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John Covach wrote an excellent essay titled "From 'Craft' to 'Art': Formal Structure in the Music of the Beatles" in which he cites common forms used Beatles music. This blog will be a summary of that essay, with the goal of basing my own structural analyses on Covach's work.
Perhaps the most basic of all pop song structures is the Simple Verse form, in which a section (verse) is heard over and over again with little or no alterations or development. The lyrics might change (or a solo might replace the vocals entirely), but the music itself (i.e. the underlying chords and fundamental harmonies) remain constant with each iteration. Obviously, the Simple Verse form puts structural emphasis on the verses because no other sections exist. The limitation of the Simple Verse form, then, is that using the same musical material over and over again can easily become monotonous. The solution is executed in two primary ways: with middle 8s and choruses. The AABA form also puts structural emphasis on the verses, but it adds a middle 8 to provide contrast to (and thus enhance) those verses. A design most closely associated with Tin Pan Alley, AABA form is when the verse (A) is immediately repeated (AA), then the middle 8 is heard (AAB), before the verse is repeated once more (AABA). Usually these four sections will not last long enough to justify a complete song, and consequently it is often repeated in whole (AABA with full reprise), or in part (AABA with partial reprise). Another subset of the AABA form can be found where the initial AABA components are heard again, but (unlike the full and partial reprises) in an unpredictable combination of A and B sections. This is called the Broken AABA form. In contrast to the AABA design and its various permutations, the Verse-Chorus form employs a chorus to contrast with the verses (instead of a middle 8). Where the Simple Verse and AABA forms all place structural emphasis on the verse, the Verse-Chorus forms place emphasis on the choruses. There are three basic subsets of the Verse-Chorus design: 1) Simple Verse-Chorus is when both verse and chorus use the same underlying chords, but incorporate different melodies, lyrics, textures, or energy levels; 2) Contrasting Verse-Chorus is when the verse and chorus use very different music elements; and 3) the Beatles' Contrasting Verse-Chorus is a subset of the Contrasting Verse-Chorus in which there are two different versions of the chorus. CITATIONS Covach, John. "From 'Craft' to 'Art': Formal Structure in the Music of the Beatles". In Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four, ed. Kenneth Womack and Todd F. Davis. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2006.
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Having completed round one of my structural analyses, I'm preparing to launch a detailed revision of what I've analyzed so far (and there will be major revisions!). In doing so, I ultimately face the question of why form matters. In other words, why bother putting all the time and effort into observing, debating, and analyzing the formal layouts of the Beatles' music?
Ultimately, formal structure is how the music is presented. If that structure is not effective, then the song cannot be effective, regardless of all else. Furthermore, music is ultimately a story - not necessarily narrative (though it certainly can be), but just like a movie or novel, it needs structural landmarks - both on a macro scale (a beginning, a middle, and an end), and on a micro scale (phrases and sub-phrases). Without such landmarks the material is simply presented as a string of successive events that may or may not have any relation to that which came before it or that which will come after but instead just like a Benjamin Franklin run-on sentence it keeps going and going and going like the Energizer bunny and eventually gets very tedious to read or write or listen to and incredibly difficult to understand what the author or composers is trying to convey. Just as sentences need punctuation, and films need scenes, and novels need chapters, music needs similar structure to effectively articulate meaning. The basic goal for a composer, then, is to keep the material similar enough so that it clearly belongs together, but different enough to avoid monotony. A succession of apparently unrelated material will be appear abstract to a listener, while a succession of entirely unchanging material will become predictable and eventually boring. A major component of compositional skill, then, is the ability to balance the two. And one of the best ways to achieve that balance is through the formal structure of the song. (Of course, other parameters contribute to this story, harmony being the most obvious.) The bottom line is this: How something is presented is often just as important as what is presented. And analyses of formal structures illustrate that "how". No other recording artist influenced the young Beatles quite as much as Elvis Presley. In Lennon's own words: "[W]hen I heard ["Heartbreak Hotel"], it was the end for me. ... Once I heard it and got into it, that was life, there was no other thing. I thought of nothing else but rock 'n' roll" (Anthology, page 11). Paul concurs: "[T]here was an advert for 'Heartbreak Hotel'. Elvis looked so great: 'That's him, that's him - the Messiah has arrived!' Then when we heard the song, there was the proof. That was followed by his first album, which I still love the best of all his records. It was so fantastic we played it endlessly and tried to learn it all. Everything we did was based on that album" (Anthology, page 21). Throughout the Quarrymen/Beatles' existence, they played a total of at least 31 Elvis Presley tunes during in their live shows (as dictated in Lewisohn, page 361-65).
