D-Sides, Orphans, and Oddities
Episodes
Saturday Jul 31, 2021
Obscure Beatles Covers - Do You Think I'm Creepy?
Saturday Jul 31, 2021
Saturday Jul 31, 2021
The King's Singers - Strawberry Fields Forever (1978) Scratch and sniff! Produced by the late, great Greg Lake.
Bangor Flying Circus - Norwegian Wood (1969)
The Goodship Lollipop - Maxwell's Silver Hammer (1969)
Ken Ray Wilemon and Me - Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Bud Shank - I Am The Walrus (1968)
Charlotte Dada - Don't Let Me Down (1972) The Girl with the Golden Voice, a title she has more than justified since she started her career with the Uhuru Dance Band early in the 1960s. She also sang with Franco and the Walking Shadows before breaking off as a solo artist, recording with Leader of Uhuru Dance Band Stan Plange and his Experimental Group and the Britain-based group Cool Blaze.
Cher - The Long and Winding Road (1973) At 30:50 of this podcast, the bass player makes a pretty big goof.
Ken Ray Wilemon and Me - The Long and Winding Road
Ken Ray Wilemon and Me - Old Brown Shoe
Don Randi Trio - Tomorrow Never Knows (1966) Don Randi began his career as a pianist and keyboard player in 1956, gradually establishing a reputation as a leading session musician. In the early 1960s, he was a musician and arranger for record producer Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. He played piano on "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra and on her albums as well as being a member of her touring band for decades. He performed on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and "God Only Knows". His piano can be heard on the Buffalo Springfield songs "Expecting to Fly" and "Broken Arrow". He claims to have played on over three hundred hit records, working with Linda Ronstadt (the harpsichord on "Different Drum"), Quincy Jones, Cannonball Adderley, Herb Alpert, Sarah Vaughan, Lee Hazlewood and Frank Zappa.
Doug Parkinson In Focus - Dear Prudence (1969)
Fickle Pickle - Maybe I'm Amazed (1970)
Ken Ray Wilemon and I - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Ken Ray Wilemon and I - Here, There, and Everywhere
Ken Ray Wilemon and I - I Should Have Known Better
Franck Pourcel and His Orchestra - Don't Let Me Down (1969)
Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo - The Word (1966)
Ray Conniff - Hey Jude (1978)
Ken Ray Wilemon and Me - Gimme Some Truth
The Koppycats - Things We Said Today (1966) Ian & The Zodiacs were a British Rock'n'Roll and Beat band formed in 1958, originally known as The Zodiacs, in Liverpool, England. The band existed in relative obscurity until relocating to Germany in 1964 where they achieved national success. During the band's three-year stint in Germany, they released three albums under their name, exclusive to the country until their re-release. They also released two cover albums featuring material by The Beatles with the name The Koppycats.
The Koppycats - Nowhere Man (1967) Jeesh, get the chords right. And the harmonies.
Les 409 - Hello Goodbye (1967)
Les 409 - I'm a Man (1967)
Link Wray - Please Please Me (1963)
Mike Quinn - Apple Pie (1969)
Nicky Scott - Honey Pie (1969)
Helen Merrill - Norwegian Wood (1970)
Ken Ray Wilemon and Me - Beware of Darkness
Ken Ray Wilemon and Me - Jet
Monday Mar 15, 2021
The Beatles "1" In Its Entirety, Without The Beatles.
Monday Mar 15, 2021
Monday Mar 15, 2021
What would The Beatles' 1 album sound like if The Beatles never existed? What? That makes no sense. I did this show as a tribute to how every song they wrote (almost) was enduring and solid enough to be covered by their contemporaries as well as artists of the future.
The Kids From The Brady Bunch - Love Me Do (1972) This was the album on which "It's A Sunshine Day", "Keep On", and "Drummer Man" appeared. I guess you could call this album their Rubber Soul.
