Berry Gordy and the Fab Four: Which Motown songs did The Beatles cover?
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Credit: Alamy
By the end of the 1960s, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had set an almost unattainable gold standard for songwriting. Together, the pair penned a seemingly endless array of groundbreaking tracks for The Beatles, completely altering the landscape of popular music in the process. Even today, the works of Lennon-McCartney are still heralded among the greatest songwriting efforts of all time, but during the band’s early days, some of their most memorable work came in the form of cover songs.
Like many young bands throughout musical history, The Beatles chose to cover some of their favourite tracks in order to pay homage to the original artists and to bolster the amount of material within their live performances. For instance, the ‘Mop Tops’ regularly covered works by rock ‘n’ roll progenitors like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard during their early years. These songs helped to bridge the generation gap between the 1950s and the bold new era of the 1960s.
Taking heavy inspiration from the landscape of R&B, soul, and blues artists, The Beatles were forever indebted to Black American artists, and they made no effort to hide such a fact. When the band first took a trip over to the United States in 1964, they were keen to discuss the incredible influence provided to them by Black music from the States. At that time, it was Motown Records dominating the US singles charts, supported by a wealth of now-iconic artists like The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder.
It is no real surprise, therefore, that The Beatles were natural disciples of Berry Gordy’s Motown label. In fact, their adoration of Motown’s soul revolution predated their first trip to the United States. For their sophomore record With The Beatles, the Fab Four chose to include multiple cover songs within the tracklisting, including their version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ and Ricky Lee’s ‘Devil In Her Heart’. The album also included heavy references to the sounds of Motown.
So which Motown songs did The Beatles cover?
By far, the most prevalent cover on the album was ‘You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’, which was a top ten hit for Motown when it was first recorded by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Robinson himself was a fan of the group and admired how openly they admitted that The Beatles took inspiration from Black artists like himself. What’s more, the cover helped to bolster the reputation of The Miracles in the UK, where they had thus far been largely ignored.
The band covered Barrett Strong’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ on the same side of With The Beatles. One of the first songs to provide Motown with a hit record, the song’s impact on the landscape of soul music is incredibly vast, having been covered by everybody from The Flying Lizards to Charli XCX. The Beatles’ cover of the track was particularly groundbreaking, however, as it introduced the timeless classic to British soil.
Similarly, their version of ‘Please Mr. Postman’ by The Marvelettes – which had been Motown’s first-ever number-one single in the US, helped to establish the track on this side of the Atlantic. After all, Motown struggled to dominate the UK charts during the early 1960s. It was only through the notoriety given to by the label by artists like The Beatles and Dusty Springfield that UK audiences started to take note of Gordy’s label. As a result of this, Gordy offered reduced rates for The Beatles to cover his label’s work, believing that their cover versions would lead to increased success for Motown Records in the UK.
While The Beatles would quickly move on from recording Motown covers, focusing almost entirely on writing and recording their own original material, the three covers featured on With The Beatles remain highlights from the band’s early period. What’s more, they played an essential role in introducing Motown to listeners in the UK for the first time, speaking to the endlessly innovative nature of the Fab Four.
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