All You Need is Love: the Beatles Discussion Thread

Best Beatles cover is Every Little Thing by Yes. That's even better than the original Beatles version.

 

I have to go with waheennay. Joe Cocker's A Little Help from my Friends is amazing! It's the one cover I feel is better than the original Beatles version.

In concert though, I heard Peter Frampton (touring with Ringo) do an impressive cover of Norwegian Wood.

 

The I Am Sam soundtrack is pretty damn good. And, yes, the Joe Cocker version of "A Little Help From My Friends" is superb. I'd have to say that my favorite Beatle cover is of "Across the Universe" by Rufus Wainwright.

 

I'm probably one of the few persons who think that Joe Cocker version of "A Little Help From My Friends" is one of the most horrible Beatles covers. I just can't think anything positive to say about that version.

What do you think about solo careers of ex-Beatles? My personal favourite of their solo albums is Ringo's self-titled album which contains for example songs "I'm The Greatest" and "You're Sixteen". That's one piece of art really.

 

Pearl Jam has a great cover of "I've Got A Feeling".

 

I love Paul's Flaming Pie. It has some great songs on it like Calico Skies. It's this simple acoustic track but it's very beautiful.

I also love the soundtrack to the movie Imagine. It doesn't count as a John album, I know, but it has the best of his solo songs. It's a great CD to have. I love his cover of Stand by Me.

 

I'm not really fascinated about Flaming Pie. It has couple of good songs but mostly I find it boring. Paul is quite good musician but why does he have play most of the instruments by himself? It would sound a lot better if he would hire people who are specialized in some of these instruments.

I like Paul's Flowers In The Dirt and Tug Of War much more. But overall I find Paul's solo career much less interesting than rest of the Beatles.

 

I don't think Paul every really experimented after the Beatles the way George and John did. Paul primarily stuck to the same type of songs he had always written as a Beatle.

 

I hate posting two times in a row, but I don't want to have this sink too low. I've enjoyed our Beatles discussion.

And I had an idea to keep the discussion going. We go through each album individually and discuss it; our favorite songs, ones we don't like, what influenced the album, how it furthered the evolution of the group, etc. Please continue to discuss anything else you want to talk about, of course.

To start:

With the Beatles

1. It Won't Be Long
2. All I've Got to Do
3. All My Loving
4. Don't Bother Me
5. Little Child
6. Till There Was You
7. Please Mr. Postman
8. Roll over Beethoven
9. Hold Me Tight
10. You've Really Got a Hold on Me
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Devil in Her Heart
13. Not a Second Time
14. Money (That's What I Want)

I have a confession to make; I don't have this CD. I have Meet the Beatles on record, but not this. Consequently, I've never heard Please Mr. Postman and Devil in Her Heart. I'm a failure as a Beatles fan, I know...

Anyway, I look at the Beatles early albums as the 60s version of *Nsync and the Backstreet Boys. The songs seem to have been recorded for mainly commercial reasons, obviously, and most of them are covers.

The songs I have heard are pleasant, but they don't compare to their later work.

 

Shouldn't we have started with Please Please Me?

Anyway I like With The Beatles. It has the classic Beatles sound. Very enjoyable album with no weak tracks. Highlights are "I Wanna Be Your Man" (with Ringo singing), "Please Mister Postman" (shame on you A_G_9) and It Won't Be Long".

Actually there's only 6 cover songs among all 14 and each one of them is very good cover. And we get first Harrison song on this album, "Don't Bother Me", which features for example Arabian bongo played by Ringo. "You Really Got A Hold On Me" features George Martin on piano.

I love this album (too).

 

Shouldn't we have started with Please Please Me?

Yes, we should have. I don't know where my brain was. I love Please, Please Me and we'll have to go back to it. Sorry about that.

And I didn't realize only 6 of those songs were covers, I had thought it was more. Thanks for setting the record straight, Tod.

I've always liked All My Loving, actually, though It Won't Be Long is great as well.

I love listening to Don't Bother Me and then listening to Something or Here Comes the Sun. While all of their writing abilities improved during the Beatles, I feel George grew the most as a musician. The difference between those three songs is amazing; he song-writing style truly matured over the years from average to extraordinary.

 

My favorite track here is All My Loving. I do own all the Beatles' cds, but AG, this is the one I could live without as well.