The Crickets - From Me To You (1964) At this point, The Crickets consisted of Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison, Glen Hardin, and Jerry Naylor. Arranged by Leon Russell. Curtis would later write and sing the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Love Is All Around". He wrote two other songs POACA know. "I Fought The Law", originally recorded by Bobby Vee (who replaced The Crickets on the bill the night Buddy Holly died), and "More Than I Can Say" which was a huge hit years later for Leo Sayer.
Brenda Lee - She Loves You (1965) The Beatles had acted as a support act for Brenda Lee when she headlined a gig at the Star Club in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1962. For any other artist of the time, that must have seemed like the toppermost of the poppermost. The year before this, she recorded "Is It True" featuring Jimmy Page on guitar.
Sparks - I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1975) Produced by Tony Visconti, who also produced Bowie's Berlin trilogy. I cannot listen to Sparks for very long. I think the people who love them have some sort of soul deficiency. But for completion's sake, here.
David Clayton-Thomas - Can't Buy Me Love (1975) I think this was his last solo album before rejoining Blood, Sweat and Tears. Whew. Hard to believe this was never issued on CD. After he rejoined, or maybe BECAUSE he rejoined, but more likely due to those old contractual obligations, their next two albums with him would be credited to Blood Sweat and Tears - Featuring David Clayton-Thomas. Did it make one damned bit of difference? It did not.
John Mayall - A Hard Day's Night (1976) The Beatles were deceptively excellent singers. This comes into evidence when others try to ape their recordings. Produced by Allen Toussaint, who wrote the entire record except for this one track. This album charted nowhere.
The Runaways - Eight Days a Week (1978) The Runaways were pretty limited instrumentalists. This is another deceptively difficult song to carry off. I don't think it's very good.
Alma Cogen - I Feel Fine (1967) "I'm so glad...he's got me in a whirl..." This recording was released posthumously a year after her death from leukemia. It is speculated that she had an affair with John Lennon, who shagged everything not tied down or named Cynthia at that point. Because he could.
Bee Gees - Ticket To Ride (1965) Released in 1970 without the consent of the group... but only in Germany, France, and Japan. The brothers didn't even know about it until they found it in a Swiss record store after the fact. They should have waited 7 more years. They would have made a mint.
Dolly Parton - Help! (1979) The bassist, Abe Laboriel, saw his son become Paul McCartney's drummer.
Marvin Gaye - Yesterday (1969) His next album was What's Going On.
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Day Tripper (1979)
Progress Organization - We Can Work It Out (1971) A Czech rock group. A little like Vanilla Fudge. They released exactly one album. This was on it. Aren't you happy I am here to do this stuff?
Kenny Rogers & The First Edition - Paperback Writer (1973) "If you really like it, you can help me write..." I imagine after this Kenny Rogers asked for his deposit on the practice room returned. This album was a soundtrack of their TV show of the time. I cannot tell if Thelma Camacho is on this record. I played a set of her solo stuff on one of my shows. It's awful.
Revelation - Yellow Submarine (1980) Sounds like Chic. Almost a carbon copy.
The Singers Unlimited - Eleanor Rigby (1977) A pretty cool reinvention of this excellent song. From Wikipedia:
Gene Puerling took advantage of cutting-edge, multi-tracking techniques of German studio engineer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer to create his harmonic concepts and the group's signature sound. In the overdubbing process, baritone Puerling and tenor Shelton would often add two additional middle parts, after which all parts were "doubled" and "tripled." Creating these extra tracks created the fuller, richer sound of the group's recordings. The group would record their songs by having Bonnie Herman record a simplified version of the melody, after which, Len, Gene, and Don would fill in the remaining parts. Once this process had been completed, Bonnie Herman's original melodic line would be replaced with a new one, in which she could add melodic embellishments and add "color" to the group's sound.
Bass singer Len Dresslar was known as the voice of the Jolly Green Giant ("Ho, Ho, Ho!") for over 40 years, as well as the voice behind other jingles.
