Various Artists – With A Little Help From My Friends (3CD Set)

Two years ago, I ended my review of We Can Work It Out: Covers of the Beatles, 1962 – 1966 with the following sentence:

From the 1962 to 1966 caveat in the title, I’m hoping that Strawberry is working on a 1967 to 1970 follow-up to this collection, as I’d be down to hear more covers of the Beatles’ adventurous side.

It seems that Strawberry has heard my endorsement and run with it, as the follow-up box set is now here for all to enjoy. I noted that this release is coloured blue while the original was coloured red, matching the Beatles’ own 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 compilation albums. Once again, obscure artists rub shoulders with all-time greats to celebrate the Fab Four’s output in a grand showcase of their popularity. The covers are all contemporary, with the latest being recorded in 1976, while the vast majority were all recorded the same year or the year following each song’s original release, showing that there were enormous earnings to be had by capitalising on Beatlemania. A non-negligible number of these songs are pulled from albums that were completely devoted to Beatles covers, suggesting the public could be persuaded to buy anything that had the word “Beatles” on it. I suppose that’s still true today.

Here are some numbers for you. I calculated that there were a total of 93 Beatles originals (counting Revolution and Revolution 1 as the same song and excluding Maggie Mae) and a respectable 72 of them are covered here for a total of 71 tracks: with the Abbey Road suite, it gets a bit complicated to count when artists such as George Benson and Elis Regina start blending the songs together.

But wait, Cherry Red’s product page says there are 75 tracks, so what’s going on? Well, just like the original, this box set also covers non-Beatles tracks that were nevertheless written by the Fab Four during this time, although there are only two of those this time: Cilla Black’s sprightly original Step Inside Love, which served as the theme tune for her successful light entertainment show on BBC, and Sour Milk Sea, the first song George Harrison gave to another artist. However, the lively Jackie Lomax original, which features no less than three Beatles playing as well as Eric Clapton on guitar, is not present; we’re instead ‘treated’ to the extremely loose and lacklustre cover by forgotten Kiwi outfit Roger Skinner and the Motivation, released the same year.

These covers bring us to 73, so what about the missing two? Well, I found that Cherry Red erroneously lists Billy Preston’s I’m So Tired on their tracklist for this album when it is neither featured on the CD nor anywhere on the packaging. I’m guessing that this track was originally considered to be included on the album due to Preston’s closeness with the group, being the ‘fifth Beatle’ on the Hammond organ during the Let It Be and Abbey Road sessions, but was excluded once it became clear that Preston’s I’m So Tired was not a Beatles cover at all, simply sharing only the name with John Lennon’s mopey original. And the 74th track? I’ll save that for the end of the review.

In the spirit of the original box, With a Little Help from My Friends also begins with a French language cover, this time of Penny Lane. Dominique Walter’s version is faithful and quaint in its execution, but misses the bright clarity and well-polished mix of the original. By comparison with other versions, you can really start to see how the Beatles (helped by George Martin) were masters of their craft, tinkering with their songs to get the very most out of them. Paul’s focus on clean sounds and purposeful arrangements is what makes his songs still sound so good today. The only other foreign language cover on this set is Hush’s Oh! Darling, which still manages to sound very compelling in German.

Soon after, the compilation delves into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, arguably the band’s most iconic album (although not my favourite; it doesn’t even break the top three). It’s pretty strange that this album is not represented by its signature title track (or indeed the reprise). It’s known that Jimi Hendrix immediately worked the title song into his setlist, performing it in front of the Beatles only a week after the album’s release in 1967. But you won’t find it here.

Instead, the ‘album’ begins with an instrumental lounge version of With a Little Help from My Friends played by Arthur Lyman on the vibraphone, which I suppose is an improvement on Ringo’s insipid vocals. Unfortunately, this track (a low point in the Beatles’ latter-day canon) was chosen to represent the set, but I suppose the title could be used to loosely refer to all of the musicians who collectively recorded this work.

The iconic William Shatner graces the compilation with his dramatic reading of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in a version so famous that I had actually heard it before. I wouldn’t care to listen to it over and over, but the unique nature of the recording makes it a worthy addition to the set. Fats Domino also has a turn on the mic with Lovely Rita and changes some of the vernacular to make it his own: “… may I ask discreetly, when are you free to have a drink with me?” Perhaps it suits Fats’s style better, but the change of lyrics makes them far less impactful than McCartney’s witty original.

The tune from Sgt. Pepper that fares the best is the profound A Day in the Life, reimagined here as a tasteful jazz instrumental with Brian Auger playing the vocal lines on the Hammond organ. The tempo is faster than the original, and I honestly didn’t recognise the song at all until the “Woke up, fell out of bed”, middle section; further listens helped me to reconcile this loose reimagining with the original. The excellent, original arrangement of this piece makes it one of the standouts of the whole compilation.

