Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Most Beatles fans are aware of the recordings The Beatles made with Tony Sheridan, another English singer/guitarist they regularly backed during their stint at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg. Of the eight songs eventually released commercially, the most popular is My Bonnie, largely because it was the Beatles first recording on commercial vinyl, as well as the song that historically brought them to the attention of their future manager, Brian Epstein. One need only read the liner notes in the booklet for The Beatles Anthology 1 CD set, to know how record producer Bert Kaempfert had visited the Top Ten and was impressed enough with what he heard from Sheridan and The Beatles to get them under a contract and produce some recording sessions with them.

During June 22-23, 1961, The Beatles recorded My Bonnie, The Saints, Why, Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby and Nobody’s Child with Tony on lead vocals and Pete Best still manning the drum kit. Another recording from these sessions, Ain’t She Sweet, featured John Lennon on lead vocal. There was also an instrumental composed by John and George Harrison titled Cry For A Shadow. When My Bonnie b/w The Saints was released on a single, in both Germany and the U.K., it was requested at Brian Epstein’s NEMS record store, and the resulting curiosity of Brian’s is what led him to the Cavern Club in Liverpool to see The Beatles perform. The rest, as they say, is history.

Many are under the impression that these 1961 sessions in Hamburg were when all of the Tony Sheridan recordings with The Beatles were made, but that is not the case. By the middle of the following year, Brian was already managing The Beatles, and one of the main roadblocks with getting them a record deal was the contract they had signed in Hamburg with Bert Kaempfert. After talks with Brian, Bert agreed to let them out of it if they consented to one more session with Tony, the next time they were in Hamburg.

This is what brought The Beatles back to the same Studio Rahlstedt, where they had recorded the earlier sessions with Tony. The date was May 24, 1962. Pete Best was still with them, and they had also brought along pianist Roy Young, who had been playing with them at their latest engagements at Hamburg’s Star Club. The one person that didn’t make it to the session was Tony Sheridan himself. The Beatles, with Roy, went ahead and recorded two backing tracks for Tony to add vocals to at a later date. One track was a song called Swanee River. Another track, arranged solely by 19 year old Paul McCartney, was Sweet Georgia Brown, the subject of this week’s BROW.

Tony did make it to the studio a couple of weeks later, on June 7, to add his vocal track to Sweet Georgia Brown, and it appeared on a German EP called Ya Ya later in 1962. This EP, as you may have guessed, has been out of print for almost half a century. Swanee River was never released, and the master tapes have likely been lost forever. There is another recording of Tony Sheridan performing Swanee River, but without The Beatles as the backing band.

A year and a half later, on January 3, 1964, while The Beatles were the hottest commodity on the planet and soon to visit America, Tony replaced his vocal track on Sweet Georgia Brown, this time singing novelty lyrics that actually reference The Beatles by name. The verse previously sang as:

Fellas that she can’t get
Are fellas she can’t get*
Georgia claimed her, Georgia named her
Sweet Georgia Brown

was changed to:

In Liverpool she even dared
to criticize The Beatles hair
with their whole fan club standing there
Ah, meet Sweet Georgia Brown

* Tony should’ve sang this line as Are fellas she ain’t met

This second version is readily available (you can get it from the Amazon link below, or possibly at your favorite music store). The original version, with the initial vocal track by Tony, is not so easy to come by. I give it you now to compare. Thanks for stopping by this week!

Top Ten Club photo (Hamburg) L-R: Stuart Sutcliff, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney (on piano behind Tony), Tony Sheridan

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) In the Beginning – 2000 CD remaster of original 1970 compilation. Contains all eight songs The Beatles did with Tony Sheridan including their first ever vinyl release My Bonnie and Tony’s 1964 updated vocal of Sweet Georgia Brown

2) The Beatles with Tony Sheridan – 2004 film on DVD addressing The Beatles times in Hamburg with Tony Sheridan in 1960-1962.

3) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – My Bonnie (German intro) Welcome to this week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Most...
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I’m glad you’re here today for yet another in my ongoing series titled The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. One legendary musician who caught the respect of The Beatles way back in their formative years was Ray Charles – a pioneer who successfully fused 1950′s soul music with R&B, gospel and the blues. Ray’s composition, Hallelujah I Love Her So, first appeared on his debut album, Ray Charles, released on Atlantic Records in 1957. The Beatles performed the song in their early live act, all the way through 1962, as seen by this week’s feature, as well as its inclusion in their Dec. 1962 Star Club performance in Hamburg, Germany, which has come out on various releases over the years.

The source of this week’s BROW is from an even earlier recording of the song, made at Paul McCartney’s 20 Forthlin Road home in 1960. More specifically, it is likely after June 30, 1960, when Paul bought his Rosetti Solid 7 electric guitar, but before August 1960 when Pete Best joined The Beatles as drummer. The band name had recently switched from “Moondogs” to “Beatals” and the line up was John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison on guitar and vocals with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. An 18 year old Paul handles the vocals on this track. An edit of it can also be heard on the CD Beatles Anthology 1, but there it is sliced down to barely over a minute long. The Anthology edit removes the (rather sloppy) guitar break near the end, along with the final verse. For the sake of sharing a more accurate and complete historical picture, this is the complete recording featured here. In the weeks to come, after the addition of drummer Pete Best, The Beatles would set up residency for the first time in Hamburg’s Red Light district to ‘mach shau’ at the Indra Club for over 6 hours a night. By the time of their return to Liverpool in December, The Beatles were no longer an average group. They had become something special.

The Beatals - Hallelujah I Love Her So

Hallelujah I Love Her So was also recorded by Stevie Wonder, Peggy Lee, Eddie Cochran and Humble Pie.

When The Beatles performed Hallelujah I Love Her So at the Star Club in Hamburg in Dec. 1962, Beatles friend and nightclub bouncer Horst Fascher sang the lead vocal. Horst was a big Eddie Cochran fan – Eddie had also covered the song previously, in 1959.

In 1962, Ray Charles’ debut self-titled album was reissued with the title Hallelujah I Love Her So.

The Beatles recorded 3 Ray Charles compositions during their time together. Can you name the other two?

The Beatles in 1960 (L-R): George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Anthology 1 – double CD set of early Beatles demos and special recordings released in 1995. Includes an edited version of the recording of Hallelujah I Love Her So featured here.

2) Last Night in Hamburg 28 track collection of Beatles Star Club recordings from late December 1962, includes Hallelujah I Love Her So (with Horst Fascher on lead vocal)

3) Very Best of Ray Charles double CD compilation of 40 all time greats by Ray Charles, including Hallelujah I Love Her So

4) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Happy Nat holds a copy of Please Please Me/Ask Me Why Vee Jay 498 single

Background Information
When The Beatles follow-up single to Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You, their first EMI single in Britain, began racing up charts, The Beatles knew the time was ripe to release it in America. Please Please Me was the name of the new hit and producer George Martin had predicted it would go to number one in the U.K. However, when offered the record, Capitol Records, EMI’s U.S. label, refused it. EMI assigned their affiliate agency Transglobal, whose job it was to place foreign masters with U.S. record labels, to find a U.S. label that would release the record. Beatles manager Brian Epstein and George Martin were adamant about a U.S. release. When Transglobal offered it to Atlantic, they too turned the single down. Finally, a smaller label known as Vee Jay Records was offered the record, and they released it on February 7, 1963 (some sources say the release date was a couple weeks later around February 20). The contents of the A side on the Vee Jay single uses the same mono mix that appears on the British single. The B side track, a ballad titled Ask Me Why, also uses the same mono mix that appeared on the British single. Both songs were recorded at EMI Studios, London, on November 26, 1962, shortly before The Beatles took off for a final round of gigs in Hamburg, Germany’s Star Club. Vee Jay issued Please Please Me/Ask Me Why with catalog number VJ 498. The record was not adequately promoted and despite the tremendous success of it’s U.K. counterpart, where it topped the singles charts compiled by New Musical Express and Melody Maker, as well as reaching number two on the Record Retailer chart (now called the U.K. Singles Chart and most widely quoted today), it did not chart at all in America. It was the first record in America bearing The Beatles name, and it was a flop. As some awareness of The Beatles began to gradually occur in the U.S., sales eventually reached 5,652 copies during 1963, and a limited edition of the single added an additional 1,650 copies sold during 1964. This was nowhere near the amount of sales needed to put the record on the charts in the U.S.A. Fortunately, by January 1964, Capitol Records had reconsidered it’s take on The Beatles, agreeing to compile and release their LP Meet The Beatles! and give them a very hefty promotional boost aimed at the U.S. market.

