After an amazing response - lots of emails, comments, and some assiduous readers sending a whole album's worth of covers... (suffice to say I've had a lot to listen to!) here it is... your thoughts, please!
Download The Alternate Please Please Me Here.
Show me the Alternate Please Please Me Tracklist
Some of the ones I've picked have actually surprised me: I thought for Anna and Baby, It's You the obvious thing was to use the original originals, but thanks to a couple of suggestions I found some more deserving cover versions. Not so for Boys, where the original surpasses all the covers by some distance. (And can anyone explain to me why there are no cover versions by any female artists?)
I'm not going to be all defensive about the choices, but I will say the key criteria have transpired to be surprise and variety, and that whenever possible I have preferred a song that doesn't copy slavishly or note-for-note the Beatles' version. Especially since a lot of you will be buying a copy.(And by now I'm sure the Beatles remastered tracks are already on a torrent, although since the point of remastering is to improve quality, is downloading them in mp3 format missing the point?)
Now ON WITH BUSINESS. Please send me your cover ideas for With The Beatles tracks:
And you can click on a picture to download any of the other Alternate Beatles albums:
Download The Alternate Please Please Me Here.
Show me the Alternate Please Please Me Tracklist
Some of the ones I've picked have actually surprised me: I thought for Anna and Baby, It's You the obvious thing was to use the original originals, but thanks to a couple of suggestions I found some more deserving cover versions. Not so for Boys, where the original surpasses all the covers by some distance. (And can anyone explain to me why there are no cover versions by any female artists?)I'm not going to be all defensive about the choices, but I will say the key criteria have transpired to be surprise and variety, and that whenever possible I have preferred a song that doesn't copy slavishly or note-for-note the Beatles' version. Especially since a lot of you will be buying a copy.(And by now I'm sure the Beatles remastered tracks are already on a torrent, although since the point of remastering is to improve quality, is downloading them in mp3 format missing the point?)
Now ON WITH BUSINESS. Please send me your cover ideas for With The Beatles tracks:
And you can click on a picture to download any of the other Alternate Beatles albums:
|  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
8 comments:
You Really Got a Hold on Me by Shirley Eickhard is worth a listen
I ought to add that thanks are due to:
Alex Measday
Freg
Bruce McKee
Rob
Burns
Larry
byrdsflyght
Eeker
and fred6368
Not to mention all those who commented anonymously!
Original Anna was Arthur Alexander
Chocolate Genius' Julia is worth a listen.
Female Covers?
Smith - Baby It's You
Akiko Kanazawa - Yerrow Subamarine Ondo
Shirelles - Boys
Sarah McLachlan - Blackbird
Sissel - Here There And Everywhere
Stephanie Dosen - Within You Without You
Syreeta - She's Leaving Home
Tori Amos - With A Little Help From My Friends
Claudine Longet - Jealous Guy, Don't Let Me Down
Carmen D'Oro - Something
Caterina Valente - The Fool on the Hill
Cathy Berberian - Yellow Submarine (Truly Horrific!)
Chiwaki - A Hard Day's Night
Fiona Apple - Across the Universe
Heather Nova - We Can Work It Out
Jessica Mitford - Maxwell Silver Hammer
Mrs Miller - Hard Day's Nite
Kitty Bruce - Yesterday (Lenny Bruce's Daughter age 10 one week before his death 1966)
Xavier Hollander - Michelle
But, then again, you were referring to Anna, weren't you?
It could very well be sacrilege to not include Chuck Berry's Beethoven.
While there's a ton of covers out there, The Supremes do a fine version of "Money."
Cheers,
Rob
Robert Palmer- "Not A Second Time"
Fantastic project! I spent a few years gathering Beatles covers (in earlier internet days, when downloads and AMG didn't provide the ready access to downloads, streaming, databases and online ordering. My goal was to end up with one listenable cover of every tune, then do what you've undertaken. I never got there, though I found a lot of great tracks.
Your Alternate Please Please me is terrific! I've only ever heard Humble Pie's "I Don't Need No Doctor," and "Anna" covers are hard to come by - this one's great, a bit of Janis Joplin vibe. So great to hear Os Sambeatles! They showed up on Beatles cover lists, but I never heard their stuff - definite Vince Guaraldi sound, think I'll have to track down the rest of their Beatles stuff. And hey - now maybe I'll need to see Death Proof.
Yeah, good call on "Boys" - the original rocks! You wondered why nobody sent in a female cover of the tune - ironic, yes? Well, there is a terrific one, and though I can't come up with the name of the band just now, I can hear it in my head: a Japanese (?) girl group with a pretty fair imitatio of the Shirelles sound, but faster, and with charmingly garbled lyrics. If I find it, I'll let you know.
BeatleJazz is surprisingly good: both volumes have some gems. "Secret" is wonderfully strange: must find out more about Jonathan King. The Buddy Morrow is a kick! Surf guitar, honkin' sax, cornball horn section - bring on the kitsch! I do love foreign language covers: "Mi sufrir" is classic. Santo & Johnny set my teeth on edge (wonderfully). "The Score" certainly capture a certain Sixties/Seventies high school dance band something-or-other, but I'm not sure I'll be listening a lot - though I get a kick out of the nods to Satisfaction and - dang, what is that drum pattern right after that? Could be "Good Day Sunshine," but I'm thinking Chambers Brothers?
I like "Reggae & Shout" (though there's a few sound glitches in the file, I hate to say, around 26 seconds and 52 seconds). When you get to the White Album, make sure to give a listen to Roslyn Sweet's "Blackbirds Singing" - my favourite reggae cover. (THAT is going to be a tough call: next to Eleanor Rigby, there are more good covers of Blackbird than anything else the Fabs recorded, I'd say.) And Marcia Griffiths "Don't Let Me Down" is an all-time fave.
Sandie Shaw - go-go boots and a groovy miniskirt cover a multitude of sins. Never heard the Artwoods before - sucker for the Hammond. And fitting to end with something from the leading candidate for the honourary title "The Fifth Beatle." Amazing that such a middle-of-the-road sensibility served the Beatles so well.
REALLY looking forward to your Alternate With The Beatles! Hope you don't run out of steam before the project's complete, a year or so from now. (And if I end up with some time on my hands, I'll be sure to send you some suggested tracks).
Thanks RR, lots of constructive comments here! From the sounds of it your ideas for some good cover versions would be right up my street!
I'll fix that glitch in "Reggae and Shout" ASAP too!
Thanks
Tardy
OK glitches fixed!
Not sure if finding out more about Jonathan King is a good idea though!
Post a Comment