This takes us to Magical Mystery Tour (where I’m referring to the American LP, not British EP), and once again, the title track is mysteriously missing. There are a few straight covers: Anita Kerr adds a little vocal flair to an otherwise perfunctory rendition of All You Need Is Love, while Supersession Workshop’s incredibly cheap-sounding Hullo, Goodbye (yes, it is spelt this way on their original LP) bears no charms whatsoever. From the liner notes, the only intrigue this song has is who Supersession Workshop were in the first place, as their record came with very few personnel credits. The one ‘straight’ cover I enjoy is Kenny Ball’s brass-inflected uptempo Your Mother Should Know, retaining the same fun of McCartney’s swinging music hall original.

The project was compiled by Russell Beecher and John Reed, and I strongly suspect one of them is into Gary McFarland and Gábor Szabó, who failed to impress me with their version of The Word last time around. Here, Szabó plays a more relaxed The Fool on the Hill with Lena Horne on vocals, produced by McFarland. Later on, we hear McFarland do his own take on Because; it’s slower, more pensive and ultimately more boring than the original.

Beecher and Reed also rely more heavily on instrumental versions this time around, with 18 out of 74 (roughly a quarter) being non-vocal or having limited vocals. I could have sworn it was more like half before I crunched those numbers. Four of them appear on Magical Mystery Tour, although, to be fair, one of them – Flying – was already an instrumental anyway. Herbie Mann’s tentative, lethargic flute-based rendition of the Beatles’ simple tune stretches a fun two-minute idea out to an agonising five minutes. Coincidentally, I stumbled upon a much better cover of Flying a couple of months back, by eclectic Japanese proggers Yonin Bayashi, released in 1976.

Meanwhile, I Am the Walrus, played by Lord Sitar, is the epitome of what I hate about a lot of instrumental cover versions. The arrangement and tempo of the song are exactly the same, but the vocal line is simply played on a different instrument. In this instance, it’s the incredibly aggravating twangy sitar, which the Beatles ironically single-handedly made popular outside of India. With songs like these, you realise the draw was Lennon’s colourful, psychedelic, nonsensical imagery in the lyrics, all of which is wiped out in an instrumental. Instead, we’re left with a sitar twanging away for all three verses of the song. It’s intolerable. The antidote comes in the form of saxophonist Bud Shank, whose formidable take on Blue Jay Way preserves and in some ways enhances the terrifying, dark nature of the original before breaking into an unrelated jazz section. I appreciate when some effort is put into reimagining these songs.

After some non-album tracks, like the unremarkable instrumental Lady Madonna and a poor audio live rendition of The Inner Light, we reach The Beatles (or, as most know it, the White Album). Twenty-four of its thirty tracks are captured here, and, no, you don’t have to worry about hearing a cover of Revolution 9. Surprisingly enough, I have less to say about this double album than the other albums, as the covers are mainly unremarkable. Some of my favourite songs – Happiness Is a Warm Gun and Savoy Truffle – receive underwhelming instrumental covers, while other artists simply butcher classics like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter and Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey (Fats Domino pops up again, but it’s not clear if he knows why he’s here).

On the bright side, it’s good to see familiar faces, Gryphon, again; they covered Mother Nature’s Son on their excellent 1975 album Raindance. Their version is a pretty straightforward cover, but at least they can play their instruments tunefully, unlike some of these bands. Don’t Pass Me By, my least favourite song from the album (and possibly the Beatles’ entire career), gets an upgrade from the Swedish pop group Family Four, who give it a more uptempo country sound; let’s face it, it would be hard for the song to get any worse. I shouldn’t prefer the downtempo Back in the U.S.S.R. by unique-sounding vocalist John Fred and His Playboy Band, but at least the track isn’t ruined with the sound of jet engines like the original.

But the biggest surprise of the entire collection came in the form of Blackbird, sung by Dutch vocalist Maggie MacNeal. The opening verse and chorus are nearly identical to McCartney’s soft and sensitive original, but out of nowhere, a full rock band kicks in with an extremely funky riff, causing MacNeal to rock out as she kicks the second verse into the stratosphere. It might seem sacrilegious to make such drastic changes to such a soft, acoustic piece, but I’m impressed by MacNeal’s boldness, and the funky additions are fantastic. After so many ‘safe’ covers, I was grateful for an artist who really pushed the boat out. It’s far better than Beyoncé’s version, let’s put it that way.

I tend to forget about the Yellow Submarine album, but I’m grateful for the trio of included covers on this compilation. All Together Now is covered by a fascinating German psychedelic band, Joy Unlimited, who turned more progressive at the turn of the decade, and the gospel-like vocals are backed by a Hammond organ. Hey Bulldog is given a pretty straightforward cover by American pop group Bill Deal and the Rhondels, but it’s such a brilliant, soulful song that it’s hard to get wrong. Lastly, It’s All Too Much gets a stomping rendition by pre-fame Journey, paying homage to their musical inspiration.

