Roll Over Beethoven

In my recent post Rock and Roll Music, I stated that the Beatles covered nine of Chuck Berry's songs on various BBC Radio programs.  What I did not mention was that all but one of them were sung by John Lennon.  The sole exception was Roll Over Beethoven.  And yet, when the Quarrymen added the song to their repertoire in 1957, it was John who stepped up to the microphone to handle the lead vocal.  It was not until 1961 that George Harrison took over that duty.  It was a natural fit for George, spotlighting not only his talent as the group's third singer, but his growing proficiency as a lead guitarist.

Like most of the other cover songs that the band had been performing over the years, it was put aside in early 1963, when their setlist became extremely short as manager Brian Epstein kept them jumping from stage to television to radio and back again at an astonishing pace.  These cover versions began to reemerge once they landed their own BBC Radio series Pop Go the Beatles, and they used the show to highlight both obscure oldies and early classics by those who had influenced them and their sound. 

As they began a series of sessions for their second album With the Beatles, they first concentrated on several of these cover versions.  On July 30th, 1963, George got his chance to record this classic for posterity.  Though the group was very familiar with the song, it still required five takes before all were satisfied on this date.  All four Beatles then added handclaps as George double-tracked his lead vocal, and he made two attempts at overdubbing his guitar solo.  Finally, an edit piece added a final guitar chord to the track.

The song opens side two of With the Beatles.  In the US, Capitol Records chose to keep it off of the album Meet the Beatles! along with most of the other cover songs from the British album.  But Capitol of Canada released it as the A-side of a single in December of 1963.  As Beatlemania rapidly took hold in America, copies of the Canadian single were imported and it actually reached number sixty-three on the Billboard chart.  

Fearing it had made a mistake, the US label wanted to rush release it as a follow-up single to I Want to Hold Your Hand, but producer George Martin persuaded Capitol to hold off due to the imminent release of Can't Buy Me Love.  Demand for the song must have been strong because, in the press release for Can't Buy Me Love, Capitol promised American fans that Roll Over Beethoven would appear on the band's next album.  Not only did it appear on The Beatles' Second Album, released on April 10th, 1964, but its title is boldly printed on the front cover (along with She Loves You), and it leads off side one.  I only recently learned much of this information from Dave Rybaczewski's excellent in depth look at the song's release history.  

Capitol then fell victim to overkill by releasing the two Canadian singles Roll Over Beethoven b/w Please Mister Postman and All My Loving b/w This Boy as an EP on May 11th.  The format was no longer popular in America, and all four songs were available on albums, so the EP Four by the Beatles only reached number ninety-two on the Billboard chart.  

The song now remained in the band's setlist throughout 1964, serving as George's vocal spotlight until it was replaced by Everybody's Trying to be My Baby.  They did play the song one last time on their return to Hamburg in 1966, as it had always been a favorite of the Kaiserkeller's bouncer Horst Fascher, though he was not in attendance at the concert.

In 1975, it was included in the collection Rock and Roll Music, with George Martin even taking advantage on this occasion to make a new and improved stereo mix of the song.  It next appeared on the Star Club tapes, recorded in December of 1962.  This is a fast-paced performance featuring a few variations such as all but the bass dropping out during the lines of the final verse, and Paul and John joining in vocally for the last refrain.  These variations are repeated on The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, recorded in August of 1964.  This is the fastest and most ferocious version of the song available, which is remarkable considering that the group could not hear a thing above the screams of the audience.

Want more?  Live at the BBC presents a performance from the radio program From Us to You broadcast in March of '64, while On Air - Live at the BBC has one from Pop Go the Beatles recorded in July of '63, only two days after the master recording for the album With the Beatles.  Lacking an audience, the tempo for these two performances is a bit slow.  Such is not the case for a broadcast for Swedish radio performed in front of a live audience in October of 1963.  Other than their pre-fame stints in Hamburg, this was the group's first official trip outside the UK, and the boys were clearly energized by the event.  You can hear it for yourself on Anthology 1.  

Roll Over Beethoven has the distinction of having one of the longest runs in the repertoire of the Beatles.  It was important enough to George that he included it in his brief tour of Japan in 1991, as can be heard on the album Live in Japan.  And he closed his show at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992 with this number, making it officially the last song that he ever played in concert.