Happy Beatles Cover Song Experience

dean712 · Post by **dean712** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:52 pm

I just wanted to share with everybody....

We played a birthday party outdoors for our singer's father's 50th tonight. Our regular drummer was unavailable, so we were fortunate to have a friend sit in on drums for us....

We did great with the songs we had, and they were cheering for an encore. We asked around - who knew what - and we did "I Saw Her Standing There," unrehearsed and ad lib... tore the place down! I know that's not rocket science, but it was a big deal for our crowd.

Thank goodness for the Beatles!!

harley · Post by **harley** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:00 pm

Congratulations Dean. I have always loved that song, too. It's almost impossible to do it without smiling. Thank goodness, is right!

beatlefan · Post by **beatlefan** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:56 pm

great great song....one of my all-time favorites!! full of energy and so much fun to PLAY!!

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:30 pm

Yup... great song, one of the all-time great rock'n'roll anthems. Its not on our regular songlist but we did it a few weeks ago in Waikiki when (in an unusually charitable mood) we let some guy in the crowd come up and sing it. I know it pretty well on rhythm guitar so we just winged it and (surprize surprize) the semi-drunk little stranger did a VERY good job of singing it! We've been thinking of doing it, but not as a Beatles imitation ... more like Little Richard's version. Ever heart that? A little slower but not bad at all.... Interesting to hear Little Richard do Paul McCartney who was doing Little Richard!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:50 pm

I think Mac should pay Little Richard royalties for ahem... borrowing his vocal style.

harley · Post by **harley** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 6:10 pm

Well, I was told once that some of my original music sounded like a cross between The Kinks and The Grateful Dead (two bands I don't really listen to very much). If things had worked out differently, I wouldn't have been sending them royalties. Besides, copying and adapting is something that all musicians do. Music evolves that way and, while some of McCartney's vocal technique is derivative of Little Richard, some of it is also Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley and at least one of the Everly Brothers.

Getting back to the original theme of the thread, one of the reasons that I love playing I Saw Her Standing There is because it was the last Beatle song (I believe) that John Lennon ever played live. I have the Elton John CD that includes John's performance at Madison Square Garden. Incredible.

qmoder · Post by **qmoder** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:38 pm

The bass part really drives that one.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:57 pm

I hear Little Richard all over Mac's singing and writing in his early stuff to the point of his covering Long Tall Sally, and obviously we can't pay anyone royalties for stealing a style, but where do you think those high pitched octave up ooohs came from? I don't hear any one of those others you mentioned in his voice, no one can sing like Don Everly or Phil for that matter and Elvis is too obvious.

scottpro1969 · Post by **scottpro1969** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:24 am

You're right, Bob. Paul has admitted that he pretty much stole Little Richards vocal style.

harley · Post by **harley** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 3:01 am

I think it was Little Richard that said the Beatles sounded like 4 Everly Brothers. Honestly, though, I don't hear Paul as a straight copy with no other influences. A Taste Of Honey and All My Loving, for example, are very different vocally than anything I've heard from Little Richard. Paul has admitted that the high octave yelps and oohs came from Little Richard, but there's more to Paul, even in the early days, than just that. Part of it may come from Paul being more vaudevillian or music hall in his approach. Plus, he's said to have a gift for voices and mimicry. Maybe he was more of an obvious copier than John, George or Ringo simply because he was better at it. The "influence" that surprises me the most is how often they all mentioned their admiration for Marvin Gaye in early American interviews.

The whole "copying" topic reminds me of Eric Idle interviewing the old Blues singer in All You Need Is Cash. One thing's for certain, we live in a time and place where access to the entire spectrum of music allows us to be more aware of the pioneers of music than ever.

roadrunners · Post by **roadrunners** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 3:53 am

If Paul should pay Little richard for his singing style then we should all pay who invented the barre chord for using that

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:25 am

Bob Young Barre, never told anyone here my real last name did I? I accept paypal too. haha!
Didn't the Beatles consider calling themselves The Four Everly Brothers at one time? I do not hear Everly harmonies in The Beatles though, they had bluegrass harmonies for the most part. I am a big everly Brother fan, have been since I was a kid pre Beatles.
There are a few Beatle songs on which on first listen I thought was Ringo singing and it turned out to be Paul, he is good at imitating.

harley · Post by **harley** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 7:06 am

I've just discovered that my "real" name is Twelve Bar Blues. I expect the checks will start rolling in any minute now (I was going to go with "G String", but it sounded too uncomfortable).

In spite of the obvious Little Richard influence, I hear more of the "girl group" harmonies than anything else in their early records.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 10:18 am

haha!

I think their harmony's were very distinctive and pretty original.

Girl groups were either concurrent with them or maybe even a little later.

gregga41 · Post by **gregga41** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 12:49 am

Great to hear many of you love that song as well!
It's been a favorite of mine since i was a little"takka"(aussie expression!)
We played it as an encore as well(NYE),and had the crowd screaming for more!Not bad,considering the other guys in the band didnt want to do it, even in rehearsals!