The Beatles Channel Playlist

Heard on The Beatles Channel: You Can't Fight Lightning, a very strange song written and recorded by Ringo Starr in 1980. It was intended for his 1981 Stop & Smell The Roses album but remained unreleased until 1994 when it appeared as one of six bonus tracks on a CD reissue of the album. Paul McCartney played drums on the track and Linda McCartney and Sheila Casey sang background.

A few websites say Ringo wrote the song after he and future wife Barbara Goldbach (who he met in 1980 while they were filming the Caveman movie) were nearly struck by lightning. That story is false. Ringo told the Los Angeles Times that "You can't fight lightning" was simply a phrase he used to describe his love for Barbara. They married in 1981. Here is the song -- and maybe it should have stayed unreleased:

 
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semi, you know I certainly don't want -- "It's a small world, after all; it's a small world, after all; it's a small world, after all; it's a small, small world" -- any songs to get stuck on your head. Here is another rarity played on The Beatles Channel: the Beatles' 1963 BBC recording of I'll Be On My Way.

The song was also recorded by Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas and was released as the B-side of their first single, Do You Want To Know A Secret, which was produced by George Martin and reached #2 in the UK but failed to chart in the US. Those were two of six Beatles songs recorded by Kramer & the Dakotas. The others were Bad To Me, From A Window, I Call Your Name and I'll Keep You Satisfied.

Here is I'll Be On My Way, with John and Paul doing their very best Buddy Holly impressions:

 
Channel98 said:
semi, you know I certainly don't want -- "It's a small world, after all; it's a small world, after all; it's a small world, after all; it's a small, small world" -- any songs to get stuck on your head. Here is another rarity played on The Beatles Channel: the Beatles' 1963 BBC recording of I'll Be On My Way.

The song was also recorded by Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas and was released as the B-side of their first single, Do You Want To Know A Secret, which was produced by George Martin and reached #2 in the UK but failed to chart in the US. Those were two of six Beatles songs recorded by Kramer & the Dakotas. The others were Bad To Me, From A Window, I Call Your Name and I'll Keep You Satisfied.

Here is I'll Be On My Way, with John and Paul doing their very best Buddy Holly impressions:

Click to expand...


Ok, it's not a stupid song. It eventually left my mind and I was off to sleep.

Good song (I'll be on my way)
 
I have not yet heard Ringo Starr's original version of Everyone Wins on The Beatles Channel but the channel is playing his 2010 remake. The original was released in 1992 in Germany on a CD single which also included Don’t Go Where The Road Don’t Go from Ringo's Time Takes Time album. Because the album did not sell well in the US -- it didn't even make Billboard's Top 200 chart -- the label (Private Music) canceled plans to release the single in the US. Ringo recorded a new version of the song for his 2010 Y Not album featuring Gary Wright, Edgar Winter and Tom Petty keyboardist Benjamin Tench. Here 'tis:

 
The Beatles Channel just played Jet by Paul McCartney & Wings -- but not the hit single. This version was one of several songs performed live at EMI studios in 1974 for the tv documentary One Hand Clapping. The sound track remained unreleased until a two-disc bootleg album came out in 1985 in the Netherlands. It was followed by bootleg releases in several other countries. In 2010, some of the songs from One Hand Clapping -- including Jet -- appeared on a remastered reissue of the Band On The Run album. Here it is:

 
The Beatles Channel played Cream's 1969 hit Badge, which was written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison, although, because the two men recorded for different labels. George's name could not appear on the album's credits. The song was credited to Clapton alone. Cream recorded the song November 21, 1968 at Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles, with George playing rhythm guitar. The song's title has nothing to do with the lyrics. Harrison explained, "We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down. When we came to the middle part, I wrote 'Bridge.' Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing. He said, 'What's Badge?'" So.....Badge became the title.

 
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Very cool.
 
Another rarity on The Beatles Channel: John, You Went Too Far This Time by Rainbo, a singer and guitarist who performed in Greenwich Village coffee houses. She wrote and recorded the song in 1968 in response to John and Yoko posing nude for the cover of their Two Virgins album. Rainbo eventually became an actor. Her real name is Mary Elizabeth Spacek but you can call her "Sissy." Here is the song:

 
Slacker Radio has a really fun channel called "Covered: The Beatles" which features – well – cover versions of Beatles songs. You can find the channel at Themes and here is what was just played:

Come Together - Michael Jackson (UR/1988, B/1992)
Got To Get You Into My Life - Earth Wind & Fire (9/1978)
Helter Skelter - Aerosmith (UR/1975, LP/1991)
Helter Skelter (Live) - U2 (LP/1988)
Hey Bulldog - Toad The Wet Sprocket (LP/1997)
I Am The Walrus - Oingo Boingo (LP/1994)
I Want To Hold Your Hand - Al Green (--/1969)
It's All Too Much - Journey (--/1976)
Jealous Guy - Roxy Music (--/1981)
Lady Madonna - Fats Domino (100/1968)
Magical Mystery Tour - Cheap Trick (UR/1986, LP/1991)
Taxman - Junior Parker (LP/1970)
Two Of Us - Aimee Mann/Michael Penn (LP/2002)
Yesterday - Marianne Faithfull (--/1966)
You Won't See Me - Anne Murray (8/1974)
You Won't See Me - Dar Williams (LP/2005)
 
Spanish-born painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso died April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France. He was 91. Just before he died, he poured a glass of wine for his friend Armand Antebi and said, "Drink to me. Drink to my health. You know I can't drink any more." Those were Picasso's last words.

In 1973, actor Dustin Hoffman challenged Paul McCartney – who had said he could write a song about anything – to write a song about Picasso's last words. Paul wrote the song and recorded it with his band Wings for the Band On The Run album. The Beatles Channel just played it. Here it is:

 
And only one Beatle took part in the recording of Yesterday. Paul McCartney initially balked at producer George Martin's idea to have him backed by a string quartet. "We're a rock band," Paul said – but Martin prevailed. Paul sang Yesterday and played acoustic guitar on the track. Accompaniment by a string band – two violins, viola, cello – was overdubbed.

In summer of 1969, Los Angeles rock station KABC-FM (now KLOS) played The Ballad Of John & Yoko quite often but they edited the song so listeners never heard John Lennon saying "Christ." Did Lennon steal some of the guitar lines from Johnny Burnette's 1956 song Lonesome Tears In My Eyes? I say he did. And the Beatles had recorded Burnette's song in 1963 for the BBC, so John was quite familiar with the melody. Judge for yourself:

 
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