Two fairly dismal instrumentals – a reggae rendition of Don’t Let Me Down and a string-orchestra The Ballad of John and Yoko – serve as the break before Abbey Road, which is almost fully represented (only Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam and The End are missing). After Tina Turner’s soulful but unremarkable Come Together, I was struck by the Templeton Twins’ vaudevillian take on Harrison’s Something. Cute and twee as it is, I was stunned at how similar it was in rhythm to the version I heard McCartney play live on the ukulele back in November. Was it possible he had heard this rendition and adapted it?

And in another bizarre coincidence, the smooth voice of George Benson – whose cheese-laden 80s hit Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You had been on my mind just before picking up this set – graces the compilation not once but twice, lending two tracks from his 1970 album The Other Side of Abbey Road. I got to see the ‘Other Side’ of Benson here, turning Beatles songs into delightful jazz medleys with the focus more on his guitar than his voice.

Having seen his name on the tracklist, I was looking forward to his take on I Want You (She’s So Heavy), one of my all-time favourite Beatles songs (it’s no coincidence that it’s one of their longest, speaking as a prog fan). However, I was dismayed when he began singing Here Comes the Sun instead. I figured that Beecher and Reed had gotten the wrong track. Three minutes into his restrained, tentative, aching cover, however, the music suddenly changes and segues into I Want You. Subsequently, I discovered there were another six minutes to go, making this cover the longest on the album at nine minutes. While not quite capturing the doom of the repeating outro chords in his version, Benson’s jazz arrangement of the song is very tasteful indeed. I discovered that most of the songs on The Other Side of Abbey Road are medleys, but here, Beecher and Reed attempt to separate You Never Give Me Your Money from its medley with Golden Slumbers, which makes it unusual when the chorus to the latter pops up at the end.

Confusingly, there are extra covers of Here Comes the Sun (played with a few alterations by We Five) and Golden Slumbers, the latter of which interpolates Carry That Weight, sung by Brazilian Elis Regina, who sadly passed away at the age of 36 after a lethal cocktail of drugs and alcohol. American guitarist Charlie Byrd (nothing to do with the Byrds) finishes Abbey Road with his take of Her Majesty which is more than five times longer than the original, which seems epic until you remember that the Beatles’ version only lasts 23 seconds. Byrd plays the song faster than its original speed and then slower, with some instrumental noodling in between. Byrd’s extrapolation of the piece makes me wonder if it would be possible to construct a 23-minute prog reimagining of Her Majesty where the original lay somewhere near the centre.

Mentally, I always consider Abbey Road to be the group’s last album, as it was the last to be recorded. However, the Beatles’ output ceased a year later in 1970 when Let It Be was released with Phil Spector’s infamous overdubs. The first track from this album is a little piece of Beatles history in itself: the folky Two of Us was originally titled On Our Way Home and was handed by McCartney to New York-based Mortimer, who recorded the song in 1969, but their second album was shelved until finally seeing the light of day in 2017. It’s a lot more interesting when the cover artists have a tangible connection to the Beatles themselves.

And that’s certainly true of the next highlight, the inimitable Aretha Franklin. McCartney handed a demo of his masterpiece, Let It Be, to her producer, Jerry Wexler, just in time for her to produce her own version for her January 1970 album This Girl’s in Love with You, months before the Beatles’ Let It Be single in March 1970 or the album in May 1970. Franklin’s was the first commercially-available version of the song and, in some ways, is even more brilliant than the original, due to her powerful voice and backing singers. However, I reckon the musical arrangement falls just a little short of the Beatles plus Billy Preston; suffice to say, both are excellent.

Like the previous compilation, Beecher and Reed sign off with another non-Beatles cover: this time, it’s Too Many People, originally recorded by Paul and Linda McCartney in 1970 as a cynical dig against John in the midst of the band’s messy breakup. The cover by short-lived alliterative group Farnborough Firework Factory (which included Chris Spedding in its ranks) doesn’t add to the rather clunky and repetitive diss track, and it’s rather a downer ending to what has been otherwise quite an enlightening set.

Put together, the six discs of the collection cover roughly four-fifths of the band’s seminal catalogue, showing just how beloved the Beatles became in such a short space of time. While I’ve always preferred the Beatles’ later output, it may surprise you to learn that I much preferred the original set of 1962 – 1966 covers to this new collection. But the reason why has precisely to do with why I liked the Beatles’ latter-day period more; as the Beatles evolved, so did their compositions and their ability to make the most out of the studio to find the perfect arrangement for them. In comparison, their early records all sound rather samey, allowing for more adventurous interpretations that can build a more interesting compilation. On With a Little Help from My Friends, however, the variety of the genres presented doesn’t seem as apparent when the source material was already diversifying, and there are plenty of times that I wish I were listening to the original instead, as the Beatles’ arrangements tend to be much better than any imitator. Nevertheless, with its colourful booklet still chock full of album art and artist write-ups, it’s an undeniably fascinating set that will soothe your inner Beatlemania and make you reassess what you like so much about the originals.

