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A Hard Day's Night:
"Do It Again" - The Kinks
Word of Mouth; 1984
Just that opening chord. This song came from around the same time when Ray Davies was lifting the "Jumping Jack Flash" riff in "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" (and denying it), so I'm sure he'd say this was based on something else, too.
"Any Way You Want It" - The Dave Clark Five
Coast To Coast; Dec. 21, 1964
Somewhere deep within "Any Way You Want It" beats the heart of "A Hard Day's Night." Same basic chord progression in the verses of both songs, same one-note melody, same charging 4/4 beat. Add the "Tottenham Sound" and presto! Here you are. Not many other songs had that same headlong rush. (However, the 'Hey Hey Hey's' probably came from "I Should Have Known Better.")Incidentally, I'd rate the DC5 as the loudest band ever recorded. No matter what volume you played them at, they were better than anyone else not from Seattle at "filling the grooves." (Now, there's an expression that's losing its meaning.)
"All Night Long" - The Palace Guard
Single; 1965
The same manic 4/4 drive that could only be "A Hard Day's Night," but in this case melded with an"If I Needed Someone"-style 12-string riff.
"I Must Be In Love" - The Rutles
The Rutles; 1978
Another Rutles song which is actually several Beatles songs in one; this has a "Ticket To Ride" ending, but of course the drive and the manic bongos are pure "Hard Day's Night" -- and that's how it's framed in the film as well. This is the song that really started "Rutlemania," in that it was the first one Neil Innes wrote for the Rutland Weekend Television clip, which let to the Saturday Night Live skit, which led to the movie.
I Should Have Known Better:
"What A Love" - Los Shakers
Los Shakers; June 1965
"I Should Have Known Better" carries on with the insistent 4/4 Mersey-beat of "Hard Day's Night," although the energy level is somewhat reduced, and "What A Love" does the same. And "What A Love" also starts on a single long note, as in "I-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i...should have know better"; "O-o-o-o-o-o-o-oh, what a love."
"I Meant You" - The Dave Clark 5
Satisfied With You; Aug. 15, 1966
“I meant you, when I said those girls are nice.” Yeah, I’m sure she’ll buy that.The way this leaps right into the "Should Have Known" harmonica riff gets it an instant slot here, never mind the fact that the rest of the song goes in a different direction. They "had me at 'hello'", as the saying goes.
If I Fell:
"With a Girl Like You" - The Rutles
The Rutles; 1978
Do I Have To Spell It Out?
“(There’s Always) Something Wrong” - Mike Levy
Fireflies; 2000
For me, the Sneetches were one of the best things about the 90’s, and I’m sorry they couldn’t keep it going. But Mike Levy still is, and his “Fireflies” album fits right in with the rest of the Sneetches' catalog. The verse to this song is the intro of “If I Fell,” which is a neat trick I think, because it was just a little snippet that's thrown away in the first few seconds of “If I Fell,” and the song never comes back to it. Somebody should have done something more with it, and Mike Levy did. Cool.
“Between Us” - The Rutles
The Rutles; 1978
I‘ve always wondered about this song; “With a Girl Like You” is clearly “If I Fell,” so my assumption that “Between Us” was supposed to be "And I Love Her." But like many of the examples here, it combines both: The clavas, nylon string guitar solo and arpeggio picking from "And I Love Her," but still more the overall feel of "If I Fell," with its group vocals, the major chords and fuller, more dynamic arrangement. Kind of a third genre seems to have come out of the combination of these two songs.
“Take My Love” - The SpongeTones
Beat Music; 1982
Like this song, f'rinstance. And like many of these others, this also ends with a big major 7th chord, which has taken me a while to realize actually comes from "Til There Was You." I've got so much fake Beatles music runnng through my head these days that I'm forgetting what the real stuff sounds like.
