Motown and the Beatles

[marmite7]

Quinny - I did say the quintissential Tamla sound IMHO!

I don't expect everyone to agree.

It did receive a UK official release, on the strenght of so many Northern fans clamouring for it, although of course only came to the general public's awareness, thanks to the recent KFC adverts.

Featuring on a TV Advert CD in a shop near you soon!!

[QUINNY]

Wonder how much that cost 'em?

[Davicillo]

Notice they use actors that can't sing now instead of using original tracks!!

[ol'skinflint]

*****


..... 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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Rems: I'm not sure where you got the statement about the Beatles not doing songs they didn't write themselves. I one MANY Beatles (as a group and solo) albums that contain songs they didn't write themselves. I think it's without doubt that most of their best known songs are self written but they also did songs by Carl Perkins, Bacharach/David, Whitfield/Strong, Bob Dylan and others.

[remicks]

Rems: I'm not sure where you got the statement about the Beatles not doing songs they didn't write themselves.

Well ..... I didn't say never OSF .... I said "rarely" ... another example being their doing a version of my beloved Buck Owens' ACT NATURALLY .:icon_cool:

But just how rare is "rarely"?

All Beatles albums had more original comps than not .... and after 1965 's HELP ... The Beatles didn't need no help no more .... and wrote all of their own material amongst themselves for every one of their eight albums thereafter .......


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[ol'skinflint]

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?

yes, there IS an entire Motown album of Beatles covers (I don't see it very often these days) and both the Beatles AND Rolling Stones have covered many Motown songs, but I sure wish someone would tell Mick Jagger that he is NO David Ruffin (ditto Rod Stewart). Jagger should have just done what Stewart and Dary Hall and John Oates were smart enough to do: invite the original singers onstage and BACK them up.....

[remicks]

*****

yes, there IS an entire Motown album of Beatles covers (I don't see it very often these days) .

:icon_cool:
******

[Disco Funk]

Well ..... I didn't say never OSF .... I said "rarely" ... another example being their doing a version of my beloved Buck Owens' ACT NATURALLY .:icon_cool:

But just how rare is "rarely"?

All Beatles albums had more original comps than not .... and after 1965 's HELP ... The Beatles didn't need no help no more .... and wrote all of their own material amongst themselves for every one of their eight albums thereafter .......


*****

Before that, A Hard Days Night LP (the British version) was their first record with all Beatle/Lennon/McCartney compositions. They insisted that their singles (UK, where they had control) were strictly original compositions, so when George Martin was trying to get them to do How Do You Do It as a single release to follow Love Me Do, they nixed that in favour of Please Please Me.

Quiz Questions:

1. By the way, there was one album after Help that had one track that they didn't write themselves (I'm not counting the UK 'Oldies But Goldies' LP which had the previously unreleased Bad Boy). Can you guess which one (album and track)?

Hint: They did a lot of demo recordings of old standards, but those didn't make it onto the album, except for the one track mentioned above.

2. There was a track that the Beatles recorded that Paul McCartney specifically said was a tribute to the Motown sound. Can you name that track?

Disco Funk

[ol'skinflint]

*****

! :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.

*****

this information accompanies "Money"'s credits on the "Hitsville U.S.A." 4 CD collection..."Money (That's What I Want)", released on TAMLA 54027 8/59, Re-released on Anna 1111 3/11/60. Pop #23, RandB #2

[Nano]

I'll take the quiz:

1) Must be "Maggie Mae" from LET IT BE.

2) "Got to get you into my life". Same thing (but not confessed) with "Under my thumb" by The Rolling Stones.

[Disco Funk]

I'll take the quiz:

1) Must be "Maggie Mae" from LET IT BE.

2) "Got to get you into my life". Same thing (but not confessed) with "Under my thumb" by The Rolling Stones.

Yup to both. I didn't realize that about 'Under My Thumb'. Thanks for that little bit of info!

Disco Funk

[Cory Ander]

*****


..... 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?? :-? :-?

????

*****

Rems: I own 2 Beatle releases, "Live at the BBC" and "Rock and Roll Music Part 1" that consist mostly of covers of other writers' material. And you should see (and hear) the documentary "John Lennon's Jukebox"....it will blow people's minds to discover how many of the Beatles' musical ideas were "borrowed" from other sources, but I give Lennon much credit for revealing this fact and even naming names of the sources the group borrowed from.

[remicks]

Rems: I own 2 Beatle releases, "Live at the BBC" and "Rock and Roll Music Part 1" that consist mostly of covers of other writers' material. And you should see (and hear) the documentary "John Lennon's Jukebox"....it will blow people's minds to discover how many of the Beatles' musical ideas were "borrowed" from other sources, but I give Lennon much credit for revealing this fact and even naming names of the sources the group borrowed from.

Thanks for the tip. I'd like to see that documentary.
It'd seem impossible that with such diverse music compositions and styling , that The Beatles just sat in a locked room and pulled them out of thin air , not based on other influences, inspirations.

Can you name some of the specific Beatles songs with the specific outside tunes they were "borrowed" from that the documentary mentions , Cory ????

[kdavid13]

*****







:icon_cool:
******

I've never been able to stomach the Supremes' cover of A hard day's night...Way too sweet for me !!! :icon_lol:

[Disco Funk]

Thanks for the tip. I'd like to see that documentary.
It'd seem impossible that with such diverse music compositions and styling , that The Beatles just sat in a locked room and pulled them out of thin air , not based on other influences, inspirations.

Can you name some of the specific Beatles songs with the specific outside tunes they were "borrowed" from that the documentary mentions , Cory ????

I think I Feel Fine was supposedly inspired by What I'd Say by Ray Charles. John got sued for using the 'flat top' line in Come Together, which was originally in a Chuck Berry song. I don't know if the copyright owner won (Berry didn't own it, I believe). The lyrics for Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite were taken almost word for word from a poster John had. Then there were the various musical styles they used, like the Blue Beat section in I Call Your Name, the country and western songs recorded by Ringo because he love that music so much, the East Indian fusion, etc... I don't think they directly took melodies, but maybe borrowed chord progressions and such. They were open to ideas and different sounds, and they had a great producer in George Martin who was also very open minded. If they had hooked up with an autocratic producer like Phil Spector, they wouldn't have lasted long.

Disco Funk