When The Beatles took on three rock and roll classics
Although they didn’t know it when they arrived that day, January 26th would prove to be one of the most notable days during the entire recording process of The Beatles’ Get Back album. After having already shipped over to 3 Saville Row and recruited Billy Preston to contribute to the sessions full-time, The Beatles were ready to start finalising some of the songs they had been working on for weeks.
George Harrison and Ringo Starr were the first to arrive that day, with Harrison tracking solo demos for future solo tracks ‘Isn’t It a Pity’ and ‘Let It Down’. Harrison also assisted Starr in forming the basic shape of what would eventually become ‘Octopus’s Garden’, which the pair showed off to producer George Martin. When Paul McCartney arrived, he brought his wife Linda and her young daughter Heather to the sessions, providing a good dose of silliness to the sometimes-tense atmosphere.
McCartney would be the one to lead these sessions, largely focused on his compositions ‘Let It Be’, ‘Two of Us’, and ‘The Long and Winding Road’. Preston added an organ part that helped bring ‘Let It Be’ to life, but after 28 takes of the track, they still hadn’t recorded the version that would eventually appear on the Let It Be album. The group began jamming on classic rock and roll songs to break up the staleness.
The jams started with two Jerry Lee Lewis songs, ‘High School Confidential’ and ‘Great Balls of Fire’. From there, a torrent of 1950s-era rock tracks began to flow, including two tracks that The Beatles had already covered in the past: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ ‘You Really Got a Hold on Me’ and The Top Notes’ ‘Twist and Shout’. Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ also got some play, which eventually morphed into a jam that showed up as the song ‘Dig It’ on the final mix of Let It Be.
After the long improvisation of ‘Dig It’, the band settled back into the rock and roll tunes with a trio of classic songs: Little Richards’ ‘Rip It Up’, Big Joe Turner’s ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’, and Carl Perkins’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes’. That medley of tracks eventually appeared on Anthology 3, but The Beatles weren’t done with the covers yet. McCartney busted out one of his old standbys, Little Richards’ ‘Kansas City’, before the group took on other all-time great tracks like Huey ‘Piano’ Smith’s ‘Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu’ and Ray Charles’ ‘I’m Movin’ On’.
Before the day ended, McCartney insisted the band try to work on his ballad ‘The Long and Winding Road’. A final take of the song would be culled from these sessions, even though Lennon’s clear lack of interest in the song came through in his lackadaisical bass performance. With that, the band improvised a few additional tracks before calling it a day, preparing themselves for the final week of recording that would culminate in their famous rooftop concert.
Check out the medley of ‘Rip It Up / Shake, Rattle and Roll / Blue Suede Shoes’ down below.
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