Motown and the Beatles

**remicks** · June 24th, 2005, 04:57 PM

*****

..... This musical quiz is not about disco per say ..... but it is about Motown :D :D .... which is darn close and always a worthy topic.... ....

Alright then .....

PART ONE :

The Beatles rarely sought out songs not pinned by themselves. They did however do two covers of Motown songs .
WHAT WERE THEY ?? :-? :-?

PART TWO:

Motown meanwhile, rarely went beyond its own in house writers to find songs with hit potential. They dipped into the Beatles catalogue just once to come up with their one Beatles cover tune that charted.

WHAT WAS IT ? AND BY WHAT MOTOWN ARTIST?? :-? :-?

????

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**markydefad** · June 24th, 2005, 05:10 PM

Off the top o' me keppe, the Beatles recorded these Motown gems:

Money (That's What I Want)
Twist And Shout

and Stevie Wonder did a kickass version of We Can Work It Out

**DISCODISK** · June 24th, 2005, 05:23 PM

MARKY the brothers isley is not a motown song

try again, looks like youre passing time till the bell rings so ill leave it to you [and theres more than 2]

**markydefad** · June 24th, 2005, 05:34 PM

Oops, :oops: was it Please Mister Postman???

**remicks** · June 24th, 2005, 08:01 PM

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oops ...:oops: for me too!!

Guess I should review my source a little more closely and clarify .
This is based on a list of the "TOP 40 pop and/or R&B hits of the most important Motown acts from 1962 to 1971 ... the years of the label's greatest success. " (Based on Billboard which did not publish an R&B list !!!! :o for the year 1964 !!! :o )

The list "includes some records that weren't major hits at the time of their release but had sigificant cover versions recorded later ..such as the Elgin's "HEAVEN MUST HAVE SENT YOU" a big hit for Bonnie Pointer ( DISCO !!! :D ) in 1979

So, those are the parameters from which these answers are culled ........

:D YES --STEVIE WONDER is the answer with his kick ass version of "WE CAN WORK IT OUT "

and ...YES......"PLEASE MR. POSTMAN " first done by The Marvelettes is one of the two Beatle covers on this list ..... :D

one more !! :-?

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**shenkin2001** · June 25th, 2005, 04:09 AM

:roll:
You Really Got A Hold On Me ( The Miracles) ?

**Davicillo** · June 25th, 2005, 07:14 AM

Money (that's what i want)?

**Nano** · June 25th, 2005, 02:33 PM

Marvin Gaye recorded a beautiful version of "Yesterday" in 1970. Don't know if it charted, but it certainly was a Beatles song.
I'm sure there are others. Wasn't there a "Motown plays Beatles" album sometime?

**markydefad** · June 25th, 2005, 03:00 PM

It appears to me that there are 3:

Money (That's What I Want)
Please Mr. Postman
You Really Got A Hold On Me

originally done by:
Barrett Strong
The Marvelettes
The Miracles

**remicks** · June 25th, 2005, 09:25 PM

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! :D !

___________

1) Stevie Wonder did the Motown cover of the Beatles' "We Can Work It Out"
taking it to No. 13 POP and No.3 R&B

2) The Beatles did successful covers of these two Motown songs:

"PLEASE MR. POSTMAN" ---- The Marvelettes --- No.1 POP AND NO.1 r&b
"YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME" ---- The Miracles --- No.8 POP and No.1 R&B

.......There is one major catch about "MONEY ( THAT'S WHAT I WANT)" that prevents it from being part of the answer:

Although Barry Gordy with Janie Bradford wrote the song ... it wasn't a MOTOWN release !! It predates the existence of Motown and was released on Berry Gordy's sisters' ANNA label distributed through CHESS.

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**olskinflint** · June 26th, 2005, 03:51 AM

but since so many Motown recordings are out of print there are many that people have never seen or heard. Motown in fact did an entire album of Beatle covers, though I haven't seen it in a long time. Maybe Motown's current owners will re-release it some day. But I have 3 Beatle covers done by Motown artists not mentioned here: Gladys Knight and the Pips and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles both covered "Let it Be" and a Motown artist/writer named R. Dean Taylor covered "Two of Us". But these covers are long out of print. If I go through my Motown collection I know I'll find more.

**DISCODISK** · June 26th, 2005, 06:56 AM

.......There is one major catch about "MONEY ( THAT'S WHAT I WANT)" that prevents it from being part of the answer:

Although Barry Gordy with Janie Bradford wrote the song ... it wasn't a MOTOWN release !! It predates the existence of Motown and was released on Berry Gordy's sisters' ANNA label distributed through CHESS.