The sheer quantity of Presley covers in the band's stage repertoire (at least twice as many as any other recording artist) is a clear illustration of just how important and influential Elvis was to the band members. However, despite the huge number of covers, only a handful were ever recorded; and only a handful more have been unofficially released. Paul sang about a minute of "All Shook Up" during a session on 03 January 1969. Despite horrendous sound quality, a home made recording of The Quarry Men playing "Baby Let's Play House" on 06 July 1957 (the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney met) has survived. A substantially better-quality recording (even if maybe not a substantially better-quality performance) of "Baby Let's Play House" was made on 27 January 1969. The Beatles recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" twice during the Get Back session in January 1969. The first was made on 03 January, and the second on 26 January as part of a medley/jam along with "Rip it Up" and "Shake Rattle and Roll". During that same month, the band also made a single recording of "Don't Be Cruel (To a Heart That's True)" on 10 January, with Lennon delivering a particularly sarcastic lead vocal. "Good Rockin' Tonight" was first recorded and released by Roy Brown in 1947, but Presley's 1954 cover was likely the one the Beatles knew and imitated. They recorded two versions during the Get Back sessions: the first on 09 January 1969; the second on 22 January. In addition, Paul performed "Good Rockin' Tonight" throughout his 1993 world tour. Somewhat surprisingly given that both Lennon and McCartney named it specifically as a major influence, no recording of the Beatles playing "Heartbreak Hotel" exists of any kind. They apparently never played it during the Get Back sessions. A recording of the Beatles covering "I Forgot to Remember To Forget" was made on 01 May 1964, released on the album Live at the BBC. Likewise, the band's recording of "I Got a Woman" (actually written and originally recorded by Ray Charles, but the Beatles' version is more like Presley's 1956 cover) was made on 16 July 1963 and released on the album Live at the BBC. The same day the Beatles recorded "I Got a Woman" (16 July 1963), they also recorded "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry", which was also released on the album Live at the BBC. The band played through "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" during the Get Back sessions on 26 January 1969 as part of a medley with "Kansas City" and "Miss Anne". A recording of "Love Me Tender" that may or may not actually be the Beatles from around 1960 is available (I found it as an MP3 download on Amazon.com) that supposedly features the lead vocals of Stuart Sutcliffe. What is known is that Stu did sing "Love Me Tender" as part of the Beatles stage repertoire. In fact, he would sing it to his girlfriend/fiancee Astrid Kirchherr. So whether or not this clip is actually authentic is anybody's guess, but regardless it definitely was "Stu and Astrid's song". The Beatles recorded three versions of "That's All Right (Mama)". The first was on 02 July 1963 for Pop Go The Beatles. This recording was released on Live at the BBC. They recorded it twice more (and with very different character from their 1963 recording) on 06 January 1969 as an instrumental, and on 21 January 1969 with Lennon's lead vocals, both during the Get Back sessions. The only Beatles recording of "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" is from a 1960 home recording the (then Silver) Beatles made at Paul McCartney's house. "True Love", despite being written by Cole Porter and recorded in 1956 as a Grace Kelly/Bing Crosby duet, the Beatles were mostly likely exposed to the song through Elvis Presley's 1957 cover. The only recording the Beatles ever made of the song dates from 08 January 1969, as part of the Get Back sessions. Although you can barely call it a recording, because it's only a few seconds long and it's just Paul singing one line of lyrics. It's probably not worth mentioning except to be thorough in my catalog. In addition, many of the former Beatles covered Presley songs in their solo careers, which includes but are certainly not limited to:
The influence of any given musician on another, however, is hardly limited to covers (although that is obviously the most clear such example). And in the case of Elvis Presley's influence on the Beatles, that influence is extended to the Beatles' original compositions in addition to their Presley covers. Paul McCartney has further cited Elvis as an influence on the Quarry Men's first professionally made original recording, "In Spite of all the Danger", which McCartney described as "a self-penned little song very influenced by Elvis" (Anthology, page 23). He also stated, "It's very similar to an Elvis song. It's me doing an Elvis ... but I'm a bit loathe to say which!" (Lewisohn 1988, page 7). Some have suggested the song "Tryin' To Get To You" as the inspiration, and indeed that's as good a guess as any. But I don't hear Elvis' influence at all - the two-part vocals are much more like the Everly Brothers than Elvis Presley. Regardless, in Paul's mind perhaps he was trying to sound like Elvis, and in that respect Elvis did indeed influence not only "In Spite of All the Danger" but also many other early attempts at songwriting, even if the end results are quite different from what the young composer was attempting to emulate. There is also at least one very obvious instance of Elvis' lyrical influence on the Beatles. "Baby Let's Play House" inspired the opening lyrics of Lennon's "Run for your Life", the concluding track of Rubber Soul: "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man" is word-for-word identical. Of course, Elvis was an interpretive artist and not a creative one, so he didn't actually write those lyrics himself, but it was his singing of them that influence Lennon's lyrics on "Run for your Life". Most importantly, though, the influence of Elvis Presley was in attitude, not in music. Lennon's childhood friend Pete Shotton sums it up: "We all automatically wanted to dress like Elvis, look like Elvis, swagger, strut, and sneer like Elvis - and every snide remark from Aunt Mimi, our teachers, or the newspapers only served to reinforce our new idol's grip" (Shotton, page 79). In fact, Presley's music can be seen as the way by which he presented and conveyed that infamous teenager attitude. In that sense, the attitude is actually more important and more fundamental to Elvis Presley and what he symbolized than the music itself. This is no doubt as true for the Beatles specifically as it was for 1950's adolescent culture at large. Presley's career is often divided into two parts: before the army, and after the army. I've heard these periods described variously as "Gold Lame Elvis and White Jumpsuit Elvis", or "Thin Elvis and Fat Elvis". But regardless of terminology, the earlier period is what influenced the Beatles. Quoting Paul: " I like him best around 1956, when he was young and gorgeous and had a twinkle in his eye; when he had a sense of humor, plus that great voice" (Anthology, page 22). By contrast, the later period Elvis was a turn-off. "I went off Elvis after he left the army. I felt they tamed him too much. It was all wrong - GI Blues and Blue Hawaii. ... [H]e went to Hollywood and the light had gone out of his eye" (Anthology, page 21-22).