Pictures sleeve for Vee Jay 581, a 1964 re-issue of the Please Please Me 45

As America fell under the spell of The Beatles, Vee Jay struck in January 1964, with a re-release of the Please Please Me 45, this time with From Me To You as the B side and an attractive picture sleeve with a portrait of the band. This issuance was cataloged as VJ 581, and this time it made it into the Billboard (U.S.) singles chart, peaking at #3 on March 14 and 21 of 1964. The only reason it did not make it to the top of the charts is because 2 other Beatles singles (I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You) were monopolizing the top two positions. These were only three of an incredible eight singles The Beatles had on the Billboard chart at this time.

The Vee Jay Labeling Mishap
The Beatles were so unheard of in America in early 1963 that initial copies of VJ 498 did not even have the name of the band spelled correctly. Including the promotional copies of the record, there are seven label variations, four of which have “The Beatles” spelled as “The Beattles” (with an extra “t”). There are also corrected pressings of the record issued later in 1963. While copies of the first pressings are the most sought after by collectors, due to the novelty of “Beatles” being misspelled, any authentic copy of VJ 498, corrected or not, is quite a collectors item, as very few were pressed and fewer still have survived.

Worth
Authentic copies of VJ 498 have become quite collectible over the years. The Price Guide For The Beatles American Records by Perry Cox and Frank Daniels (2007) cites this as a guideline for how much they are worth (keep in mind since this book is some years old, the prices are in all likelihood somewhat lower than what you could expect to buy them for today. Also, mint copies are worth considerably more than near mint copies, but can show no wear, age or signs of being played. I’m not sure if there are any authentic mint copies of this record in existence.

Vee Jay 1963 oval logo and 1964 brackets logo

-VJ 498 promotional (DJ) copy – white label w/gray rim, oval logo. Artist misspelled as The BEATTLES. Thin print. Catalog number shown as VJ 498. Very Good $625, Near Mint $2500*
-VJ 498 (1st stock pressing) – Black rainbow label w/oval logo. Artist misspelled as The BEATTLES. Thin print. Catalog number shown as VJ 498. Very Good $875, Near Mint $3500
-VJ 498 (2nd stock pressing) – Black rainbow label w/oval logo. Artist misspelled as The BEATTLES. Thick print. Catalog number shown as VJ 498. Very Good $750, Near Mint $3000
-VJ 498 (3rd stock pressing) – Black rainbow label w/oval logo. Artist misspelled as The BEATTLES. Catalog number shown as #498. Rarest of mis-spelled pressings. Very Good $875, Near Mint $3500*
-VJ 498 (4th stock pressing) – Black rainbow label w/oval logo. Artist spelled correctly as The BEATLES. Catalog number shown as #498. Very Good $750, Near Mint $3000
-VJ 498 (5th stock pressing) – Black rainbow label w/oval logo. Artist spelled correctly as The BEATLES. Thick print. Catalog number shown as VJ 498. Very Good $625, Near Mint $2500*
-VJ 498 (6th stock pressing) – Black rainbow label w/brackets logo. Artist spelled correctly as The BEATLES. Thick print. Catalog number shown as VJ 498. Very Good $875, Near Mint $3500

* = see photos below
All singles were issued in February 1963 except 4th and 5th stock pressings (Spring 1963) and 6th stock pressing (1964).

