Anna

[bloke]

I just answered a private message to a friend/customer, whose daughter is named Anna...

...so I sent him this LIVE-recorded (radio broadcast, not on stage) version of "Anna" (Beatles' cover of the Muscle Shoals-recorded Arthur Alexander tune).
With all respect to Alexander for composing and first recording it, I like the Beatles version (particular this LIVE version) better.

I've never heard this LIVE version before, and I was fascinated at how much better McCartney sounds playing the bass (on this one) and how much better Lennon (and the rest of them, as well) sang in tune (LIVE vs. badly out-of-tune, in the studio).

[arpthark]

Just saw the title of your post and immediately began humming the Beatles tune... clicked on the post and it's the same tune!

Great, underappreciated song.

[iiipopes]

I did as well. I can't see or hear that name, no matter what the context, without first thinking of the Beatles song. It is, of course, a cover. The song was written, recorded, and released by Arthur Alexander about a six months before the Beatles first Parlophone album, Please Please Me. So they must have caught on to the song quickly.

[arpthark]

One of my favorite Beatles covers is "'Til There Was You" and the line:

"There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
'Til there was you"

But of course, Paul's rhoticity comes out on the word "saw" and it becomes "sawr."

[iiipopes]

One of my favorite Beatles covers is "'Til There Was You" and the line:

"There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
'Til there was you"

But of course, Paul's rhoticity comes out on the word "saw" and it becomes "sawr."

Ah, yes: Meredith Wilson and The Music Man. Here is an interesting quote, "The widow of Meredith Willson, the composer of The Music Man, has stated that her husband's estate eventually received more income from the royalties of the Beatles recordings of "Till There Was You" than it originally received from the actual play."

[bloke]

George Harrison played the original guitar solo to that Latin-beat version of “Til There Was You” that the Beatles were encouraged to include on their first album.

Reportedly, it wasn’t very good, and Paul McCartney went back and recorded the one - with which everyone is familiar - after the session was over.

I only became aware of this recently, but I always thought that solo really didn’t sound like Harrison.

Of the four of them, undoubtedly McCartney would’ve somehow been noticed - whether or not the Beatles had ever become a thing.

[arpthark]

I love George, but I always found Paul's guitar playing to be a little more tuneful and interesting in those tracks that he is playing guitar.

[bloke]

This sounds contradictory, but it is not:

I’ve always viewed George Harrison’s rock guitar solos to Louis Armstrong’s jazz trumpet solos:

- not very many notes, but just right
- referred to by endless others

[Three Valves]

John's voice at the bridge, :56 and 1:45 reminds me of his work on Mr. Moonlight as well as others.

That boy had soul.

Then went Hippie.

Did he sing Mr. Moonlight better than the originators??



Mebbe.

Were Beatles covers better than Pat Boone covers??

DEFINATELY!!

[arpthark]

John's voice at the bridge, :56 and 1:45 reminds me of his work on Mr. Moonlight as well as others.

That boy had soul.

Then went Hippie.

Did he sing Mr. Moonlight better than the originators??



Mebbe.

Were Beatles covers better than Pat Boone covers??

DEFINATELY!!

Aside from John's introduction wail, which is awesome, is there a cheesier song in the early Beatles catalogue?

I read somewhere that the entire Mr. Moonlight cover was sort of tongue-in-cheek, between the flat backing vocals and John's overly-impassioned delivery.

[Three Valves]

Aside from John's introduction wail, which is awesome, is there a cheesier song in the early Beatles catalogue?

Really??

Honey Don't, Everyone's Tryin' to be my Baby, I could go on...

There is nothing wrong with cheese so long as it is good cheese interpreted well.

[arpthark]

good cheese

Oh yes -- early Beatles cheese is still good cheese!

[iiipopes]

good cheese

Oh yes -- early Beatles cheese is still good cheese!

Yes. The finest.

[bloke]

Gorgonzola cheese - actually - is quite good.
That having been said, Gorgon cheeze - as well as Zola cheese - are to be avoided, as there are no such cheeses.