Monday, October 19, 2009

I'm Gonna Write A Little Letter Gonna Send It To My Local DJ


The next song heard on the "With The Beatles" LP/CD was the second George Harrison vocal feature entitled "Roll Over Beethoven". This was a cover song written and performed in it's original state by the great Chuck Berry who had his birthday not too long ago. This is a great addition to the Beatles' canon as it features wonderful guitar work from George. Several Chuck Berry compositions were featured in the Beatles' live show (especially on BBC) that were sung mainly by John - who was a huge fan of Berry - but I love this George vocal and it's interesting that three of the tunes from this LP featured George Harrison. This is the second one besides his first composition early on the LP and a later cover.

The song was recorded at EMI Studio Two on Tuesday July 30 1963 in fives takes with three overdub takes. You can actually hear the end chord being edited on in take eight.

"Roll Over Beethoven" was mixed for mono on Wednesday August 21 1963 in Studio Three with a combination of takes seven and the edit piece of take eight. The stereo mix was done at the same time as most of the stereo mixes were done (basically, the stereo mixes were an afterthought at this stage; you can read my entries showing that most of the LP stereo mixes were all done within a day as well as being all done in three hours !!!) on Tuesday October 29 1963 in Studio Three.

"Roll Over Beethoven" has been a staple of the Beatles' live shows for years and was still featured during the early Beatlemania years. The song was obviously performed in Hamburg and Liverpool, and was performed during the 1964 American tour.

"Roll Over Beethoven" can be found on the Parlophone LP/CD "With The Beatles", the Capitol US "The Beatles Second Album" LP/CD where the song title can be prominently seen on the front cover due to it's popularity. In fact, there was a Canadian single released with "Roll Over Beethoven" as the main side and it sold considerably well in Canada and the USA (as an import). The song was on the Capitol of Canada 6000 series LP "Beatlemania: With The Bealtes". The song was also on the Capitol/ EMI 2-LP set "Rock and Roll Music". There are live versions of the song on the EMI/Capitol LP "The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl" and an early live version can be found on the Lingasong double LP "The Beatles Live at The Star Club".

"Roll Over Beethoven" was performed an astounishing seven times live on BBC radio: The first time on "Steppin' Out", three times on "Saturday Club", once on "Pop Go the Beatles" episode 12 and twice on "From Us to You".

"I wanna hear it again today" WHOOOO!

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