Vee Jay 498 Please Please Me single (promo copy), issued Feb. 1963

Vee Jay 498 Please Please Me single (3rd stock pressing), issued Feb. 1963

Vee Jay 498 Please Please Me single (5th stock pressing), issued Spring 1963

Final info/acknowledgments
The subject of all photographs of singles, albums, album jackets, sleeves, etc. in this article are of actual items within my very own record collection. These items are listed as entries in my own online vinyl inventory as linked below:

1) VJ 498 Please Please Me/Ask Me Why (promo)
2) VJ 498 Please Please Me/Ask Me Why (stock copies of 3rd and 5th pressings)
3) VJ 581 Please Please Me/From Me To You (promo)
4) VJ 581 Please Please Me/From Me To You (stock copies of 1st, 3rd and 9th pressings)

In closing, I’d like to credit the main sources of information used in this post: Bruce Spizer’s Songs, Pictures And Stories Of The Fabulous Beatles Records On Vee Jay, Perry Cox and Frank Daniel’s Price Guide For The Beatles American Records (6th edition), and websites: Wikipedia.com and MyBeatlesCollection.com. I’d also like to thank Jake Pierson for help with the photography that went into this post.

A few dealers in Beatles collectibles:

Perry Cox: email to perrydcox@aol.com
Gary Hein: visit online at www.beatles4me.com
Rockaway Records: visit online at www.rockaway.com.

Please let me hear from you if you have questions, comments, corrections or anything to add about this 45. I’d love to hear from you!

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) 1962-1966 (Red) Remastered – 2010 2-CD remaster of original 1973 hits compilation of early Beatles classics, including Please Please Me and From Me To You

2) Please Please Me (Remastered) – 2009 remaster of original stereo LP containing Please Please Me title song plus Ask Me Why (stereo mixes of the songs on the Vee Jay single)

3)The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 (Brick) – Box set of 4 CDs of 4 Capitol Beatles albums in both stereo and mono (The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help! and Rubber Soul) – The Early Beatles is the Capitol version of the Vee Jay album Introducing The Beatles which contains both Please Please Me and Ask Me Why.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Collector’s Corner – “Jolly What! The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage:” a Vee Jay ‘flop’ becomes a highly coveted collector’s item During Vee Jay Records’ mad scramble to get as much...
2. Collector’s Corner – The “Love Me Do” single on Parlophone – The Beatles begin an incredible recording career Excluding the January 5, 1962, Polydor “My Bonnie” single release...
3. Collector’s Corner – ‘Introducing The Beatles’ (the world’s most counterfeited album) The U.S. album Introducing The Beatles (aka Introducing…The Beatles) will...

Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. It is an unquestionable fact that The Beatles were fascinated by many of the pioneers from the golden era of American rock and roll. Of course there was Elvis Presley. But there are a few others that made a profound influence on the development of The Beatles sound, such as Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Carl Perkins. And this list of legends would in no way be complete without the name Chuck Berry. This month marks the 56th anniversary of the recording of Chuck’s first single Maybellene. Chuck has not let up since. Currently in his mid 80′s, he still performs and has released a live album to CD as recently as 2002. Chuck has had a staggering career and I currently have multiple versions of no less than 15 covers of his, performed by The Beatles, in my collection. The majority of these are sung by John Lennon. To name only a handful, there are songs like Sweet Little Sixteen, Johnny B. Goode, Rock And Roll Music, Roll Over Beethoven, Memphis Tennessee and Too Much Monkey Business. This week’s BROW salutes Chuck Berry, a man who not only set the example by writing and performing his own material, but who is also the man I credit as refining and developing rhythm and blues into the major elements that shaped the rock and roll of the best bands to follow – like, for instance, The Beatles. I’m Talking About You was first released as a single by Chuck in 1961, and The Beatles covered it on numerous occasions. The most commonly known Beatles version comes from one of the two existing recorded performances of it from December 1962 at Hamburg Germany’s Star Club. There are also a few recordings of it from the Get Back Sessions of January 1969. On March 16, 1963, The Beatles performed the song live for BBC’s Saturday Club radio program. This recording was initially selected to appear on the official 1994 CD set released by Apple titled Live At The BBC, but it ended up being omitted due to poor sound quality. Since the sound quality still far surpasses the Star Club recording of it that most are used to hearing, I think this omitted track will still be much appreciated. Take it away John…

The Beatles

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Live at the BBC – collection of other BBC recordings by The Beatles compiled in 1994 (2 CDs)

2) Rockin’ at the Star-Club Live in Hamburg Germany 1962 – historical collection of live recordings of The Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg Germany, Dec. 1962 including I’m Talking About You (note: sound quality suffers due to substandard source of original tape)

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week and Happy New Year!