I'm Happy Just To Dance With You:
"The Dancer" - The Allusions
Single; May 1966
This for me is really the A-Number One example of what this collection is all about. Once you get beyond the overt acts like the Rutles, SpongeTones, Liverpool Echo, etc., you get to this kind of thing, which is so obviously derivative of a specific song, and yet totally stands up on its own. There are probably folks in Australia (whence this comes, and where it was a hit) who remember this song, and aren't aware of its lineage.Musically, it takes the rhythmic motif (“Before this dance is through, I think I’ll love you too...” which becomes “The Dan-cer, the dan-cer...”), the same minor key chord changes and even has the same “dancing” theme - it really couldn’t get much closer. This could pass for a Rutles song if only it was funnier.
"The Kids Are Alright" - The Who
Recorded Oct. 14; 1965
The"dancing" theme is a big hint here, but less obvious is the similarity between the "Other guys dancing with my girl" and "There is really nothing else I'd rather do" melody lines. More obvious is the fact that "And I know sometimes I must get out ..." is straight from the verse of "All My Loving." Still, one of my elves had to point that out to me. D'oh!
And I Love Her:
“To Have And To Hold” - The Distant Cousins
"Frankenstein vs. The Space Monster" soundtrack; 1966
Quite a few matchups for “And I Love Her.” As John said, it was Paul’s early prototype of “Yesterday,” and so it was another one that really resonated with a lot of people. It’s now a pretty standard archetype: An affected ‘Spanish’ sound with nylon-string guitar, claves and bongos.This comes from, of all things, a sci-fi movie titled “Frankenstein vs. The Space Monster” where it’s used as the filler music underneath a sort of “travelogue” sequence in which the hero and heroine ride their motor scooter through a Spanish Riviera resort on their way to rescue their astronaut friend who has been transformed into “Frankenstein” in the crash of his spaceship, and...well, you kinda gotta see it.
Anyway, it’s a cute little number, and the credits say it’s a Mike Curb song, so I presume the Distant Cousins were a Mike Curb group as well. (The movie also features “That’s The Way It’s Got To Be” by the Poets.)
Since the movie came out in 1966 the Beatle influence is pretty easy to infer. A gentle, Spanish guitar-based ballad and some Beatle-esque “Aow, aow, aow” background vocals. (The trumpet solo isn’t particularly George Martin-esque -- although maybe it’s trying to be.) A couple of years earlier and the Distant Cousins would have been putting out albums just like the Liverpools.’ Hey, maybe the Distant Cousins were the Liverpools!
“On Days Like These” - Matt Monro
"The Italian Job" soundtrack; 1969
Comparing the recent remake of the “Italian Job” with the original, I’d just like to say is that the trio of Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton do not add up to one Michael Caine. (Mark Wahlberg is just not a leading man.)The second thing I realized is that main melody of the opening theme song is the same as “And I Love Her's” guitar riff - and the same two underlying chords as well, especially in the coda. It's only a few notes, but this is also 1969, so it may be a little Paul McCartney reference sprouting out of Qunicy Jones’ subconcious - or concious, as it were. The scene is in the Italian Alps, so we’re in that European mode that Paul was evoking in in the first place -- also the same mode as the Distant Cousins’ song, so this would be pretty well triangulated.
"Alone” - Utopia
Deface The Music; 1980
No-brainer.
“From a Window to a Screen” - The dB’s
Repercussion; 1981
Not a no-brainer. This is quite a bit further removed from the original, both chronologically and musically, but there are echoes, in the chord changes and especially in the opening riff. And with the dB’s we’re in the right ballpark, anyway. (However, in the CD liner notes Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple only talk about the lyrical references in the song, so they're no help.)
Nada Ni Nadie - Los Relevos
Los Relevos; 1997?
Clavas, bongos, Spanish guitar, and the same arpeggio lick that “And I Love Her” uses. With this band we’re much closer to the actual source - these guys really are Spanish, so even though their whole shtick is doing a kind of Beatles pastiche, the style of "And I Love Her" is really their own territory in the first place. Take that, Paul.
