Roll Over Beethoven (Beatles cover)

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"Roll Over Beethoven"
Rolloverbeethovensong.jpg
Cover art of the song
Song by the Beatles
from the album With the Beatles
Released22 November 1963
Recorded30 July 1963
Venue EMI, London
Genre Rock and roll
Length2:48
Label Parlophone
Songwriter(s) Chuck Berry
Producer(s) George Martin

"Roll Over Beethoven" is a cover version of the 1956 Chuck Berry song of the same name by the English rock band the Beatles. The song was a favourite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison even before they chose "the Beatles" as their name, and they continued to perform it right into their American tours of 1964. Their version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was recorded on July 30, 1963 at Abbey Road Studios, [1] for their second British LP, With the Beatles , and features Harrison on vocals and guitar. [2] [3] The song has been described as an "homage cover". [4]

In the United States, it was released on April 10, 1964, as the opening track of The Beatles' Second Album , [5] and on May 11, 1964, as the opening track of the second Capitol EP, Four by the Beatles . It was released by Capitol in Canada with "Please Mister Postman" as the B-side, reaching number 2 on the CHUM Charts. [6] This release reached number 68 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [7] and number 30 on the Cash Box Singles chart. [8] In Sweden, it peaked at number 11 on the Kvällstoppen Chart. [9] In Australia, it peaked at number one, [10] with Hold Me Tight as the B-side, [10] as did it in Denmark. [11] In Canada, the song peaked at No. 2, on January 26, 1964. [12]

In 1994, the Beatles released a live version of "Roll Over Beethoven" on Live at the BBC . This version had been recorded on February 28, 1964, and broadcast on March 30, 1964, as part of a BBC series starring the Beatles called From Us to You. [13] This version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was used in the film Superman III , directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the Beatles' first two films, A Hard Day's Night and Help! . In 1995, a live version from an October 1963 performance at the Karlaplansstudion in Stockholm was released on Anthology 1 .[ citation needed ]

Personnel

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References

  1. ↑ Womack, Kenneth (2016-11-21). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN   979-8-216-05201-2.
  2. ↑ Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 34, 37. ISBN   0-517-57066-1.
  3. ↑ "Show 5 - Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: The rock revolution gets underway. [Part 1] : UNT Digital Library". Digital.library.unt.edu. 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  4. ↑ Burns, Lori; Lacasse, Serge (2018-01-29). The Pop Palimpsest: Intertextuality in Recorded Popular Music. University of Michigan Press. ISBN   978-0-472-13067-2.
  5. ↑ Mark Lewisohn (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. p. 201.
  6. ↑ "CHUM Top 20 Singles - January 20, 1964".
  7. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2011). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. p. 67. ISBN   978-0898201888.
  8. ↑ Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950–1981. Metuchen, New Jersey, and London: The Scarecrow Press. p. 34.
  9. ↑ "Swedish Charts 1962–March 1966/Kvällstoppen – Listresultaten vecka för vecka > Juni 1964" (PDF) (in Swedish). hitsallertijden.nl. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  10. 1 2 Kent, David (2009). Australian Chart Book:Australian Chart Chronicles (1940–2008). Turramurra: Australian Chart Book. p. 203. ISBN   9780646512037.
  11. ↑ "The Beatles - Salgshitlisterne Top 20". Danske Hitlister. Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  12. ↑ Hemmingsen, Piers (2016-04-11). The Beatles in Canada: The Origins of Beatlemania!. Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-1-78759-073-1.
  13. ↑ Live at the BBC (booklet). The Beatles. London: Apple Records. 1994. 31796.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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