the Undertakers and Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes recorded Liverpool versions and other covers came from Bern Elliott and the Fenmen and the Rolling Stones, who both recorded for Decca. Elliott made the UK Top 20 around the time that George Harrison, the most money conscious Beatle, wrote a companion song in ‘Taxman.’

  The balance on the Decca audition tape puts Pete Best’s drums in the background, but it is easy to imagine how they would be thundering out in the Cavern. The various versions enable us to hear the drumming techniques of Pete Best, Ringo Starr and Charlie Watts on the same song. Garry Tamlyn: “There’s a similarity in drumbeat among them all. At the beginning of the verse, we have emphasis on either tom-toms or snare drum in quaver patterns, but by the time you hit the chorus section, we have a standard rock beat. There are some differences in rhythm, Pete Best was performing the typical late 1950s, early rock umpapapa, and in the beginning of the verse, he was using tom-toms in semi-quaver rhythm – it is a bit like Jerry Allison’s drumming in Buddy Holly’s ‘Peggy Sue’. Ringo didn’t adopt that semi-quaver tom-tom rhythm, he was playing quaver rhythms on a snare drum, maybe with some tom-tom activity. Charlie Watts employed a standard rock beat, backbeat on beats two and four, even quavers, but he did have some tom-tom activity in the verse section. Very much like Ringo Starr and all of them are very good and competent”

  ‘Searchin’’

  (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller)

  In 1957 the Coasters recorded ‘Searchin’’ in 10 minutes toward the end of a session. Their producers and songwriters, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, discuss the song in the CD booklet for 50 Coastin’ Classics (Rhino 1992). Stoller says, “I had worked out an old-timey piano lick that struck me as being kind of fun, and it worked.” Leiber adds, “Everybody was together. It was one of those moments that rarely happen and it turned out to be their biggest hit.” Although ‘Searchin’’ made Number 3 in the US, it was only in the UK Top 30 for one week. The B-side was another rock classic and Beatles’ favourite, ‘Young Blood’.

  The Beatles were performing this tribute to a fictional detective as early as 1958, with Paul McCartney on lead vocals. The Manchester group, the Hollies, were strongly influenced by the Beatles and their first two hits were Coasters’ songs – ‘(Ain’t That) Just Like Me’ and ‘Searchin’’.

  In 1982 Paul McCartney chose the Coasters’ ‘Searchin’’ as one of his Desert Island discs.

  ‘September in the Rain’

  (Al Dubin/Harry Warren)

  Harry Warren was an award-winning songwriter who once told the equally impressive Harold Arlen, “You walk two Oscars behind me”. Many of his best-known songs were written in Hollywood with the lyricist Al Dubin and include ‘I’ll String Along With You’, ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’ and ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’. ‘September in the Rain’ was written for the 1937 film musical Melody For Two. When the tempestuous jazz singer Dinah Washington revived the song in 1961, it made the UK Top 50, and was a success at the time of the Beatles’ recording.

  It is mooted that the Beatles held themselves in check at the Decca audition and ‘September in the Rain’ is a good example. As the song draws to a conclusion, you expect Paul McCartney to go for a big ending but he decides otherwise and the final notes are ragged.

  ‘The Sheik of Araby’

  (Harry B. Smith/Francis Wheeler/Ted Snyder)

  In 1921, Rudolph Valentino starred in The Sheik and a ragtime number was written in his honour, ‘The Sheik of Araby’. This, in turn, was used to accompany his silent films. It was featured in a 1940 film musical, Tin Pan Alley.

  Many regard the Beatles’ treatment of ‘The Sheik of Araby’ with George Harrison’s lead vocal as their worst performance
and it was singled out by critics hostile to the Anthology concept. Although hard to defend it is not without interest. To me, it sounds like an attempt to emulate Joe Brown performing pub favourites like ‘Darktown Strutters Ball’. Joe Brown did include ‘The Sheik of Araby’ in his stage act and on his 1963 live album, but his version is more relaxed.

  Pete Best says, ‘The Sheik of Araby’ was a very popular number and we nearly did it on the BBC shows because of the demand. George loved those kind of numbers and we got it from Joe Brown and the Bruvvers. We rocked it up a bit.”

  ‘Sure To Fall’

  (Carl Perkins/Bill Cantrell/Quinton Claunch)

  The rockabilly singer Carl Perkins, when asked what he thought of the Beatles performing his songs ‘Matchbox’, ‘Honey Don’t’, and ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’, replied, “When I look at the Beatles, I see great big dollar signs.” He maintained a long friendship with each Beatle and his 1996 album, Go Cat Go! included duets with Paul, George and Ringo and, through modern recording technology, John.

  Several Merseyside guitarists (Billy Hatton of the Fourmost, Kingsize Taylor) owned Carl Perkins’ 1959 Dance Album and one track was the slow country song, ‘Sure to Fall’. The lead vocal is taken by Carl’s brother, Jay, with Carl singing harmony and playing a very distinctive guitar solo. The Beatles’ version is livelier and as close to country harmonies as they could get.