During the holiday season of 1962 The Beatles were busy down in Hamburg. Accounts of their Star Club recordings there are numerous, confusing and often contradictory. During the final days of December 1962, when the band was on their last stint of shows for Hamburg’s Red Light district, Star Club sound man (and Big Three guitarist) Adrian Barber was working on improving the venues PA system and set up a mono recorder to record about four hours of material between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The fidelity was very limited due to the use of only a single microphone suspended from the ceiling as well as a slow recording speed to allow for more material to be fit on the tape. Much of the music on the tape is by The Beatles and there is also material from Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers and The Dominoes.

The tapes ended up with Ted “Kingsize” Taylor (lead singer of The Dominoes) who claimed John Lennon accepted a round of drinks in exchange for the rights to the recordings. About a year later, after The Beatles had gained much popularity, Ted tried to sell the tapes to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, but because of the poor sound quality, Brian only offered 20 British pounds for them and that was turned down. After trying unsuccessfully again to sell the tapes, this time to Apple, Ted teamed up with Allan Williams, The Beatles first manager to have the tapes filtered, equalized and processed into a stereo ambiance for a June 1977 double-album release on Lingasong Records called Live! At The Star Club in Hamburg Germany 1962. The album extracts only selected Beatles recordings from the tapes and the UK and US versions have a few differences in what tracks were used. Shorter accounts of these recordings were issued on various CDs in the 1980′s including an official K-Tel CD.

Red Sails In The Sunset, sung here by Paul McCartney, is a cover of a mid-1930′s era song written by Hugh Williams and Jimmy Kennedy. It did appear on the Lingasong album and the K-Tel CD. The officially released versions are missing the third verse and the first of two repeats of the final vocal line were edited out, due to microphone feedback. For your BROW this week, I give you the unaltered and complete account of the song.

The Beatles at the Star Club, Hamburg, Germany, December 1962

Special Thanks go to John C. Winn who authored Way Beyond Compare, Bruce Spizer who authored The Beatles Swan Song and the folks at Purple Chick for much of the info that went into this post.

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. Plans for The Beatles to do a recording session for the BBC radio program Saturday Club fell through on March 11, 1963 because John Lennon came down with a sore throat. Plan B was put into effect, which was to just do a live performance during the actual broadcast on March 16. The Beatles were given time to do six songs and opened up with I Saw Her Standing There, which was also the opener for their upcoming first LP release Please Please Me, due out the following week. Due to time constraints, this was the first occurrence of a slightly shortened arrangement of the song (omitting the second middle eight). This was also the first of ten recordings of I Saw Her Standing There for BBC radio, although there is a couple earlier recordings of the song from the Cavern Club in Liverpool, UK and The Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. The other songs performed at the show were Misery, Too Much Monkey Business (a Chuck Berry favorite of John’s), I’m Talking About You (another Chuck Berry tune), Please Please Me (their first #1 single which had only just topped the UK Melody Maker singles chart) and The Hippy Hippy Shake (another cover originally by Chan Romero, but The Beatles were probably most familiar with the 1959 Little Tony version). As usual there was also chat with The Beatles from well-known host Brian Matthew. This was at a time when nobody in America had ever heard of The Beatles. The 1994 Apple collection of BBC recordings Live At The BBC did not include this particular performance, nor has it been on any other official release to date.