Bonnie Herman was the singer of the original "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There" commercial jingle, which ran for several years. She is the daughter of Lawrence Welk's original Champagne Lady Lois Best and Jules Herman, who was a trumpeter in the Welk orchestra. She is the niece of big band leader Woody Herman.
Amen Corner - Penny Lane (1969) Amen Corner was a Welsh R&B-tinged pop band of the late '60s featuring singer Andy Fairweather-Low, organist Blue Weaver, guitarist Neil Jones, bassist Clive Taylor, saxophonists Allen Jones and Mike Smith, and drummer Dennis Bryon. You remember Dennis and Blue as two rock-steady members of that wonderful Bee Gees incarnation of the mid-to-late '70s.
The Anita Kerr Singers - All You Need is Love (1967) Another song that seems very simple, but without the dotted eight notes, it sounds like your rich Aunt is reading you a book. I like the touches of electric guitar.
François Glorieux - Hello, Goodbye (1977) This song translates unexpectedly well to slow classical piano...That caveman in the lower-left corner was a hidden member of The Beatles named Oook.
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Buck Owens - Lady Madonna (1976)
Brothers Johnson - Hey Jude (1976) You should know, if you do not, about an album released in 1976 called "All This and World War II". The soundtrack made money but the movie tanked.
Get Back - Clarence Reid (1969) Reid had the talent and chops to be as big as Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett, but he became more popular doing dirty parodies of soul hits (“S–ting off the Dock of the Bay,” “What a Difference a Lay Makes?”) with his XXX-rated alter-ego Blowfly.
The Percy Faith Strings - The Ballad of John and Yoko (1970) Squaresville!
Isaac Hayes - Something (1970) All 11 minutes of it.
Willie Bobo and The Bo Gents - Come Together (1971)
Aretha Franklin - Let It Be (1970) Maybe the best of all of these. Aretha made some shitty choices, but she was an angel in front of a mic.
Peter Frampton - The Long and Winding Road (1978) This happened. We all traipsed down to the theater in anticipation of some connection, some meaningful validation of what looked like a miracle about to happen. I cannot lie. When Billy Preston popped out of that statue or whatever, I felt pretty let down.
The Hollies - Draggin' My Heels (1977)
Saturday Jun 13, 2020
Saturday Jun 13, 2020
Barbara Mandrell - Something (1974)
She is my entertainer of the year every year. Remember her TV show, Babrbara Mandrell and The Mandrell Sisters? How they'd go from instrument to instrument and play songs that everyone knew? Instrumental virtuosity. Then, in my dream, they'd all pat my head and feed me sugar treats. Then the lessons would begin.
The Supremes - Come Together (1970)
Bobby Womack - Something (1970)
Herbie Mann - Come Together (1970)
Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed - Something (1970)
Diana Ross - Come Together (1970) Pretty kick-ass version, even though she sang the same song earlier in the year with The Supremes.
Elvis Presley - Something (1973)
George Benson - Because/Come Together (1970) Had hits later in the decade with "Turn Your Love Around", "Lady Love Me (One More Time)" (which I love), "Breezin'", "This Masquerade", "On Broadway"... 10 Grammys.
James Govan - Something (1970)
The Hans Staymer Band - Come Together (1972) People infusing such emotion into basically nonsense lyrics is tribute to the power of these melodies. No excuse for changing those nonsense lyrics, though. "Got to be a looker..."
Jim Nabors - Something (1970)
Ben E King - If You Got To Make A Fool Of Somebody/Come Together (1970)
There are three "mash-ups" on this obscure 1970 album by the man that sang "Save The Last Dance For Me" with The Drifters. A very strange record.
Johnny Rodriguez - Something (1974)
Kin Ping Meh - Come Together (1972)
Lou Rawls - Something (1970?)
Lou Rawls - Feeling Good (1970?)
