The song has been covered by over 150 artists, making it the second-most covered Beatles song after "Yesterday". Artists who have covered the song include Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, James Brown, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Ike & Tina Turner, The Miracles, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Isaac Hayes, Julio Iglesias, Mina, and Phish. Harrison is quoted as saying that his favourite version of the song was James Brown's, which he kept in his personal jukebox.
The John Lennon song "Across the Universe" was one that slipped through as an acoustic performance:
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panzade
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Fri 23 Aug, 2013 10:48 pm
good stuff
According to John, Yoko was playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and he asked her to play the chords backwards and came up with Because.
This is a nice acapella version.
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Thomas
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Fri 23 Aug, 2013 11:26 pm
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
Demos . . . great idea . . .
I agree. I even like them better than the final product sometimes. Case in point: George's All Things Must Pass
Here's his 1969 demo for the Beatles.
Somehow, the song didn't make it on their Let it Be album, so he made it the title song of his first solo album.
Totally overproduced if you ask me. Phil Spector ruined it.
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vonny
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 02:09 am
Beatles - India - rare John Lennon demo
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vonny
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 02:10 am
Beatles - Julia - home demo
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vonny
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 02:12 am
And - an especially good one - Bad To Me - John Lennon demo
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Setanta
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 05:39 am
Fantastic . . . thanks, everyone . . .
Youtube is a wonderful resource. Just a few years ago, a thread like this would not have worked so well at all, and would have been a rather poor thing.
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izzythepush
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 06:00 am
I saw this documentary on the making of Magical Mystery Tour. It was really really good. I don't know if it will be made available outside the UK, but if it is, it's well worth seeing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nd5qd
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Setanta
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 06:32 am
Yeah, that link works . . . and thanks.
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panzade
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 09:00 am
More unheard Beatles recordings set for release...
The new batch of BBC recordings will coincide with an upcoming book, which will detail those radio sessions. "The Beatles: The BBC Archives: 1962-1970" is written by BBC and Beatles expert Kevin Howlett. It will be published on Oct. 10 by Random House.
Guitar groups are on the way out . . . he has no future in the pop business.
The astute observation that accompanied the single greatest error in entertainment history.
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Setanta
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 12:33 pm
I'd say that's a reasonable assessment.
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Setanta
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Sat 24 Aug, 2013 12:56 pm
You know Brandon, i'm repeating myself here, but i think it's worth saying again. Lennon started with the Quarrymen in 1956, and by 1957 they had begun to perform publicly. McCartney joined in 1957, but Lennon thought Harrison was still too young. When Harrison turned 15, he joined the group. By the time Brian Epstein became their manager in 1962, they had been working for more than four years, and they really worked. They did 200 shows a year at least, and as many dates as they could get. In 1963, they did more than 350 shows, 200 in the UK alone. Add to that that they were song writers as well, and writing songs for other performers, and you can see that they were working hard, that they were real troupers. When the Decca deal fell through, Epstein was despondant, but troupers that they were, they jollied him along and told him to go get them some other auditions. You should check out the documentaries that Lordy linked. In one of them, the engineer who recorded them at EMI tells about their audition with George Martin. After the audition and the demo, Martin told them he wasn't very hopeful, and then gave them the standard speech about EMI being the biggest recording company in the world, that they were lucky to have gotten the opportunity, that they should do as they were told and be grateful. He then asked them if they had any questions or comments. Nobody said anything for a moment, and then George leaned across the desk and sais: "Yeah, i don't like your tie." It was a message, and the message was that they were no more impressed with Martin than he was with them. When they recorded their first album at the Abbey Road studio, when everyone else went out to the pub for the typical one or two hour lunch, the boys stayed behind to rehearse. They completed the recordings for the album by ten p.m. that day.
One of the members of one of the bands that toured with them said to George once, during the unpleasant 1966 tour of the United States, that it must be hard to put up with all the stress, that it must be hard to keep going. George told him that this was what they wanted, they wanted to be number one and that they had worked hard for years to get there. I think it shows when you add up all the documentaries and the interviews.
You know Brandon, i'm repeating myself here, but i think it's worth saying again. Lennon started with the Quarrymen in 1956, and by 1957 they had begun to perform publicly. McCartney joined in 1957, but Lennon thought Harrison was still too young. When Harrison turned 15, he joined the group. By the time Brian Epstein became their manager in 1962, they had been working for more than four years, and they really worked. They did 200 shows a year at least, and as many dates as they could get. In 1963, they did more than 350 shows, 200 in the UK alone. Add to that that they were song writers as well, and writing songs for other performers, and you can see that they were working hard, that they were real troupers. When the Decca deal fell through, Epstein was despondant, but troupers that they were, they jollied him along and told him to go get them some other auditions. You should check out the documentaries that Lordy linked. In one of them, the engineer who recorded them at EMI tells about their audition with George Martin. After the audition and the demo, Martin told them he wasn't very hopeful, and then gave them the standard speech about EMI being the biggest recording company in the world, that they were lucky to have gotten the opportunity, that they should do as they were told and be grateful. He then asked them if they had any questions or comments. Nobody said anything for a moment, and then George leaned across the desk and sais: "Yeah, i don't like your tie." It was a message, and the message was that they were no more impressed with Martin than he was with them. When they recorded their first album at the Abbey Road studio, when everyone else went out to the pub for the typical one or two hour lunch, the boys stayed behind to rehearse. They completed the recordings for the album by ten p.m. that day.
One of the members of one of the bands that toured with them said to George once, during the unpleasant 1966 tour of the United States, that it must be hard to put up with all the stress, that it must be hard to keep going. George told him that this was what they wanted, they wanted to be number one and that they had worked hard for years to get there. I think it shows when you add up all the documentaries and the interviews.
Yes. When they burst onto the American music scene in 1964, it seemed as though they had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but the truth was that they had put in years of back-breaking work to get to that point.
Decca's Dick Rowe had been hesitant to give Epstein a clear, final "no," since the Epstein family's NEMS music stores were an important customer, but Epstein was pressing for an answer. Finally, Rowe decided to audition them again himself in secret. He took the train to Liverpool to secretly catch their show at The Cavern. It was pouring rain and when Rowe got to The Cavern, the crowd was such that he would have had to wait a very long time to be admitted. He finally just gave up, returned to London, and Decca issue a final and absolute rejection. In later years, Rowe was quoted as observing, "How could I have been so stupid? The mere fact that I couldn't get in should have told me something."
