A couple of songs that are all about the vocals, but recorded six years and a lifetime apart.
78. Twist and Shout (Please Please Me, 1963)
Beatles version:
Spotify YouTube
It's our last cover song! I've probably unfairly given the covers short shrift in comparison to the other songs; I love a lot of them, but it's hard to say I love them more than Beatles originals. Though the Beatles version of this one is based on the
Isley Brothers record, the original recording of the song was actually by a band called
the Top Notes.
John's vocal on this has become legendary not just because of the quality on the record, by due to the fact that it was the last of ten songs recorded in a marathon 12+-hour in the same day! It's nearly impossible to imagine that at this point, but the entire Please Please Merecord, minus the four songs that had come out as singles, was put to tape on the same day in February 1963. "Twist and Shout" was left as the last song to be recorded, because, according to George Martin, he knew that the larynx-shredding vocals would torture John's voice such that he'd be destroyed for anything else. By the time they came to the song, John was sick and his vocal chords were a mess. He sucked on some lozenges and gargled warm milk, stripped off his shirt, and hoped that the performance would be acceptable, because doing it a second time seemed impossible (in fact a second take was made, but the first one is what is on the record). What we hear is exactly how the Beatles recorded it, with no overdubs or other editing. It's essentially a live performance, and it's ####### extraordinary. John's delivery is full of raucous energy and passion and sex, and the other Beatles clearly find it exhilarating as they continually raise their energy to match John's, culminating in Paul's "Hey!' and John's howling and Ringo's.
Mr. krista: "They took a rave-up and raved it the #### up. Til Lennon’s eyeballs were bleeding. Yeah, monster rock song. One of the great rock vocal performances on record. And one of those moments where you can tell he loses himself and sings with abandon. Mostly that kind of combustion is what I think rock bands try to achieve. Oh, yeah, that’s worth a 700-mile drive with no sleep with no one listening except your sound guy, but that’s why you do that. They burned the way rock bands do."
77. Oh! Darling (Abbey Road, 1969)
Beatles version:
Spotify YouTube
Paul was so determined to do this in a throwback style that he had Geoff Emerick record this with 50s-style tape echo and tracked his vocal directly from the speakers (rather than through headphones) to get a "live audience" quality. The story behind the recording is equal parts sweet and sad. Paul would come into the studio every day before the other Beatles arrived in order to record this vocal. Day after day (alone on a hill?), he'd record a shredding version, and, according to Emerick, George Martin "would frequently announce triumphantly, 'That's it; that's the one,' but Paul would overrule him, saying 'No, it's not there yet; let's try again tomorrow." Paul just couldn't quite get it to match what he had in his head that he wanted to hear. But unlike prior songs, he would never sing it in front of the others, nor did he play any recordings of it to seek their input, perhaps because at that point he didn't want to hear their negative remarks. It tells us how bad the vibe was among the band at that point, and I hate picturing Paul on his own trying over and over to get this perfect, though I admire how dedicated he was to getting it just right. Such a contrast to the sessions for "This Boy," where you can hear Paul encouraging John that he can get that solo right.
Despite the sorta sad circumstances, he delivered, though. Maybe he wasn't used to these blistering vocals by this time - it was a long time after his "Kansas City" or "Long Tall Sally" days - but he pulled it off. Even John complimented this song, though he let it be known he wished he could have done that vocal instead and that he would have done it better as it was more in his style.
Mr. krista: "It’s very very good. Very heavy. Good heavy blues doo-*** stuff. The breakdown…[sings the doodoodoo]…is in a lot of rock songs. Fats Domino type song. The vocals are great. It’s the best you ever hear Paul, really belting it out a bit."
Suggested cover: Florence + the Machine
They both started in the top tier of my five but moved down along the way.
If I could convince Mr. krista to get to 25 songs - only this week was he willing to commit to 10 - I'm sure we'd get a few more.
However, it won't be the first album off the board...gonna take a while to get to that last song.
