“Knocking you dead”: The only group who could compete with The Beatles’ vocals
Keith Richards once lamented that The Beatles had four great singers in their band, and he didn’t have any.
While this pithy remark was obviously a jab aimed at Mick Jagger’s ample mouth, it does illuminate how revered the Fab Four were as vocalists. Even The Beach Boys’ leader, Brian Wilson, was envious of their stirring harmonies. While they might have been a touch more gruff with their Liverpudlian twang than his polished Californian counterparts, there was even a certain beauty to that.
But beyond California, there was only one group that Tom Petty thought matched them vocally on the rock ‘n’ roll front. For any band, being mentioned in the same sentence as The Beatles is quite an achievement, and Petty took that a step further when it came to The Hollies.
“Those voices were incredible,” the ‘American Girl’ singer said, “They were the best singers, other than the Beatles, as far as singing harmony and knocking you dead.” With their beauteous tones in mind, Petty highlighted the 1965 song ‘I’m Alive’ as a crowning achievement in rock ‘n’ roll vocals.
Initially, the songwriter, Clint Ballard Jr, had eyed up either the Hollies or the largely forgotten Toggery Five for the song. For a brief moment, the comically named Manchester group looked like they had one hand on the track, but the Hollies had a change of heart, and after much deliberation, they decided that they would record it after all.
They were glad they did. The song became their first UK number one, spending three weeks at the top of the charts. Not bad considering the competition at the time. However, hearing their potent harmonies even today, it is easy to see why. There’s a lovely mix of beauty and bite about the version that they put together.
But, sensing a touch of rivalry, it seems The Beatles didn’t see it that way. In fact, what followed is a perfect paradigm of the atmosphere that created plenty of creative magic in the 1960s.
You see, it seems the Fab Four recognised the threat posed, because during their reign, The Hollies were the only band they really bashed in the press. As George Harrison quipped, “They sound like session men who’ve just got together in a studio without ever seeing each other before. Technically good, yes. But that’s all.”
As it happens, there was a touch of a grain of truth to that. After all, the track wasn’t written by them, and they almost passed it up in the first place. Throw into that the fact that they took more of a Beach Boys-like polished approach, and you certainly had a point of difference that the Fab Four could highlight.
But by the same token, ‘I’m Alive’ still stands up as a certified gem even today. As Bob Dylan once said, “Truthfully, records that were made in that day and age were all good,” Dylan explained, reminiscing over the simpler approach the ‘60s and ‘70s afforded.
Concluding, “They all had some magic to them because the technology didn’t go beyond what the artist was doing. It was a lot easier to get excellence back in those days on a record than it is now.“ It’s easy to see where he’s coming from with the crisp and classy ‘I’m Alive’.
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