LENNON/McCARTNEY 
The closest that the Poppees ever came to covering a Beatles song is when they recorded “Love of the Loved”, an obscure Lennon/McCartney song that the Beatles never recorded. (Actually, it turns out that this song was included among the 15 songs on their famed Decca Records audition tape; Pete Best was still drumming then, so it wasn’t really the Beatles that we all know at that point). (December 2010) * * * There are a few YouTube clips out there though. “Love of the Loved” is a classic Beatles-style Poppees.performance; see it (audio only) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trjeGWsuAAk . This is actually a Lennon/McCartney composition, but most of their songs were not. (December 2012) * * * After a few albums of (more or less) pure country, Linda Ronstadt perfected her sound when she connected with one of the top producers of the 1970’s, Peter Asher; he was also Ronstadt’s manager for several years. Peter Asher and Gordon Waller performed as Peter and Gordon, a British duo who enjoyed several years of success, particularly with their #1 hit in 1964, “A World Without Love”. The song was written by Paul McCartney but credited as Lennon/McCartney as was all of his music and that of John Lennon in the British Invasion period.
(October 2013) * * * As recounted in Greg Shaw’s liner notes for the English Freakbeat, Volume 2 CD, Kim Fowley connected with another American expatriate, P. J. Proby. After several failed singles in this country, Proby had a series of UK Top 20 hits that included his cover of a Lennon/McCartney song, “That Means a Lot” that the Beatles were never able to record to their own satisfaction.
(January 2015/1)
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Their second single was actually a Lennon/McCartney song, “I Wanna Be Your Man”; from Wikipedia: “According to various accounts, either the Rolling Stones’ manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham or the Rolling Stones themselves ran into [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney on the street as the two were returning from an awards luncheon. Hearing that the band were in need of material for a single, Lennon and McCartney went to their session at De Lane Lea Studio and finished off the song – whose verse they had already been working on – in the corner of the room while the impressed Rolling Stones watched.”
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As with Lennon/McCartney, additionally some of the songs were written only by Mick Jagger, and others only by Keith Richards. Wikipedia gives as examples that Mick Jagger wrote “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Brown Sugar”, and that Keith Richards wrote “Happy”, “Ruby Tuesday”, and “Little T&A”. In the same 1995 interview (with Jann Wenner) mentioned above, Mick Jagger said: “I think in the end it all balances out.”
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Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas had numerous hit songs, including several Lennon/McCartney songs in Britain (Billy J. Kramer was also managed by Brian Epstein) and a major U.S. hit, “Little Children” in March 1964. They used “with” rather than “and” so as to keep separate identities for the singer and the band. The Dakotas by themselves had a hit instrumental in the U.K. with “The Cruel Sea”; for its U.S. release, it was retitled “The Cruel Surf” and was later covered by the Ventures. A curious song by the Dakotas called “7 Pounds of Potatoes” – “ . . . come between me and my love”, according to the lyrics – is included on English Freakbeat, Volume 2 (both the LP and the CD).
(May 2015) |