*****[/quote]

sloooooooow down REMICKS!
MARKYS RIGHT! :lol:

MONEY BARRETT STRONG TAMLA 50427-NOV-1959
then this song was licenced and released on ANNA for wider distribution in MARCH 1960

**marmite7** · June 26th, 2005, 11:59 AM

Hey guys

The Supremes released an album called - A Bit Of Liverpool which featured:

A Hard Day's Night
Can't Buy Me Love
I Want To Hold Your Hand

so there's your three!

**marmite7** · June 26th, 2005, 12:18 PM

Of course they weren't seperate chart hits tho!

Here's one back at ya Remicks

An early sister label to Motown - "Soul" released a record by one of their writers, which was later re-issued on Tamla Motown in the UK. The original sold for £15,000 - what was the record?

**Davicillo** · June 26th, 2005, 05:19 PM

Frank Wilson 'Do I love you'?
The thing is with this record I don't think it was ever commercially released and got pulled at production stage.

**remicks** · June 26th, 2005, 06:11 PM

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Marmite....

I was going to guess , and it is just a guess .....

SHORTY LONG'S "The Function At The Junction" ??? :-?

*****

**marmite7** · June 27th, 2005, 07:37 AM

Davi got it :)

Frank Wilson was given the choice by Berry, sing or write?

He chose to write and all copies (supposedly) were destroyed. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)

The quintissential Tamla track - imho.

**QUINNY** · June 28th, 2005, 03:30 AM

Originally Written by marmite7

Davi got it :)

Frank Wilson was given the choice by Berry, sing or write?

He chose to write and all copies (supposedly) were destroyed. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)

The quintissential Tamla track - imho.

I fail to see how a virtually non-existant record could be a quintessential Tamla track, but............think about it.

**marmite7** · June 28th, 2005, 11:48 AM

OK so replace track with "sound" and there you have it!

**marmite7** · June 28th, 2005, 11:50 AM

Quinny - I did say that the track was re-released on Tamla Motown, making at available to all.

**DISCODISK** · June 28th, 2005, 04:34 PM

Originally Written by QUINNY

I fail to see how a virtually non-existant record could be a quintessential Tamla track, but............think about it.

looks like another one quinnys never heard :lol: stay tuned in 3 years time hell be telling us how this rocked southampton in 78

worth pointing out the recent really limited u.k re-issue of this as part of the motown 45 celebrations is different, most people dont realise this, c/w the fact that the b.side chris clarkes version is the only official release anywhere in the world makes it one to stash away,theyre all gone but try ebay

**Davicillo** · June 28th, 2005, 05:56 PM

It has been released on CD since the 7" fiasco. Surprisingly on the Decadance collection of 'Northern Soul'. TV AD album. Oops!! Was it Simon Soussan who had one of the 'originals'?

**remicks** · June 28th, 2005, 11:24 PM

*****

well then .... to quote a famous Beatles song done by a Motown artist:

We can work it out ! :D :

It seems there are three songs from the vaults of Motown that the Beatles took to the studio and redid :

1) "PLEASE MR. POSTMAN"
2) "YOU REALLY GOT A HOLD ON ME "

.... AND.... 3) "MONEY (THAT'S WHAT I WANT )" ........ I hate it when Marky's right !!

That was a significant song for the Beatles. . ( The best cover of the three?). And how cool is it that Berry Gordy himself wrote ( in an indirect way) a song for the Beatles! 8)

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**QUINNY** · June 30th, 2005, 01:00 PM

Originally Written by DISCODISK

Originally Written by QUINNY

I fail to see how a virtually non-existant record could be a quintessential Tamla track, but............think about it.

looks like another one quinnys never heard :lol: stay tuned in 3 years time hell be telling us how this rocked southampton in 78

worth pointing out the recent really limited u.k re-issue of this as part of the motown 45 celebrations is different, most people dont realise this, c/w the fact that the b.side chris clarkes version is the only official release anywhere in the world makes it one to stash away,theyre all gone but try ebay

DD: Err, what makes you think I've never heard it? It does have a typical early Tamla sound, except the strings are pretty naff. Sounds more like a demo than a finished product to my ears.

BTW: No, I never did give it any plays BITD......nor did anyone else, did they (and we all know why)? It's adequate, but hardly good enough for all the hype that surrounded it. A quintessential Northern Soul track, yes.