Covers By Artists

The Beatles Rockabilly Roots Before Beatlemania

Five brilliant covers from The Beatles and the Fab Four solo

Image generated with OpenAI ChatGPT (DALL·E) in a Warhol-inspired pop art style blending early Beatles Cavern-era photography | Prompt by Author

Rock N’ Roll had many roots. From rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz, boogie-woogie, swing, and folk, to blues and country, one of its earliest children was rockabilly.

If you’re not that familiar with the genre, here’s a helpful definition:

Rockabilly usually refers to the style of rock and roll music played and recorded in the mid-1950s by artists such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Drawing heavily from country music and rhythm and blues, the sound helped shape the early direction of rock and roll.

This is a story about how that sound influenced the most famous foursome to come out of Liverpool, and the songs they covered in this style that I absolutely love.

Ready to rock… and roll?

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From the first few bars, you can hear the rockabilly roots in this Beatles cover released in 1964. Originally recorded by Carl Perkins in 1957, “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” feels like a natural song choice for George Harrison and The Beatles, don’t you think? George even sounds a little like Elvis Presley at the top of the song.

While The Beatles were together, they recorded 211 songs, with 25 cover versions. After the breakup, another 41* covers were released, and around 30 of those came from rockabilly artists.

It’s pretty safe to say…

The Beatles loved rockabilly!

Rockabilly may have started in America, but Liverpool gave it a new home.

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In 1992, Paul McCartney not only revisited his roots with this great live performance of the Eddie Cochran classic, first recorded on his 1988 covers album CHOBA B CCCP (Back in the USSR, for non-Russian speakers), but also returned to the same stage where America would first discover The Beatles.

Beatlemania in the US began on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York City on February 9, 1964. Almost three decades later, McCartney and his band performed an “Up Close” concert at The Ed Sullivan Theater on December 10, 1992, rocking a sold-out audience with this great song. The only thing that would have made the performance better, had I been there, was a space up front to dance.

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While Chuck Berry wasn’t strictly rockabilly, his guitar-driven rock and roll sat right alongside the artists The Beatles were covering and learning from.

George Harrison brings the same passion to this song as its originator. I don’t know if Chuck Berry ever publicly commented on George’s take, but I imagine he’d be pleased.

Thinking back on this track, it might have been the very first “oldies” song I remember hearing as a child.

FYI: The Beatles weren’t the only band to cover this epic Chuck Berry song. It was recorded by The Rolling Stones on their 2017 album On Air, by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) on the album ELO 2 in 1973, by country/rockabilly singer Narvel Felts in 1982, placing at number 64 on the Hot Country Singles chart .

UK knight and national treasue, Cliff Richard, who is ironically the third-top-selling artist in UK singles chart history, behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley, on his appropriately titled 2016 album Just… Fabulous Rock ’n’ Roll.

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I’ve loved this song for years, though I’m not entirely sure where I first heard it, oldies radio, on a TV retrospective, who knows? But it soon lodged on my life playlist as a great song, whoever recorded it.

At the 2002 Concert for George at the Royal Albert Hall, Ringo Starr delivers a warm and playful performance of the Carl Perkins classic. Ringo is backed by a stellar band led by Eric Clapton, made up of George Harrison’s friends and collaborators.

Since I couldn’t find a good-quality live video of this performance on YouTube, I’ve included the audio-only track here. It would have been cool to watch this performance though.

There is another live version from 1985 at the Capitol Theatre, where Ringo performs the song alongside Carl Perkins, with Carl on guitar. A fun moment, but the video quality is a bit rough at 480p, so I’ve stayed with this version.

Rockabilly wasn’t typically Ringo Starr’s go-to genre. His covers often leaned toward standards, country, and classic pop. That makes “Honey Don’t” something special when he sings it. Ringo sounds completely at ease with this Carl Perkins classic. What do you think?

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I first remember hearing “Be-Bop-A-Lula” when my mum had a flat in London just off Old Brompton Road, only a few miles from Abbey Road. Whether it was on Top of the Pops or from a record, I’m not entirely sure, but it was love at first listen. An infectious, catchy, fun song.

I have known about John Lennon’s 1975 album Rock ’n’ Roll for some time, and when I first heard it I thought it pretty cool that he’d covered so many great oldies. “Be-Bop-A-Lula” was one that stood out. Even though John delivers a great version of the song, Gene Vincent is just so quintessentially cool that, in this case, I think I prefer his 1956 original, with its stripped-back, era-defining simplicity.

Rate-A-Record: The Beatles Rockabilly Edition

Taking inspiration from American Bandstand, it’s time to Rate-A-Record.

Here’s a quick recap if you’d like to copy, paste, and rate:

“Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” = “Twenty Flight Rock” = “Roll Over Beethoven” = “Honey Don’t” = “Be-Bop-A-Lula” =

Rockabilly, a quintessentially American style, seems to have produced some great songs this side of the pond. Whether UK efforts rival those of their American counterparts is open to opinion and interpretation, but I have to say, as a Brit, we’ve produced some pretty great rockabilly-inspired acts and songs.

Not just The Beatles, but artists like Shakin’ Stevens, whose early 80s revival brought rockabilly back to the UK charts with hits like “This Ole House”.

Even Freddie Mercury tipped his hat to the genre with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.

And London punk pioneers The Clash brought their own edge to rockabilly with a take on “Brand New Cadillac”.

Beatlemania may have brought the Fab Four fame, but those early rockabilly days in Hamburg and at The Cavern might just be my favourite Beatles era.

Though I suspect Medium’s resident Beatles expert might have something to say about that…

What’s the Frequency, Alex?

Over to Medium’s resident Beatles musicologist **Alex Markham** Any favourite cover songs by The Beatles or the Fab Four?

**A post-publish edit: The pretty reliable website Second Hand Songs*, lists 108 cover songs by The Beatles**, so that’s 42 more than what I reported above.