Syl Johnson - Come Together (1969)
Mina - Something (1971)
Come Together - Chairmen Of The Board (1970) This was on the same album as their #3 hit, "Give Me Just A Little More Time". People love that beach music shit. No offense. It's not music.
Phyllis Dillon - Something (1971)
The Israelites - Come Together (1969)
Rod McKuen - Something (1971)
The Mike Curb Congregation - Come Together/Hey Jude (1970)
Willie Bobo & The Bo Gents - Come Together (1971)
Electric Screwdrivers - Come Together Can find nothing.
James Brown - Something (1972)
Ike & Tina Turner - Come Together (1970)
Francois Glorieux - Something (1979)
The Brothers Johnson - Come Together (1976)
Sunday Jun 07, 2020
Sunday Jun 07, 2020
Beatles Christmas Records 1963-1965
The Free Design - Shut Your Mouth (It’s Christmas) (1968)
Sonny Cash - Merry Christmas Polka
The Free Design - Christmas Is The Day (1968)
Akim & Teddy - Santa Claus is a Black Man (1973)
Unknown - Rocking Disco Santa Claus
Bob Seger and the Last Heard - Sock It To Me, Santa (1966)
Clarence Carter - Back-Door Santa (1968)
Doreen Allen, Johnny Collins And The Caravans - Spacey! Santa's Space Ship (1965?) Johnny Collins and the Caravans were a local band from Berwick, PA...they were a polka band and then later played popular music in the Luzerne and Columbia county' of Pennsylvania. Johnny Collins had a music store in Bloomsburg, PA and was an accomplished accordion player and musician.
Second Hand - Death May Be Your Santa Claus (1971)
Mickey Rooney - Be Prepared To Pay (If You Sit On My Lap Today) (1970)
Beatles Christmas Records 1966-1967
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C W McCall - Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Trucking’ Cafe (1975)
C W McCall - Convoy (Movie Version) (1977)
Rod Hart - CB Savage (1977)
Red Sovine - Teddy Bear (1976)
Cletus Maggard - The White Knight (1975)
Shirley and Squirrely - Hey Shirley (1976) From Rate Your Music: The roots of the "80s Chipmunks Revival" actually started back in the mid-1970s.In the midst of the CB craze, a couple of studio hacks came up with the idea of doing a CB-based Chipmunks song. Originally entitled "Double Nickel Alvin", the song was a rather bizarre piece in which the truck-driving rodent woos a female CB-enthusiast. He lays on the charm pretty thick, dropping tons of CB jargon and pledging to take her "dancing everywhere" if she fixes up her hair and manicures her fingernails.The only problem? They couldn't figure out how to locate Alvin to ask him to record the thing. (Ends up he was doing dinner theater in Boise ID at the time.) This is something of a shame, because singing ridiculous lyrics absolutely straight, heavy on the charm, making the moves on a female - this was pretty much where Alvin excelled. One presumes the producers didn't know how to contact Simon or Theodore either, although there's no chance either of them would've left their fusion band RowDent to do this trifle.So the producers cast their net out, and eventually ended up with a squirrel named Sebastian. He wasn't a singer by trade - he was actually studying computer programming when he got the call - but he welcomed the chance to make some extra coin. Ironically, Sebastian's father Scooter had also recorded precisely one song - that's him on "The Witch Doctor Meets the Purple People Eater", the B-side of "Chantilly Lace".The new singer led the producers to rewrite the song a bit, and it was now "Hey Shirley (This Is Squirrely)". Sebastian says he doesn't remember the name of the girl who took the role of Shirley. "She was a gopher, and she was kinda cute. But she giggled all the time. It was hard to get a good take, and it was kinda hard to understand what she was saying a lot of the time." Her near-indecipherability may have been what led the producers to add the Porky-Pig knockoff asking for directions to Eucalyptus Street. ("No, it wasn't a pig - it was one of the producers. Human. He was actually pretty good at doing voices.")Sebastian eventually graduated from MIT and went on to a long career at IBM.