Elvis' conversion from the young, handsome singer to gaudy Hollywood sellout, then, is why the Beatles never released any Presley covers on their albums. Because by the time the Beatles started making recordings (their first single, "Love Me Do"/"P. S. I Love You", was released on 05 October 1962, two years after the release of GI Blues), their respect for The King of Rock 'n' Roll had diminished. Even so, there can be little doubt that Elvis Presley was the single biggest influence on the Beatles. CITATIONS Beatles, The. The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 2000. Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Pyramid Books, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Limited, London, UK, 2006. ibid. The Beatles Recording Sessions. Harmony Books, New York, NY, 1988. Shotton, Pete. The Beatles Lennon and Me. Stein and Day Publishers, New York, NY, 1983. I debated whether or not to include Eddie Cochran in my survey of how American Rock 'n' Roll influenced the Beatles because he's clearly subordinate to the major influences of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry. After all, the Beatles never officially recorded any of his songs, and only covered four Cochran songs in their live shows:
Of those four, only one recording has survived: "Hallelujah I Love Her So", which exists in two versions. The first from a home recording the [at the time Silver] Beatles made at Paul McCartney's house some time in mid-1960, which was officially released (though in heavily edited form) as part of The Beatles Anthology. The second recording was made in December 1962 at the Star-Club in Hamburg, with Horst Fascher singing lead, which was included on the album Live at the Star-Club. But, and perhaps most significantly, Paul's playing of "Twenty Flight Rock" at his first meeting with John Lennon sufficiently impressed the latter to eventually invite the younger to join his band. Of course, no recording exists of that performance, but Paul has made recordings since made "recreations" of that audition. Throughout the Quarry Men/Beatles' existence, they played a total of at least 11 Jerry Lee Lewis songs in live shows (as dictated in Lewisohn, page 362-65), listed here chronologically.
The covering of Lewis' songs necessitated the addition of a keyboard player who could match (or at least try to imitate) his flamboyant and exuberant playing. Since none of the current members could do so, the responsibility fell to John "Duff" Lowe, who joined the Quarry Men briefly in early 1958. Lowe, however, resigned some time in mid-to-late 1958, and most of the band's Lewis covers date from a few years later. By then, Paul McCartney was playing piano well enough and could cover as needed - especially since he was still playing guitar at that point, as were Lennon and Harrison. Of the 11 known Lewis songs covered by the Quarry Men/Beatles, official recordings exist of exactly zero. There are however, several bootlegs from the Get Back sessions of January 1969 that do show the band's affection for Lewis' work (despite rather unimpressive playing). These include "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "High School Confidential", "You Win Again", "Great Balls of Fire", and "Fools Like Me". And although never recorded by the Beatles, Paul McCartney performed "Mean Woman Blues" on MTV's Unplugged in 1991, but it was left off the resulting album. Supposedly the Beatles recorded "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" with Tony Sheridan in Hamburg, and it appears as such on some bootlegs. However, I am very, very suspicious that these are actually the Beatles playing. I strongly suspect it's another band backing Sheridan. Another Jerry Lee Lewis number from Hamburg - and this one definitely legit - is "When the Saints Go Marching In". Lewis released his recording of this traditional tune in 1958, and then recorded another version as part of the Million Dollar Quartet in December of the same year, however it wasn't commercially released until several decades later. The young Beatles were no doubt aware of the 1958 release, adding it to their stage repertoire from 1958-59, and later revived the number when backing Tony Sheridan in the recording studio in June of 1961, with the product occupying the B-side of their first commercial release. The influence of Jerry Lee Lewis on the Beatles, then, is substantially less than Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, or Chuck Berry (a pretty safe assumption based on the fact that they never did officially record any of his songs); but (much like Little Richard) no doubt Lewis contributed to the band's flamboyant and at times hysterical stage presence that they developed while in Hamburg.
