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I HAVEN’T HEARD THAT ONE IN A WHILE
Rate-A-Record: The Bad Boys and Girls Before the Beatles
The Beatles weren’t just the Lennon McCartney songs.
The Beatles Past Masters Volume One landed on my desk recently and I was reminded of a song I hadn’t heard in a long time: Bad Boy.
The Beatles early career is littered with covers of early American rhythm and blues and rock and roll artists. Mostly famously, Twist and Shout is a cover of the Isley Brothers version, which isn’t in fact the original.
Until the moment John Lennon shredded his voice giving Twist and Shout everything he had, there was hardly a single British act that had come within a bull’s roar of equaling the energy and talent of their American compatriots.
Beyond Twist and Shout, The Beatles recorded many excellent interpretations of American tunes, including the aforementioned Bad Boy.
Bad Boy, written and recorded by American R&B artist Larry Williams is one of my favourite Beatles covers. Featuring a tight and dramatic opening burst of guitar chords and an excellent vocal by Lennon, the Beatles do a great job.
It then occurred to me that I’d never heard the original Larry Williams version, something I suspected might be the case for many Beatles fans. That seemed…