Mannheim Steamroller - Chocolate Fudge (1974) The label American Gramaphone was started by Chip Davis.
Bill Cosby's Tetragrammaton Label
The Fat Albert Orchestra - Fat Albert (Hey Hey) (1968)
Elyse Weinberg - Meet Me at the Station (1969) An NPR feature from 2020.
But after too many bad brushes with the music industry, which included a label bankruptcy, a broken deal and a Cher-starring flop of a movie that featured a cover of her song "Band of Thieves" (erroneously re-titled, with songwriting credits going, for some reason, to Sonny), Weinberg left L.A. and the scene altogether, eventually settling in rural Oregon, quietly making music through the '90s and, after developing an interest in numerology, changing her name to Cori Bishop.
Pat Boone - July You’re a Woman (1969) Produced by Jerry Yester and Zal Yanovsky, two former members of The Lovin' Spoonful.
Rhetta Hughes - Light My Fire (1969)
The Johnstons - Both Sides Now (1969)
Deep Purple - Mandrake Root (1968)
Friday May 29, 2020
Seven Bridges Road, Alan White, Carla Bley.
Friday May 29, 2020
Friday May 29, 2020
Steve Young - Seven Bridges Road (1969) The original, nothing like what it would would evolve into. it's too bad. This is a sensitive, plain ode to a lost love.
Ian Matthews - Seven Bridges Road (1973) This is the first chorale-type adornment of the verses, the one The Eagles would make famous. Jeeesh, Gentle Giant were doing four-part fugues in their sleep, and yet people lionize the Eagles for executing this simple thing.
The Gatlin Brothers - I've Done Enough Dyin' Today (1979) - Just an extraordinary vocal performance I wanted to share with you.
Ian Matthews - Shake It (1978) An example of Yacht Rock for you all.
Alan White - Oooh Baby (Goin' To Pieces) (1976) - HEY! Well, Yes gets back together after a year-long hiatus during which, as is rock tradition, all the members decided to... record solo albums. Steve Howe records "The Steve Howe Album", Chris Squier records the excellent, chunky "Fish Out of Water", Jon Anderson records the boring "Olias of Sunhillow", Patrick Moraz does "The Story of I", and wonders why Rick Wakeman keeps showing up at the studio. And I can only imagine what the other members of Yes thought when they heard THIS for the first time.
Alan White - Darkness (Part 1-3) (1976) - "Uh...good. Good work Alan!"
Alan White - Avakak (1976) Which is NOT to say this is bad music. It's fine. Just that when prog musicians get to 'spread their wings' they usually become more pretentious, not less. This is more like prog soul. And he only did the one solo album.
Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports - Do Ya? (1980) This particular episode predates my love affair with Carla Bley, who wrote this entire album. I like it. Robert Wyatt sings.
Centipede - Septober Energy (Side 2) (1971)
Carla Bley - Dining Alone (1977)
Phil Austin (Firesign Theater) - Square Dance (1974) Billed as "Red Greenbacks and the Blue Boys". I think? From the album Roller Maidens from Outer Space.
Climax - Rock and Roll Heaven (1972) The original version, recorded by the same group/brand/collection of session hacks and Sonny Geraci that brought you "Precious and Few".
Ron Dante/Dante's Inferno - Could It Be Magic (1979)
Don Imus - Country Jukebox (1974) His answer to Reunion's "Life Is A Jukebox". Joey Levine (the voice of Reunion) is listed as a producer!
Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well (Parts I and II) (1969)
Barry Manilow - Could It Be Magic (1973) This the original version on his debut album. I like the slower one, and I like the Donna Summer version the best. I wish a woman would sing that to me.
Hoyt Axton - My My My My Mitchell (1975)
Edgar Winter Group - Rock and Roll Hootchie-Koo (1973) The original version. Same singer and guitarist.
