Friday, March 21, 2008

The 21 Songs on the 12 British Beatles Albums not composed by any of the Band

Anna (Go to Him) (Alexander)
Chains (Goffin/King) A hit for the Cookies in 1962 by the prolific husband and wife team that worked out of the Brill Building.
Boys (Dixon/Farrell)
Baby It's You (Bacharach/David/Williams) A great pub trivia question.....Did the Beatles ever record a Burt Bacharach song?
A Taste of Honey (Marlow/Scott)
Twist and Shout (Medley/Russell)
Till There Was You (Willson) - Performed by the Beatles at Royal Variety Show in 1963 it came from the Broadway show, The Music Man.
Please Mr. Postman (Bateman/Dobbins/Garrett/Gorman/Holland) The first No.1 for the Tamla label.
Roll over Beethoven (Berry) The Beatles, The Stones and the Beach Boys all covered Chuck Berry’s songs, which earned Ol’ Flat Top a tidy sum.
You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Robinson) This had just been a big hit in America for Smokey Robinson’s group The Miracles.
Devil in Her Heart (Drapkin)
Money (That's What I Want) (Bradford/Gordy) Berry Gordy was the founder of Tamla Motown Records
Rock & Roll Music (Berry)
Mr. Moonlight (Johnson)
Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! [medley] (Lieber/Penniman/Stoller)
Words of Love (Holly)
Honey Don't (Perkins)
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Perkins) George sings lead vocal on one of his hero’s recordings.
Act Naturally (Morrison/Russell)
Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Williams) Larry Williams wrote it and had a minor hit in 1958.
Maggie Mae (Traditional)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great list, Richard. I must burn myself a CD of non-Beatles-composed Beatles records. But I will have to add my all-time favourite of non-Beatle compositions - Larry Williams's 'Bad Boy'. I just love their version of it. Having been a member of the Cavern Club in 1962 this record just captures in 2 1/2 minutes what the Mersey Sound was really all about.

r morris said...

How about "My Bonny Lies over the Ocean"? Was that pre-Beatles?

Ellee Seymour said...

How interesting, I never knew any of this. My husband plays and sings in an R & B band, I bet he doesn't know this either.
Progress is slow re my assignment due to family commitments, but I hope to get stuck into it this week, I'm really keen to. Hope you and your wife had a happy Easter.

Anonymous said...

Very sad to read the obituary of Neil Aspinall in the paper this morning. He was knwon as the 'true' fifth Beatle. His contribution to their career is unestimable. I never knew, though, that he fathered a child with Pete Best's mum in 1962!