CITATIONS Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Pyramid Books, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Limited, London, UK, 2006. As influential as Little Richard was on the young Beatles, Buddy Holly was even more so. First of all, Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets, inspired the Beatles own insectoid name. Quoting Paul McCartney: "I remember talking to John about this. 'Cricket. What a fantastic idea, it's a little grasshopper, and it's a game.' Well, they came over, they had no fucking idea cricket was a game, to them it was just a little chirping grasshopper from Texas, so it was actually quite a boring name. But we were turned on like nobody's business by the idea of a double meaning, so with our wit and wisdom and whatever, we wanted something that would have a double meaning. Beetles were little insects, so that took care of that, but with an 'A' it became something to do with beat" (Miles, page 52). Lennon confirms this: "I was looking for a name like The Crickets that meant two things, and from crickets I got to beetles. And I changed the BEA, because 'beetles' didn't mean two things on its own. When you said it, people thought of crawly things; and when you read it, it was beat music" (Anthology, page 41). Second, it was Buddy Holly who inspired John Lennon and Paul McCartney to play, sing, and write their own songs. Quoting John Lennon: "Buddy Holly was the first one that we were really aware of in England who could play and sing at the same time - not just strum, but actually play the licks" (Anthology, page 11). It is a safe bet to assume that Lennon is referring to Elvis Presley, who was a major influence, but was more of a singer than a guitar player. (I've heard Presley occasionally described that "he wore the guitar better than he played it".) Holly, by contrast, could do both simultaneously. More importantly, Holly wrote original material, further inspiring the Beatles to do likewise. Quoting Paul once more: "I still like Buddy's vocal style. And his writing. One of the main things about The Beatles is that we started out writing our own material. People these days take it for granted that you do, but nobody used to then. John I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician'" (Anthology, page 22). Eventually, of course, the Beatles would write, perform, and record almost exclusively only original material. But in the early years, the band's repertoire leaned heavily on cover songs for the majority of their stage repertoire. And throughout the Quarrymen/Beatles' existence, they played a total of at least 13 Buddy Holly songs in live shows (as dictated in Lewisohn, page 362-65).
Recordings of the Beatles' performances of these Buddy Holly songs exist for only 6 of the 13 listed above. The first professional recording the Beatles (then the Quarrymen) ever made was their rendition of "That'll Be The Day", recorded 12(?) July 1958, but not commercially released until The Beatles Anthology 1. The only other Buddy Holly song to date as far back as 1957 was "Peggy Sue", which John Lennon recorded for his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. The Beatles first recorded "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" as part of their ill-fated Decca audition on New Year's Day 1962. They recorded it again on 16 July 1963 for the radio show Pop Goes the Beatles, the product of which was included on the album The Beatles: Live at the BBC. The Beatles played "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" in their live shows from 1961-62, but never recorded it until January 1969, during the Get Back sessions, which was included on The Beatles Anthology 3. Similarly, the Beatles never recorded "Maybe Baby" until January 1969, when they jammed during the Get Back sessions. The A-side companion of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" was the classic "Words of Love", which the Beatles included on their 1964 album Beatles for Sale. The Beatles also recorded "Reminiscing" in Hamburg in 1962, which was released many years later on the album Live! At The Star-Club. Though the Beatles never recorded "Raining in My Heart", John Lennon paraphrased the opening lyrics ("The sun is out, the sky is blue") in "Dear Prudence". And although the Beatles themselves never recorded "It's So Easy", Paul McCartney has played it in his live shows. Lastly, though the Beatles never recorded "Think it Over", Ringo Starr did perform the tune as part of the 2011 tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, issued in honor of what would have been Holly's 75th birthday.
CITATIONS Beatles, The. The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 2000. Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Pyramid Books, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Limited, London, UK, 2006. Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. Henry Holt and Company, New York, NY, 1997. At some point in the past few months, following one my Beatles programs at a local library, a woman asked me to comment on the influence of Little Richard on the Beatles. I cited his vocals as an influence on Paul, proffering "Long Tall Sally" as the obvious example, and ever since I have been wanting to do a more detailed look at Little Richard's influence on the band. On Tuesday I'm leading a seminar through LifeLearn in West Hartford on the legacy of rock 'n' roll, so this seems like a perfect opportunity to 'kill two birds with one stone'. Certainly the biggest appeal of Little Richard on the young Paul McCartney was his voice, which the Brit could imitate reasonably well. "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it" (Miles, page 201). In fact, Paul liked Little Richard so much that "he celebrated his last day of term at the Liverpool Institute by taking in his guitar, climbing on a desk in the classroom and singing his two party pieces, 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Tutti Frutti'" (Miles, page 200). The 15-year-old Paul was confident enough in his ability to impersonate Little Richard that he performed some of his songs for John Lennon the day they met and he auditioned to join the Quarrymen. "I did my Little Richard imitation, went through all the stuff I knew. John seemed quite impressed" (Everett, page 24). Paul joined the band shortly thereafter, and consequently their repertoire expanded to include several Little Richard tunes. Throughout the Quarrymen/Beatles' existence, they played a total of at least 11 Little Richard songs in live shows (as dictated in Lewisohn, page 362-65).