Mike Smith, the singer for the Dave Clark Five, did this demo reel for the Marlboro Disco Show. Whatever that is. Here they are, in all their strangeness. (1980?)
Poco - Dallas (1975) Becker and Fagan disowned this song but I like it.
Spider-man: Rock Reflections Of A Superhero - High Wire (1975) This is Crack The Sky! With some other Meatloaf-sounding guy singing, but this is Crack The Sky! A soundtrack made with Stan Lee's acquiescence.
Alan Freed speech followed by Sha Na Na singing Heartbreak Hotel (?)
T Rex - Mambo Sun (1971)
Anita Kerr Singers - All You Need is Love (1967)
Saturday May 23, 2020
Sports Show, Beatle Covers, and Other Miscellany.
Saturday May 23, 2020
Saturday May 23, 2020
Bruford - Joe Frazier (1979)
Guy Lafleur - Score! (1979) Guy Lafleur was the scoring machine for the great Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the late 70's. Before that, the Philadelphia Flyers had won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1974 and 1975. In that second one, they beat my Buffalo Sabres. During the 6th game, my mother's friend Ray took me fishing on Lake Erie. I think my mother was just trying to find me things to do. i didn't have a father to discipline me or show me "man stuff". So Uncle Ray (we called him Uncle Ray, his wife Aunt Sarah) patiently taught me how to fish those murky waters until I finally caught a carp, smallish, but what an over-the-moon feeling! The Neal family was eating that night! But then Uncle Ray said I couldn't, because the fish had too much "murcuree". So we threw it back. And on the way home, as we drove down the Skyway, I heard the despondent broadcasters recapping the game that the Sabres had lost. And we didn't make it back to the finals until 1999. Fuck Uncle Ray. I wanted to eat that little thermometer!!
Joe Frazier - If You Go, Stay Gone (1969)
Joe Frazier - First Round Knockout (1975)
Muhammad Ali - The People's Choice (1975)
Rosey Grier - Pizza Pie Man (1966) Rosie Greer played for the mighty Los Angeles Rams of the late 60's, and had a pretty good career as a singer and TV personality. I liked it when he was on Sesame Street singing "It's Alright To Cry". This track is pretty psychedelic as soul goes.
Rosey Grier - You're The Violin (1974)
Terry Bradshaw - Until You (1980) The Steelers were an unstoppable machine until this album was released. The release of this album ended the Steelers dynasty. No other reason.
Stompin' Tom Connor - Good Ol' Hockey Game (1972)
Dave Schultz - Penalty Box (1975) Here's a little trivia for people of a "certain age". The finals between the Canadiens and the Flyers in 1976 represent the highest cumulative win-percentage of both finalist teams combined.
Ike Turner - Philadelphia Freedom (1978) You hear Tina singing, but the album, "The Edge", was a solo Ike album assembled from studio tracks with Tina, and the album's b-side is Ike's basic but competent blues/soul. This song, originally sung by Elton John, was the theme song for the Flyers during those NHL finals with the Sabres. But the SABRES's theme song was....
Donna McDaniel - We’re Gonna Win That Cup (1975) This song was written by Tom Calandra, a hero in Buffalo music. He had been in Raven, a big Buffalo band in the late 60's. Raven included Gary Mallaber, a big-time studio player that found his way into Steve Miller's 70's bands. Calandra formed something called the BCMK, the Buffalo College of Musical Knowledge, and took part in a TV show on Buffalo cable called "33 West". My band, Man Against Mauve, took part in this whimsy. Wanna see?
Donna McDaniel - Watch Out, Here Comes The French Connection (1975)
Jim Schoenfeld - All Along The Watchtower (1973) Schoenfeld was a very popular defenseman for those 70's Sabres teams. Later on, he would be a successful coach for the New Jersey Devils. And he did this. By the way, the man who facilitated the recording of this album and cowrote songs with him was John Valby.
