The songs that The Beatles ripped off from rock and roll legends
If we had to string every artist up for taking something from The Beatles, chances are we’d be here all day. Even if an artist didn’t directly steal a song idea, a guitar lick, or a vocal melody from the Fab Four, they were, more often than not, inspired by someone who took a few cues from the Liverpool legends. For every great artist birthed from The Beatles, there were more than a few that even the rock legends were guilty of ripping off.
None of The Beatles ever claimed to be the most original artists in the world, usually telling listeners that they were happy to take a few cues from the biggest names in music that came before them. When listening back to their songs, there were at least a few that some may have found a little bit suspicious.
Going back to the golden age of rock and roll, none of the band members would have been here without Chuck Berry. Along with being the father of rock and roll, Berry would become a fixture of the band’s live catalogue in their early years before eventually finding his way into their actual hits.
On their first album, Paul McCartney admitted to nicking the bassline for the song ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ from Chuck Berry’s ‘I’m Talking About You’. Compared to The Beatles original, Berry’s is much more forceful than before. Evoking the sounds of early rock and roll, Berry had the kind of excitement that would have set the world on fire had he been in Liverpool years before, pioneering the driving rhythm that would become commonplace in rock and roll for years to come.
It wasn’t just old-time rock and roll, either. While performing his future classic, ‘Yesterday’, McCartney was sure that he had borrowed the tune from somewhere else before deciding to flesh it out on his own. When looking at how the vocal melody falls, there are more than a few places where McCartney could have gotten it, including the Nat King Cole song ‘Answer Me’.
Whereas McCartney melted many hearts with his ballads, Cole’s take on jazzy ballads like this was second to none. With a voice as smooth as butter, songs like ‘Nature Boy’ were test runs for McCartney’s brand of whimsy, having the kind of charisma that most would die for and a stage presence that could have given Frank Sinatra a run for his money.
Then again, we’re only looking at the vocal arrangements…what about the actual musical lines? Even though the band could claim to be the most popular in the world, they also had their close to the ground when cribbing from other artists, like taking the basic rhythm of ‘Watch Your Step’ by Bobby Parker for ‘I Feel Fine’.
Despite being known as one of the straight-ahead blues trailblazers, Parker’s approach to a song like ‘Watch Your Step’ was practically the precursor to both rock and roll and funk at the same time. Both of them had that bluesy foundation, but the way that his band locked in on the groove was one of the best examples of what the blues should be: taking the crux of a song and turning it into an extension of your personality.
Even though The Beatles may have taken a lot of the glory when working on their own classics, that doesn’t mean that their influences should be forgotten. If you listen back to rock history, these artists helped shape how we look at modern pop music, from Cole’s delicate approach to vocals to Parker being able to ignite a guitar riff whenever he picked up the instrument.
It’s not like the bands of their time forgot about them, either, with Rod Stewart eventually turning to making standards records that felt reminiscent of Cole’s music and Led Zeppelin continuing to make a living out of pinching notes from Parker on tracks like ‘Moby Dick’. If it weren’t for these three artists and their influence on the Fab Four, rock and roll as we know it today would have ceased to exist.