TRACKLISTING
DISC ONE
01. Dominique Walter – Penny Lane (2:54)
02. Richie Havens – Strawberry Fields Forever (3:35)
03. Arthur Lyman – With a Little Help from My Friends (2:46)
04. William Shatner – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (2:56)
05. Living Daylights – Getting Better (2:22)
06. Jackie & Roy – Fixin’ Hole (5:30)
07. Harry Nilsson – She’s Leaving Home (3:17)
08. The Soulful Strings – Within You Without You (4:21)
09. Claudine Longet – When I’m Sixty-Four (2:46)
10. Fats Domino – Lovely Rita (2:30)
11. Brian Auger and the Trinity – A Day in the Life (5:15)
12. Anita Kerr – All You Need Is Love (3:05)
13. The Hollyridge Strings – Baby, You’re a Rich Man (2:01)
14. Kenny Ball – Your Mother Should Know (2:19)
15. Lord Sitar – I Am the Walrus (4:16)
16. Lena Horne and Gábor Szabó – The Fool on the Hill (3:39)
17. Herbie Mann – Flying (4:58)
18. Bud Shank – Blue Jay Way (3:33)
19. Supersession Workshop – Hullo, Goodbye (2:36)
20. Cilla Black – Step Inside Love (2:20)
21. Cal Tjader – Lady Madonna (3:58)
22. The Underdogs – The Inner Light (1:37)
23. Roger Skinner and the Motivation – Sour Milk Sea (3:20)
24. Wilson Pickett – Hey Jude (4:03)

Time – 79:45

DISC TWO
01. Head Shop – Revolution (2:31)
02. John Fred & His Playboy Band – Back in the U.S.S.R. (4:18)
03. Five Stairsteps – Dear Prudence (3:34)
04. Arif Mardin – Glass Onion (2:44)
05. The Marmalade – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (3:02)
06. The In-Betweens – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (3:49)
07. Bobby Bryant – Happiness Is a Warm Gun (3:07)
08. Ambrose Slade – Martha My Dear (2:21)
09. Maggie MacNeal – Blackbird (4:13)
10. Mike Batt – Piggies (2:07)
11. Mickey Stevenson – Rocky Raccoon (3:22)
12. Family Four – Don’t Pass Me By (2:30)
13. Lowell Fulson – Why Don’t We Do It in the Road? (3:48)
14. Heaven Bound with Tony Scotti – I Will (2:26)
15. Ramsey Lewis – Julia (4:22)
16. Lee Castle – Birthday (2:36)
17. Gryphon – Mother Nature’s Son (3:05)
18. Fats Domino – Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey (2:34)
19. Ramsey Lewis – Sexy Sadie (2:46)
20. Zebra – Helter Skelter (3:02)
21. Smacka Fitzgibbon – Honey Pie (2:52)
22. Mike Batt – Savoy Truffle (2:07)
23. Vaughan Thomas – Cry Baby Cry (3:21)
24. Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short – Good Night (1:29)
25. Joy Unlimited – All Together Now (2:37)
26. Bill Deal & The Rhondels – Hey Bulldog (2:28)

Time – 76:59

DISC THREE
01. Journey – It’s All Too Much (4:02)
02. Harry J Allstars – Don’t Let Me Down (3:20)
03. Percy Faith Strings – The Ballad of John and Yoko (2:27)
04. Ike & Tina Turner – Come Together (3:39)
05. The Templeton Twins – Something (2:19)
06. The Bells – Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (3:35)
07. Hush – Oh! Darling (3:13)
08. Jackie Lee – Octopus’s Garden (2:56)
09. George Benson – Here Comes the Sun / I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (9:03)
10. We Five – Here Comes the Sun (2:31)
11. Gary McFarland – Because (2:51)
12. George Benson – You Never Give Me Your Money / Golden Slumbers (3:10)
13. Percy Faith Orchestra – Sun King (3:18)
14. Jose Feliciano – She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (3:18)
15. Elis Regina – Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight (2:45)
16. Charlie Byrd – Her Majesty (2:02)
17. Mortimer – On Our Way Home (3:03)
18. Tony Osborne – Across the Universe (2:21)
19. Aretha Franklin & Otis Redding – Let It Be (3:30)
20. KGB – I’ve Got a Feeling (4:01)
21. Day Costello – The Long and Winding Road (3:39)
22. Drummond – For You Blue (2:30)
23. Amen Corner – Get Back (2:40)
24. Farnborough Firework Factory – Too Many People (3:44)