The five best covers of John Lennon’s Beatles songs
When John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met at the annual Woolton Parish Church Garden Fete in July 1957, there is no chance that they had any idea quite how consequential their convergence was to be. Both were teens looking for meaning in life, throwing themselves into the rock ‘n’ roll craze of the day, hoping to make something of themselves like their musical heroes had. In only a handful of years, they would succeed in doing so, helming The Beatles and changing the cultural landscape.
Like every artist of worth, Lennon, McCartney, and the rest of the band took time honing their skills and played extensively in their native Liverpool. However, their time in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, Germany, proved to be pivotal. They learned stagecraft, how to write resonant numbers, and even picked up vital skills like how to scream from one of their ultimate idols, Little Richard.
When they returned, fate would have its way, and after the tragic death of bassist Stuart Sutcliffe in April 1962 and them kicking out drummer Pete Best for local legend Ringo Starr, the stage was set for a level of success like the world had never seen, and will likely never do again. Led by Lennon and McCartney, the quartet pioneered rock ‘n’ roll, evolving into rock music, innovated in using the studio as an instrument, and took Bob Dylan’s idea of writing about real-life matters to new heights, as well as myriad other things. They were pioneers of popular music as we know it, laying the foundations for everything that came after, whether it be The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana or Oasis.
The Beatles’ influence is more extensive than that of any other group, and this is primarily due to the remarkable songwriting talents of Lennon and McCartney. Of the two, Lennon had the most effect as the band’s frontman, with him cited as the ultimate icon of an array of artists from across music’s timeline. Because of this status, many other prominent figures have covered his Beatles songs. We’ve decided to list the five best; find them below.
The best covers of John Lennon Beatles songs:
5. The Damned – ‘Help!’
It’s a well-known story that the first wave of punk hated classic rock. With the rumours that Glen Matlock was ousted from Sex Pistols for his love of The Beatles and various comments taking shots at the established musical order from the time, people had long thought that the proponents of punk loathed their forebears with every fibre of their being. However, with former Sex Pistols leader John Lydon since saying the Fab Four were “vital for my development”, it’s clear this wasn’t exactly the case.
There were clues all along. One of those was that London punks-turned-goths The Damned, chose the B-side for their game-changing 1976 single ‘New Rose’ to be a rapid-fire cover of the 1965 Beatles hit, ‘Help!’, the title song for the film and album of the same name. Although at the time it was deemed a sardonic example of punks torching the established order, over the years, it’s become apparent that this breakneck rendition was Dave Vanian and the rest of the group paying homage to the Liverpudlian pioneers, who laid the foundations for them. Regardless of the motivations, though, it’s one of the finest covers of a John Lennon song to date.
4. Frank Zappa – ‘I Am the Walrus’
Frank Zappa made a career out of confounding his fans. An outspoken figure, he made no bones about hating The Beatles when they were in their pomp. “Everybody else thought they were God!” he once said of them. “I think that was not correct. They were just a good commercial group.”
Then, in Barcelona in 1988, he surprised everyone when he paid deference to The Beatles when he performed a medley of their songs. The highlight was the deeply grooving rendition of Lennon’s 1967 psychedelic classic, ‘I Am The Walrus’,which was originally inspired by LSD trips and Lewis Carroll’s surreal poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’.
Despite supposedly hating The Beatles, Zappa had always been a fan of this inventive number, and given his own avant-garde proclivities, it was fitting that he covered it. Later, after he played the song on a radio show, Zappa said: “Now wasn’t that wonderful? Just sitting here today, so sophisticated as we all are, in this modern age that we call The Eighties, and to be able to hear something like that with thousands of people in the background on that record saying ‘everybody smoke pot’.”
3. Bob Dylan – ‘Nowhere Man’
It’s no secret that Bob Dylan had a significant hand in the arc of The Beatles. He was the man who introduced them to the delights of weed in August 1964, thus kicking off their voyage into drug culture and its music. He was also the artist who inspired John Lennon and Paul McCartney to sing about real, personal matters in their songs, not weightless schmaltz as was the standard in pop music at the time.
Although Dylan had always been the most prominent backer of John Lennon and his band, he rarely put his own spin on their songs. However, when he chose to cover Lennon’s defining number, ‘Nowhere Man’, a personal piece written in the vein of his early work, it went down as one of the finest covers of the band. This hallowed cover occurred in 1990 at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Canada.
Famously, Lennon wrote the track out of frustration when they were trying to complete their sixth album, 1965’s Rubber Soul. “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down,” he told Playboy in an interview. Adding: “Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down.”
2. Siouxsie and the Banshees – ‘Dear Prudence’
Not only is goth legends Siouxsie and the Banshees‘ cover of ‘Dear Prudence’ one of the finest Beatles renditions and among the best covers of all time, but it also features the guitar of The Cure frontman Robert Smith, who temporarily replaced the outgoing maestro John McGeoch. His presence adds an extra dose of goth enchantment.
Despite being pioneers of British punk before they were the vanguard of the goth sound, Siouxsie and the Banshees were always open about their love of The Beatles. Clearly, they were big fans of 1968’s White Album, as they covered ‘Helter Skelter’ on their influential 1978 debut The Scream, and then dived back into the extensive double album in 1983 for a rendition of ‘Dear Prudence’, an atmospheric song in its original form, thus perfect for their own glistening gothic sonics.
Siouxsie Sioux once revealed that she concluded they should cover The Beatles in 1976 after their storied debut gig. She said: “When we did the 100 Club Punk Festival [1976], we were wondering: ‘What shall we do?’ And we ended up doing the thing based around the Lord’s Prayer. And Sid and I were laughing, ‘Oh, we should really mess up a Beatles song!’And that attitude was still there. I remember growing up with the White Album. I loved it for their experimenting. And then it gets fucked up? Much better!”
1. Fiona Apple – ‘Across the Universe’
There could be no other Lennon cover in the top spot. While the song is autobiographical in that it captures Lennon’s negative thoughts about his wife at the time, Cynthia, whom he would eventually leave for Yoko Ono, the poetic beauty of the lyrics—despite the hint of anger that courses throughout them—and melodic grandeur of the song were perfect for Fiona Apple. She’s an artist who’s adept at both. She brings her harmonious, emotive touch to the song, making it even more profound than the original, a true feat.
Featuring lines like the opener, “words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup”, there’s no wonder Lennon thought the song was one of his finest ever.
Interestingly, regarding the chorus – “Jai guru deva” – which means “Victory to God divine” in Sanskrit, Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970: “It’s one of the best lyrics I’ve written. In fact, it could be the best. It’s good poetry, or whatever you call it, without chewin’ it. See, the ones I like are the ones that stand as words, without melody. They don’t have to have any melody, like a poem, you can read them.”
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