Tell
Me Why:
“Say Yeah” - Utopia
Network 9; 1982
Utopia’s Network 9 album came out a year or two after Deface The Music; the Beatlesisms are more mainstreamed and not treated as parody here, creating one of their most accessible albums. This has the same great rhythmic and harmonic blast of “Tell Me Why,”* and there are matchups in the melody, too, especially in the chorus: “When I say whennn” = “Tell me whyyy.” Similar lyrically, too, both pleading with and chastising the girl.* The Residents recognized what a great groove it was, too; they sampled the opening riff of “Tell Me Why” and made an awesome loop out of it on their “Beyond the Valley of A Day in The Life,” their amazing montage of Beatles samples -- way before all the sample and loop products of today. How did EMI let them get away with it, anyway? "Grey Album” this.
“Never Feel That Pain” - Dalek: The Blackstones
B-Side to "Could Be In Love"; 1965
From the AIP Highs In The Mid Sixties series (Volume 4 - Chicago), and at the very least these guys should win some kind of “Outstanding Achievement in the Use of Punctuation in an Artist’s Name” award.I’d love to be able to hear more from these guys; they sound like a very interesting interpretation of the Beatles -- a la the Shakers, or the D’Coys from Australia -- and their lead singer did a very cool John Lennon, especially in the “Oooh-hooooh” bits of this song, which is the main reason I’m listing it here.
Can’t
Buy Me Love:
“I'll Give You Love” - The Hatchet Men
Single; November 1964
This can be found on Psychedelic States New York Vol. 2 (Gear Fab Records), which tells us that main man Andy Rose, who was embarking on Beatles-inspired pop with this. It's a potent piece of driving punk with a 4/4 beat, (like a harder "Fortune Teller") and then the chorus goes into the bridge/outro of "Can't Buy Me Love," with the same chord changes and reiterations. Lyrically, the song is a combination of "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Who Have Nothing."
“Crystal Ball” - Utopia
Deface The Music; 1980
Back to “Deface the Music” here, so there’s no question of what this song is supposed to be. A bit more amped up and keyboard-based than the original, but otherwise pretty much the same; the “bluesy” melody in the verse, the same structure in the chorus, etc.
Any
Time At All:
“Stupid Heart ” - The SpongeTones
Oh Yeah!; 1991
I've been trying to go back and revisit songs which I always knew sounded generally Beatle-esque but couldn't quite place, to see if I could actually nail them down. And found a similarity between the verses of these two songs, in the chords, piano-bass line and melody.
“That's What The Little Girls Do” - The Knack
Get The Knack; 1979
With this it's the chorus that's covered. It seems to keep wanting to go into "..and I'll be there," followed by the guitar lick. The extra bass note at the very end of the song mirrors the extra taclked on guitar chords the Beatles do as well. If these two SpongeTones and Knack songs weren't in different keys, maybe they could be spliced together and arrive back at the original. I bet George Martin could do it.
I'll Cry Instead:
“Don’t Try To Hurt Me” - Herman’s Hermits
On Tour; July 1965
If Ringo had sung “I’ll Cry Instead” instead of John, this might be how it would have sounded. The Beatles basically created a whole sub-genre of country-pop (along with all the other sub-genres they created.) Well, maybe Buck Owens started it, although he was coming from the other direction, with the results being more pop-ified ("pop-eyed"?) country than countrified pop. But country-rock certainly didn't start with “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” or “Nashville Skyline.” There were a lot of people who did it earlier than that (Lovin’ Spoonful, Kinks, Buffalo Springfield, et al) but it would be just another style of song they’d do and not their whole shtick, as it would be for later “Country-Rock” groups like Poco or the Eagles.This song by Hermit Keith Hopwood follows "I'll Cry Instead's" basic blueprint, and more specifically, has the lyric, "You know I get mad and go bad, and when I get mad, I do things I really shouldn't do." More John Lennon than Peter Noone.
