There are good ones, but I am perplexed as to why they did them. Was there record company pressure to be in on the biggest thing around? Were artists like Aretha or Otis lacking in material?
In general I don’t think they really work that well. Am sure Lennon amd Macca were thrilled, but hearing Otis Redding grunting his way through A Hard Day’s Night as an example is not really an improvement on the original.
There are whole albums dedicated to this:
Come Together – Black America Sings Lennon & McCartney
Day Trippers – An R&B Tribute To The Beatles
Stax Does The Beatles
The Soul Of Lennon & McCartney
I don’t think Otis Redding’s Day Tripper is too bad. He certainly Otisfies it.
Best of all, though, is Aretha singing Let It Be. It is a hymn after all.
see also
Booker T & The MGs – McLemore Avenue
I’m fond of Junior Parker’s takes, this one in particular:
I say, Junior’s looking rather…. well there, isn’t….he?
Completely lost on Trevor Nelson when he did a 10 minute piece on the “This Girl’s In Love With You” album but … “Let It Be” by Aretha Franklin came out a whopping seven weeks before the Beatles 45.
This surely didn’t happen on too many Fabs’ songs that were subsequently released by the group.
Do You Want To Know A Secret? and I Call Your Name are definitely two.
Can’t be too many later ones.
In answer to the question of why so many versions by black artists?
This was before revisionism. Otis, Smokey, Aretha etc. loved The Beatles.
Plus the US labels desperately wanted crossover into the white pop charts in the USA and saw covers of “British Invasion” material as the means to do it.
Here in the UK, the Motown, Stax and Atlantic soul artists were all over the charts. In the USA only Motown were consistently getting pop chart hits. Stax etc. were all over the R&B charts and the black radio stations but they weren’t getting much pop radio & chart action.
See Stanley Booth’s account of the Dock of the Bay recording sessions. Otis has been listening to Revolver in stereo on his headphones – then quite a new and luxurious activity – and reports that at one point you can clearly hear John say “Paul is queer”.
Chuck D has said that Revolver is the greatest album ever made.
This is a cracker. Shirley Smith and the Soul Saxes – Get Back
I’ve danced to this. I see a chiropractor later this week.
Stevie Wonder’s “We Can Work It Out” . A substantial improvement on the orig, if you ask me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgHIm5AqtXc