Recordings of the Beatles' performances of these Little Richard songs exist for only 4 (5 if you count "Good Golly Miss Molly", but I suspect that's not the Beatles - see below) of the 11 listed above. Both "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally" were in the band's repertoire from the beginning (or at least since Paul joined in mid-1957). The former was originally released by Little Richard in 1956. The Beatles recorded "Lucille" twice - once on 3 September 1963 as part of the Pop Go The Beatles radio broadcasts, and once again four days later, also for radio broadcasting purposes. That second performance was included on the album The Beatles Live at the BBC. "Long Tall Sally" was released in 1956 and joined the Quarrymen's repertoire the following year, where it would stay through 1966 - one of the few songs to remain in the band's rep for the full 10 years that they did perform. The Beatles recording of "Long Tall Sally" was released in the US on 10 April 1964 on The Beatles Second Album, and in the UK on 19 June in England as part of an EP. Little Richard's recording of "Good Golly Miss Molly" was released in 1958. A live recording titled Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers opens with this track (a clip of which may be found on amazon.com); however despite the fact that "The Beat Brothers" was the name given to the Beatles when they accompanied Tony Sheridan for a series of recording sessions on 22-24 June 1961, I have severe doubts as to whether this is actually the Beatles playing. The saxophone in particular makes me skeptical. The B-side of "Good Golly Miss Molly" was "Hey Hey Hey Hey", which Little Richard combined one year later with the Leiber and Stoller classic "Kansas City", which the Beatles covered in their live performances from 1960-61, and revived for inclusion on the album Beatles for Sale in 1964. Little Richard's recording of "Ooh! My Soul" was released in 1958. The Beatles recorded "Ooh! My Soul" on 1 August 1963, the product of which was released on The Beatles Live at the BBC. Even when not covering Little Richard's recordings, his influence is clearly discernible on the Beatles' music - most notably in their falsetto "woos" that can be heard in tunes like "She Loves You", and "From Me To You". But where Richard's "woo" is harsh and aggressive, the Beatles' "woo" is softer and cuddlier - it contributes to their cute, mop top appeal, whereas Little Richard's contributes to his flamboyant and at times hysterical performances.
As Paul developed musically, however, he eventually hit a point where they no longer wanted to depend on their original influences and inspirations, but rather wanted to create his own, original material. "I used to sing his stuff but there came a point when I wanted one of my own, so I wrote 'I'm Down'" specifically to replace "Long Tall Sally" in the band's stage repertoire (Miles, page 201). But those Little Richard roots stayed firmly planted. Although the Beatles never released "Miss Ann", they did record it during their January 1969 sessions, along with "Jenny, Jenny" (the original A-side companion to "Miss Ann"), both of which exist in bootleg form. Paul also sang "Miss Ann" as part of a sound check on 5 February 1993 that was recorded. Although certainly more associated with McCartney, Lennon illustrated his own affection for Little Richard on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll through the tracks "Medley: Rip It Up/Ready Teddy" and "Medley: Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin'". CITATIONS Everett, Walter. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2001. Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Pyramid Books, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Limited, London, UK, 2006. Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. Henry Holt and Company, New York, NY, 1997. This coming June, concurrent with my Illinois Beatles Lecture Tour, will be a similar Wisconsin tour with stops in Cudahy, Franklin, Kenosha, St. Francis, Waterford, Whitewater, Greenfield, and Racine. Details may be found in the flyer below. 
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