Top 10 Beatles covers. Controversial.
by Mark Hooper
The Beatles are the most covered act in history – but who did it best?
Before we get down to angering the purists, we need to set a few ground rules. It’s no good just faithfully reproducing a Beatles tune as close as you can to the recorded version – to get into our entirely subjective, not at all definitive Top Ten, chief among our criteria is that you need to make the song your own.
That rules out a few great versions – Paul Weller’s Sexy Sadie from the mid 90s or The Cure’s Hello, Goodbye (complete with James McCartney on backing vocals) for a start, not to mention countless performances of Come Together. Amazingly, Frank Zappa similarly dropped the ball by delivering a note-perfect rendition of I Am the Walrus when everyone expected him to take it into hyperspace. Also – if we’re allowing solo material – it also disqualifies The Faces’ brilliant, turned-up-to-11 version of Maybe I’m Amazed.
Here, then, are 10 versions that add something new to the mix…
But, before that – a quick disclaimer. By all rights, Joe Cocker’s With A Little Help From My Friends should tick all the boxes and cruise into number one spot, but it’s become so ubiquitous, it’s immediately disqualified. My blog, my rules.
1. Dear Prudence – Siouxsie & The Banshees
https://youtu.be/M6rrTROoZIw?si=Y6O4DZ7I3ayT2VRD
Like The Cure, Siouxsie always had great basslines, so it makes sense to give their take of one of the best basslines ever written. But they run with it, with Siouxsie Sioux’s ethereal, multi-tracked vocals and a swirling, flange-heavy production, complete with jangly guitar, plucked synth strings and a subtle harpsicord line. You can almost smell the patchouli.
2. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds- William Shatner
https://youtu.be/AB3uVARNhmM?si=HYd_5EqmF3xUqJD9
I may be doing him a massive disservice, but you get the impression William Shatner didn’t fully get psychedelia. Rather, it was something for those weird, smelly hippy kids – although you get the impression he approved of their dresses and free love mantra. But don’t let that distract from this fantastically unhinged re-imagining of one of The Beatles’ trippiest tunes. Reciting the lyrics in hammed-up, spoken-word fashion, it seems to be dripping with irony – but, knowing Shatner, the irony may all be in the ears of the listener. A word of warning: don’t listen to it on acid.
3. Tomorrow Never Knows – Phil Collins
https://youtu.be/AQCjIZKrqG0?si=9h8fTHKl2pMRFWgM
Yes, really. Despite being in one of the most successful prog rock bands ever, Phil was always a mod at heart. Which is what makes this reading of one of The Beatles’ most ambitious conceits for a song so great. There may not be a chorus of chanting Tibetan monks (as Lennon first imagined), but the slow, tentative, electronic start builds into a crescendo that nods to the original – with tape loops, live brass stabs, backwards instrumentation et al – while heading off into proggier territory. (And yes, that is a word.) Segueing into a wistful ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ at the end is inspired.
4. Booker T & The MGs – Something
https://youtu.be/5IWyuNbSl2g?si=ICuVF5ECJMHBeM2o
McLemore Avenue album reworks Abbey Road as a Stax instrumental in Booker T’s inimitable, Hammond-heavy style. (Even the title is a play on the original – since the Stax Studios in Memphis were at 926 East McLemore Avenue). Their Something begins as a fairly respectful interpretation, but around the two minute mark , it becomes Something Else… settling into an insistent groove that is definitely more Memphis than NW8.
5. Stevie Wonder – We Can Work It Out
https://youtu.be/MkF_u-_mm0Q?si=oMNgT7nfAValEN5F
McCartney may have had his own stab at Motown with Got To Get You Into My Life, but, Stevie Wonder picked up on the Detroit label’s influence in a less obvious number, upping the tempo to this song from the opening electric piano riff and turning it into something that sounds more akin to proto-hip hop – not least the repeated ‘hey’s. No surprise this version frequently crops up on samples and re-edits.
6. Bill Withers – Let It Be
https://youtu.be/Ovjo-UO3WUE?si=-TcQXx-GYFGjrT2o
One of The Beatles’ most covered songs usually gets the note-by-note, solo-at-the-piano treatment, but Bill Withers took it somewhere else. Building from a church organ intro, he brings out the song’s gospel influence by upping the tempo with tambourine, acoustic guitar and hand claps, the organ getting increasingly funky as he ad libs around the vocal line. Divine intervention at its best.
7. Siouxsie & The Banshees (again) – Helter Skelter
https://youtu.be/pyVflvz4zws?si=TK3WhDwPupMKSXmN
If U2 famously claimed to be stealing Helter Skelter back from Charles Manson, this is the sound of a band embracing the song’s murderous connotations. From a menacing start of hesitant bass and distorted, angular guitar, it quickly escalates into a punk thrash, matching the dark energy of the original and updating it for a less innocent generation. Best of all, the band does away with the song’s distinctive descending riff entirely, replacing it with Siouxsie Sioux’s unhinged ‘Na-na na-na na-na na’, before she chucks in a timely F-bomb.
8. Jose Feliciano – Hey Jude (live 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmZfm-TPi8
Talking of na-na-na’s, Jose Felciano’s version of Hey Jude is notable for going on for even longer than the original while totalling eschewing its ubiquitous singalong finale. Instead, he begins with an embellished, Latin-tinged guitar line, accompanied only by double bass, building up a strummed rhythm while meandering over the vocal melody, adding a verse in Spanish. Then, just as he seems to be heading into the chorus, he goes off on a completely new tangent, improvising an extended virtuoso flamenco-meets-blues masterclass. If you’ve been worn down by the endless stadium renditions of Hey Jude, this might help you rediscover the magic.
9. Neighb’rhood Chidrn’ – Can’t Buy Me Love
https://youtu.be/kvOPgwIdznw?si=oH-paTw1NxuNdRc9
A fascinating bit of time-twisting here, with The Beatles’ 1964 single put through a 1968 filter, transforming it into a psych-rock classic, complete with sitar-influenced licks and a pulsing Indian beat. The band was formed by former members of teen surf band The Navarros, and their West Coast take on this classic offers a tantalising glimpse of how the Fabs may have sounded if they were still touring at the time of Sgt Pepper.
10. Yellow Magic Orchestra – Day Tripper
https://youtu.be/pHHMh5LOkcI?si=2qoR2LxIbAu38qTo
And now for something completely different… Ryuichi Sakamoto’s band took a literal interpretation of the song’s title, reimagining it as an outtake from Kraftwerk’s Autobahn via Roxy Music. The unhinged Brian Ferry-esque vocals, pulsating electronic effects and Post Punk guitars (courtesy of Makoto Ayukawa) join the dots between Beatlemania, Krautrock and New Wave.
Don’t agree? If you think you can do better, add your own favourites (and a brief reason why it made the grade) in the comments…