 

I think With The Beatles really embodies what the early Beatles were all about. They have very well done covers of some of their favorite rock musicians, plus they've included a bunch of their unique songs as well. So, while they are a rock group, they manage to put their own stamp on the music they write.

 

One thing in With The Beatles is that it's clearly a sequel to Please Please Me but slightly better in every way.

To me the "classic" Beatles era last from Please Please Me to Help! and these albums are the ones I like most. After Help! their albums lost certain charm although I like the later albums too. But I'll try to explain that more later when we get to Rubber Soul.

 

I'm the opposite of you, Tod. I enjoy the early albums very much, but I prefer the later Beatles albums for their maturity and writing sophistication. The later songs just seem deeper and more memorable.

 

if u haven't heard please mr. postman yet A_G, u HAVE to, it's such a great song! in my opinion, it's their best cover of all-time, and one of their best songs among their earlier work. the harmonies at the end, and the way john sings it, WOW. it sounds awesome.

the beatles certainly were good at covering songs. in most cases, the covers were better than the originals. lucille's another great one, and there's one of the shirelles' songs they made better as well, i forget the name.

i like joe cocker's rendition of with a little help from my friends, and i like the original also. they sound like completely different songs, but they're both good.

 

Their cover of PLEASE MR. POSTMAN is very good. I also love George singing Chuck Berry's ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN.

 

One reason why other Beatles' singing sounds so great is because they are often double-tracked. The other reason is that all four were excellent singers.

 

I guess I'm going to have to check out Please Mr. Postman.

And Tod, I'll give you three were good singers. As much as I love Ringo, he wasn't a great singer by any means. He had a poor range; that sustained note at the end of A Little Help From my Friends was a struggle for him and that's not a hard note to hit. He's a great musician and I love him, but he was never a great singer nor did he claim to be one.

 

Well I think Ringo is an excellent singer. Perhaps he has not best possible vocal range but he knows that and sings accordingly. I consider him somewhat similar singer than Ray Davies who is other example of excellent singer with limited vocal range.

IMHO worst singing performance in any Beatles record is Paul's singing in Oh Darling from Abbey Road. That's just horrible, I don't care whether he hits all notes or not but it sounds awful.

 

Point, Tod. Oh,Darling isn't one of the better Beatles songs.

Anyway, I think it's time we move on (or back, more appropriately) to Please Please Me.

1. I Saw Her Standing There
2. Misery
3. Anna (Go to Him)
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why
7. Please Please Me
8. Love Me Do
9. P.S. I Love You
10. Baby It's You
11. Do You Want to Know a Secret
12. Taste of Honey
13. There's a Place
14. Twist and Shout

To me, this is the quitessential early Beatles album. I love it. Please Please Me and Love Me Do are classics. It's great to listen to them and realize that those two songs are what started it all.

Do You Want to Know a Secret is an adorable song, in my opinion. For no particular reason, I just like it. But in my opinion, the best song on the album is Twist and Shout. John's vocal is perfect and so John. And I love how it was recorded at the end of the day in one take, with John just screeching out the lyrics. It's a perfect take of the song and a great way to end the album.

 

Excellent debut album. Again eight originals and six covers, all extremely well made. Twist And Shout is my favourite also.

This is perhaps the most influential album of all time because it started the whole Beatlemania and therefore revolutionized popular music.

 

please please me, what a great song. high energy, great vocals, great melody. i saw her standing there, another great upbeat song. love me do is good, but a bit boring. i think pete best was doing the drumming in this one and it sounds. twist and shout, excellent song, excellent recording, and one of john's best vocals. really the only song i dislike on this album is taste of honey. the song is boring, not very interesting musically.

overall, a great debut album from the fab four! (and one that would change the course of music history forever.)

 

I don't think Pete's drumming ever got into record.

Only song from this album that I would call a filler is Anna (Go To Him). I always forget even the melody of that one as soon as I've heard it.

Overall this is one of the albums I like to use when I practice my singing. Of course I can't match John's singing in Twist And Shout (only other person who could sing that one well was the late John Entwistle) but otherwise I enjoy singing these songs.

 

Agreed on the great vocals on Twist & Shout. Please Please Me is my second favorite. This album has a great vibe to it.