Every guest musician who featured on a Beatles song
The Beatles have always considered themselves a fairly insular group. Even though they had credibility as one of the biggest rock bands in the world, they didn’t really need anyone else at their side to help fill out their sound. Most of what came out on record came from the minds of the Fab Four, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t have had a little bit of help when they decided to lay down a track.
Throughout their later years, the band became more diplomatic about bringing in some newer faces into the mix. Whether it was acts that they had come across during their time on the touring circuit or someone having the right vocal for the song, it didn’t matter who was singing or playing so long as it made the song better.
Then again, some people are going to be left dubiously absent. Some of the session players on their greatest works were usually there to bring their ideas to life, and if we had decided to include George Martin, there’s no question that he would have been considered the true fifth member of the band based on how many times he sat behind the piano to play with the group in the studio.
This is about the kind of people who stuck by the Fab Four enough for them to consider including them on the record. From the small cameos to those who lifted entire songs, these are the kind of artists who managed to work their magic and make The Beatles’ catalogue that much more interesting.
Every great musician on a Beatles song:
The Rolling Stones
People still love to spin the narrative that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones always had a heated rivalry. Despite being the dark answer to the Fab Four, though, The Stones would have been nothing if not for their Liverpool friends, eventually getting their first single from them on ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’. Since they got them off the ground, it was only fitting that they return the favour as well.
Although the timeline can get a bit hectic, The Stones first appeared with the band in the background of ‘Yellow Submarine’, with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones singing along with the group, as well as a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it vocal from Donovan. There are questions as to whether Jagger appeared on a version of ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, but Jones hit it off with the group enough to play on the joke track ‘You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)’. While it’s hard to parse them out some of the time, it’s nice to see the camaraderie among the two bands who started the British invasion.
Yoko Ono
In some circles, Yoko Ono still gets a boatload of shit from those thinking that she broke up The Beatles. Outside of the casual misogyny that often comes with that kind of caveat, Yoko was more interested in being there for John Lennon during the group’s final hours than breaking them up. She does have the distinction of being the only woman to be given a lead vocal on a Beatles track, though.
When playing through ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’ for The White Album, Yoko played the role of Bill’s mother as the children in the song ask if he should have killed animals when he went out tiger hunting. Although there is still a tainted sound around everything that Yoko touched for some fans, this is nothing but cute when listening to it in context.
Linda McCartney
While Yoko Ono was already part of the avant-garde scene when she started, Linda McCartney was far from the musician type during the Beatles years. As much as she was there to support Paul McCartney, she was far more interested in documenting everything with her camera than having to worry about whether she was singing in tune. On the other hand, her features on Beatles were a sign of things to come.
Although much of the Get Back documentary only shows her fiddling around with the keys of an organ now and then, she did end up adding some background vocals to songs like ‘Let It Be’, hitting the high notes that the other members of the group may not have pulled off as convincingly. Since everyone was arguing about each other’s songs at the time, though, this might have been a case of Paul working with what he had before realising what Linda could do for Wings.
Jackie Lomax
The Apple label was always meant to be a way for The Beatles to give back to the music scene. They had become one of the biggest acts in the world, and it was now time for them to spread the wealth and make their own label to bring in other artists. While Jackie Lomax was another artist in the same vein as James Taylor, he did get the chance to rub elbows with the rest of the band during sessions for The White Album.
Since Ringo Starr had gone AWOL after feeling like he wasn’t contributing, the whole recording of ‘Dear Prudence’ feels like a one-off in the group’s catalogue. Along with McCartney playing drums, the backing vocals come courtesy of him, Lomax, and even McCartney’s brother, going by the name of Mike McGear. Lomax may have had a token Harrison composition on his album, ‘Sour Milk Sea’, but this is still one of his best contributions to the history of the group.
‘All You Need is Love’ singers
In the context of The Beatles, ‘All You Need is Love’ was always meant to be more than a song. Considering how much fanfare went into everything when the band performed the tune on the Our World broadcast, it became clear that Lennon had written something that captured the spirit of times like no other song could. And listening back to the live broadcast, the singers in the background could put ‘We Are the World’ to shame.
Although every member of the band can be heard in the background, they invited all their friends to play along with them, including Jagger and Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Graham Nash, their biographer Hunter Davies, and even The Who’s Keith Moon contributing on percussion. It’s hard to single out every single person on the final mix, but it wasn’t about the star power. It was about spreading the message of love throughout the world.
Nicky Hopkins
The Beatles never really needed sidemen with them. If they had an idea they needed to lay down, it didn’t take much for them to translate it to their fingers whenever they got behind a piano or strapped on a guitar. Sometimes, the tasty licks take time, though, and bringing in Nicky Hopkins on ‘Revolution’ made the whole thing jump a lot more than anyone expected.
While everyone knows the tune for that iconic guitar line, hearing Hopkins play in the background is fantastic in context, usually following Lennon’s vocal and playing around with the melody everyone now and again to see what happens. Considering where he went later, working with The Rolling Stones on songs like ‘Angie’, Hopkins has become the unsung hero of two of the greatest bands in history.
Eric Clapton
The entire road to making The White Album felt like a slog for everyone involved. There had been some tension in the group before they even made it to the studio, but now that everyone had their guard down, there was no room for George Harrison to get a word in when working on Lennon and McCartney’s glorified solo songs. They needed a third party to help calm things down, and Eric Clapton was the perfect foil to Harrison on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.
Harrison knew a good song when he heard one, and when none of the band were taking it seriously, he asked ‘Slowhand’ to play on the tune, thinking that it would make the track come alive. Despite some trepidation, Clapton turned the song inside out with his guitar solo, putting together the tasteful kind of blues that inspired the rest of the band to join in, including those aching harmonies from McCartney. The White Album didn’t sound like it was any fun to make, but this tune shows what can happen with everyone on their best behaviour.
Billy Preston
The Beatles really didn’t have that much desire to carry on once they started making Get Back. The whole process of them returning to their roots was in shambles the minute they decided to rehearse in Twickenham Film Studios, and it wasn’t clear whether Harrison would even return after walking out on the group. If the band themselves were a bit lost, it took Billy Preston to get them back in touch with themselves again.
Although he was only there for a few days, Preston’s signature touches on ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ and ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ are practically co-writes, leading to him being one of the only musicians credited with a guest performance on a Beatles album. And considering how much every single guest gave to Beatles recordings, Preston could be considered the glue that held the Fab Four together towards the very end.
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