During the sixties and seventies, you could hardly find an album without a Beatles cover on it. But by the 1980s, it became increasingly rare to find one. I guess it was due to more expensive royalties and the fact that Beatlemania was far, far in the rear-view mirror. It also wasn't helped by the Bee Gees' miserable Beatles cover abomination, Sgt. Pepper. It's amazing that anyone ever tried to cover a Beatles song again after that train wreck.
Most cover songs in the eighties tended to be woefully ironic (i.e. Devo's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and The Flying Lizards' "Money (That's What I Want)") rather than serious adaptations. Here's a few sincere Fab Four covers from that era, some good and some bad. I believe The Jam's cover may have been released in the late seventies, and PM Dawn's in the early nineties, but who cares. Enjoy.
PM Dawn - "Norwegian Wood"
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Salt-N-Peppa - "Twist and Shout"
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Mission UK - "Tomorrow Never Knows"
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Robert Palmer - "Not a Second Time"
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Red Kross - "It Won't Be Long"
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The Jam - "And Your Bird Can Sing"
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Siouxie and the Banshees - "Dear Prudence"
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The Dear Prudence cover was kind of profound for me. I was raised by people who didn;t allow rock-n-roll in the house, so when I was 16 and heard this song for the 1st time - I had no idea that it was a cover. The year was 1985, by the way. It was about a year later, I finally discovered The Beatles.
ReplyDeleteI can't get Siouxie and the Banshees to play.
ReplyDeleteI like the Mission UK, but the rest are only OK if that.
Don't forget the Residents cover of a Beatles album cover (Meet the Residents). They also did a cover of "Flying", one of the very few songs credited to all four Beatles.
ReplyDeleteTwist and Shout is not a "Beatles Cover", it is a song that the Beatles covered.
ReplyDeleteThought this might interest you: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/playlists/beatles-covers/playlist-344657.htm
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