The comical tale of how George Harrison accidentally got credit for a Chuck Berry song in Japan
Nothing could ever mistake the sound of The Beatles. But as George Harrison quickly found out, other people could very much be mistaken for them.
It seemed an improbable thought. The Beatles had such a completely distinctive sound and vision, let alone being a law unto themselves, that anyone would think they could recognise them instantly, without a second thought. But as it turned out, people became so good at that skill that it had some rather unintended consequences.
Harrison happened to find that out when he landed in Japan to perform with Eric Clapton in 1991, only for a surprising song from decades before to rear its head again. After all, when he and his former band simply recorded a version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ way back in 1963, they could never have expected it still to be chasing them nearly 30 years later.
But the point was that no one seemed to realise that it wasn’t actually a Beatles song, and originally belonged to Berry. Yet the coincidence of timing, when Beatlemania was just on the brink of taking off, meant that the story had been rewritten that way, and Berry had been unceremoniously cut out of the picture.
Out of everyone, the people of Japan seemed to take that especially to heart, and landed Harrison in a pretty awkward situation when he arrived there. After a journalist once admitted to him that they, too, used to mistake the Berry classic as a Fabs original, he replied: “Oh, that’s still happening. We did a press conference in Japan when I played live there with Eric Clapton [in 1991], and the first question was, ‘Mr Harrison, are you going to play ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ in concert?’”
In that instance, what would you do? Say no, and pointlessly try to explain the mix-up to a confused room, or go along with it? Harrison chose the latter. “When I said yes, the whole hall stood up and applauded!”, he comically continued.
“It was such a big thing for them, which seemed so funny. Then I realised they must still think I wrote it.”
George Harrison
With the Japanese clearly the biggest fans of the cover, no one would want to let them down unless they were outright cruel. In this sense, while attempting not to present Harrison as some kind of performing monkey, it almost became his moral obligation to stand and deliver what his willing audience wanted, and not to complain about it.
As much as it seemed to take away all the credit from Berry himself, it was a testament to the fact that The Beatles truly worshipped every inch of the work of the rock and roll pioneer, and wanted to honour him in the only way they saw fit. Unfortunately, even though that ended up usurping him, there wasn’t a lot the band could do about their own fame.
It was all about just going along for the ride. In Harrison’s brain, that very mantra probably meant that it didn’t matter whether it was 1961 or 1991 – he was just focused on the music and paying homage to the people that helped him along the way. Of course, not every audience always came to appreciate that, but you can be assured that whenever he did play ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, Berry was never off his mind.
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