Things
We Said Today:
“They’ll Make You Cry” - The Beau Brummels
Introducing; April 1965
Another "stealth" song that might otherwise escape detection, but the elements are there under the surface. Its main hook is a a variation on "Things We Said's" repeated one-chord, minor key guitar flourish, and continues with the same moody feel. A reinterpretation through the pen of Ron Elliot.
“Lonely-Phobia” - The Rutles
Archaeology; 1996
The songs on the Rutles’ Archaeology album aren't as easily traceable as are the songs on their first album -- and some are re-dos of songs from Neil's non-Rutles catalog. But with minor-key songs, the choice of Beatles tunes is somewhat more limited. This seems right to me, but only Neil Innes knows for sure.
When
I Get Home:
"Love Comes My Way" - The Sneetches
Please Don't Break My Heart EP; 1989
Another of the Beatles' "triumvirates," if you will, consisted of "I Call Your Name"; "When I Get Home" and "You Can't Do That." There's a bunch of overlap among them (maybe it's the cowbell) so it can be somewhat tricky trying to assign matchups. "Love Comes My Way" has a good measure of "I Call Your Name" in it, but also some "When I Get Home"; the opening "Aaahs"; the group vocals in the choruses, the chord changes in a couple of places; and the lyric even has a "get you on home" line. Works somewhat, but really, I can't believe the Dave Clark 5 aren't helping us out here; they covered just about everything else on Hard Day's Night.
You
Can’t Do That:
“Please Don’t Feel Too Bad” - The Hollies
In The Hollies Style; November 1964
Like "When I Get Home," another bluesy number with a driving beat, again accented by that cowbell. ("I need more cowbell!" See The Cowbell Project for the definitive analysis of that subject.) “Please Don’t Feel Too Bad” uses the same rhythmic foundation, as well as borrowing a hook straight from "You Can't Do That's" bridge: “Because I’m leeeeeee-eavin” = “Everybody’s greeeee-eeen." Not easy, that.
I’ll Be Back:
“You're Back Again” - Mike Furber & The Bowery Boys
Single; June 1966
This one sounds like it's actually a combination of these final two songs on Hard Day's Night -- it's got a dark and moody section (with a little George-like guitar lick) reminiscent of "I'll Be Back," and a bluesy, off-beat chorus more like "You Can't Do That." And it fits the timeline -- or seems to: These guys were an Australian group who formed up in 1965, but further research shows that this was written by Australian rocker Lonnie Lee, who's been in music since 1959. Oy. But I don't know when he wrote it, so maybe I'll just leave well enough alone and assume that he wasn't above being influenced by the Beatles.
“Till You Say You’ll Be Mine” - The Fourmost
First and Fourmost; November 1965
Unfortunately for our purposes, Jackie DeShannon wrote and recorded this in 1963, about 6 months before the Beatles did "I'll Be Back." Hmmm. So maybe John was actually lifting from Jackie, you never know. Jackie was one of their opening acts on their first U.S. tour, but that wasn't until August of 1964, which was after both of these songs were done. The musical similarity I'm picking up on is the descending chord change in the verse of "I'll Be Back," but I suppose neither John nor Jackie had a patent on it, so this is could be nothing after all.However, the Fourmost's version was released in 1965, and their arrangement is considerably more Beatl-y, with its prominent "You Can't Do That" style12-String guitar riff. So it's a pretty good stylistic match, if not a songwriting copy. That's how I'll rationalize it now.
Obligatory Singles in German, French, or Italian:
"Nur unsre Liebe zahl (It's Love That Really Counts") - The Merseybeats
"Regardez Par N'importe quelle Fenêtre (Look Through Any Window)" - The Hollies
"La ragazza non Viene (Girl Don't Come)" - Sandie Shaw
etc., etc....