Ray Dorset and Mungo Jerry - Heavy Foot Stomp (1975)
Mungo Jerry - Feels Like I’m In Love (1986?)
Mungo Jerry - We’re OK (1977)
Bill Wyman - Monkey Grip Glue (1974) If you can make me a video for one of my songs, and make it look like this, I will pay you all the money I have.
Billy J Kramer - Going Through It (1968)
The Troggs - Little Green Apples (1968)
Herve Villechaize - Why? (1981)
Nazz - Wonder Who’s Loving Her Now (1967) This is the prototype for the band Alice Cooper. I don't think anything that band did was bad. As a solo artist, no one could tell Vincent "no", so...Lace and Whiskey.
Spelbrekers - Rock Around The Clock (1957) I love this version. I always smile. I'm smiling now.
Tribe - Why? (1971) My friend Paul Rinedoller had this record.
Lena Horne - Maybe I’m Amazed (1971)
Andy Williams - My Sweet Lord (1971)
Shut Up - Láska K Říkadlům ("Back Off Boogaloo") (1972)
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Great and Not-So-Great Beatles-Related Recordings
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Ray Charles - Yesterday (1967)
Ted Nugent - I Want To Tell You (1979) Really bad, rote version. Hey, studio time is studio time.
The Bulldogs - John, Paul, George & Ringo (1964) More info.
Ray Charles - Eleanor Rigby (1967)
Freddie Lennon - Next Time You Feel Important (1965) More info. Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience played on this.
Tony Bruno - You Can’t Do That (1969) I love Tony Bruno.
Willie Bobo - Yesterday (1966)
Fats Domino - Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey (1968)
Fats Domino - Lovely Rita (1968)
Elvis Presley - Hey Jude (1969) Dan made the remark that Elvis apparently didn't even respect the song enough to learn the right words. That's what happens when Gladys Music doesn't own the publishing.
Ambrose Slade - Martha My Dear (1969) They would drop the "Ambrose" from their name in a short time and were a continuous presence on the UK charts throughout the '70s. In the US, not so much, until they released the video for "Run Runaway" in 1984.
The Motions - Beatle Drums (1964) A quartet of teens from the Cleveland suburb of Brookpark who started as a Ventures/surf-styled instrumental band.
Wild Man Fisher - Yesterday (1981)
Benny and the Bedbugs - The Beatle Beat (1964) The man that wrote this, Don Costa, also arranged Sinatra's "My Way".
Bing Crosby - Hey Jude (1968)
The 5th Dimension - Be Here Now (1975)
The Fut - Have You Heard The Word (1970) More info.
The Chiffons - My Sweet Lord (1975) Around the same time, The Belmonts (sans Dion) would try the same gag, to equal ineffectiveness. At the time, singers whose acts were steamrolled into oblivion by The Beatles must have LOVED to see the comeuppance of a Beatle.
Al Green - I Want To Hold Your Hand (1969)
Chet Atkins - Lady Madonna (1968)
Harv Moore - Interview Of The Fab Four (1965) A "break-in" record recorded by a Buffalo, NY disc jockey.
James Brown - Something (1972)
James Taylor - Day Tripper (1979)
The Four Tops - Got To Get You Into My Life (1968)
Frank Sinatra - Maureen Is A Champ (1968) Not 4 years after Ringo Starr gave this as a present to his wife Maureen for her 22nd birthday, Ringo's booking, carousing, and Nillsonning would drive her into the arms of George Harrison for a bit of the ol' In-and-Out. His crooked smile and horrible teeth, her smokey eye. Still, wouldn't you trade wedding fidelity for a Sinatra ode? I would.
Melba Moore - The Long and Winding Road (1976)
Klaatu - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (1976)
Simon Dupree and the Big Sound (Gentle Giant) - We Are The Moles Pt. 1 and 2 (1969)
The Free Design - Eleanor Rigby (1968)
The Free Design - Michelle (1967)
The Langley School Music Project - The Long and Winding Road (1977)