The Beatles song Ringo Starr claimed ripped off Elvis: “Even when he goes high”
All of The Beatles wore their influences on their sleeves. Whether it was in the covers that they made or the different original compositions they had, it wasn’t exactly hard to see the Chuck Berry chords that John Lennon used on ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ or hear him, and Paul McCartney harmonise together and emulating the sounds of The Everly Brothers. They had certainly come a long way from idolising their heroes by the late 1960s, but Ringo Starr thought that they had blatantly lifted from Elvis Presley when tearing through ‘Lady Madonna’.
Looking back on how the Fab Four’s trajectory took off, though, it’s not like the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ was any competition to them anymore. By the time they entered Shea Stadium to play for that massive crowd, Presley was already in a different class of performer, later to become the kind of cheesy movie star that sang heartbreaking ballads.
That was far from the kind of music that got them turned on to rock music to begin with. When first looking through their record collections, Presley was the one who made them believe that rock and roll was their means of escape from having a normal job, and hearing ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘All Shook Up’ may as well have been the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ of its day.
But when listening to the construction of ‘Lady Madonna’, it sounds much closer to the kind of boogie that you found out in New Orleans. For as much as McCartney is singing about the pleasures of women who look after their children, it’s hard not to hear the backing track and thinking of Fats Domino or Dr John listening to the tune after the fact and giving it the proper swing it deserved.
No one pays attention to the backing group the first time around, though. It’s about what the singer sounds like, and compared to Macca’s ways of emulating Little Richard, he may as well have been ‘The King’s adopted son on this track, especially when he reaches deep into his lower register when playing the final piano figure.
Although The Beatles were always reluctant to talk about where they got specific ideas from, the drummer hid no shame in saying that the tune came from hearing Presley, saying, “It sounds like Elvis, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t sound like Elvis… it IS Elvis. Even those bits where he goes very high.”
Then again, it’s strange how close it sounds to Presley looking at where he would go following the song. Regardless of how lethargic he sounded when he hit his residency era in Las Vegas, he could have churned this out just as well if he had a full horn section behind him rather than the mock brass section that breaks in the middle of the recorded version.
If Presley had a problem with the tune, though, he hardly complained too much about it. The Beatles may have turned Presley into yesterday’s news by accident, so this may have been McCartney’s way of reminding people why ‘The King’ still deserved a spot on his throne all those years later.
