Though Lennon insisted “it was only natural that we tried to do it as near to the record as we could – I always wished we could have done them even closer to the original,” The Beatles’ rendition of “Anna (Go To Him)” has two distinct differences that make it a seminal piece. Alexander’s version is maudlin, even slightly off-kilter, given the knee-jerk rhythm and the placid nature of Alexander’s vocal. “Anna (Go To Him)” was Alexander’s latest, released on September 17, 1962. One of Lennon’s favorite artists at the time was the little known Arthur Alexander – a black singer and songwriter who had released a couple of singles with the Nashville Dot Label. Not just merely appreciative, The Beatles wanted to make the black music that had influenced them their own. “We didn’t sing our own songs in the early days – they weren’t good enough,” Lennon remarked, “the one thing we always did was to make it known that there were black originals, we loved the music and wanted to spread it in any way we could.” Lennon would respond with a note written on an airplane taking the author to task. In the aftermath of The Beatles’ breakup, the New York Times published a piece entitled “So in the End, the Beatles Have Proved False Prophets,” accusing the band, among other things, of making off with black music for their own benefit. Lennon, in particular, was outspoken on the impact black artists had on his music. In fact, all of the covers from Please Please Me (“Chains,” “Boys,” “Baby It’s You,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Twist and Shout,” and “Anna (Go To Him)”) were done originally by black artists, and only “Til’ There Was You,” a number from the Broadway play The Music Man, was an exception to the rule on With The Beatles. McCartney covered “That’s Alright (Mama),” (on a BBC radio show on July 2nd, 1963) but The Beatles covered far more songs from black groups to showcase on their LPs. While Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran no doubt influenced The Beatles, the boys from Liverpool were just as much – if not more – appreciative of black artists like Chuck Berry, Arthur Alexander, and Barrett Strong. They would spend hours in future manager Brian Epstein’s North End Music Store – what they affectionately called NEMS – not to buy records, but to absorb all music had to offer.Įarly rock and roll was largely “race music” – gritty and visceral – often only a few steps removed from blues numbers that had traveled up the Mississippi Delta.
Records from the United States passed from seaman to teenager, and this old fashioned form of exposure transformed The Beatles from music starved teenagers to record store rapscallions. They were just four lads from Liverpool, albeit with tremendous interest in music, an interest which the port city more than ably supplied.
Integral to The Beatles’ success was the sheer amount of music they played before they even made it big – from dancehalls in Britain to seedy nightclubs in Hamburg, armed with the advantage of playing little known numbers from “race music.” However, it’s perhaps most important that they always had their own particular identity. Yes, they were incredibly creative, fully embraced technical innovations, and managed to propel popular music into a more advanced form. The Beatles are often given the label of saving rock and roll, and usually for overblown reasons.
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