The Beatles, 1963

Click to read about or purchase these related items from Amazon.com:

1) Live at the BBC
2) Live at the BBC [Vinyl]
3) Live at the BBC EP 45 w/Picture sleeve

A Happy Note from Happy Nat: As of this month, the BROW is 3 years old! Can you believe it! I know most of you haven’t been around that long to read and hear them but they are still here in case you still need to (and want to) catch up. It’s been beyond fun so far, and I’ve got to know a lot more fans too – and that alone makes it worth it. So thanks everyone for sticking around and there is a lot more good stuff to come. Stay tuned…

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. I’ve decided to let this post be in celebration of my trip to Nashville, TN to see Sir Paul tonight. Since he hasn’t been to Nashville since 1974, when he recorded Junior’s Farm and Sally G there with Wings, I was even hoping he might modify his set list, and at least throw Junior’s Farm in for the occasion (it’s such a good rocker). We’ll see…but hey! I’m getting off track here.

On June 1, 2008, Liverpool, UK had one of it’s greatest concerts in history when Paul showed up in celebration for his birth-city’s year as the European Capital of Culture. The pre-show music was from his obscure UK Twin Freaks album and also some remixes of the Memory Almost Full track, Nod Your Head. Then Paul and band hit the stage and surprised everyone by opening with something he hasn’t performed live in nearly 50 years – The Hippy Hippy Shake. The Beatles used to cover this little rocker when they played in Hamburg Germany from 1960-1962.

The Hippy Hippy Shake was written by Chan Romero but The Beatles were probably more familiar with the version by Italian rocker Little Tony, because that is the version that made it big in the UK around 1959. The Beatles can be heard on some of the releases of the Hamburg, Star Club recordings, covering the song. The Beatles also performed it 5 times for the BBC radio programs in the early 60′s and one of these recordings (from July 10, 1963) is on the Live At The BBC Beatles release on Apple. Paul sang lead on all accounts, as he does with equal energy here.

So if the set list was modified for Liverpool, might it be for Nashville too? Again, we’ll see…

Paul McCartney & Brian Ray on stage, Liverpool, 2008

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – I Saw Her Standing There (Live for Saturday Club) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. Plans for...

Welcome to BROW. Once again, it is time for me to serve up another little musical sampling chosen with the idea that the majority of those tuning in, will be treated to something they haven’t heard before.

It’s no secret that The Beatles were all big fans of many of the early rock and rollers and r & b artists that preceded them. One need only look at the string of albums they put out during their first couple of years to see covers by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, The Isley Brothers, The Marvelettes, The Miracles, Arthur Alexander and even a few more. One of the greats that The Beatles idolized was Richard Penniman (aka Little Richard) and my collection contains many Beatle covers (and solo-Beatle covers) of some of his greats, complete with vocals emulating the trademark screaming he’s famous for (Long, Tall Sally, Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey and Lucille, just to name a few).

In November 1962, when The Beatles were in Hamburg, Germany, still trying to make a name for themselves, they had the privilege of being an opening act for Little Richard at the Star Club. Can you imagine how thrilled The Beatles must have been to meet someone that had been a hero of theirs since childhood? Especially since this was before knowing that they would have any such fame themselves. They not only met Richard, but also met Billy Preston, who happened to be in his band. George Harrison actually invited Billy to come on stage and play with them for a few songs, but Billy politely declined, for fear of upsetting Richard (Of course, years later Billy did play with them on both sides of their Get Back/Don’t Let Me Down single). A detailed discussion of the amount of influence Little Richard’s music had on Beatles music is beyond the scope of this post, but let’s just say there is no doubt he played a more than significant part in many of the Lennon/McCartney compositions of the 1960s. One Beatle-favorite was a 1957 double-A sided single with Jenny, Jenny on one side and Miss Ann on the other. The Beatles covered both of these on more than one occasion during the Get Back sessions of January 1969.

Many years later on February 5, 1993, we find Paul McCartney showing up for his Cardington (London) gig soundcheck, and as an illustration that much of his taste remains the same after all these years, he breaks into this old Little Richard favorite once again, for old time sake.

The Beatles with Little Richard at The Star Club, Hamburg Germany, November, 1962

A couple things in closing:

I can’t end this post without mentioning the impressive keyboard work heard on this track by Wix Wickens!

And finally: This week’s BROW was to honor a request I received a couple of week’s ago. Thanks for the “soundcheck” idea, Chip! I hope you like it.

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? Then let me hear from you. Read about more Beatles rarities and suggest one for me to post. You can begin by searching for different versions of specific tracks right here.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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